Homo Ludens Moralis. A report on a board game for teaching ethics in ICT

Here we take a look at a report from a conference from a team that are  working on the use of a game to teach ethics in ICT.

Reference Gordon, D., O’Sullivan, D., Stavrakakis, I., Curley, A. (2020). Homo Ludens Moralis: Designing and Developing a Board Game to Teach Ethics for ICT Education. ICT – E THICOMP 20202: Proceedings of the 18th. International Conference on the Ethical and Social Impacts of ICT, Logroño, La Rioja, Spain, 17th – 19th June.

https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1284&context=scschcomcon

At a glance:

• Game : card based points game for teaching ethics in ICT
• Context: ICT ethics learning
• Method: Conference paper on early exploration of game use
• Conclusion: N/A

Points to take away

• Games can be used for soft skills
• Games provide good opportunities for discussion
• There should be a reason for using a game.

The Context

The authors report on a game that is being designed for teaching ethics in ICT so that learners ‘think about the uses and abuses of their creations, and take measures to prevent others being harmed by their work.’

The game

The game reported in this article is a points-based game in which the players earn, or lose, points in virtue, accountability and loyalty based on how they respond to scenario cards. The article does not go into depth about the mechanics of the game extensively but it does supply some of the components: scenario and modifier cards. The scenario cards present players with contentious situations based around programming, such as ‘You are asked to write software to control missiles’ or ‘You are asked to write a system that will capture location information without consent’. The modifier cards had an additional caveat to the scenario which will either affect the player (‘If you do it, you are guaranteed that no one will ever find out it was you who write the code’) or other people (‘If you don’t do it, your organisation will fail and 200 people will lose their jobs). The authors describe how these cards are designed to be used as part of a game and as stand-alone resources. The article provides a selection of these cards, so it is worth having a look to see how they could be adapted for your classroom

Interesting points:

The article reports on the research that has been already completed around both gamification and game use. Gamification is the process of applying elements of a game to other contexts. This, in its broadest sense, can be seen in the classroom with reward systems where pupils get ‘points’ for doing something positive. Gamification of  an activity does not make it a game (despite the noun) and is often separated from the study of using games to teach.

Games and ethics, branching out from knowledge.

The game being worked up is not targeted at knowledge acquisition, but at the stimulation of discussions concerning ‘ethics’. From the scant information that is provided about the game, it is unclear how the ‘game’ elements support the teaching of ethics beyond being a vehicle for initiating student-centred debates about different ethical concerns. Having said that, the cards are part of a point-based system so that, presumably, making certain choices in the game will alter a player’s points score in virtue, accountability, or  loyalty.  If this is case, the game mechanics are acting as a support for the target learning.  Whether this is how the game works or not, it is interesting that games are being used for the teaching of ethics, and perhaps ‘learning’ ethics through gameplay is not the strength of the game but rather that it presents an opportunity to open up discussion about ethics within the classroom.

A space for discussion

Although we have touched on this in our previous point, it is worth reiterating. This article highlights the strength that games and simulations have to spark discussions that students engage with. This seems to be one of the main driving forces in this game in that they want students to discuss the scenario cards that they have created and formulate their own opinions through these discussions. This seems like it would be an  important aspect of teaching ethics (which can be very subjective) in that a set of ethics or morals can be learned through rote but for an individual to internalise them they have to be understood and made personal to each person. There are many ways that this can occur, but here it  is the use of the game that begins that process of learners beginning to formulate their own relationships with the ethics of society (or, in this case, the field of ICT)

Why a game?

This is not really an issue that the article brings up but it was a question that popped into my mind while reading: why use a game? The focus of this game was to bring about the learning around the ethics in computer programming, so why did the authors believe that the game was the best way to do this? In this short article they do not fully address these questions yet it is an important point to consider when using games for education. In this use of a game the activity could be used without the game elements which suggests that the game is not integral to the activity or the learning that is occurring. Reading the article, we can deduce perhaps two reasons for using a game for this learning. Firstly, because games can provide a motivational drive to students which helps them engage for longer with the learning material – a common reason for game use in classrooms. Secondly, because the use of a points system acts as a positive reinforcement of desired behaviours , ie students want to accrue the most points therefore they take actions that give them those most points. At this stage it is a little unclear which of these reasons (or another reason) was the driving force behind using a game. I would suggest that, like other educational tools, people should put thought into the reasons why they are using a game and research should make it explicitly clear why they have chosen a game as part of their investigation.