Computing for the social good in education

Abstract

A ccording to the United Nations, twenty-two global issues face society [31]. Many of these-Health, Food, Water, Poverty, and Migration-relate to Climate Change, while others are social issues related to Democracy, International Law and Justice, Gender Equality, and Human Rights. Each of these issues deserves the attention of the computing community, and in turn, demands the attention of computing educators. As a community, we dare not continue with business as usual. Specifically, we must do our part to fill the pipeline of future computing professionals with practitioners who deeply understand that they can use their unique skills to tackle the major social issues of our time

Why computing belongs within the social sciences

“…I'm not minimizing the vital work done by groups such as the ACM Committee on Professional Ethics, Computing Professionals for Social Responsibility, and Computing for the Social Good. 13 The problem with computing ethics is that at present it stands by itself in the computing curricula. By only having a single mandated course about the relationship of computing to the wider human and social world, how can it not but strike a student that this is peripheral (and hence irrelevant) knowledge?…”

Towards Justice in Undergraduate Computer Science Education: Possibilities in Power, Equity, and Praxis

“…Adaptation of PEPC should be multiple-not identical-as educators choose to appropriate themes, concepts, and pedagogies for their respective curricular and institutional contexts. Whether the intervention is a course activity, project, or new course altogether [54], [55], it is clear that social justice-centered computing teaching and research will require synthesizing many ways of knowing and doing computing if we truly want to equip our students to do computer science as social justice.…”