The medium is the massage, also in Engineering Ethics Education. This newsletter focuses on formats that touch students at a personal level needed to have good ethics education. It reports on the “Film and fiction in engineering ethics education” workshops and the SEFI Ethics SIG spring school.
In 1964, Marshall McLuhan wrote that “The medium is the message”. He stressed the difference of ‘content’ and ‘character/style’ in communication, and the importance of character or how the communication is done for the associated action.
As Diana Bairaktarova and Tom Staley (Virginia Tech, US) mention, different educational contexts provide diverse opportunities for students to develop ethical perspectives.
Thomas Lennerfors (Uppsala University, Sweden), for example, indicates that using films and the “suture”-concept in engineering ethics education support students taking fundamentally other perspectives than their own.
Cat Kutay (Charles Darwin University, Australia) wants to start from moral imperatives in the working contexts in which engineering knowledge is used. Rationalising about this does not work, she pictures engineering stories in her class and parallels these with Aboriginal stories as they too emulate moral imperatives.
Diana Martin (TU Eindhoven, the Netherlands) points at a particular aspect of the current engineering student cohorts, that of “Sustainable natives” and how expectations of students are shifting towards more sustainability.
Offering structured overviews of mediums and messages is crucial. One such initiative is the Online Ethics Center directed by Rosalyn W. Berne (University of Virginia, the US)
Roland Tormey and Martin Boyer (EPFL, Switzerland) report on using “writing Wikipedia pages” in class. Their conclusion is that Wikipedia is both techno-ethical marvel and a conundrum. You can use it in your ethics class to try and change a Wikipedia page and reflect on ethical aspects of knowledge creation and communication.
Alongside the contributions, you can find our usual input on upcoming events and recently published articles on Engineering Ethics Education.
We wish you a good read, and hope you will react to the opinions expressed or share with us how you teach ethics on Twitter by using #SEFIethics
All, keep up the good work!
Gunter Bombaerts and Diana Martin(TU Eindhoven, the Netherlands)
Speakers: Steven Umbrello (University of Turin, Italy) and Daisy Yoo (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands)
Join us for an online workshop which will explore the value sensitive design (VSD) approach and methods geared towards designing for human values. The event will explore how VSD can be theoretically understood and practically applied in any design domain. It will likewise demonstrate one of the many VSD tools called Envisioning Cards for how designers can immediately begin to implement VSD in their practices.
If you wish to propose a theme for a future ethics seminar, or are interested in organizing such a seminar yourself, please contact Diana ([email protected]).
This seminar created a discussion amongst the participants of the pros and cons of using film and fiction in engineering ethics education. It also provided examples of film and fiction that can be used to teach ethics.
Open calls - Upcoming events
SEFI Ethics webinar: Envisioning Better Futures with Value Sensitive Design
23 June 2021 - 2-4pm UTC, 3-5pm CET (Brussels), 9-10am EST, online Register here
The Society for Philosophy and Technology Biannual Conference: Technological Imaginaries
28-39 June 2021, UC Lille, France (online) - Call for abstracts (deadline 9 April)
IEEE ISTAS21 - 2021 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS21): Technical Stewardship and Responsible Innovation: Ethics-2021 track
28-31 October 2021, University of Waterloo and University of Guelph, Canada (online) - Call for abstracts (deadlines 12 April / 28 April / 29 June)
REES AAEE 2021, The Research in Engineering Education Symposium and Australasian Association for Engineering Education Annual Conference
5- 8 December 2021, The University of Western Australia (hybrid) - Call for abstracts (deadline 14 May)
The 2021 International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing (ISM): Ethics and Ethical Engineering in Industry 4.0 track
17-19 November 2021, Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences, Linz, Austria - Call for abstracts (deadline 31 May)
Special Issue: Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education
Be part of an ongoing conversation on engineering ethics education using #SEFIethics on Twitter, and let us know about your recent publications, events and initiatives that we can share with our community in our monthly newsletters, or even to share your opinions and respond to the ideas expressed in the SEFI SIG Ethics editorials.
Recent articles and publications
Recent publications and articles dedicated to engineering ethics education are now available at our website.
The Ethics SIG Newsletter is issued 10 times per year and aims to share information on latest engineering ethics research and practices. If you would like to join the mailing list please use the form on the SEFI Ethics SIG website.
If you have something you want to share in the newsletter (great ideas, upcoming workshops, nice experiences …), let us know: Diana ([email protected]) and Gunter ([email protected]) Or connect with us on Twitter using #SefiEthics to signal publications, initiatives or events for inclusion in the newsletter
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