JAAG works with secondary school students on AI ethics
Eoin McCarthy describes a successful pilot introducing 12 and 13 year olds to ethical issues connected with artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Jon Knight, a member of JAAG and of Malvern Quaker Meeting, was Head of Ethics and Philosophy at Pershore School in Worcestershire. He now works at Tewkesbury School, a secondary school in Gloucestershire where Zoe Pugh, one of his former students, is Head of Ethics and Philosophy.
The staff at Tewkesbury School are aware of the impact of technology on their students. Thanks to his reputation in the school, particularly for extra-curricular work with LBGTQ+ students, the school leadership accepted Jon’s offer to conduct an ethics workshop on artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The school has taken particular interest in the workshops and indeed, arising from the success of these pilots, we have a new JAAG project with the 6th formers in the school to explore.
On the day
Each 55-minute workshop started with an introduction followed by division of each class of 20-30 into small groups.
Each group had a different coloured dry marker. A scenario describing an artificial intelligence and machine learning ethical dilemma was set out on an A3 page on their table for them to discuss.
The groups wrote their conclusions on the tables with the distinctively coloured marker. After eight minutes, the groups rotated to new tables and repeated the process with a new scenario. Each session ended with a short session of feedback and review.
One of the project boards showing the contributions from each group.
Follow up
The school children, aged 12 to 13, told us they found it engaging and would like to do more. Professor Simon Rogerson from De Montfort University, former Tewkesbury headteacher Anne Rogerson and Zoe Pugh, together with JAAG’s Eoin McCarthy, observed Jon White deliver the programme.
Simon and Anne have now completed their evaluations. We are very grateful for these, particularly as they opened up new learning for us about how we can frame the service we plan. Simon and Anne will continue in touch with the project.
According to Jon Knight, this project offers resources and lesson ideas for schools that allow collaborative debate and imaginative and creative responses to the integration of technology into human experience. It also allows teachers to adapt the resources to fit the needs of their students.
Eoin McCarthy started as a systems engineer and then consulted on logistics in manufacturing industry, before retraining in executive development. A Fellow of the Institute of Consulting, he has been a contributor to the work of the Quakers and Business Group in the area of ethics and social justice.
From left : Eoin McCarthy, Mrs Anne Rogerson, retired Head Teacher, Simon Rogerson, Professor Emeritus in Computer Ethics at De Montfort University, Jon Knight