Here is something I have done in my (college) AI class the last two years.  This can easily translate to Computer Science Principles, which I also teach:

I am weary and leery of teaching too much AI content that is the same as what I learned when I took the class decades ago, namely production systems, knowledge representation, search methods, minimax, etc., without providing any modern context and understanding of the social impact of AI.  It is the current status of AI that fuels the excitement that is drawing students in large numbers.  For this reason, I have had my students do some outside reading, mostly of their own choosing, and report on the technology, including beneficial and harmful effects, risks, and long-term projections.  This has then led to followup discussions, further research and commentary.  

This model is fairly extensible, to different audiences and age groups.  Because we are on the quarter system and meet twice a week, the discussions are held online.  With more classroom time, however, the discussions would be much more lively in person.  I have referred my students to the ACM Tech News for their initial search for current articles.  This has the advantage that the articles are organized by date, ensuring that the topics are current.

Further details are below.  This is from the Spring 2018 version of the class, hence the appearance of “Sp18” in the URL.  The Spring 2019 version can be found by substituting “Sp19”.

--
Jeffrey L. Popyack, Ph.D.
Professor of Computer Science
The College of Computing & Informatics
Drexel University
3675 Market Street, Room 1060
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Tel: 215-895-1846 | CS: 215-895-2669
www.cs.drexel.edu/~jpopyack



CURRENT EVENTS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Homework I: Current Events - Artificial Intelligence and Learning Systems
•Visit the ACM Tech News archives (https://technews.acm.org/archives.cfm).
•Find a current article (i.e., appearing sometime since January 1, 2017) which deals with current events/research/products, etc. in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Write a paragraph summarizing the main points of the article.

•In a separate paragraph, you should discuss the societal impact of the technologies discussed in the article, including benefits and harmful effects. Topics you might consider include:
•How do you think things will advance in the next ten years?
•Is there a potential to apply the technology to application domains other than the current use?
•What risks exist in the use of such technology? How might it be misused for nefarious purposes? What inadvertent side effects might be realized? Is there potential for distaster?
•Speculate on how this technology can be used most effectively in the home, workplace and entertainment industry of the future.

Write a description of 1-2 sentences that informs a potential reader what the article contains. You will use this description as part of your submission to an online form, along with title, author, date and location of the article.  [NOTE: they submit this via a Google Form, and I use their answers to quickly construct a table and stick it in a page where they can see everyone’s submissions, for the next exercise, below].

In-class exercise (10 - 15 minutes): 
As an ongoing part of this class, we will investigate some emerging AI technologies and issues and contribute to a better understanding of them.
•Visit the Readings page (https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~jpopyack/Courses/AI/Sp18/readings.html) on the course website. The portion labeled "Current Events" lists the articles your classmates read and reported on for the first homework assignment. Look through these articles and choose at least 3 that discuss something you think will have the greatest potential long-term impact on society, either beneficial, harmful, or both.
•Explain your rationale for choosing the articles you have selected.


Homework: Current Events in AI: In the previous assignment, you reported on current events in artificial intelligence. Your class has selected some of these articles for further study.  The selected articles have been categorized into four major fields:
•Smart Vehicles
•AI Technology
•Artificial Reality
•AI in Medicine

We have created discussion items on our Piazza site for these. Accordingly, you should select one or more of these areas, read the linked articles, and post at least one discussion item about the area. Your post should discuss what you see as significant societal impact of the area discussed, positive and/or negative, and provide a link to at least one article online that provides greater detail supporting your opinion.



On Sep 26, 2019, at 3:08 PM, Aaron Maurer <aarmau@gmail.com> wrote:

External.
YES! That is such a great idea. That could be the Look, Listen, Learn phase to the question. Pose a scenario through video, current events, article, etc. and then hold discussion that will hopefully lead them to find other examples as we continue.

On Thu, Sep 26, 2019 at 1:29 PM Steven Floyd <stevenpfloyd@gmail.com> wrote:
It seems like a great idea to bring these questions to students while they’re working with CS/programming/CT concepts themselves. 
One thing I would suggest, to help both students and teachers, is to connect each question or set of questions to some artifact or experience. 
For example, an article about the VW emissions scandal, or a video of the Boston dynamics robots, or the MIT moral machine. 
Steve 

On Thu, Sep 26, 2019 at 1:32 PM Aaron Maurer <aarmau@gmail.com> wrote:
I am trying to create a structure to help some teachers in CS/STEM courses that help students think about why we are learning certain things while also bridging in ethical, moral, and societal aspects.

In my head I would like to create something where each week there is a question for students to ponder, reflect, explore resources, and decide where they fall in the spectrum. I would love to have conversation and discussion around the topics while they work on CS and STEM standards throughout the course.

Curious what you all would consider good questions

For example, I was considering some of the following:

Is Amazon Alexa considered AI?
What do you value more: privacy or safety?
Should you have a choice in your AI philosophy of your vehicle - altruist vs. egoist?

Please add questions to this document that you think are good

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GG6_m8A1afo0fG8U9-o7sI9xnb-NMrTzXSnM3YlJr1Q/edit?usp=sharing


--

With coffee from Starbucks, 





To unsubscribe from this list please go to http://archives.simplelists.com



--

With coffee from Starbucks, 





To unsubscribe from this list please go to http://www.simplelists.com/confirm.php?u=rmoOovmefSZcPclGsIRGYZXqPq7DYJt8