The department is acting out of a completely different view of higher education than most educators have, writes Jim Jump. More...
Research Misconduct at University of Kentucky
By Colleen Flaherty. The University of Kentucky said Friday that an internal investigation found two professors and a staff research scientist “responsible for significant research misconduct in a number of scholarly papers”. More...
New Research Alliance Cements Split on AI Ethics
By David Matthews for Times Higher Education. Germany, France and Japan have joined forces to fund research into “human-centered” artificial intelligence that aims to respect privacy and transparency, in the latest sign of a global split with the U.S. and China over the ethics of AI. More..déo
Ethical College Admissions: Baked Alaska
Jim Jump asks, is it legitimate to take advantage of another's hardship. More...
Research Integrity
A story appearing in the Nine (formally Fairfax) press today by Liam Mannix titled, 'Bad science': Australian studies found to be unreliable, compromised’ claims, based on the Retraction Watch database, that hundreds of scientific research papers published by Australian scientists over the last two decades have been found to be unreliable or compromised. More...
Ethics and Codes
There's is something I can't quite put my finger on with regard to recent proposals that students be taught an internet 'code of ethics' but I think I'm getting close. In response to a post from Dave Warlick today, I wrote, in essence, that "the problem is that ethical codes presuppose that ethical questions are settled, but thy are far from settled." Consider downloading, for example - people (including Warlick) still treat file sharing as unethical, and yet it's as though they had never seen the opposing view. So what's going on? Do we just say some things are unethical, by fiat? Do we remove all option, all choice, all thought in the matter? And who benefits when certain behaviours - such as file sharing - are deemed unethical, and other behaviours - such as corporate influence over media - are not? Tom Hoffman is also puzzled, and, I suspect, for similar reasons (I owe both Tom Hoffman and Norm Friesen more discussion on points they've raised, and I hope they'll be patient with me). [Tags: File Sharing] [Comment]. More...
Code of Ethics
A Code of Ethics
Not everybody agreed with my response to proposals for blogging codes of ethics. Terry Freedman writes, "Downes may be correct in a logical sense, but I don't see how his position actually helps anyone working in schools." I won't infer from this that schools are illogical (though I could!) but will read this more charitably: Freedman is appealing to the utilitarian value of codes of ethics. They can be "both meaningful and useful."
Yes they can, but what is it that distinguishes a code of ethics from, say, instruction from a teacher or parent? It is one thing to tell people what they ought or ought not do - even I do that. And quite another to codify that. More...
Maths and tech specialists need Hippocratic oath, says academic
Mathematicians, computer engineers and scientists in related fields should take a Hippocratic oath to protect the public from powerful new technologies under development in laboratories and tech firms, a leading researcher has said. More...