Unit 3: AI Ethics
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Unit Overview 🗓️
By the conclusion of this unit, learners will be able to:
- Identify the key ethical practices when utilizing AI tools.
- Analyze a lesson designed to teach students the ethical practices of utilizing AI in their learning.
Tasks:
- Read the mini-lecture and explore the resources provided.
- Complete the discussion by posting one initial post and two responses to peers’ posts.
- Reflect on what you learned and how you will apply it in your learning journal.
Mini-Lecture🗒️
As we learned so far, artificial intelligence technology is a tool that is changing the landscape of education, and will continue to disrupt the field as more information is learned. With that said, the relative novelty of AI technology poses some challenges to educators moving forward. One of the largest is the ethical problems that AI technology presents. One such ethical dilemma that AI technology introduces is their potential to provide inaccurate information. Since machines lack an ability to judge, something humans are capable of, they have the ability to send misinformation that students (or anyone for that matter) could consider as fact [1]. Some AI technologies, such as Chat-GPT, do include disclaimers that the program can make a mistake, but young students who may look to utilize AI technology may overlook certain warnings. Along with misinformation, AI technology also poses privacy issues. AI technology can sometimes require excessive amounts of personal data and can also utilize tracking systems to figure out user preferences, something that educators and students must be aware of prior to utilizing them [2]. The newness of AI technologies means that professional development opportunities on the ethics of AI are lacking. Though this is the case, there are suggested ways that educators can help themselves learn more about how to use AI responsibly, and ways they can teach their students to use AI responsibly as well.
When it comes to AI technology integration, the current ethical guidelines need further development. Though this is the case, AI can still be safely and responsibly utilized in the classroom setting with proper knowledge and guidance. When looking at the best way to address ethical practices in AI, the primary focus should not be on the technology, but on the users. Instead of attempting to address the shortcomings of AI technology, educators should instead work on expanding their knowledge of how to utilize AI ethically and instill these core values into their students so they can also use AI responsibly [1]. To help educators become more familiar with AI ethics, professional development opportunities have been created to help. One of the leading creators of programs to help educators learn more about AI is MIT, who has developed an “AI & Ethics Curriculum” for middle schools and an “AI and Data Privacy” workshop to provide educators with access to free materials that can help students learn about the ethics of AI [2]. With further educating themselves in the ethics of AI, educators will hopefully become more comfortable with integrating AI tools into their curriculum to help support their students' learning.
Discussion 🤔
The link provided here will take you to MIT AI Ethics Education Curriculum. The curriculum provides educators with numerous lesson plans designed to help them teacher their students who to use AI responsibly to help support their learning. Explore some of the lessons provided prior to beginning your discussion post. You will be expected to post one initial post to begin the discussion, and two responses to peer post. To get everyone involved in discussions, please spread your response to other peers' posts. The goal of discussions is to get everyone involved, so strive to involve a classmate if they haven’t been included yet.
Discussion Prompt: Choose two of the lessons provided in the MIT AI Ethics Education Curriculum. Review the provided lesson. What are aspects of the lesson that will help aid student's understanding of AI ethics? What suggested improvements would you make to enhance the lesson, either in regards to pedagogy or content?
Learning Journal 📓
Reflect on what you have learned so far in the course. This a space where you can talk freely. Some guiding questions have been provided to help you begin.
- What are some new ideas that you are learning?
- How are these ideas impacting your understanding of education?
- What questions or challenges do you have so far in the course?
Use the link provided here to record your thoughts.
Unit References 🧠
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sijing, L., & Lan, W. (2018, August). Artificial intelligence education ethical problems and solutions. In 2018 13th International Conference on Computer Science & Education (ICCSE) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Akgun, S., & Greenhow, C. (2021). Artificial intelligence in education: Addressing ethical challenges in K-12 settings. AI and Ethics, 1-10.