Why IT Matters to Higher Education 2020 Issue #2 er.educause.edu
EDUCAUSEREVIEW DIGITAL ETHICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2020 Make decisions with confidence. When leaders want to make decisions faster, smarter, and with more confidence, Jenzabar Analytics is the easy answer.
Program Economics Student Success What are the contribution How do we get more students margins of our academic programs? to completion? Financial Health Enrollment Which initiatives are supporting How many students do we our long-term viability? need to enroll next year?
Jenzabar Analytics is a portfolio of descriptive, diagnostic, and predictive analytics tools that give you the strategic insight you need Download a free eBook to learn to increase agility, improve more about analytics and the performance, and identify business of higher education at new avenues for success. jenzabar.com/ebook-ER
©2020 Jenzabar, Inc. All rights reserved. Jenzabar® is a registered trademark of Jenzabar, Inc. The Jenzabar logo is a trademark of Jenzabar, Inc. Make decisions with confidence. When leaders want to make decisions faster, smarter, and with more confidence, Jenzabar Analytics is the easy answer. 2020 ISSUE #2 | #2 | VOLUMEVOLUME 55, NUMBER 2 Program Economics Contents Student Success What are the contribution How do we get more students margins of our academic programs? to completion? Financial Health Enrollment Which initiatives are supporting How many students do we our long-term viability? need to enroll next year?
Jenzabar Analytics is a portfolio of descriptive, diagnostic, and predictive analytics tools that give FEATURE you the strategic insight you need Download a free eBook to learn to increase agility, improve more about analytics and the performance, and identify business of higher education at new avenues for success. jenzabar.com/ebook-ER 10 Digital Ethics in Higher Education: 2020 John O’Brien New technologies, especially those relying on artificial intelligence or data analytics, are eexcitingxciting but also present ethical challenges that deserve our attention and action. Higher education can and must lead the way. ©2020 Jenzabar, Inc. All rights reserved. Jenzabar® is a registered trademark of Jenzabar, Inc. The Jenzabar logo is a trademark of Jenzabar, Inc. er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 1 THE DATA | TRENDING NUMBERS Higher Ed Digital Ethics: Practice versus Awareness IT and other campus professionals generally agree that their institutions have policies and practices in place to help safeguard data and ensure its ethical use, even though most institutions are lacking in sufficient privacy- focused human resources. In contrast, students and faculty report low levels of awareness around what data is being collected and, especially, how the data is being used.
Personnel Policies Trends/Tools
COLUMNS 100%
Campus Faculty Students 4 Special Message: COVID-19 Professionals 90% Now
John O’Brien 80% 94% of student affairs, institutional research, and IT professionals agree or strongly agree that privacy rights are respected in conducting student success studies.2
70% 6 Homepage 78% of IT professionals agree or strongly agree that their institution develops and [From the President] maintains sufficiently robust policies and practices to safeguard data used for student Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Matters success analytics. 1 of IT professionals agree or strongly 8 74% Ted Mitchell and John O’Brien agree that their institution has a procedure for vetting third parties or vendors with 60% respect to data security and privacy. 1 8 Leadership 70% of students are confident in their [Views from the Top] institution’s ability to safeguard their data.4
Mental Health in Higher Education: 61% or more of institutions rate data- informed decision-making and privacy as influential, putting these two trends into the 50% Can a Digital Strategy Help? “Most Influential” category. 3
Elizabeth H. Bradley and Michele M. Tugade 60% of faculty understand policies surrounding data use, storage, and protection. 4 40%
58% of institutions report 44 The Data having no FTE privacy staff. 1 30% [Trending Numbers] 45% of students think they benefit from the collection of their personal data for 44 purposes such as improved services and Higher Ed Digital Ethics: Practice versus Awarenessadvising. 4
44% of students understand how their 20% institution uses their personal data.4 IT professionals rank security analytics as 46 Connections 44% of faculty understand what personal data their institution collects on them. 4 No. 7 in [Community College Insights] 10% 25% of institutions report having 48 the top 10 1 The Changing Nature of Student Records: between 0 and 0.5 FTE privacy staff. strategic technologies for 2020. 3 24% of faculty understand how their The Interoperable Learner Record institution is using their personal data. 4 0% Ricardo Torres Sources: 1. EDUCAUSE Core Data Service 2019; 2. Amelia Parnell, Darlena Jones, Alexis Wesaw, and D. Christopher Brooks, Institutions’ Use of Data and Analytics for Student Success, research report (NASPA, AIR, and EDUCAUSE, April 2018); 3. Mark McCormack, D. Christopher Brooks, and Ben Shulman, Higher Education’s 2020 Trend Watch and Top 10 Strategic Technologies, research report (Louisville, CO: ECAR, January 2020); 4. Joseph D. Galanek and Ben Shulman, “Not Sure If They’re Invading My Privacy or Just Really Interested in Me,” Data Bytes (blog), EDUCAUSE Review, December 11, 2019. 48 E-Content To access the latest publications from the EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research, visit educause.edu/ecar. [All Things Digital] Earth and Environmental Science Data Partnerships Erin Robinson
50 New Horizons [The Technologies Ahead] Artificial Intelligence: Threat or Opportunity? Brian Fleming
52 Viewpoints [Today’s Hot Topics] 50 The CIO+ Sharon Blanton and Carlos García
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Cover and previous page: Nicolás Ortega
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By John O'Brien
he EDUCAUSE community has moved with unparalleled speed to do remarkable work in the shadow of a global pandemic. As I wrote recently in Inside Higher Ed, what the leap to “remote everything” lacks in elegance it has more than made up for in scale. Simply put, technology leaders and staff from colleges and universities have redefined “above and beyond.” Professionals from academic technology, information technology, instructional design, libraries, and elsewhere on campus are literally doing whatever it takes to get their communities through this crisis. Their tireless work illuminates, in a new way, what EDUCAUSE members have been saying for years: technology can no longer be seen as a utility working quietly in the background. Now more than ever, technology is a strategic asset that is vital to the success of every higher education institution. During this time, the EDUCAUSE community has come alive with ideas, insights, outbursts, creativity, and agility. During one weekend in March, I invited community members to share their personal impressions, and the response was inspiring. Several respondents shared long lists of work that was somehow completed Tin days—more than enough work for an aggressive three- to five-year campus strategic technology plan. As EDUCAUSE Board Chair and Rutgers University CIO Michele Norin says, “This is a truly unprecedented period in the history of higher education, and campus technology staff have played a pivotal role in making the Higher initial transition successful. The timing was impossible, but staff have handled the unreasonable demands with education grace and determination.” Penn State Associate Vice President for Teaching and Learning with Technology institutions and EDUCAUSE board member Jennifer Sparrow outlined the significant work that academic technology staff that were completed for the “lift and shift” to remote teaching and learning, including offering instructional design open already well office hours, creating training resources, and addressing emerging challenges with hardware and Wi-Fi access. along on their Creative thinking, she insists, was the key to success. “The team responded to the challenge, listened to the Dx journey needs of faculty and students, and pivoted, adapted, and changed what they did to meet the need.” likely found Campus technology staff and leaders have been “doing the right thing” while reserving grand expressions themselves of gratitude for the amazing health care professionals who are putting themselves at personal risk during this better health crisis. Rightly so. But given the long history of technologists who work quietly in the background, maybe prepared to it’s time for that silence to change. adapt to the Our world will be seen in a new light when this crisis fades and our collective heart rate slows. At EDUCAUSE, pandemic. we are confident that digital transformation (Dx) will be seen differently post-pandemic. Higher education institutions that were already well along on their Dx journey likely found themselves better prepared to adapt to the pandemic. Dx can no longer be considered an aspirational concept. It must be understood as an imperative. And that well-worn, precious notion of campus technology professionals doing work that is noticed only when there is an outage? This too is a thing of the past. I’ve never been more impressed by a community-in-action. Let’s join in a loud celebration of outstanding higher education technology professionals. They deserve it. Now. And let’s also dedicate ourselves to the more nuanced but critical message that technology is not a utility. It is a strategic asset, a differentiating value, and a path to achieving institutional goals and stability. It is not just a lifeline that got us through a tricky situation. It is and must increasingly be understood as an integral, strategic part of the successful college or university. Not in the future. Now. n
An expanded version of this message can be found online at er.educause.edu/special-message-covid-19.
John O’Brien ([email protected]) is President and CEO of EDUCAUSE.
© 2020 John O’Brien. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
4 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 [email protected]
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By Ted Mitchell and John O’Brien
spirations for social equity and transformation of students’ lives have been the heart and soul of higher education from its inception. From the children of farmers and laborers seeking social mobility in the 19th century to the rise of higher education participation rates in the last century, a college education simply opens doors. In the United States, the Morrill Act at the end of the 19th century launched the creation of dozens of land-grant universities, further expanding access and opportunity. And changes in higher education over the 20th century and into the 21st century—such as the rise of the community college—have continued to create even more hope and opportunity. At the same time, despite idealistic aspirations and concrete progress, inequities in higher edu- cation persist. Indeed, higher education, a sector that leads in so many areas, still has much progress to make in leading the way for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
The Work Before Us AUntil we reach a point at which those who lead and staff our colleges and universities more closely mirror those we serve, we have real work to do, and it begins with taking a look in that mirror and cultivating organizations that are quipped to serve all students, now and in the future. Diverse representation is lacking in president/chancellor positions. According to the latest American Council on Education (ACE) study of college presidents, the typical president “continues to be a white male in his early 60s.” Although the percentage of presidencies held by women (30%) in 2016 was up four percentage points Higher from 2011, at this rate, women will continue to hold fewer than half of presidencies for the next several decades. education, Presidents of color increased at the same slow rate, holding only 17% of presidencies in 2016. Meanwhile, only a sector 5% of presidents are women of color. 1 that leads Diverse representation is lacking in campus chief information officer positions. Like presidents, the higher educa- in so many tion IT workforce is predominantly white (83%), a full 13 percentage points higher than the civilian IT labor areas, still force. And when it comes to the top job in higher education IT, according to the 2019 EDUCAUSE IT Workforce has much Study, the percentage of female CIOs has actually declined, from 27% in 2016 to 23% in 2018.2 Hopes that a strong progress pipeline of women in the IT profession would change this trend crumbled when a 2016 study by Girls Who Code to make and Accenture projected that without action, the number of women in the computing workforce will decline in leading from 24% to 22% by 2025.3 EDUCAUSE research does show increasing numbers of women at the manager and the way for 4 diversity, staff levels, but others have pointed out that pipeline hopes may be pipe dreams. Individuals from underrep- equity, and resented groups who make their way into the pipeline often end up being relegated to lower levels of pay and inclusion. more operational positions, what the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) has called “sub-field” segregation. Inequities create barriers for institutional staff and leaders. We might think the ultimate goal is simply to see more diverse representation in certain jobs, but the reality is that the experiences of people in those jobs continue to be different for some, including men and women of color. In the broader technology field, a study by the Kapor Center for Social Impact on why people leave the tech field found that “unfair treatment” is “the single largest driver of turnover.”5 In particular, the study finds that men of color are more likely than white and Asian men to leave due to unfairness and are twice as likely as white or Asian men and women to have experienced stereotyp- ing, while women of color are passed over for promotion more than any other group. Even after women and people of color successfully ascend to higher positions of leadership, they continue to expe- rience barriers and hardships as they navigate social and cultural leadership biases. In a 2018 brief, ACE explored the experiences of four women of color in college presidencies.6 These presidents describe occasions when their fitness
6 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 for leadership was questioned on the basis of their race and/or gender, highlighting the per- sistent struggle against cultural perceptions of “what a leader is supposed to look like.”
Solutions EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ultimately, the cornerstone of efforts to raise awareness, increase diversity, and advance D. Teddy Diggs DIGITAL MANAGING EDITOR equity is to engender a prevailing sense of inclusivity across our organizations at the high- Karen Henry est levels and the furthest corners of our institutions. With this in mind, ACE’s “Moving MULTIMEDIA PRODUCER the Needle“ initiative and EDUCAUSE’s “CIO Commitment Statement” both focus on Gerry Bayne ADVERTISING broad buy-in and personal awareness to make a lasting cultural difference. The Townsend Group
DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Actions to Take: imagination Sign ACE’s Moving the Needle Pledge, and then follow your pledge with these additional Caleb Fox, Art Director Connie Otto, Project Manager actions: COLUMN EDITORS Connections: Community College Insights Joseph Moreau, Vice Chancellor of Technology and Chief n Use ACE’s suggested messaging for promoting the Moving the Needle initiative Technology Officer through your social media channels. Foothill-De Anza Community College District E-Content: All Things Digital n Share ACE’s press release template with your communications office. Mary Lee Kennedy, Executive Director n Judy Ruttenberg, Director, Scholars and Scholarship Tailor ACE’s “Dear Colleague” letter for sharing with your higher education leader- Association of Research Libraries (ARL)
ship colleagues. New Horizons: The Technologies Ahead n Kristen Eshleman, Director of Innovation Initiatives Join your state’s ACE Women’s Network, either as a member, a program participant, President's Office, Davidson College
or a presidential sponsor. Viewpoints: Today’s Hot Topics Barron Koralesky, Chief Information Officer Williams College Sign EDUCAUSE’s CIO’s Commitment on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and then EDUCAUSE EXECUTIVE OFFICERS follow up with these additional actions: John O’Brien, President and CEO Eden Dahlstrom, Vice President for Professional Learning n Susan Grajek, Vice President for Communities and Join EDUCAUSE’s DEI-focused Community Groups for peer-based discussions Research on these topics: Diversity in IT; IT Accessibility; LGBTQIA in IT; Women in IT; and Mairéad Martin, Chief Information Officer Nicole McWhirter, Chief Planning Officer Young Professionals. Stacy Ruwe, Vice President for Business Services and Chief Financial Officer n Subscribe to the National Center for Women & Information Technology newsletter. Catherine Yang, Vice President for Digital Communications and Content n Visit EDUCAUSE’s DEI Topic Page for additional reading and resources on DEI in higher education IT.
Collaboration between IT and Institutional Leaders EDUCAUSE Review is the general-interest, quarterly magazine In higher education we regularly acknowledge that we can accomplish more together published by EDUCAUSE. With a print publication base of 19,000, EDUCAUSE Review is sent to EDUCAUSE member than we ever can on our own. DEI efforts will be most effective when they are institution- representatives as well as to presidents/chancellors, senior academic and administrative leaders, non-IT staff, faculty in all wide. “Pockets of excellence” are surely excellent for those in the pockets but perhaps disciplines, librarians, and corporations. It takes a broad look at current developments and trends in information technology, not for others. We believe that real and lasting change happens when presidents and what these mean for higher education, and how they may affect the college/university as a whole. chancellors work closely with CIOs, provosts, and other C-suite leaders—and when this EDUCAUSE and EDUCAUSE Review are registered trademarks. work is guided by a chief diversity officer who can see above, below, and around campus Copyright © 2020 by EDUCAUSE. Materials may be photocopied for noncommercial use without written permission territories and divisions. n provided appropriate credit is given to both EDUCAUSE Review and the author(s). Permission to republish must be sought in writing (contact editor@ Notes educause.edu). Statements of fact or opinion 1. Jonathan S. Gagliardi, Lorelle L. Espinosa, Jonathan M. Turk, and Morgan Taylor, American College President are made on the responsibility of the authors Study, 2017, research report (Washington, DC: American Council on Education, 2017). alone and do not imply an opinion on the part of the EDUCAUSE Board of Directors, 2. Joseph D. Galanek, Dana C. Gierdowski, and D. Christopher Brooks, The Higher Education IT Workforce staff, or members. For more information Landscape, 2019, research report (Louisville, CO: ECAR, February 2019). about copyright, see
© 2020 Ted Mitchell and John O’Brien. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- EDUCAUSE Review is also available online NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. at
er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 7 LEADERSHIP | VIEWS FROM THE TOP | By Elizabeth H. Bradley and Michele M. Tugade Mental Health in Higher Education: Can a Digital Strategy Help?
any young adults in higher education already connected to technology during much of their school face substantial adjustments through- hours. Although some studies have warned that overuse of tech- out their undergraduate years. nology and social media may put students at risk for added stress Epidemiologically, early adulthood and feelings of social isolation,3 it is also possible that technol- (18–25 years old) is the peak age at ogy can offer a new access point for students looking for mental which serious mental health disorders health support. Key to success in this area will be ensuring that emerge. Moreover, many of these technology is applied for both prevention and treatment, as both students experience situational depression as they transition are necessary to effectively address mental health issues. For to higher education. During this time, they have to largely instance, the University of Michigan has implemented a YouTube Mreplace parental support with peer support structures—a channel focusing on mental health; the channel has over 70,000 challenge that is compounded by academic pressure. Given views. This success is consistent with contemporary research, these factors, along with increased awareness of mental health, which has shown that a majority of college and university stu- the percentage of students reporting mental health disorders dents surveyed were willing to use online mental health services.4 has risen precipitously. Data from the American College Health Online outreach to students could improve access to informa- Association in 2019 indicate that one in three college students tion regarding mental health, promote healthy coping strategies, reported some kind of mental health disorder and more than encourage help-seeking behaviors, and generally improve the 40 percent sought mental health treatment at some point campus climate around mental health. within the four years of their undergraduate education. For Digital mental health encompasses mental health informa- comparison, only one in ten students reported a mental health tion, teaching, and interventions that are delivered via internet disorder in the early 2000s.1 websites and mobile apps. These interventions With this increased prevalence of reported can be offered alone or in concert with profes- mental health disorders and expectations on the Technology may sional support. The technologies are convenient part of students and parents for accessible treat- help expand and highly accessible. Moreover, they offer com- ment, higher education institutions have been mental health plete privacy, mitigating some forms of stigma, scrambling to provide more services with limited services to particularly for students who are reluctant to mental health staff, time, and overall resources. those who seek use in-person services. A recent meta-analysis of As a result, they have been innovative. In addition support and digital interventions concluded that they can be to offering individual therapy including cognitive may also help effective in improving depression, anxiety, and reach students 5 behavioral therapy, many often offer group ther- who otherwise stress levels in students. Many may prefer mobile apy, which can be an effective and efficient way to resist seeking methods of treatment and monitoring, as might reach more students with extant, finite resources. treatment. be expected given their digital literacy, and digital Despite the increased awareness of mental mental health can be offered alone or in concert health, some students still do not seek needed with professional support. treatment. In particular, students who feel a stigma associated In addition to using texting or traditional internet technology, with having mental health issues or using services may depend on digital mental health services can also be packaged with wearable family and friends in lieu of formal services. Studies have indicated devices for ambulatory assessment of needs. Such apps might have that male students, students of color, and international students built-in sensors to collect information on typical behavior patterns have less positive health-seeking attitudes than their counterparts and to signal detected behavioral changes that may be concerning and thus have lower utilization, despite ongoing needs.2 Hence, (e.g., changes in voice or speech tone, disturbances in sleep patterns, addressing the problem of making mental health services acces- changes in typing speed or general activity levels). Some apps are sible to students requires finding ways to deliver services with less stand-alone programs that focus on improving knowledge, memory, stigma, particularly for some groups. or thinking skills; other apps can be used to connect students to a Technology may help expand mental health services to those peer counselor or to a health care professional. who seek support and may also help reach students who other- For students who are having trouble adjusting to college, digital wise resist seeking treatment—particularly since students are technologies that apply principles of positive psychology can help
8 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 increase resil- Further research will be needed to evaluate ience, happiness, these unintended negative effects and other and well-being.6 potential concerns, including data pri- Some tools deliver vacy and the regulation of mental health interventions online technologies. as individual exer- Technology-based interventions could
SYLVERARTS/GETTY IMAGES SYLVERARTS/GETTY cises and present revolutionize mental health care in higher users with daily sets education. With innovative approaches, of activities. A recent colleges and universities can envision randomized, controlled new intervention paradigms that build trial evaluated the efficacy on traditional models to improve mental of using an app that focused health and well-being in the lives of their on techniques grounded in students. n positive psychological inter- ventions (e.g., gratitude, Notes 1. American College Health Association, National kindness, strengths-building), College Health Assessment II: Reference Group cognitive-behavioral therapy, and/ Executive Summary, Fall 2009 (Linthicum, MD: ACHA, 2009); American College Health or mindfulness-based stress-reduction Association, National College Health Assessment II: Undergraduate Student Executive Summary, Spring techniques. Participants who used the 2019 (Silver Spring, MD: ACHA, 2019). app for two or three activities per week over 2. D. Eisenberg et al., “Mental Health Service Utilization among College Students in the United States,” Journal of an eight-week period showed post-intervention Nervous and Mental Disease 199, no. 5 (2011); S. K. Lipson decreases in anxiety and depression and increases in et al., “Mental Health Disparities among College Students of Color,” Journal of Adolescent Health 63, no. 3 (2018); A. Masuda, resilience, compared with an online psychoeducational learn- P. L. Anderson, and S. T. Sheehan, “Mindfulness and Mental Health 7 among African American College Students,” Complementary Health Practice ing comparison group. Review 14, no. 3 (2009); A. Masuda et al., “Help-Seeking Experiences and Internet Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (iCBT) also shows prom- Attitudes among African American, Asian American, and European American College Students,” International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling ising results. With iCBT, participants use their home computers to 31, no. 3 (2009); J. Twentyman, M. Frank, and L. Lindsey, “Effects of Race and Ethnicity on Mental Health and Help-Seeking amongst Undergraduate University review psychoeducational material and practice CBT exercises. Students,” Journal of Undergraduate Ethnic Minority Psychology 3 (2017). Such programs teach participants core cognitive skills (e.g., rec- 3. J. M. Twenge, G. N. Martin, and W. K. Campbell, “Decreases in Psychological Well-Being among American Adolescents after 2012 and Links to Screen Time ognizing affective biases in information processing), as well as during the Rise of Smartphone Technology,” Emotion 18, no. 6 (2018). behavioral skills (e.g., problem-solving strategies). iCBT can include 4. M. S. Dunbar et al., “Unmet Mental Health Treatment Need and Attitudes toward Online Mental Health Services among Community College Students,” Psychiatric informational and supportive automated emails, brief weekly phone Services 69, no. 5 (2018); S. March et al., “Attitudes toward e-Mental Health Services in a Community Sample of Adults: Online Survey,” Journal of Medical calls with a therapist providing encouragement and clarification of Internet Research, 20, no. 2 (2018). exercises, text-based communication, and longer web-based CBT 5. E. B. Davies, R. Morriss, and C. Glazebrook, “Computer-Delivered and Web- Based Interventions to Improve Depression, Anxiety, and Psychological Well- sessions. Although iCBT involves a therapist, the therapist’s time Being of University Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” Journal of Medical Internet Research 16, no. 5 (2014). is far less than would be required in traditional face-to-face meth- 6. S. M. Schueller and A. C. Parks, “Disseminating Self-Help: Positive Psychology ods. In randomized controlled trials, iCBT has been shown to have Exercises in an Online Trial,” Journal of Medical Internet Research 14, no. 3 (2012); 8 D. Yaden, J. C. Eichstaedt, and J. D. Medaglia, “The Future of Technology in approximately equivalent efficacy as face-to-face CBT. Positive Psychology: Methodological Advances in the Science of Well-Being,” Although the evidence base for digital mental health interven- Frontiers in Psychology 9, no. 962 (2018); L. S. Wachsmuth, T. Y. Tan, and M. M. Tugade, “Examining Life As It Is Lived: Experience Sampling Methodology for tions for college and university students remains limited, current Positive Psychology Intervention Research,” Journal of Positive Psychology (in press, May 2020). meta-analyses suggest that digital mental health technologies can 7. A. C. Parks et al., “Testing a Scalable Web and Smartphone-Based Intervention improve depression, anxiety, and stress levels.9 Given this early to Improve Depression, Anxiety, and Resilience: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” International Journal of Wellbeing 8, no. 2 (2018). favorable outcome data, larger and more rigorous studies with longi- 8. G. Andrews et al., “Computer Therapy for the Anxiety and Depression Disorders tudinal follow-up are warranted. Better data on which interventions Is Effective, Acceptable and Practical Health Care: An Updated Meta-Analysis,” Journal of Anxiety Disorders 55 (2018); P. Carlbring et al., “Internet-Based vs. are most effective for which groups of students would be particu- Face-to-Face Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Psychiatric and Somatic Disorders: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” Cognitive Behavioral larly helpful, so that digital mental health programs can be tailored Therapy 47, no. 1 (2019). to maximize student engagement and learning. 9. Davies, Morriss, and Glazebrook, “Computer-Delivered and Web-Based Interventions.” With growing interest in mental health technologies, research- ers are evaluating potential drawbacks and are offering solutions. Some adverse effects reported by clients include technical diffi- Elizabeth H. Bradley ([email protected]) is President and Professor of Sci- ence, Technology, and Society and Political Science at Vassar College. Michele M. culties, dissatisfaction, and implementation problems—although Tugade ([email protected]) is Professor in the Department of Psychological Sci- these negative aspects can be minimized with therapist support to ence at Vassar College. address concerns, provide feedback, and facilitate understanding. © 2020 Elizabeth H. Bradley and Michele M. Tugade
er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 9 This page has been intentionally left blank DIGITAL ETHICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION By John O’Brien 2020 Photo illustrations by Nicolás Ortega
er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 11 SOME NEWS STORIES ARE HARD TO FORGET, like the one from a decade ago about a teenager who was texting while walk- ing and fell into an open manhole on the street. Many headlines made fun of the scraped-up fifteen-year-old. But most of the news stories were focused on the people involved and thus didn’t see the bigger story about the place where humans and technology clash—or, in this case, crash.1 In 2020, I remember this story and see it as perhaps the perfect meta- phor for the challenge of digital ethics. New technologies, many that depend on private data or emerging artificial intelligence (AI) applications, are being rolled out with enthusiastic abandon. These dazzling technologies capture our attention and inspire our imagination. Meanwhile, fascinated by these developments, we may soon see the ground drop out from under us. We need to find a way to pay attention to both the rapid technology innovations and the very real implications for the people who use them— or, as some would say, the people who are used by them. I believe we are at a crucial point in the evolution of technology. We must come to grips with digital ethics, which I define simply as “doing the right thing at the intersection of technology innovation and accepted social values.” This is a straightforward-enough definition; however, given the speed of technology change and the relativity of social values, even a simple definition may be trickier than it seems. For example, at the point where they clash, the desire for the latest data-powered apps and the desire for fiercely protected privacy reveal significant ethical fault lines. Which desire prevails? And while we contemplate this question, the development of new apps continues.
12 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 A Century of Profound on an incomplete understand- Technology Change ing of science. The discoveries When we talk about technol- of polonium and radium chlo- ogy innovation, we tend to look ride were followed in turn by a forward, imagining our con- wave of radioactive quackery temporary circumstances to that included radium-infused be utterly unprecedented. Yet toothpaste, “Tho-Radia” cos- we are not the first to deal with metic products promising a “disruptive,” technology-driven youthful glow, and even (now change. Nor are we the first who strangely redundant) radium must cope with the scale of the cigarettes. The Vita Radium ethical implications of these Suppositories promised “weak developments. We have much discouraged men” that they to learn from the analog tech- would soon “bubble over with nology innovations of an earlier joyous vitality.”5 century,2 and there’s hardly a One attendee of the Great better moment in time to con- Exhibition was not impressed. sider than the Great Exhibition Karl Marx saw the exhibition in London in 1851. as proof of the damage caused The Great Exhibition by technology automation and was so popular that its prof- concluded that the exhibition its funded several public revealed an essentially exploit- museums still operating in ative agenda with nothing short the United Kingdom today, of violent implications.6 Arising and the spectacle was so sig- at this same time were the origi- nificant that the equivalent of CHARLES TAYLOR/SHUTTERSTOCK nal Luddites—which does not one-third of the population of inventor discovered that of quackery of all kinds. From refer to people with a reluctance Great Britain came to London leeches responded to rapid magnetic corsets to electric to use technology, as the term to see the exhibition.3 It was changes in barometric pressure belts, products promised is understood today. Instead, arguably the beginning of the in a way that could be rigged to amazing curative properties for the Luddites were responding technology optimism we still trip a trigger that would sound nervous disorders, indigestion, (violently) to the introduction see today, the conviction that a bell, thereby warning of an rheumatism, sleeplessness, of new mechanical looms in no problem was so grand that impending storm.4 Also on dis- and “worn-out Stomach.” the wool industry, very literally a new, marvelous invention play at the Great Exhibition was Emerging technologies based pushing back against technol- couldn’t present a solution. an example of William Bally’s on the properties of electro- ogy that was costing people Representative medals were busts used to illustrate con- magnetism were being created jobs, ruining their livelihoods, awarded to a telescope, early cepts of the then much-hyped with little regulation and count- and circumventing standard daguerreotypes, and even a pseudo-science of phrenology, less empty promises—even labor practices.7 precursor to the fax machine. the belief that the size and the as the science was still being A powerful artifact of the Along with these recogniz- shape of the skull are an indica- figured out. We may think the dark side of 19th-century able innovations, there were tor of someone’s character and concept of tech hype arose in technology innovation can also truly strange products on mental abilities. the 21st century, but the 19th be found in Mary Shelley’s display, like the “tempest prog- This was the century of century revealed early masters remarkable novel Frankenstein, nosticator”: an enterprising invention and also the century of deploying innovations based published in 1818 in the shadow
1. John Del Signore, “OMGGGGGG! Texting Teen Girl Falls into Open Manhole,” Gothamist, July 10, 2009; Charlie Sorrel, “Girl Falls into Manhole While Texting, Parents Sue,” Wired, July 13, 2009. 2. Audrey Watters wrote: “There’s something about our imagination and our discussion of education technology that, I’d contend, triggers an amnesia of sorts. We forget all history— all history of technology, all history of education. Everything is new. Every problem is new. Every product is new. We’re the first to experience the world this way; we’re the first to try to devise solutions.” Watters, “Ed-Tech and the Commercialization of School,” Hack Education (blog), June 14, 2016. 3. “The Great Exhibition,” Cleveland Museum of Art (website), [n.d.]. 4. The Whitby Museum’s tempest prognosticator also goes by its more precise name: “Atmospheric Electromagnetic Telegraph conducted by Animal Instinct.” 5. Vincze Miklós, “Seriously Scary Radioactive Products from the 20th Century,” Gizmodo, May 9, 2013. See also “Radioactive Quack Cures,” Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Health Physics Historical Instrumentation Museum Collection (website), May 28, 1998. 6. Paul Young, “The Cooking Animal: Economic Man at the Great Exhibition,” Victorian Literature and Culture 36 (2008). 7. “Who Were the Luddites and What Did They Want?” Power, Politics & Protest, [n.d.].
er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 13 efficiently and save money that It’s not practicable to can be repurposed toward their mission. One example of ana- think we can simply halt lytics and artificial intelligence coming together in a student- technology innovation, centric way is the emerging class of chatbot applications, from taking the equivalent of a Georgia Tech’s “Jill Watson” teaching assistant in 201610 musical grand pause, while to more recent examples like Deakin University’s Genie app we figure out all the ethical or Georgia State University’s Pounce chatbox, both of which implications. help students get quick answers and navigate their way through processes and also produce concrete institutional results in vexing areas like “summer melt.” The Pounce story is just the latest chapter of how GSU of the Luddite riots. Though technology innovation, taking Top 10 IT Issues for 2020 reflect is using predictive analytics as the book features a stitched- the equivalent of a musical this hope and excitement, with part of a broader program to together, reanimated corpse, it grand pause, while we figure institutional priorities like stu- increase retention and gradu- is actually an intensely sophis- out all the ethical implications. dent retention/completion, ation rates and eliminate the ticated discussion of ethics and In this case, we need to multi- student-centric higher educa- achievement/opportunity gap. technology. Dr. Frankenstein task in an additive way, not to tion, improved enrollment, Finally, numerous tech- recklessly uses technology that lessen either our excitement and higher education afford- nologies promise to intensify he does not fully understand or our caution but to attend ability joining more traditional student engagement in learn- and without thinking through to both. We can be deeply con- IT issues. Advances in technol- ing. Conversations about the deeper implications. He cerned about digital ethics and ogy will not single-handedly games, simulations, and inter- creates life and then abandons at the same time be genuinely move these needles, but in active problem-solving have his own creation when things excited about the digital trans- the larger enabling context of been going on for a long time, get difficult. The tragedy of formation clearly underway in digital transformation, new but the growth of commer- the novel is his ethical failure higher education. We can be technologies may be the most cial augmented and virtual and the suffering that results. energized by new technologies promising hope in a challenge- reality technologies suggests Perhaps the most meaningful while we stay fully aware of the filled landscape. Even a quick that dramatic change could summary of the book is also privacy and ethical consider- glance at the EDUCAUSE be around the corner. EDU- the simplest: Just because you ations. The key is balance. Horizon Report reflects the CAUSE research reveals that can do something with technology Those of us working in excitement afoot, with discus- augmented and virtual reality doesn’t mean you should. higher education information sion of analytics, mixed reality, technologies are expected to technology often find it easy to AI and virtual assistants, adap- be deployed institution-wide Excitement be exhilarated about the ways tive learning, and more.9 at 40 percent of institutions Let’s return to the metaphor I that technology innovation has Data-powered predictive by 2023 (see figure 1). used to start this article. Multi- advanced, and will continue to analytics—including adaptive tasking by walking and texting advance, academia. We recog- learning and student success Caution at the same time is a poor nize the important role that advising technologies—tops It’s not a contradiction to be choice. Whenever we focus too technology professionals play the list of promising tech- both excited and cautious at much on the technology, to the when they work strategically nologies. In addition, many the same time; in fact, this exclusion of everything else, and collaboratively, offering new applications rely on AI or seems to be the state of affairs things tend not to end well. traction in solving some of the machine learning innovations for technology professionals. However, it’s not practicable most intractable institutional to help students succeed and I would even argue that tech- to think we can simply halt challenges.8 The EDUCAUSE to help institutions work more nology innovators who don’t
14 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 hold both of these thoughts in actions, at least one Russian life of brains or technolo- available, I typed in “I am con- their head at the same time are scientist plans to continue gies that enable people to cut cerned about digital ethics likely not paying attention— the work.11 Meanwhile, Yale lives short with 3D printed because.” The AI language or are letting the drumbeat of scientists have been con- guns, there is plenty to kindle model completed my thought hype drown out the caution- ducting experiments to concern among ethicists and this way: “I am concerned ary voices. It’s time to listen to reanimate mammalian brains. non-ethicists alike. about digital ethics because these quieter voices and care- The scientists are reported to The consequences of of the impact of technological fully consider the question of be working quite cautiously, genetically modified babies developments, particularly the digital ethics. at one point shutting down an and reanimated brains may rapid developments in digital Before focusing on higher experiment because of a slim seem unclear and far off, but media, in online communities. education, let’s step back and chance that some level of con- weaponized artificial intel- I am particularly concerned understand that concerns sciousness in an animal brain ligence is already here, and it about the growth of the abuse about digital ethics extend might be present. But as Nita is rapidly advancing. In 2019, of free speech online.” This was far beyond any single context, Farahany, a law scholar and OpenAI created an AI language followed by a fairly well-spoken enterprise, or industry. Read- ethicist at Duke University, model that was so effective in paragraph on specific UK regu- ers of Shelly’s Frankenstein will noted: “It’s a total gray zone.” generating believable text lations and their implications. find many of today’s news sto- Hank Greely, a law professor that OpenAI researchers at Impressive. Encouraged by ries to be very familiar. In 2018, and ethicist at Stanford Uni- first decided it was danger- this success, I next typed in Chinese scientists created the versity, added that a scientist ous and should be shared only “Digital ethics concerns me.” world’s first genetically modi- with less of an ethical compass in stages; in November 2019, The results of this very similar fied humans: twins “Lulu and will inevitably experiment seeing “no strong evidence of prompt were confoundingly Nana.” Although the scien- with human brains.12 Whether misuse,” they released the full different. This time the AI tists have been sentenced to we consider technologies that system: TalkToTransformer. model wrote: “Digital ethics jail terms and fines for their allow scientists to extend the com.13 Shortly after it was made concerns me in the way I can’t
Figure 1. Augmented and Virtual Reality for Teaching and Learning
We predict that as many as 40% of institutions will have institution- wide deployment of these technologies by 2023
Expanding Tracking, not an existing deploying or Don’t know what deployment piloting this technology is 9% 29% 8%
1% 30% 23% Already Planning/ No actions deployed piloting planned in institution- deployment 2018 wide
Source: EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research (ECAR), “2018 Strategic Technologies: Data Table.”
8. John O’Brien, “Strategic IT: What Got Us Here Won’t Get Us There,” EDUCAUSE Review 53, no. 6 (November/December 2018). 9. Susan Grajek and the 2019–2020 EDUCAUSE IT Issues Panel, “Top 10 IT Issues, 2020: The Drive to Digital Transformation Begins,” EDUCAUSE Review Special Report, January 27, 2020; Malcolm Brown et al., 2020 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report: Teaching and Learning Edition (Louisville, CO: EDUCAUSE, 2020). 10. For a good review of both the early “hoopla” of Jill Watson the TA and more recent versions, see Margaret Tate, “Jill Watson’s Terrific Twos,” Georgia Tech (website), July 30, 2018. 11. Antonio Regalado, “He Jiankui Faces Three Years in Prison for CRISPR Babies,” MIT Technology Review, December 30, 2019; David Cyranoski, “Russian ‘CRISPR-Baby’ Scientist Has Started Editing Genes in Human Eggs with Goal of Altering Deaf Gene,” Nature, October 18, 2019. 12. Matthew Shaer, “Scientists Are Giving Dead Brains New Life: What Could Go Wrong?” New York Times Magazine, July 2, 2019. 13. James Vincent, “OpenAI Has Published the Text-Generating AI It Said Was Too Dangerous To Share,” The Verge, November 7, 2019.
er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 15 get on my knee and hug my hus- who might be uploading her While bots of band when he’s down.”14 photos, so she used a reverse In any case, the next Google image search to find various kinds generation of mass, personal- out. Instead of discovering ized, AI-generated phishing that friends had uploaded her are being attempts will be far harder to pictures on social media, she spot. There is a terrifying signal found hundreds of postings deployed of the future in the August 2019 of her personal pictures on story of a fake phone call that pornographic sites, along with at higher tricked one company out of photos with her face added to $243,000 with an AI-produced the bodies of porn actresses.17 education impersonation of its CEO Deepfake videos of students demanding a bank transfer.15 could have significant con- institutions Deepfakes are already causing sequences for an institution, problems on an international especially considering that with positive scale. As deepfake-Obama the perpetrator could well be observes in a viral video, new a student on the same campus. outcomes, AI technologies can generate Chatbots have received they are fabricated videos in which a lot of attention, especially “anyone is saying anything recently. While bots of vari- being used at any point in time—even if ous kinds are being deployed they would never say those at higher education institu- elsewhere things.” There is already much tions with positive outcomes, speculation on the potential they are being used elsewhere in ethically geo-political mischief that in ethically problematic ways. deepfakes could cause (imag- In 2015 Mattel introduced problematic ine the 1938 War of the Worlds Hello Barbie, an interactive, broadcast scare, but with a internet-connected doll. The ways. more convincing presentation idea of an “internet of toys,” and with nuclear weapons). with children clutching inter- Election manipulation, riots, net-connected toys that ask and regional instability are probing personal questions all very real possibilities.16 (and store the answers), was Celebrities are currently the viewed with great skepticism biggest targets of deepfakes, by some, for example those who but any college or university launched the #HellNoBarbie professional reading the chill- campaign. In December 2017, ing story of Noelle Martin will Germany’s Federal Network realize just how high the stakes Agency labeled Barbie’s Euro- could be. When she was a stu- pean counterpart, Cayla, “an dent, Martin was curious about illegal espionage apparatus,”
14. See also the Harry Potter AI-generated narrative producing such sentences as “Leathery sheets of rain lashed at Harry’s ghost as he walked across the grounds towards the castle. Ron was standing there and doing a kind of frenzied tap dance. He saw Harry and immediately began to eat Hermione’s family.” Rosie McCall, “AI Attempts to Write Harry Potter and It Goes Hilariously Wrong,” IFLScience, December 14, 2017. 15. Catherine Stupp, “Fraudsters Used AI to Mimic CEO’s Voice in Unusual Cybercrime Case,” Wall Street Journal, August 30, 2019. 16. Many scenarios involve a national or world leader shown on video doing or saying something provocative. Ironically, one very real coup linked to a suspicious video in Gabon was actually a real video that people were convinced was a deepfake. See Karen Hao, “The Biggest Threat of Deepfakes Isn’t the Deepfakes Themselves,” MIT Technology Review, October 10, 2019. 17. Kirsti Melville, “The Insidious Rise of Deepfake Porn Videos—and One Woman Who Won’t Be Silenced,” ABC Radio National, August 29, 2019.
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er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 17 and parents were urged to for the feedback.” Microsoft’s destroy the toy. In spite of The Cortana said: “Well, that’s not the backlash, Hello Barbie is going to get us anywhere.” And still around (and listening), technologies Google Home (also Google while the market for con- Assistant) answered: “My apol- nected smart toys has grown, and virtual ogies, I don’t understand.” The not slowed. Interestingly, the report observes that these AI company whose technology personalities responses come from applica- was incorporated into Hello tions built by “overwhelmingly Barbie changed its name to we create male engineering teams” who PullString, and in 2019 it was “cause their feminised digital reportedly acquired by Apple tend to assistants to greet verbal abuse to be part of their AI strategy.18 with catch-me-if-you-can flir- In March 2016, not long amplify tation.” As a result of criticism, after the introduction of Siri’s responses have evolved, Hello Barbie, the chatbot Tay our human and “she” now replies to abu- was released by Microsoft on sive statements differently Twitter. Tay was “designed to shortcomings, (though the report suggests engage and entertain people not eliminate even the new responses con- where they connect with each tinue to be submissive).20 other online through casual them. Responding passively to and playful conversation.” Tay suggestive or abusive com- began cheerily declaring that ments reinforces a subservient “humans are supercool,” but role for women and signals within 24 hours Tay was par- that the inappropriate com- roting racist, homophobic, and ments are acceptable. Steve Nazi propaganda. After being Worswick, developer of the suspended for nearly a week, award-winning Mitsuku the chatbot came back online chatbot, writes about ethi- again briefly, only to confuse cal implications of chatbots and offend a few more people from personal experience and before falling into a fatal loop, reports that “abusive mes- endlessly repeating what world of technology products, For example, as smart sages, swearing and sex talk” might, in retrospect, be pro- asking for forgiveness later speakers and digital assistants make up around 30 percent phetic: “You are too fast, please may be easier than taking continue to become more of the input Mitsuku receives. take a rest.” Tay was given a the time to anticipate all that prevalent, ethical concerns Perhaps there simply is no permanent rest, and many could go wrong, especially are increasingly a global con- rational reason to believe that experts scratched their heads given pressures to be first- cern. A UNESCO study, titled the technologies we invent are as to why Microsoft released to-market. As chatbots and “I’d Blush If I Could,” focused likely to solve the shortcom- the bot before anticipating the AI products are released, the on gender divides built into, ings involved in humanity possibilities more accurately.19 more concerning issues are the and exacerbated by, digital itself. As Kentaro Toyama says The Tay story of artificial far-less-obvious examples of assistants. In response to in Geek Heresy: “Brilliant tech- intelligence released too fast subtle discrimination, racism, the remark “You’re a bitch,” nology is not enough to save us tops them all because it was and flawed data being built into Apple’s Siri responded: “I’d from ourselves.” The technolo- so dramatic and so publicly algorithms that remain opaque blush if I could.” Amazon’s gies and virtual personalities visible. But in the competitive to those who use them. Alexa replied: “Well, thanks we create tend to amplify our
18. Melissa Breyer, “Creepy Doll Redux: 8 Reasons Not to Buy Hello Barbie,” TreeHugger, November 9, 2015; Sheera Frenkel, “A Cute Toy Just Brought a Hacker into Your Home,” New York Times, December 21, 2017; Sara H. Jodka, “The Internet of Toys: Legal and Privacy Issues with Connected Toys,” Dickinson Wright (website), December 2017; Brian Raftery, “Apple Acquires Voice-Tech Company Behind ‘Hello Barbie,’” Fortune, February 15, 2019. 19. Asha Barbaschow, “Microsoft and the Learnings from Its Failed Tay Artificial Intelligence Bot,” ZDNet, July 24, 2019; Jon Russell, “Microsoft AI Bot Tay Returns to Twitter, Goes on Spam Tirade, Then Back to Sleep,” TechCrunch, March 30, 2016; Davey Alba, “It’s Your Fault Microsoft’s Teen AI Turned Into Such a Jerk,” Wired, March 25, 2016. 20. “I’d Blush If I Could: Closing Gender Divides in Digital Skills through Education” (EQUALS and UNESCO, 2019).
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Palo Alto Networks is committed to supporting the mission of higher education in the digital age. Learn more about our engagements with lnternet2 and RHEDcloud at paloaltonetworks.com/educause. she goes on to highlight a number of them in detail (including U.S. News higher education rankings). Recently, one non- profit that originally supported algorith- mic risk assessment before her book was published reversed its position.24 O’Neill argues that if big data had been used in the 1960s as part of the college application pro- cess, women would still be under-represented in higher education because the algo- rithm would have been trained by looking at the men who were then over-represented. In 2018, Safiya Umoja Noble’s book Algorithms of human shortcomings, not interaction was with a person embedded into algorithms Oppression: How Search Engines eliminate them.21 or a bot. In April 2018, Gartner explain the bias and discrimi- Reinforce Racism intensified There are ethical implica- suggested that in 2020, the nation we see too often in the attention paid to algorith- tions for many if not all of the average person will have more outputs—complicated and mic bias, in this case looking technologies that are emerg- conversations with bots than frustrated by the fact that at search engines, which are ing and, of course, unresolved with their spouse.23 these algorithms are opaque increasingly the conduit ethical issues with the internet In the face of this inexorable and don’t allow an appeal if through which we arrive at itself—including the digital march, several powerful voices someone’s life is negatively our understanding of the divides that have been iden- have come forward argu- impacted by a decision based world around us. Her focus tified and, some would say, ing for caution. Weapons of on the algorithms. O’Neil on “technological redlining” ignored for a long time.22 How- Math Destruction: How Big insists that the inherent concentrates on how search ever, the cluster of technologies Data Increases Inequality and opinions in the code are even engines suggest ways for us that fall under the general cat- Threatens Democracy, written more corrosive because they to complete our searches egory of artificial intelligence by Cathy O’Neil in early 2016, are obscured by the dazzle of (and our sentences). Noble understandably get the most continues to be relevant and technology—all very ironic provides seemingly endless attention. In May 2017, Forbes illuminating. O’Neil’s book since many of the applications examples of how Google’s reported that the use of digital revolves around her insight she critiques in the book are search engine reinforces ste- assistants was on the rise, that “algorithms are opin- intended (and marketed) as reotypes, especially in searches especially among business ions embedded in code,” in tools to reduce human bias and for “black girls,” “Latinas,” and executives and millennials, and distinct contrast to the belief make fairer decisions. Defining “Asian girls.” She also demon- that nearly one-third of con- that algorithms are based on— a weapon of math destruction as strates that internet searching sumers couldn’t say for sure and produce—indisputable a harmful application with played a key role in pointing if their last customer service facts. The subjective inputs “opacity, scale, and damage,” Dylann Roof to the racist ideas
21. Steve Worswick, “The Curse of the Chatbot Users,” Medium, August 17, 2018; Kentaro Toyama, Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology (New York: Public Affairs, 2015). 22. Bryan Alexander, “Higher Education, Digital Divides, and a Balkanized Internet,” EDUCAUSE Review 52, no. 6 (November/December 2017). These divides have grown wider as a result of the transition to emergency remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. 23. Gil Press, “AI by the Numbers: 33 Facts and Forecasts about Chatbots and Voice Assistants,” Forbes, May 15, 2017; Rebecca Hinds, “By 2020, You’re More Likely to Have a Conversation with This Than with Your Spouse,” Inc., April 2, 2018. 24. Tom Simonite, “Algorithms Were Supposed to Fix the Bail System. They Haven’t,” Wired, February 19, 2020. See also Cade Metz and Adam Satariano, “An Algorithm That Grants
Freedom, or Takes It Away,” New York Times, February 6, 2020 (updated February 7, 2020). CHARLES TAYLOR/SHUTTERSTOCK
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events.educause.edu/event-finder that led him to murder nine suggests that just as the Indus- Several AI African Americans while they trial Revolution ravaged the worshipped in South Carolina. natural world, this new form of applications Finally, Noble also refers to a capitalism threatens humanity Washington Post story saying by claiming “human experience claim to put that Google’s top search result as free raw material for hidden for “final election results” commercial practices of extrac- the power regarding the 2016 presidential tion, prediction, and sales.” This election pointed to a “news” process, she argues, is currently of artificial site incorrectly declaring underway, with very little regu- that Donald Trump won both lation or control. intelligence in the electoral and the popular In the time between O’Neil’s vote.25 While there is no doubt book and Zuboff’s book, the the hands of that Google has worked to march of new technologies address these issues, in 2019 at quickened, with examples that the people. least one researcher suggested include the pernicious and the that the problems persisted ridiculous. Where to start? The and that reducing autocom- list grows weekly. plete functionality does not address the root problem.26 The March of the Apps Next, in 2019, Shoshana While not focused on higher Zuboff’s book The Age of Sur- education, several AI applica- veillance Capitalism: The Fight tions claim to put the power for a Human Future at the New of artificial intelligence in Frontier of Power continued the hands of the people. For the conversation, with a dense example, the Mei mobile mes- and chilling exploration of the saging app promises “to help degree to which the unethi- users become the best version cal use of information extends of themselves by putting AI, beyond algorithms and beyond data, and even other people search engines all the way to easily within the reach of becoming a “rogue mutation” anyone with a smartphone.” of capitalism. This expansive The app replaces a phone’s book defies any easy summary texting functionality and pro- (e.g., the definition of surveil- vides analytics about the texts lance capitalism is actually eight sent and received. Marketed as definitions). Zuboff unrelent- a “relationship assistant,” Mei ingly explores surveillance and provides a percentage assess- the use and misuse of data from ment about whether people the perspective of what she you text may or may not “have considers to be the key ques- a crush” on you. Using text tions we must address: “Who analysis, the app goes even fur- knows? Who decides? Who ther, giving advice on how to decides who decides?” Along raise your crush quotient (e.g., with asking questions about “Thomas is more of a do-er, what is going on and who has the so talk less and do more”).27 power to make decisions, she Meanwhile, the now-defunct
25. Philip Bump, “Google’s Top News Link for ‘Final Election Results’ Goes to a Fake News Site with False Numbers,” Washington Post, November 14, 2016. 26. Jonathan Cohn, “Google’s Ads Discriminate against Women and People of Color,” BRIGHT Magazine, May 16, 2019. 27. Arielle Pardes, “Flirty or Friendzone? New AI Scans Your Texts for True Love,” Wired, September 16, 2019.
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24 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 Predictim app allowed individ- and poker players—with a the pressure to profit: “And uals to scan the web footprint simple face scan. A Faception all around Silicon Valley . . . and social media of a prospec- YouTube video reveals an AI entrepreneurs were talking tive babysitter and determine application whose develop- about faces as if they were how risky a choice the person ers do not seem to be pausing gold waiting to be mined.”32 might be, based on an algorithm to consider ethics. In fact, the Facial-recognition applica- scanning for signs of bullying/ company’s “chief profiler” tions continue to proliferate, harassment, disrespectful atti- seems to shrug off ethics con- even while the accuracy of tude, explicit content, and drug cerns by saying: “We [are] only the technology is evolving. In use.28 These examples may seem recommending—whatever the United States, a Decem- inconsequential—unless, of the authorities will do with ber 2019 National Institute course, you are the one whose that, it’s their own business.”30 of Standards and Technology data is being scanned and you This will not be reassuring to study found facial recognition are the one being judged and those living in countries with to be flawed, confirming “pop- found wanting. repressive authorities or to the ular commercial systems to be It’s very easy to drift from 20 percent who will be incor- biased on race and gender.”33 here to similar but more rectly tagged as terrorists or While studies like this in the dramatically problematic pedophiles (if you believe the United States and the United examples, such as the con- company’s aggressive claims Kingdom cause a stir, viral troversial “gaydar” artificial of 80 percent accuracy). videos like the “racist soap intelligence that higher edu- Another company is Clear- dispenser” video, viewed by cation researchers developed, view AI. Following up on his millions, add an exclamation claiming they can determine iPhone app that let people put mark to the story and human- whether someone is straight Donald Trump’s hair on other ize the ethical issues to a much or gay based solely on scan- people’s photos, Hoan Ton- broader audience.34 ning a face.29 And then there is That developed “a tool that Another powerful way to the deeply problematic face- could end your ability to walk highlight the human impact scanning application called down the street anonymously that follows from the opacity Faception, the “first-to-tech- and provided it to hundreds of algorithms is Kate Crawford nology and first-to-market” of law enforcement agencies.” and Trevor Paglen’s compel- app with “proprietary com- Al Gidari, a privacy profes- ling article “Excavating AI.”35 puter vision and machine sor at Stanford Law School, The authors dig into the prac- learning technology for profil- sees this as the beginning of tical matter of how AI systems ing people and revealing their an uncomfortable trend: “It’s are trained, looking at the personality based only on their creepy what they’re doing, but “the canonical training set” of facial image.” The company is there will be many more of images called ImageNet, which blunt that theirs is a for-profit these companies. There is no consists of more than 14 million pitch and that this is a “multi- monopoly on math. . . . Absent labeled images. Crawford and billion-dollar opportunity.” a very strong federal privacy Paglen find that the process It promises to identify ter- law, we’re all screwed.”31 Writ- of labeling and categorizing is rorists and pedophiles—and ing about facial recognition, not only flawed but sometimes also academic researchers Heather Murphy summed up “problematic, offensive, and
28. Brian Merchant, “Predictim Claims Its AI Can Flag ‘Risky’ Babysitters,” Gizmodo, December 6, 2018. 29. Tristan Greene, “The Stanford Gaydar AI Is Hogwash,” TNW (website), February 20, 2018. 30. Faception, “Our Face Reflects Our Personality,” YouTube, June 9, 2016. The “multi-billion-dollar opportunity” quote is from their pitch video. 31. Kashmir Hill, “The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It,” New York Times, January 18, 2020 (updated February 10, 2020). 32. Heather Murphy, “Why Stanford Researchers Tried to Create a ‘Gaydar’ Machine,” New York Times, October 9, 2017. 33. Karen Hao, “A US Government Study Confirms Most Face Recognition Systems Are Racist,” MIT Technology Review, December 20, 2019. 34. Tom Hale, “This Viral Video of a Racist Soap Dispenser Reveals a Much, Much Bigger Problem,” August 18, 2017. For the United Kingdom, see Robert Booth, “Police Face Calls to End Use of Facial Recognition Software,” Guardian, July 30, 2019. 35. Kate Crawford and Trevor Paglen, “Excavating AI: The Politics of Images in Machine Learning Training Sets,” AI Now Institute, September 19, 2019.
er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 25 insists: “AI-enabled affect Algorithmic systems we recognition continues to be deployed at scale across envi- create are supposed to help ronments from classrooms to job interviews, informing us make better decisions, sensitive determinations about who is ‘productive’ or anticipate our needs, and who is a ‘good worker,’ often without people’s knowledge.” enhance our lives, but this This occurs although we “lack a scientific consensus as to result seems unlikely when whether it can ensure accurate or even valid results”—a fact the systems are built on that connects this technology with discredited 19th-century a foundation of flawed sciences like phrenology.36 If we believe that history assumptions that we are teaches, we might pause here to acknowledge again the stark unable to scrutinize. parallels to phrenology in the 19th century. Among other purposes, phrenology was used to provide a scientific justification for the supposed racial and gender superiority of Caucasian males. The shape bizarre.” These are not subtle and we couldn’t resist upload- and human dimension of the of the head was also purported examples. There are photos of ing her very similar headshot misrepresentation of images. to determine whether a man US President Barack Obama to see what outrageous epi- After all, the authors point would be a reliable and “genu- (“anti-semite”), a seemingly thets were given to hers. While out, “Struggles for justice have ine” husband.37 These examples random man (“good person”), my labels were mystifying and always been, in part, struggles may seem more patently outra- a seemingly random woman detailed, her one label was over the meaning of images and geous than claiming to identify sunning on the beach (“klep- mystifying and brief: sister. representations.” Algorithmic some percentage of terrorists tomaniac”), and the actress When I loaded in the headshot systems we create are sup- or academic researchers based Sigourney Weaver (“hermaph- of a female president of a higher posed to help us make better solely on faces, but at least the rodite”). The authors even education presidential asso- decisions, anticipate our needs, caliper-wielding phrenologists made the ImageNet database ciation, she was neither queen and enhance our lives, but this drew their conclusions from available to the general public nor baroness, and her label was result seems unlikely when the measurements that were trans- to see for themselves how also just one word: sociologist. systems are built on a founda- parent instead of from opinions labeling works. Before the site Imagining that labels like these tion of flawed assumptions that embedded in code that is nei- went offline, I uploaded my could be involved in determin- we are unable to scrutinize. ther explainable nor appealable. simple EDUCAUSE headshot ing who gets a loan, who is fit Meanwhile newer, equally Meanwhile, the AI applica- and was shocked by the labels to babysit, or who might be a problematic technologies tions continue to proliferate assigned to it: baron, big busi- terrorist is deeply concerning. are being considered, includ- today, especially in the area nessman, business leader, king, This important work provides ing emotion recognition of human resources and magnate, and mogul. Hearing non-AI experts with a view into applications, which one esti- interviewing. For someone me gasp, my spouse looked the practical dimension of bias mate suggests is a $20 billion with numerous candidates to over my shoulder to see what in artificial intelligence while market—and growing. The AI choose from, the desire to use had offended me so audibly, also underscoring the societal Now Institute’s 2019 report algorithms to shorten the list
36. Charlotte Jee, “Emotion Recognition Technology Should Be Banned, Says an AI Research Institute,” MIT Technology Review, December 13, 2919; Kate Crawford et al., AI Now 2019 Report (New York: AI Now Institute, 2019). 37. Sahil Chinoy, “The Racist History Behind Facial Recognition,” New York Times, July 10, 2019.
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UNCOMMON THINKING FOR THE COMMON GOOD educause.edu/discovermembership is understandable, but for the for the human in the car to candidates, interviewing is discuss, object, or appeal. A hard enough without knowing 2018 study revealed that ethi- that an algorithm is silently cal perspectives on how an judging and interpreting their autonomous vehicle should every move. In HireVue, for behave in trolley-like problems example, after candidates vary by culture; as a result, record their answers within the some cars will make decisions video platform, the algorithm based on ethical principles analyzes the number of prepo- that could contradict those sitions used and whether or of their drivers. According to not the candidate smiled. Chief a February 2020 article, only Technology Officer Loren one country has taken a posi- Larsen says the tool can exam- tion on how self-driving cars ine “around 25,000 different should behave. In its official data points per video, breaking guidelines, Germany states: down your words, your voice, “In the event of unavoidable and your face.”38 Why? Are accident situations, any dis- those who smile a lot or use tinction based on personal gestures a lot considered to be features (age, gender, physi- better hires than those who do cal or mental constitution) is not?39 In any case, these data strictly prohibited. It is also points are clear invitations for prohibited to offset victims opinions and potential bias against one another. General embedded in code. programming to reduce the More critically, AI deci- number of personal injuries sions could also be involved in may be justifiable.”40 life-or-death circumstances. Consider the famous “trol- Digital Ethics ley problem,” a hypothetical Closer to Home scenario in which a runaway According to HolonIQ, a global trolley is heading toward a education market intelligence group of people. If you’re firm, artificial intelligence has in control of the trolley, produced an “explosion” in should you pull the switch innovation and investment in to redirect the trolley education, with an estimated so that it kills only one doubling in the growth of the person instead? Which global education technology choice is more ethical? market by 2025. Clearly, AI Today the problem is applications and the ethical no longer hypotheti- pitfalls some of them bring will cal: autonomous increasingly demand atten- vehicle software is tion. However, there are also being designed to powerful ethical implications make exactly these for other, non-AI technolo- kinds of decisions gies being actively piloted and in milliseconds. What deployed in higher education. happens if someone One example is the constel- pulls out in front of a lation of innovations around self-driving car? A deci- augmented/virtual/mixed sion will be made—and reality. Emory Craig and Maya it will be made too quickly Georgieva have effectively
28 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 mapped out the degree to which immersive technolo- We argued that it’s time to gies invite various ethical challenges, what the authors “Go Big” with analytics in see as a number of unsettling questions related to immer- order to achieve institutional sive experiences. Craig and Georgieva point to a wave of goals, but we also insisted ethical concerns: student data, privacy, and consent; harass- that we need to go carefully. ment; and accessibility issues.41 Considering the ethical issues more generally, EDU- CAUSE has issued a call for caution. In 2019, the EDUCAUSE Top 10 IT issues focused on the data and analyt- ics that are at the heart of the predictive technologies and AI applications entering the edtech marketplace. In fact, half up to #2), but it also returns to Can Save Higher Education— is a non-negotiable priority.” of the items in the 2019 Top 10 the importance of data in other Really,” the Association for AIR followed up the state- list were data-related. Informa- areas, including Digital Integra- Institutional Research (AIR), ment with its own “Statement tion Security Strategy was #1 on tions (#4). The report authors EDUCAUSE, and the National of Ethical Principles”; the the list, with Privacy appearing squarely bring together data, Association of College and EDUCAUSE 2019 Annual for the first time on the list, at artificial intelligence, and University Business Officers Conference featured sev- #3. This reflected a growing ethics: “Sustainability also has (NACUBO) noted that campus eral sessions on ethics; and realization highlighted several a new dimension. Data is often analytics efforts have stalled in NACUBO put “Ethics at the years earlier by the New Amer- described as a new currency, spite of all the talk. Beneath the Core” on the cover of its Busi- ica Foundation’s 2016 report meaning that higher educa- hyperbolic title, the analytics ness Officer magazine, which “The Promise and Perils of tion now has two currencies to statement was unmistakably included suggestions for push- Predictive Analytics in Higher manage: money and data. Data clear about the importance of ing the vendor community for Education,” which recounted storage may be cheap, but little attending to digital ethics. We more transparency. All three the troubling story of a univer- else is inexpensive in the pro- argued that it’s time to “Go associations will continue the sity that planned to use data cess of managing and securing Big” with analytics in order to discussion throughout 2020.44 from a student survey to urge data and using AI and analytics achieve institutional goals, but This focus is welcome, at-risk students to drop out.42 to ethically support students we also insisted that we need because in the last six months This year, the 2020 Top 10 IT and institutional operations.”43 to go carefully. One section— of 2019, a flurry of articles in the Issues list continues to call out In a separate statement in “Analytics Has Real Impact mainstream and higher educa- Information Security Strategy 2019, one with the intention- on Real People”—elaborated tion press observed that higher (again #1) and Privacy (moving ally provocative title “Analytics that “responsible use of data education had its own potential
38. Terena Bell, “This Bot Judges How Much You Smile during Your Job Interview,” Fast Company, January 15, 2019. 39. What does this mean for introverts, who may not smile or gesture as much? At the EDUCAUSE 2016 Annual Conference, Susan Cain urged attendees to celebrate introvert working and leadership styles and avoid bias in privileging extrovert styles. See Roger Riddell, “Wednesday at EDUCAUSE 2016: Power of Introverts, Top IT Issues,” Education Dive, October 26, 2016. 40. Amy Maxmen, “Self-Driving Car Dilemmas Reveal That Moral Choices Are Not Universal,” Nature, October 24, 2018; Mark Buchanan, “How to Build a Morally Ethical Self-Driving Car,” Bloomberg, February 6, 2020. 41. HolonIQ, “Global Education Technology Market to Reach $341B by 2025,” press release, January 24 2019; Emory Craig and Maya Georgieva, “VR and AR: The Ethical Challenges Ahead,” Transforming Higher Ed (blog), EDUCAUSE Review, April 10, 2018. 42. Susan Grajek and the 2018–2019 EDUCAUSE IT Issues Panel, “Top 10 IT Issues, 2019: The Student Genome Project,” EDUCAUSE Review Special Report, January 28, 2019; Manuela Ekowo and Iris Palmer, The Promise and Peril of Predictive Analytics in Higher Education: A Landscape Analysis (Washington, DC: New America, October 2016). 43. Grajek, “Top 10 IT Issues, 2020.” 44. AIR, EDUCAUSE, and NACUBO, “Analytics Can Save Higher Education—Really” (August 2019); John O’Brien, “We Meant to Do That—Really,” EDUCAUSE Review 55, no. 1 (2020); Association for Institutional Research, AIR Statement of Ethical Principles, September 2019; Rebecca Koenig, “At Educause, a Push to Monitor Student Data Is Met with Concerns about Privacy and Equity,” EdSurge, October 17, 2019; Holly Drake and Marcia Ham, “Privacy Matters: An Ethical and Regulatory Approach,” EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, October 17, 2019; Carrie Klein and Michael Brown, “Ethics at the Core,” Business Officer, April 2019.
er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 29 “creepy line” problem. In fact, of public and private col- tracking. The article also and articles about the effective much of the news coverage is leges and universities and claimed that “many” institu- and appropriate use of predic- skeptical or deeply critical. reported that at least 44 were tions don’t give students the tive modeling are simply not For example, the Chronicle of contracting with outside con- ability to opt out of data gath- that intriguing to the main- Higher Education “Students sulting companies to gather ering. A clear example of how stream press. Under Surveillance?” article and analyze data on prospec- these stories can take a harsh EDUCAUSE findings from answered its own question tive students, “tracking their turn is the New York Times our 2019 student survey rein- with the subtitle “Data-Track- Web activity or formulating Magazine’s critique of college force a clear concern when it ing Enters a Provocative predictive scores to measure admissions offices’ use of pre- comes to students and faculty New Phase.” A Forbes end-of- each student’s likelihood of dictive modeling. Paul Tough (see figure 2). The majority of the-year prediction article enrolling.” The article asserted declared that the modeling is students (70%) agree that they on higher education bluntly that “the vast majority of used not to advance diversity have confidence their college or concluded that “campus tech universities” don’t inform and excellence but, instead, is university is safeguarding their will get even more creepy.” students that they are collect- driven by the “thirst for tuition personal data, yet less than half Meanwhile the Washington ing students’ information. The revenue.” Specifically target- (45%) agree that they benefit Post published an article authors stated that when they ing elite institutions, Tough from the collection and use of titled “Colleges Are Turning reviewed online the privacy asserted: “Colleges’ predictive personal data. Even fewer (44%) Students’ Phones into Sur- policies of the 33 institutions models and the specific nature agree that they understand how veillance Machines, Tracking they found using web-tracking of their inputs may differ their college or university uses the Locations of Hundreds of software, only 3 disclosed the somewhat from one institu- the personal data collected. Thousands.”45 purpose of the tracking. The tion to another, but the output Meanwhile, the findings from A couple of months ear- other 30 omitted any expla- is always the same: Admit more the EDUCAUSE 2019 faculty lier, the Washington Post had nation or did not explain the rich kids.”46 In short, the head- survey show marked drops in reviewed records from a range full extent or purpose of their lines have not been supportive, faculty members’ confidence in
Figure 2. Students’ Perspectives on Institutional Data Policies, Collection, and Use Strongly disagree or disagree Agree or strongly agree
I have confidence in my ability to follow my institution's information security policies and procedures.
I have confidence in my institution's ability to safeguard my personal data.
I have confidence in my institution's ability to safeguard my personal digital information.
I have confidence in my institution's information security practices.
I benefit from my institution's privacy and security policies.
I understand relevant college/university policies about data use, storage, and protection.
I benefit from my institution's collection and use of my personal data.
I understand how my institution uses the personal data they collect about me.
My institution's privacy and security policies impede my productivity.
100% 50 0% 50 100% Percentage of respondents
Source: Joseph D. Galanek and Ben Shulman, “Not Sure If They’re Invading My Privacy or Just Really Interested in Me,” Data Bytes (blog), EDUCAUSE Review, December 11, 2019
30 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 their institution’s ability to safe- Meanwhile, Europe guard student/faculty/research continues to work data and in their own under- aggressively to further standing of relevant policies.47 privacy, while also advancing the tech- Regulation and nologies involved. Resistance At the same time in the Wild West that it is increasing The current situation is, to funding for arti- say the least, dynamic. For all ficial intelligence the proliferation of new prod- by 70 percent and ucts there is a wide variety of supporting an strong voices and forces work- “AI-on-demand ing to respond to digital ethics platform” to bring concerns. In many ways, the together a com- current situation feels a bit like munity around the wild west, both in terms of AI development, the rush to be first-to-market the European Union with edtech products and in is clear that it intends should terms of the relatively uneven to deal with digital ethics face “sub- approach to regulation and leg- around artificial intelligence the coun- stantial fines and islation. Still, regulation and and ensure a sound legal tries of the European Union, criminal penalties” for damag- legislation are happening all and ethical framework. For and in January 2020, the Euro- ing and unlawful activities.50 over, spurred on by a chorus of example, the European Com- pean Commission announced While the European Union demands from world leaders, mission’s document “Ethics that it is contemplating a ban leads the charge on regulation influential billionaires, activist Guidelines for Trustworthy on facial recognition in public of artificial intelligence and groups, and celebrities, along Artificial Intelligence (AI)” areas for three to five years. use of data and algorithms, the with the majority of a skeptical stresses that artificial intel- Brexit aside, the United King- United States lags—or at least general population. Strangely, ligence must work “in the dom joins the European call lacks unified national action. some technology companies service of humanity and the for regulations, as is evident With little clarity on account- have joined the choir as well, public good,” with an empha- from the publication of new ability at the federal level, some with CEOs of major firms call- sis on trustworthiness. The recommendations for holding individual states are taking ing for regulation. Naturally, key requirements, which read AI companies accountable, bolder actions. For example, a some people are more cynical like chapter titles in a book including both more scrutiny growing number of states have about these calls for regulation about digital ethics, include and a proposed new regulating enacted some form of legisla- by those who would be regu- “transparency,” “diversity, body for “online harms.” In tion related to autonomous lated and see them either as a non-discrimination and fair- fact, things could get personal vehicles. Many new laws are strategy to slow competitors ness,” and “accountability.”49 in the United Kingdom, with first laws of their kind, like a or as an effort to take some A separate report on liabil- a 2019 government position January 2020 Illinois law that control and limit the scope of ity certainly suggests a path for paper suggesting that the exec- requires employers to explain inevitable regulations.48 continued regulation across utives of technology companies to job applicants how artificial
45. Lee Gardner, “Students Under Surveillance? Data-Tracking Enters a Provocative New Phase,” Special Reports, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 13, 2019; Derek Newton, “Don’t Be Surprised If These Five Things Happen in Education in 2020,” Forbes, December 31, 2019; Drew Harwell, “Colleges Are Turning Students’ Phones into Surveillance Machines, Tracking the Locations of Hundreds of Thousands,” Washington Post, December 24, 2019. 46. Douglas MacMillan and Nick Anderson, “Student Tracking, Secret Scores: How College Admissions Offices Rank Prospects before They Apply,” Washington Post, October 14, 2019; Paul Tough, “What College Admissions Offices Really Want,” New York Times Magazine, September 10, 2019. 47. Joseph Galanek and Ben Shulman, “Not Sure If They’re Invading My Privacy or Just Really Interested in Me,” Data Bytes (blog), EDUCAUSE Review, December 11, 2019. 48. Farid Ben Amor, “83% of Americans Want Tougher Regulations for Data Privacy,” World Economic Forum, April 27, 2018; Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, “Tech Companies Call for Govt. Regulation of Artificial Intelligence,” [n.d.]; “Zuckerberg’s call for More Regulation ‘Cynical’ but Something Can Happen,” Fox Business (website), April 1, 2019. 49. European Commission (EC), “Artificial Intelligence,” updated March 11, 2020; European Commission, “Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI,” April 2019. 50. Expert Group on Liability and New Technologies–New Technologies Formation of the European Commission, Liability for Artificial Intelligence and Other Emerging Technologies, European Union, 2019; Foo Yun Chee, “EU Mulls Five-Year Ban on Facial Recognition Tech in Public Areas,” Reuters, January 16, 2020. See also Zach Campbell and Chris Jones, “Leaked Reports Show EU Police Are Planning a Pan-European Network of Facial Recognition Databases,” The Intercept, February 21, 2020; Charlie Osborne, “UK AI Advisors Call for Online Platforms to Become Accountable for User Content Targeting,” Zero Day (blog), ZDNet, February 4, 2020; Hadas Gold, “UK to Tech Execs: Clean Up Your Platforms or Face ‘Substantial’ Fines,” CNN Business, April 8, 2019.
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32 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 intelligence will be used and and these kinds of efforts will get their consent. In Califor- There is always lag behind dynamic nia, several cities have banned technology developments. At facial recognition, while the something of the global level, rather than a state has passed laws prohibit- gathering consensus pointing ing political and pornographic a hype cycle to unified action around ethics deepfakes and also passed the and artificial intelligence, we B.O.T. Act (Bolstering Online at work for are seeing signs of a “global Transparency Act), making split,” with Europe and Japan it unlawful for certain bots to legislation moving in different directions pass themselves off as humans from the United States and to sell products or influence as well as for China. Nonetheless, there is voters. In another “first-ever,” growing recognition that the California passed the Cali- technology, best regulatory approach would fornia Consumer Privacy Act be global—and that this is also (CCPA), which is considered with flurries the most difficult to achieve. comprehensive but whose Yoshua Bengio, a Turing Award impact is not yet fully clear.51 of legislative winner and Montréal Declara- Individual state regulations tion advocate, argues that are no substitute for federal activity closely without a mandatory global laws, and the inconsistencies following approach, companies will not from state to state contrib- willingly give up a competitive ute to the “wild west” state of flurries of advantage in order to be more affairs, with different sheriffs ethical.54 in different states drawing dif- shocking Regulation and legislation ferent lines in different sands. are producing, and will con- Meanwhile, federal action headlines. tinue to produce, noticeable may happen in 2020, as there changes, but other voices are are several bills before Con- important and unprecedented, gress, tracked online by the As an article in the MIT Tech- later debate when larger legisla- such as technology company Center for Data Innovation’s nology Review summarized: tive momentum builds. Writing employees who are taking an AI Legislation Tracker. The “Only a few legislators really for Bloomberg Law, Jaclyn Diaz increasingly activist role in Algorithmic Accountability know what they’re talking concludes that employers and responding to ethical concerns. Act of 2019 has received a great about, but it’s a start.”52 There tech companies need not worry There have been walk-outs by deal of attention, as it adds fed- is something of a hype cycle at too much about new bills in the employees to protest com- eral AI oversight for artificial work for legislation as well as near future because legislators’ pany actions, along with intelligence and data privacy, for technology, with flurries focus is on trying to under- high-profile cases like that of according to the National Law of legislative activity closely stand the impact of artificial Google’s Meredith Whittaker, Review, which compares this following flurries of shocking intelligence.53 who inspired worker unrest proposed legislation to GDPR. headlines. Practically speak- Ultimately, ad hoc efforts across technology companies In certain cases, large compa- ing, the first wave of legislative are underway throughout the and, after leaving Google, co- nies would be forced to audit action and rulemaking may world at the city, state/province, founded (with Kate Crawford) for bias and discrimination and amount simply to raising and national levels, but they the AI Now Institute, which to fix any problems identified. awareness or influencing the are exceedingly inconsistent, is focused on the social and
51. Rachael Myrow, “While America Dithers, Europe Gets Busy Crafting Artificial Intelligence Regulations,” KQED, April 9, 2019; Crawford et al., AI Now 2019 Report; “Autonomous Vehicles, Self-Driving Vehicles Enacted Legislation,” National Conference of State Legislatures (website), February 18, 2020; Jennifer Betts, “Keeping an Eye on Artificial Intelligence Regulation and Legislation,” National Law Review, June 14, 2019; Rachel Metz, “Beyond San Francisco, More Cities Are Saying No to Facial Recognition,” CNN Business, July 17, 2019; Rob Thubron, “New California Laws Tackle Political and Pornographic Deepfakes,” TechSpot, October 7, 2019; Taylor Hatmaker, “In California, It’s Now Illegal for Some Bots to Pretend to Be Human,” Daily Beast, July 5, 2019. 52. Center for Data Innovation, “AI Legislation Tracker–United States,” updated December 2, 2019; S.1108–Algorithmic Accountability Act of 2019; Betts, “Keeping an Eye on AI”; Karen Hao, “Congress Wants to Protect You from Biased Algorithms, Deepfakes, and Other Bad AI,” MIT Technology Review, April 15, 2019. 53. Jaclyn Diaz, “Congress Plays Catch-Up on Artificial Intelligence at Work,” Bloomberg Law, August 27, 2019. 54. David Matthews, “New Research Alliance Cements Split on AI Ethics,” Inside Higher Ed, August 23, 2019; Davide Castelvecchi, “AI Pioneer: ‘The Dangers of Abuse Are Very Real,’” Nature, April 4, 2019.
er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 33 ethical implications of artifi- series like Minority Report, technologies for many years.57 cial intelligence.55 These kinds Jurassic Park, Ex Machina, Star The influence of creative of actions produced results. Trek, and Westworld. These expressions, especially in the For example, after conver- examples and many others form of films seen by tens of sations with its employees, have addressed the topic of millions, cannot be underes- Salesforce established an digital ethics in compelling, timated. It’s no surprise that Office of Ethical and Humane approachable ways. some colleges and universi- Use of Technology and hired a Minority Report (2002) was ties are using science fiction chief ethical and humane use particularly prescient, includ- to teach ethics to computer officer to create guidelines and ing a famous mall scene that is scientists.58 Forward-looking evaluate the ethical use of tech- often pointed to as a glimpse academic centers like Arizona nology. Not all the responses of the future. The screens that State University’s Center for were positive, however. Google bombard Tom Cruise’s charac- Science and the Imagination established an advisory board ter with personalized messages are making intentional contri- to deal with the company’s and invitations to buy prod- butions in this way as well. challenges related to facial ucts have been highlighted as recognition and fairness in an example of sophisticated Leading the Way AI/machine learning and to new technologies to come I’m constantly amazed and advance diverse perspectives (never mind that the film is inspired by how often the in general. Within a week after actually a damning critique people who make up our it was launched, Google’s of this kind of surveillance higher education community ethics board fell apart, in a capitalism). Cruise’s character are focused on making a differ- very public way, over contro- walks briskly through the mall ence. Part of what sustains our versy among appointees. This because he is being surveilled, community is, simply put, the result contributed to a larger tracked, and stalked by author- good that colleges and univer- conversation about whether ities—drawing comparisons to sities do. The growth of higher ethics boards are likely to make China’s explosive proliferation education and increased access a difference.56 and use of surveillance cam- to education have strength- As the world grapples with eras (from 70 million now to ened democracy, raised digital ethics, mainstream 140 million planned) or Rus- wages, reduced poverty, con- entertainment has popular- sia’s use of facial recognition tributed to local economies, ized many of the key themes to enforce COVID-19 quaran- boosted national economies, involved. After all, while most tines. What’s more, Minority improved lives with research, of us could possibly name a Report is about “pre-crime” and generally benefited soci- book or two related to digital technologies that identify ety overall. In short, given that ethics, we could rattle off a crimes and criminals before higher education has led the much longer list of mainstream they happen, which directly way in all these kinds of social films that dramatize the con- points to contemporary efforts changes, it is perfectly natural sequences of ethical lapses to use artificial intelligence to to look to higher education as linked to technology. The 1931 predict crime. China’s use of our best hope for taking on the film version of Frankenstein these technologies has been in challenges related to digital has faded from memory, but the headlines most recently, ethics. Legislative action and in its place are many block- but the United States and regulation can punish and buster films and television Italy have employed similar reward behaviors, but changing
55. Mark Bergen and Joshua Brustein, “Google Protest Leader Leaves, Warns of Company’s Unchecked Power,” Bloomberg, updated July 16, 2019. 56. Associated Press, “Employees of Big Tech Are Speaking Out Like Never Before,” U.S. News & World Report, August 25, 2019; Kelsey Piper, “Google’s Brand-New AI Ethics Board Is Already Falling Apart,” Vox, April 3, 2019; James Vincent, “The Problem with AI Ethics,” The Verge, April 3, 2019. 57. Bryan Clark, “Watch This BBC Reporter Try to Evade China’s Massive CCTV Network,” The Next Web, December 13, 2017; Yi Shu Ng, “China Is Using AI to Predict Who Will Commit Crime Next,” Mashable, July 24, 2017; Robyn Dixon, “In Russia, Facial Surveillance and Threat of Prison Being Used to Make Coronavirus Quarantines Stick,” Washington Post, March 25, 2020; Randy Rieland, “Artificial Intelligence Is Now Used to Predict Crime, but Is It Biased?” Smithsonian Magazine, March 5, 2018. 58. Gregory Barber, “What Sci-Fi Can Teach Computer Science About Ethics,” Wired, August 26, 2019.
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er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 35 Higher Education in the Age of With its glacier-like speed, Artificial Intelligence (2017), where he acknowledges that higher education has never artificial intelligence is going to produce dramatic and even been known for agility. But uncomfortable change. His response is to suggest col- for lasting change, it’s hard lege/university curriculum changes that will prepare the to argue with a glacier when next generation of students to thrive in a world where it has found its path. artificial intelligence and robotics are altering the very definition of workforce. An ethicist would warm to Auon’s plan to make students robot- proof because it is grounded in the humanities—in fact, he argues for a discipline called “humanics.” Auon writes: “Machines will help us explore the universe, but human beings will face the consequences of discovery. Human beings will still read books penned by human authors and be moved by songs and artworks born of human imagination. Human culture is more difficult—and Audacious Approaches innovative in its intentional beings will still undertake more important. Some higher education emphasis on intrapersonal ethical acts of selflessness or With its glacier-like speed, institutions are involved in skills with a powerful ethics courage and choose to act for higher education has never decisive change with strong theme: “Overarching themes the betterment of our world been known for agility. But embedded ethical themes. For in the Grand Challenges and and our species.” In his vision for lasting change, it’s hard example, Georgia Tech’s plan Serve-Learn-Sustain pro- of the new university in the age to argue with a glacier when for 2040—Deliberate Innova- grams give ethical and societal of artificial intelligence and it has found its path. Higher tion, Lifetime Education—is a contexts for whole-person robotics, he carves out a central education has the potential deeply technology-rich vision education.” Even at the level of role for human agency—not in to engender comprehensive of higher education, focus- classroom projects, this focus opposition to, but along with, change and to bring new values ing on a new kind of learner is impossible to miss, requiring technological change. to the next generation of com- by deploying online learning, students “to explore societal or Southern New Hampshire puter and data scientists, blockchain, microcredentials, ethical issues prior to making University takes yet another developers, and architects we analytics-rich advising, “per- judgments about the scope or ethical perspective when are currently teaching at our sonalization at scale,” and duration of the project.”59 it comes to using emerging colleges and universities—and advanced AI systems (Georgia Northeastern University technologies. SNHU’s Global to the larger society as well. Tech is the home of Jill Watson, is another institution that is Education Movement (GEM) I am convinced that higher the AI teaching assistant one taking on sweeping change in is working to provide access to education can and will lead the student wanted to nominate a way that engages awareness fully accredited SNHU degrees way in four broad areas: auda- for a teaching award). The of ethics as an intentional ele- to refugees in camps and urban cious approaches; policies and approach is, as its title sug- ment in its transformation. Its areas across five countries in ethical frameworks; embedded gests, deliberately innovative president, Joseph Aoun, lays Africa and the Middle East. It’s ethics; and student demand for when it comes to the technol- out his vision for higher edu- difficult to imagine a more ethi- digital ethics. ogies deployed, and it is also cation in his book Robot-Proof: cally inspired initiative than
36 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 this one, which puts a univer- analytics data, including spec- sity education within reach for ifications for access privileges a population with an otherwise and “ethics of data use.” 3 percent rate of access. Central Key to policy develop- to being able to make this kind ment is having someone on of global change is finding ways staff to focus on ethical con- to reduce the cost of offering siderations such as privacy degrees. To do so, GEM lead- on campus. One indicator ers are exploring using artificial of growing leadership is the intelligence, working alongside rise of the chief privacy offi- a human evaluator, to make cer (CPO), a relatively new their effort more sustainable. position that reflects and advances privacy and ethics as Policies and Frameworks a priority concern. The Higher I am not alone in looking Education Information Secu- to higher education to take rity Council (HEISC) has responsibility for reimagin- published, in partner- ing digital ethics. Headlines in ship with EDUCAUSE, higher education media—such a CPO welcome kit and as “Can Higher Education also a CPO roadmap. Make Silicon Valley More Ethi- The welcome kit makes cal?” or “Colleges Must Play a the challenges of this Role in Bridging Ethics and position clear: “Col- Technology” or “Will Higher leges and universities Ed Keep AI in Check?”—call have multiple privacy on academia as well. Accord- obligations: they must ing to the University of Oxford promote an ethical and Centre for the Governance of respectful community and AI, there is mixed support for workplace, where academic the growth of artificial intel- and intellectual freedom ligence, and there is a decided thrives; they must balance lack of trust all around. None- security needs with civil and theless, the highest level of individual liberties, oppor- public trust lies with campus tunities for using big data researchers.60 One way that analytics, and new technolo- higher education is rising to gies, all of which directly affect this challenge is through the individuals; they must be good development of policies and stewards of the troves of per- frameworks to advance the sonal information they hold, cause. EDUCAUSE Core Data some of it highly sensitive; and Service data between 2017 and finally, they also must comply 2018 shows a marked increase with numerous and sometime (from 70% to 76%) in US overlapping or inconsistent institutions acknowledging privacy laws.” Since creat- that they have developed and ing and properly resourcing maintain policies and practices the CPO position is a critical to safeguard student success step, it is encouraging to hear
59. Georgia Tech Commission on Creating the Next in Education, Deliberate Innovation, Lifetime Education: Final Report (Atlanta: Georgia Institute of Technology, April 2018). 60. Baobao Zhang and Allan Dafoe, Artificial Intelligence: American Attitudes and Trends, Executive Summary (Oxford: Center for the Governance of AI, Future of
Humanity Institute, University of Oxford, January 2019). FOTOEVENTIS/SHUTTERSTOCK
er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 37 that connects of Ethical Principles,” similarly them all. One maps out overarching ethical example is the priorities involved in the use University of Cali- of data “to guide us as we pro- fornia’s “Statement of mote the use of data, analytics, Privacy Values,” which information, and evidence to defines privacy from an improve higher education.” institutional lens and iden- Organizations are also devel- tifies it as an important value oping or adopting important and priority that must be in frameworks that provide balance with the other values more specific, concrete ethi- and commitments of the cal actions that can be taken. university. The United King- Examples are New America’s dom’s Open University has five-point framework for a “Policy on the Ethical Use ethical predictive analytics in of Student Data for Learning higher education and the inter- Analytics” that provides this national Montréal Declaration kind of broad ethical under- for a Responsible Development standing, along with a section of Artificial Intelligence, which devoted to aligning the use seeks to develop an ethical of student data to core uni- framework and open channels versity values, underscoring for an international dialogue the institution-wide perspec- about equitable, inclusive, tive. Some institutions, like and ecologically sustainable Siena College, have specific IT AI development (nearly 2,000 employee policies that address individuals and more than 100 the ethical concerns unique organizations have signed the to technology professionals. declaration).63 According to Mark Berman, Policies are one clear way the former chief information higher education is ensuring officer for Siena College, all IT that digital ethics concerns staff are required to sign the remain top of mind, but there code of ethics statement on are many related ways to accom- an annual basis, not just when plish this goal. Kathy Baxter’s they are hired.62 article on ethical frameworks, Finally, in addition to the tool kits, principles, and oaths ways that specific colleges and offers numerous examples. To universities use policies and be most effective, these high- Celeste Schwartz, information important vehicle for bringing statements to reinforce com- level policies or oaths should technology vice president and about change—not necessarily mitments and expectations, be supported by concrete chief digital officer for Mont- quickly but comprehensively. national and international efforts as well. For example, DJ gomery County Community Depending on how broadly or organizations are working to Patil, Hilary Mason, and Mike College in Pennsylvania, point narrowly “ethics policies” are ensure that higher education Loukides make a strong case out that CPOs are on the rise defined, there may be many provides leadership in this that the use of checklists is a in higher education. “I think dozens at play. Many higher area. The Association for Com- critical way to “connect prin- most colleges will have pri- education institutions list hun- puting Machinery provides a ciple to practice.” They offer a vacy officers in the next five dreds. These vast collections of comprehensive code of ethics short version of an ethics check- to seven years,” she said, pre- individual policies are clearly and professional conduct to list (see figure 3) and point to a dicting that this will, in fact, be necessary, but the key to lead- all computing professionals, ten-page version as well.64 required by law.61 ership on ethics and digital as well as illuminating specific It’s clearly useful for col- Higher education expresses ethics is an overarching insti- case studies and additional leges, universities, and the its values through policies, an tutional policy or statement resources. AIR’s “Statement larger community of higher (Continued on page 40) 38 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 Figure 3. Checklist for People Working on Data Projects
☐ Have we listed how this technology can be attacked or abused? ☐ Have we tested our training data to ensure it is fair and representative? ☐ Have we studied and understood possible sources of bias in our data? ☐ Does our team reflect diversity of opinions, backgrounds, and kinds of thought? ☐ What kind of user consent do we need to collect to use the data? ☐ Do we have a mechanism for gathering consent from users? ☐ Have we explained clearly what users are consenting to? ☐ Do we have a mechanism for redress if people are harmed by the results? ☐ Can we shut down this software in production if it is behaving badly? ☐ Have we tested for fairness with respect to different user groups? ☐ Have we tested for disparate error rates among different user groups? ☐ Do we test and monitor for model drift to ensure our software remains fair over time? ☐ Do we have a plan to protect and secure user data?
Source: DJ Patil, Hilary Mason, and Mike Loukides, “Of Oaths and Checklists,” O’Reilly (website), July 17, 2018.
61. Higher Education Information Security Council (HEISC), The Higher Education CPO Primer, Part 1 (Louisville, CO: EDUCAUSE, August 2016); Lindsay McKenzie, “Prioritizing Privacy,” Inside Higher Ed, October 18, 2019. See also Sydney Johnson, “Chief Privacy Officers: A Small But Growing Fleet in Higher Education,” EdSurge, March 25, 2019, and Valerie Vogel, “The Chief Privacy Officer in Higher Education,” EDUCAUSE Review, May 11, 2015. 62. Personal email from Mark Berman, February 12, 2020. 63. Association for Computing Machinery, ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct: Affirming Our Obligation to Use Our Skills to Benefit Society (New York: ACM, 2018); Association for Institutional Research, “AIR Statement of Ethical Principles” (September 2019); Manuela Ekowo and Iris Palmer, Predictive Analytics in Higher Education: Five Guiding Practices for Ethical Use (Washington, DC: New America, March 6, 2016); Canada- ASEAN Business Council, “The Montreal Declaration for the Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence” (November 2019). 64. Kathy Baxter, “Ethical Frameworks, Tool Kits, Principles, and Oaths—Oh My!,” Salesforce blog, March 3, 2020; DJ Patil, Hilary Mason, and Mike Loukides, “Of Oaths and Checklists,” O’Reilly (website), July 17, 2018.
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er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 39 education to develop ethics ethics, but the specific efforts of policies, overarching poli- If higher individual institutions also rep- cies, and frameworks to map resent important and concrete out what leadership in digital education progress. Early in 2018 the New ethics can look like. However, York Times reported on insti- if higher education institu- institutions tutions like Cornell, Harvard, tions make progress but those MIT, Stanford, and the Uni- building the edtech products make progress versity of Texas at Austin—all don’t share our values, we are of which were developing and, unlikely to make more compre- in digital ethics in varying degrees, requiring hensive progress. EDUCAUSE ethics courses for students. In Core Data Service data from but those fact, in order to be accredited 2019 shows that 74 percent by the Accreditation Board for of institutions agree/strongly building the Engineering and Technology agree that they “have a proce- (ABET), computer science dure for vetting third parties or edtech products programs must ensure that vendors (e.g., cloud services, students understand ethical connected applications) with don’t share issues related to computing. respect to data security and Harvard’s nationally recog- privacy.” Though this is a high our values, we nized model seeks to imbue percentage, it’s worrisome for are unlikely students with ethical thinking. the one-third of institutions According to Barbara Grosz, a without these procedures in to make more professor of natural sciences at place. Keeping this in mind, Harvard, stand-alone courses EDUCAUSE and our partners comprehensive are part of the solution, but she are working to find produc- notes that this approach could tive ways to urge the supplier progress. signal the wrong message that community to consider our ethics is more a capstone that is values and demonstrate their completed after the “real work” commitment with action. The is completed. Harvard is widely Higher Education Community sharing the model in the hopes Vendor Assessment Tool- that this approach will catch kit (HECVAT)—developed fire because the university by the HEISC and members envisions a culture shift that from EDUCAUSE, Internet2, will lead to “a new generation and the Research and Educa- of ethically minded computer tion Networking Information science practitioners” and that Sharing and Analysis Center will inspire “better-informed (REN-ISAC)—is a useful tool policymakers and new corpo- that compiles vetted and stan- rate models of organization dardized prompts to use in that build ethics into all stages procurement processes. While of design and corporate lead- HECVAT was not designed questions into the HECVAT. to demonstrate their willing- ership.” Bowdoin College specifically for AI applications Meanwhile, the current ver- ness to comply with policies is representative of other and does not yet have a series sion of the tool requires related to user privacy and data institutions that are working of prompts overtly focused on providers not just to identify if protection.65 with faculty to bring about a digital ethics, both the EDU- they have a data privacy policy similar shift: ”So instead of CAUSE HECVAT Community but also, if so, to demonstrate Embedded Ethics just teaching one course in Group and the EDUCAUSE whether the policy matches the Policies and other commit- the subject, the aim is to help Chief Privacy Officer Commu- institution’s ethical principles. ments are important ways to students develop what we are nity Group are discussing ways In addition, the HECVAT asks spur and mark progress in soci- calling an ‘ethics sensibility,’ to incorporate privacy-related vendors and service providers etal momentum around digital so developers will be aware of
40 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 the implications of their work articles and other materials decision-making process. Donor Stephen A. Schwarz- from the outset. We also want on applied ethics across many Another example of institu- man—chairman, CEO, and to help computer science fac- disciplines and fields. Recently, tional action is the ambitious co-founder of Blackstone, ulty feel more comfortable the center added special new MIT Schwarzman College a leading global investment teaching this type of content resources for “Ethics in Tech- of Computing, which dem- firm—summarized the unique within their technical courses nology Practice,” designed for onstrates a significant early contribution higher education by providing the pedagogical use in a professional setting, example of higher education can make: “With the ability to framework and instructional rather than in an academic reshaping itself to respond bring together the best minds resources to do so.”66 one. Among the resources to the tectonic changes that in AI research, development, Academic centers have that the center offers, without artificial intelligence is intro- and ethics, higher education an important role to play in charge, to any other college or ducing. MIT’s press release is uniquely situated to be the leading the way. For example, university are three complete and video accompanying the incubator for solving these founded in 1986, the Markkula modules developed by the announcement of this billion- challenges in ways the private Center for Applied Ethics at technology ethicist Shannon dollar investment describe and public sectors cannot.” Santa Clara University is dedi- Vallor (data ethics, cyberse- it as the “most significant MIT President L. Rafael Reif cated to an interdisciplinary curity ethics, and software structural change to MIT also underscored the ethical approach to digital ethics. engineering ethics)—modules since the early 1950s.” The focus of the college: “Techno- While working to ensure that that have been used by instruc- new college has a strong focus logical advancements must go Santa Clara graduates are tors at more than two hundred on ethics and a truly interdis- hand in hand with the develop- ethics-minded, the center is institutions around the world. ciplinary approach. Half of ment of ethical guidelines that uniquely dedicated to shar- The center’s Framework the fifty new faculty positions anticipate the risks of such ing free resources with other for Ethical Decision Making will be appointed jointly with enormously powerful inno- colleges and universities, comes with a smartphone app departments across MIT, vations. This is why we must including case studies, brief- designed to walk users through seeking to benefit from the make sure that the leaders we ings, videos, and hundreds of a more thoughtful and ethical insights from other disciplines. graduate offer the world not
65. EDUCAUSE, “Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit,” November 21, 2019. 66. Natasha Singer, “Tech’s Ethical ‘Dark Side’: Harvard, Stanford and Others Want to Address It,” New York Times, February 12, 2018; Paul Karoff, “Embedding Ethics in Computer Science Curriculum, Science & Technology,” Harvard Gazette, January 25, 2019; Tom Porter, “Bowdoin Selected for Pioneering Computer Science Ethics Challenge,” Bowdoin News, April 30, 2019.
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er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 41 work for decades, develop- to the New York Times, many Seven Questions about Digital Ethics ing best practices for ethics students who have “soured on 1. Is there is a community of concern related to education, such as a student Big Tech” and who previously digital ethics on your campus? Should you symposium, a faculty summer swooned at the prospects of launch one? seminar, fellowships, and working at high-profile tech- more. It is no surprise that nology companies are now 2. Does your campus have written policies the university’s more recent seeking jobs that are both or guidelines related to privacy and digital ethics work has had a strong “principled and high-paying.” ethics? Can you find them? digital ethics focus. Its “Ethics For these students, “there is a 3. Do you know whose full-time job it is to worry Awareness Week” in 2019, for growing sentiment that Silicon about ethical issues? Have you had lunch example, focused on “Ethics, Valley’s most lucrative posi- with her or him? Technology, and Society” and tions aren’t worth the ethical 69 4. When someone on campus develops an included speakers on surveil- quandaries.” application that uses student data, is any lance ethics, biomedical ethics, ethical framework used before work begins? the ethics of digital literacy, Next-Gen Ethics Required? artificial intelligence, and aca- One reality that cannot be demic technology. ignored by anyone interested 5. When someone on campus buys an applica- in advancing digital ethics is tion, is there any ethical review required? Student Demand that change could very well 6. Do you know what your campus is doing to for Digital Ethics happen only incrementally. ensure that the next generation of developers The final indicator that higher Another daunting reality is the and technology professionals (our students) education is effectively leading simple fact that at about the have a strong digital ethics mind-set? the way—as no one else can—is time we have fully wrapped our when the awareness and com- minds around the current set 7. Are you more informed about digital ethics mitment around digital ethics of worries, pitfalls, outrages, this year than last? Will you be even more is apparent where it matters and solutions, there will be a informed next year? How will you make this most: in students. After all, one new set of digital ethics quan- happen with everything else going on? could argue that the flurry of daries before us. For example, reactive work of corporations, there is already some initial regulators, and others amounts consideration about the need only technological wizardry integrity, humanity, and inter- to managing the contents of for a new academic discipline but also human wisdom—the disciplinarity, the institute, Pandora’s box after it has been focused on “machine behav- cultural, ethical, and historical according to its press release, opened. But in higher educa- ior,” based on the idea that consciousness to use technol- “will become the most recent tion, we have the opportunity “we cannot certify that an AI ogy for the common good.”67 addition to Stanford’s existing to transform the approach agent is ethical by looking at Emerging from a period interdisciplinary institutes to digital ethics for the next its source code, any more than punctuated with dour public that harness Stanford’s col- generation of students, who we can certify that humans statements such as when laborative culture to solve will, in turn, make up the next are good by scanning their Elon Musk called artificial problems that sit at the bound- generation of coders, archi- brains.” Instead, determining intelligence “humanity’s exis- ary of disciplines.”68 tects, data scientists, computer whether or not a given artifi- tential threat” and likened its The interdisciplinary focus scientists, software develop- cial intelligence is ethical may growth to “summoning the of higher education ethics ers, start-up entrepreneurs, depend on our detailed aca- demon,” Stanford University centers reaches its full real- CEOs, and decision-makers demic study of behavior, just launched its own billion-dollar ization when colleges and of all kinds. This is surely why as with human beings. And at project: the Institute for universities like California the Markkula Center’s vision about the time we tackle that, Human-Centered Artificial State University–Long Beach statement includes the com- we will be starting to grapple Intelligence (HAI), also a delib- develop “Ethics Across the mitment to “double down on with whether artificial entities erately interdisciplinary group Curriculum” initiatives mod- forming the ethical character should have ethical protec- that “puts humans and ethics eled on the “writing across the of the next generation.” There tions—or at least the ethical at the center of the booming curriculum” work of previous is already some evidence that protections that are afforded field of AI.” With value state- decades. Utah Valley Univer- students are responding to to animals. Northeastern Uni- ments heavily focused on sity has been engaged in this the opportunity. According versity’s John Basl argues: “In
42 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 the case of research on animals into a new commodity Creating a sense of wonder can help us avoid the need to and even on human subjects, primed for exploitation and and opportunity, the world of remediate later. Acting now appropriate protections were misuse, much like “nature’s technology innovation ener- can also enable us to continue established only after serious once-plentiful meadows and gizes and inspires us. Our to stride forward, enjoying ethical transgressions came to forests before they fell to the conviction that these inno- the development of innova- light (for example, in needless market dynamic.” This is a vations on the horizon will tive new technologies, while vivisections, the Nazi medical powerful lens through which change the world for the better we remain confident that we war crimes, and the Tuskegee to appreciate the beauty that is a source of optimism. At the are moving ahead on ethically syphilis study). With AI, we is threatened and the conse- same time, the unrelenting sound ground. n have a chance to do better.”70 quences of inaction. Ireland drive to march forward could © 2020 John O’Brien. The text of this This time around we have was once an island of dense blind us to the need to pay article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- a chance to do better and a forests, with 80 percent forest attention to crucial, though NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. moral imperative to do much cover. With the demand for far less shiny, ethical and moral better. Each of us individu- wood to build navies and to imperatives. If we fail to take ally—and higher education fuel the fires of the industrial our ethical responsibilities collectively—can and must revolution, forest cover fell seriously at this early stage of lead the way. In The Age of Sur- to 1 percent by the end of the creating new digital ecosys- veillance Capitalism, Zuboff 19th century. Through grants tems, the consequences will be draws our attention to the idea and incremental advances, dramatic and as hard to reverse John O’Brien (jobrien@ that surveillance capitalism the Irish government hopes to as a vanished forest. Acting educause.edu) has turned human experience, achieve near 20 percent forest now on our individual col- is President and CEO of as expressed through data, cover by 2046. lege and university campuses EDUCAUSE.
67. MIT News Office, “MIT Reshapes Itself to Shape the Future,” MIT News, October 15, 2018. 68. Elizabeth Dwoskin, “Stanford Helped Pioneer Artificial Intelligence. Now the University Wants to Put Humans at Its Center,” Washington Post, March 18, 2019; Amy Adams, “Stanford University Launches the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence,” Stanford News, March 18, 2019. 69. Emma Goldberg, “‘Techlash’ Hits College Campuses,” New York Times, updated January 15, 2020. In addition, Crawford et al., AI Now 2019 Report, details many examples of students organizing against ethical lapses. 70. Iyad Rahwan and Manuel Cebrian, “Machine Behavior Needs to Be an Academic Discipline,” Nautilus, March 29, 2018; John Basl and Eric Schwitzgebel, ed. Nigel Warburton, “AIs Should Have the Same Ethical Protections as Animals,” Aeon, April 26, 2019. The story of Sophia the robot being given citizenship in Saudi Arabia is instructive (Yvette Tan, “People Are Outraged That Sophia the Robot Has More Rights Than Most Women in Saudi Arabia,” Mashable, October 27, 2017).
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er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 43 THE DATA | TRENDING NUMBERS Higher Ed Digital Ethics: Practice versus Awareness IT and other campus professionals generally agree that their institutions have policies and practices in place to help safeguard data and ensure its ethical use, even though most institutions are lacking in sufficient privacy- focused human resources. In contrast, students and faculty report low levels of awareness around what data is being collected and, especially, how the data is being used.
Personnel Policies Trends/Tools
100%
Campus Faculty Students Professionals 90%
80% 94% of student affairs, institutional research, and IT professionals agree or strongly agree that privacy rights are respected in conducting student success studies.2
70% 78% of IT professionals agree or strongly agree that their institution develops and maintains sufficiently robust policies and practices to safeguard data used for student success analytics. 1
74% of IT professionals agree or strongly agree that their institution has a procedure for vetting third parties or vendors with 60% respect to data security and privacy. 1
70% of students are confident in their institution’s ability to safeguard their data.4
61% or more of institutions rate data- informed decision-making and privacy as influential, putting these two trends into the “Most Influential” category. 3
60% of faculty understand policies 50% surrounding data use, storage, and protection. 4
58% of institutions report having no FTE privacy staff. 1 40%
45% of students think they benefit from the collection of their personal data for purposes such as improved services and advising. 4 30%
44% of students understand how their institution uses their personal data.4
44% of faculty understand what personal 20% data their institution collects on them. 4 IT professionals rank security analytics as 25% of institutions report having between 0 and 0.5 FTE privacy staff. 1 No. 7 in 10% 24% of faculty understand how their the top 10 institution is using their personal data. 4 strategic technologies for 2020. 3
0%
Sources: 1. EDUCAUSE Core Data Service 2019 ; 2 . Amelia Parnell, Darlena Jones, Alexis Wesaw, and D. Christopher Brooks, Institutions’ Use of Data and Analytics for Student Success, research report (NASPA, AIR, and EDUCAUSE, April 2018 3 Mark McCormack, D. Christopher Brooks, and Ben Shulman, Higher Education’s 2020 Trend Watch and Top 10 Strategic Technologies, research report (Louisville, CO: ECAR, January 2020)); . 4.; Joseph D. Galanek and Ben Shulman, “Not Sure If They’re Invading My Privacy or Just Really Interested in Me,” Data Bytes (blog), EDUCAUSE Review, December 11, 2019.
To access the latest publications from the EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research, visit educause.edu/ecar. CONNECTIONS | COMMUNITY COLLEGE INSIGHTS | By Ricardo Torres The Changing Nature of Student Records: The Interoperable Learner Record
ll Americans deserve a way to translate translate all education, training, and work experience to a record their full education, training, and work of transferable skills. To surmount the challenge of a standard experience to a record of transferable platform and language and the definition of education, an ILR skills that will open the doors to high-wage requires four characteristics. occupations and careers. The current education-to-workforce ecosystem results 1. Understandable and Consumable Content in skills being under-matched and/or Over the last several years, the American Association of Collegiate mismatched for potential employment opportunities. Consider Registrars and Admission Officers (AACRAO) has been involved the learning that happens outside the lines of formal, four-year, in defining a comprehensive learner record (CLR). AACRAO for-creditA education. Continuing education, competency-based has been helping schools understand and embrace the fact that education, and career and technical education programs provide learning is represented by more than the traditional academic a broad range of educational experiences—many happening on a transcript. Institutions, employers, policymakers, and others not-for-credit basis—that are difficult to document on a traditional need to understand learning outcomes on a nationwide scale. The transcript. Having a record that documents these achievements CLR content is not easily consumable by industry, and industry- and aligns with employers’ needs will clearly benefit not only com- generated content is not easily consumed by education as part of munity college students but workers and lifelong learners as well. a skills-based continuation of a learner’s journey. Understanding With a sense of urgency and immediacy, the National Student the data standards required by human resource information sys- Clearinghouse is working with the US Department of Commerce’s tems, as well as the definitional standards around skills, is essential American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, IBM, Western Gov- in order to enable school-to-business, business-to-business, and ernors University (WGU), Central New Mexico Community business-to-school portability. Part of this challenge is linked to College (CNM), and IQ4 to address these issues. This group will the need for open standards for data and skills taxonomies as part develop a nationwide pilot to demonstrate an efficient, integrated of a solution. Open standards allow for systems that read, com- solution and infrastructure that will empower learners to pursue pare, and share information inside a credential. and manage their education and their career. Key to this pilot is the interoperable learning record (ILR). An 2. Reliable Data ILR is a verifiable record of a person’s achievements in education Tomorrow’s learning transcript needs to capture learning wher- or training processes, formal or informal, classroom-based or ever and whenever it happens. Today, recognition is being provided workplace-based. Serving as compilations of peoples’ traditional in increments and artifacts, such as badges, awarded for those and nontraditional learning experiences, ILRs can be interchange- outcomes. Learners will need a universal, interoperable creden- ably shared between education providers and businesses. ILRs tial wallet to compile their record of reliable, understandable data. can provide the exchange of information from school to school, The credential wallet will hold artifacts that have been earned and school to business, business to school, and business to business. are available in one, verifiable place. Recently, the Clearinghouse Ideally, an ILR should be flexible enough to identify when a launched Myhub as a universal, credential wallet, and institu- learner’s skills don’t match those that employers are seeking and tions such as Johns Hopkins University and Western Colorado how learners might close the gap. An ILR should provide a trusted, University are utilizing it. But these days an individual’s learning validated, privacy-protected pipeline for businesses to find talent is extending well beyond their traditional higher education. Addi- based on skills and competency levels. Aside from the technical and tional types of data will need to be verifiable and interoperate with skills-based work that is required, part of the road to interoperability other learning records in a single container (wallet). is understanding how privacy rules , such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), may need to evolve to ensure that 3. Controllable Data privacy is not trampled in pursuit of an ILR infrastructure. The data needs to be controllable by both the issuer and the In September 2019, the American Workforce Policy Advisory learner. The issuer of a digital artifact must be able to modify or Board released a white paper on ILRs, describing the need to resend an artifact. The learners, who have a right to that artifact,
46 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 must be able to share their record with anyone they choose. This artifacts. The Clearinghouse’s goal is to provide a one-stop shop self-sovereignty of the learner to manage the utilization of an that benefits learners, education institutions, and employers. The artifact is a significant key; however, the genuineness of the artifact Clearinghouse’s work in the industry credential areas is expand- is always in control of the issuer. Furthermore, errors of omission ing its data collection beyond traditional education to the benefit on the part of the learner when a complete record is required need of learners, schools, and workforce-certification entities. to be addressed in discussions about self-sovereignty. As community colleges across the nation have known for quite some time, the comprehensive definition of education 4. Adoption at Scale must include all forms of learning as a growing expectation of It is going to take time to adopt an ILR process, and that adoption how education will support the workforce of the United States. will require multiple technologies. Only a small fraction of the more Throughout higher education, there is clear recognition of the than 164 million workers in the United States currently have arti- imperative to help learners and alumni represent themselves facts on an ILR platform, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of in the best and most complete manner. This gives learners St. Louis. A universal approach will be required for adoption, which unprecedented ability to succeed on their journey. Colleges and will be based on how both education data and workforce data come universities across the country are seeking a cost-effective ser- together within the context of a privacy framework. vice that puts their learners on an equal playing field with their credentials and artifacts. Additionally, numerous institutions A Cybersecurity Pilot are curious about blockchain and how this technology is going to A nationwide pilot is underway to demonstrate how issuers can mature. As pilots and other projects proceed, the Clearinghouse align skills-based learning outcomes to cybersecurity credentials will be involved in multiple conversations with those in indus- and cybersecurity jobs. This pilot will focus on leveraging several try, education, and government to discern how it can perform a areas: the National Institute of Standards existing cybersecurity nationwide service while always protecting student data. skills taxonomies that are tied to open standards and course-based, skills-based learning outcomes at WGU and CNM; the cybersecu- Next Steps rity pilots in the New York City area through iQ4 (creator of the The single biggest struggle that companies, large and small, have pathway and pipeline engines); the universal, credential wallet today is finding the right person with the right skills at the right created by the Clearinghouse (Myhub); and the IBM learning cre- time. A national ILR infrastructure will allow learners to match dential network blockchain. The pilot will showcase how skills their skills and their attainment to roles and positions they are pur- taxonomy interoperability can be demonstrated, how a universal suing. Simultaneously, it will allow employers to better understand wallet can be used by the learner to aggregate and curate these the skills they require and develop a new view toward recruiting and skills and learning outcomes, and finally how a compass (pathway managing talent. To achieve this vision, higher education will need and pipeline functionality) can be used by learners, employers, and to reimagine how it documents the achievements of traditional and educators—through analytics—to find and assess qualified cyber- nontraditional learners. security candidates; determine gaps in skills and curriculum for According to the Clearinghouse Research Center, the number learners, academic institutions, and employees; and facilitate career of Americans who went to college and did not complete any type of paths into the cybersecurity field. credential grew from 29 million in December 2013 to 36 million five Governance and standards of the interactions between job years later.1 There is an opportunity to bring these learners back into seekers, learning providers, and employers are the interoperability the education continuum. IBM, WGU, CNM, the Clearinghouse, lynchpins that will be front and center during these efforts. The and iQ4 have a collective goal to create, develop, and deploy this pilot's goal is to identify the components, stakeholders, and patterns work as an extensible national utility enabling everyone to take required for replicability across a range of careers and industries. advantage of its capabilities. We look forward to working with The development of the pilot will be led by IBM in collaboration employers, credential issuers, and higher education institutions with WGU, CNM, the Clearinghouse, and iQ4. The Clearinghouse on a national ILR to empower learners to pursue and manage their will also provide data sets and will integrate the prototype with its education and their career across their discipline of choice. n Myhub offering. Myhub will be enhanced to include institutional skills-based pathway engines along with industry-facing, skills-based Note pipeline engines. Interoperability will be demonstrated by WGU and 1. Doug Shapiro et al., “Some College, No Degree: A 2019 Snapshot for the Nation and 50 States,” Signature Report No. 17 (Herndon, VA: National Student potentially several other education entities, as well as an integration Clearinghouse Research Center, October 2019). into applicant tracking and human resource information systems. Ricardo Torres ([email protected]) is President and CEO of the The Clearinghouse's Role National Student Clearinghouse.
The Clearinghouse is relying on its long history as a trusted, © 2020 Ricardo Torres. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative private, and secure entity for a learner’s educational and associated Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 47 E-CONTENT | ALL THINGS DIGITAL | By Erin Robinson Earth and Environmental Science Data Partnerships
udy Ruttenberg described how libraries and data organizations are partnering to transform schol- arly communication and make data publicly accessible in “From Transactional to Transformational: Research Libraries and Data Part- nerships.”1 The Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) is one example of a data organization that has Jbeen supporting this work. ESIP is the community The Earth Science steward for global Earth and environmental science Information data professionals. For more than twenty years, ESIP Partners, the has driven its mission to support the networking and community data dissemination needs of its members and the steward for global Earth science data community, by linking the DESIGN CELLS/GETTY global Earth and functional sectors of observation, research, applica- environmental tion, education, and use of Earth science. was created as a collaboration between the US Geo- science data professionals, While ESIP is focused on Earth and environmental logical Survey’s Community for Data Integration, is partnering science data, it is also an early adopter and advocate ESIP, and DataONE. The Clearinghouse was estab- to transform of data management and stewardship best practices lished to help researchers overcome the challenge of scholarly including the implementation of data-management finding disparate training material. While originally communication plans and the creation of data-citation guidelines. developed for the Earth and environmental science and make Recently, ESIP turned its attention to the gap that communities, the Clearinghouse is being expanded data publicly Earth and environmental science researchers are to support additional domains through an Institute of accessible. facing around data-stewardship skills. ESIP has Museum and Library Services (IMLS) national lead- worked with general data communities and academic ership grant to the University of New Mexico. societies like the American Geophysical Union (AGU) to provide additional domain-tailored training at soci- 2. Data FAIRs at Society Meetings. Over the last five ety meetings. As a first step, ESIP and the American years ESIP, AGU, and more recently the National Geoscience Institute (a federation of societies and Science Foundation’s EarthCube Office, in addition related organizations) developed Career Compass for to the broader data professional community, have Data Sciences—outlining skills that students need for partnered at society meetings such as the AGU Fall geoscience careers. ESIP is also supporting the skills Meeting to support the Data FAIR (https://copdess. gap in three additional ways. org/data-fairs/). The Data FAIR provides researchers with opportunities to engage with data professionals 1. Data Management Training Clearinghouse. The Data and informatics experts familiar with their scientific Management Training (DMT) Clearinghouse (http:// domain and to learn about the skills and techniques dmtclearinghouse.esipfed.org/) is a registry for online that will help further their research and make learning resources for research data management. It their data and software open and FAIR. Data FAIR
48 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association and the foremost community of IT leaders and professionals committed to advancing higher education.
EDUCAUSE Board of Directors
Michele Norin, Chair Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Sue B. Workman, Vice Chair Vice President for University Technology & Chief Information Officer Case Western Reserve University
Joe Moreau, Secretary Vice Chancellor of Technology & Chief Technology Officer Foothill-DeAnza Community College District
Keith W. McIntosh, Treasurer Vice President & Chief Information Officer University of Richmond
Michael Berman Chief Information Officer California State University, Office of the Chancellor
Rae Clemmons Associate Vice President for Technology & Chief Information Officer activities include town halls, workshops, demos, and virtual short course that applies hands-on Earth Texas Woman’s University a data help desk staffed with experts from the Earth and environmental science examples. On the first Elias Eldayrie and ocean science informatics community. The help day, participants will focus on an analysis example Vice President & Chief Information Officer desk is a way to explain disparate concepts around to create a data product, and on the second day, they University of Florida data-citation and data-management plans that aim will develop a mock paper to practice managing and Helen Norris to narrow the gap between making data FAIR and citing their data. Vice President & Chief Information Officer scientists’ ability to execute good data management Chapman University practices in their own workflows. The ESIP com- Each of these examples is generalizable to research Amelia Parnell munity will continue to push data citation forward domains outside of Earth and environmental sci- Vice President for Research and Policy and is currently exploring other types of research ence. Ultimately, as the scholarly community NASPA - Student Affairs Administrators in objects, in addition to data and software, that can accelerates public access to data, partnerships with Higher Education further extend the value of research if cited properly. researchers will allow us to truly put the data to Mark Roman work and see the transformational scientific discov- Chief Information Officer Simon Fraser University 3. Force 11 Scholarly Communication Institute New ery and innovation that can be made through robust n Carol Smith Emphasis on Geosciences. The Force11 Scholarly data-sharing practices. Chief Information Officer Communication Institute (https://www.force11. DePauw University org/fsci/2020) is a UCLA summer program that Note Jennifer Sparrow 1. Judy Ruttenberg, “From Transactional to Transformational: Associate Vice President, helps people learn how to navigate this new world of Research Libraries and Data Partnerships,” E-Content (column), Teaching and Learning scholarly communication. FSCI instructors include EDUCAUSE Review 55, no. 1 (2020). With Tech The Pennsylvania State leading practitioners from the world of libraries, University Erin Robinson ([email protected]) is the Executive Director publishing, and research and research administra- for the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP). Ex Officio tion. ESIP’s newest approach to reaching scientific John O’Brien © 2020 Erin Robinson. The text of this article is licensed under the President and CEO researchers is in partnering with FSCI to create a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. EDUCAUSE
er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 49 NEW HORIZONS | THE TECHNOLOGIES AHEAD | By Brian Fleming Artificial Intelligence: Threat or Opportunity?
he last few years have been rough for higher education. According to a 2018 Gallup Poll that tracked Americans’ confidence in colleges and uni- versities, over the previous five years higher education saw its sharpest decline in public trust, with only 48 percent of those surveyed expressing confidence, Tdown from 57 percent in 2015.1 But statistics like these can be overstated. Americans distrust many traditional institutions these days: not only higher education but also government and the media. That distrust extends to big technology companies such as Facebook and Google. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer 2020, which tracks consumer sentiment across a Half of Americans range of sectors, Americans distrust—or are at least surveyed said ambivalent about—the development of advanced they trusted technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) by higher education companies that may not be positively and respon- to build, 2 manage, and sibly shaping our future. govern artificial Think about the fallout from Facebook’s Cam- bridge Analytica debacle, in which millions of intelligence. We COLIN ANDERSON/STOCKSY should lean into users’ profiles were harvested without consent this finding. and used for political advertising. And consider We should lean into this finding. It not only sig- Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group, which had nifies at least a pocket of trust remaining in higher no official safety plans in place when one of its self- education institutions but also offers an oppor- driving test cars crashed and killed a woman. These tunity for college/university researchers, faculty, examples are frightening because they appear to be staff, and administrators to regain lost ground void of responsible leadership acting in the public’s and exemplify AI leadership at a time when our collective best interests. They leave us not know- institutions—and our world—need us most. ing who we can trust in a brave new world. There Leadership is increasingly digital in focus and is is, however, one exception—according to a 2019 present in just about every sector today. Generally, survey from the University of Oxford’s Future digital leadership describes an emerging class of of Humanity Institute (FHI), which asked 2,000 roles, responsibilities, and competencies needed to Americans to rate their confidence in actors devel- lead organizations in a digital world. But we should oping artificial intelligence. Half of Americans not confuse digital leaders with digital evangelists, surveyed said they trusted higher education (and at least not in higher education. the military) above all (more than government Digital leaders are equipped to lead in a digital agencies, non-profit research collaboratives, and world. They understand its complexity and also the big technology companies) to build, manage, and dissonance and distrust that digital can create, and govern artificial intelligence.3 they help others make meaning within and out of
50 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 it. Good digital leaders are virtuous and altruistic. pressing challenges. Doing so not only will quell According to Deborah Ancona, who studies digital fears but also may instill—perhaps even increase— leadership at the MIT Sloan School of Management, confidence in higher education at a time when we digital leaders are sense-makers who help others need it most. “create meaning out of the messy world.”4 Their lens As artificial intelligence continues to move is digital, but their focus is human. further into the mainstream (which it will) and We need more digital leaders in higher education as regulators struggle to govern AI research and who are sense-makers not only for their own institu- development (which they will) and as the market tions but for the public at large. We need leaders who continues to coalesce around big-tech companies are optimistic about this technology but also cau- such as Facebook and Google (which it will), higher tions. We need leaders who are engaged in the world education is uniquely poised to gain public trust of artificial intelligence—whether as researchers, once again. n subject-matter experts, educators, ethicists, or administrators in our communities and the world at Notes 1. Jeffrey M. Jones, “Confidence in Higher Education Down Since large—and who are committed to building transpar- 2015,” Gallup (website), October 9, 2018. ency and trust within the AI world. 2. Edelman Trust Barometer 2020, “Special Report: Trust in Technology.” This is something technology companies struggle 3. Baobao Zhang and Allan Dafoe, “Artificial Intelligence: American Attitudes and Trends” (Center for the Governance of to do, but it’s in the DNA of higher education. Think AI, Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford, January of digital leadership as a strategy of engagement, 2019). 4. Deborah Ancona, “Five Rules for Leading in a Digital World,” taking the understanding of, resources for, and expe- MIT Sloan Management Review, October 28, 2019. riences with artificial intelligence cultivated within colleges and universities—whether through basic Brian Fleming ([email protected]) is Vice President for Innova- tion and Strategy at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). research, experimentation, teaching, or academic innovation—out into the world to meet its most © 2020 Brian Fleming
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er.educause.edu EDUCAUSEREVIEW 51 VIEWPOINTS | TODAY’S HOT TOPICS | By Sharon Blanton and Carlos García
project management, information security, service management, The CIO+ business continuity—the list goes on. In a sense, the job has always been about doing something today that is different from what was done yesterday. CIOs are adaptable leaders good at planning, hroughout a career, it is common to ask logistics, budgeting, and strategy. In a 2018 survey, 60 percent of oneself: “What’s next?” In many occupations, respondents stated that the main reason for pursuing the CIO role a career progression is clear, even if it is highly is “to make a difference.” They also noted that the most important competitive—take, for example, the path of skills for a CIO are communication and leadership (see figure 1).1 academic leaders who progress from faculty to Still, there are many barriers that, without careful thought and chair, dean to provost, and finally (perhaps) on positioning, can make taking on additional functions difficult for to president. But what’s next for a CIO? There a CIO. isn’t always a straight line to the CIO job, and what lies beyond First, information technology is simply big—the scope is broad, can be just as uncertain. the pace is fast, and the demands are high. With compliance, infor- TIn the past, CIOs who wanted to progress had to change jobs, mation security, and IT governance, CIOs who themselves—or switch industries, or begin consulting. But as technology has whose teams—lack the right blend of talent and organizational grown to play a critical role in the operations of higher education, maturity will be challenged to handle the context switching and and as the CIO role has advanced within the institutional hierar- other demands associated with adding responsibilities outside of chy, opportunities are opening up for CIOs to be utility players, the IT organization. Additionally, a CIO+ may not make sense for jumping in to address leadership needs throughout a college or every campus. For example, institutions whose core offerings are university. Enter the “CIO+”—a new kind of executive who blends primarily digital (e.g., online education) increasingly call on CIOs to the versatility and resilience demanded by the continuously take on other significant “front office” technology responsibilities, changing landscape of information technology with the business such as digital product development and product management. savvy and entrepreneurial mindset required to help higher educa- Second, many outside of information technology may be tion institutions thrive under today’s intense pressures. uncomfortable with the idea that a CIO should take on more As the CIO role has grown from technical management to include responsibility beyond the IT organization. Some institutions innovation and change leadership, some CIOs are now uniquely have made a single executive responsible for the IT department positioned to move into new functions across the institution. and libraries, but otherwise the status quo dictates where so many Necessarily, CIOs have uniquely broad insight into campus-wide other functions report in. And yet, as information technology operations—developed through work with diverse colleagues to has evolved over decades (remember when academic computing translate business issues into technical solutions. CIOs have learned and administrative computing were separate entities?), and as IT to take time and deeply understand the ins-and-outs of almost any leaders have become CIOs reporting to chief executives, other business unit, traveling readily from student services to academic functions have also experienced major shifts. But organizational affairs to administrative operations—and so many places in between. structures in those areas often remain unchanged. As a result, the For decades, CIOs have led their organizations through tre- CIO’s peers, executive and board leaders, and others on campus mendous change and disruption—from the advent of mobile may be biased against the unfamiliar idea of a CIO breaking the computing and the rise of cloud technology to the introduction of mold and taking on more. HIPAA and PCI regulatory compliance. Along the way, the scope of This presents a two-part challenge if you are a CIO looking to IT organizations has continually evolved to include functions like contribute in new ways. Others on campus will need to witness
Figure 1. CIO Perspective: Five Most Important Skills for CIOs
Technical Knowledge 39%
Higher Education Knowledge 42%
Interpersonal Skills (effective social interaction) 45%
Leadership 78%
Communication Skills (writing, listening, speaking) 88%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Source: Wayne A. Brown, Higher Education Technology: The Chief Information Officer and Technology Leader (Albany, NY: Center for Higher Education CIO Studies, 2018), p. 39. Reprinted with permission.
52 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 your versatility. You must be viewed as having enterprise-level new ways to develop an organization. It is also an excellent time to understanding, experience, and expertise. Think about how you reorganize and break free from stale IT organizational structures. can solve enterprise problems for which the solutions may not be Avoid empire-building as a goal, and instead focus on balanced technical. Demonstrate that you can deliver results in areas that leadership so that you can truly contribute and make a difference. may surprise those around you, challenging their assumptions. Stay concentrated on the output, performance, and results of each A great way to begin building this type of reputation is to serve area. If you are approaching a tipping point where you are becom- on committees and initiatives outside of the traditional IT realm. ing less effective, be prepared to speak up! Only you really know As you navigate the road beyond a traditional CIO role, be when enough is enough, and you may find yourself depending on sure to steer clear of some basic pitfalls. First, don’t move too those around you in new ways—not just your team but also your soon. If we’re in our jobs “to make a difference,” as those survey peers, your advisors, and possibly even your boss. Remember too respondents claimed, then we want to see our major tech-related that when you take on something new, others on your team may initiatives succeed. Angling for the next big challenge before you also be taking on significant additional responsibility. For example, reach those milestones within technology will go one of two ways: your business office may suddenly have a much larger budget to either those around you won’t buy that you’ve mastered your own manage, more purchasing to handle, and/or added HR responsi- domain, or you may simply get in over your head. bilities to coordinate. Increase dialogue with and support for your Second, don’t give your colleagues a reason to mistake you as team, or you will risk responding too late to their needs. devious or opportunistic. Without their buy-in, you may not make Take time to consider and understand why you received this it to the next stop—and even if you do, your chances of success new responsibility. What is it that made you successful? Is the will be compromised. Instead, focus on laying the groundwork change right for both you and the institution? Be self-critical of the for trust in your authentic integrity and ability. If you’re in a “race opportunity, and edit where analysis suggests editing is needed. to the top,” take the high road: employ the careful balance of It’s okay to say “no.” If you do say “yes,” build on your success thoughtfulness and hard work the CIO role has given you. and continue to minimize your weaknesses, but be flexible in Finally, think intently and boldly about how to structure acknowledging that what got you here might not be what makes your IT organization. This is a long game—and it must be totally you successful in the future. aligned with the future success of information technology at your Taking into consideration all of the above, remember that institution. One analyst at Gartner says to “structure IT like a ser- nobody knows better than you when the right time is right to take vice provider.”2 This translates into the following steps: on that next big challenge and become a CIO+. A safe bet, though, is that now is a good time to demonstrate your interest. Talk to n Build an IT leadership role that mirrors some of the C-level those around you to signal that you are excited not just about your roles in any major enterprise (e.g., CFO, COO, and CTO). current job but about the enterprise more broadly. You might be n Create an IT Business Office (the CFO column) that will surprised to learn that your colleagues have trust in your abilities streamline the many complex commercial and financial matters beyond what you’re doing today. One or two of them may even that the IT organization must handle to be successful and agile. have projects that they would like you to help lead. You won’t know n Identify or cultivate strong operational leadership within the this without having a conversation. IT organization (the COO column), giving the organization There has never been a better time for technology leaders to real-time leadership that provides reliability and response shine and to show their C-suite versatility. The possibilities are during normal operations and minimizes fallout during a crisis. many, and only you and the people close to you know what unique opportunities are right for you to pursue. Take it slowly, focus on As you arrive at your new CIO+ destination, be ready for a few output, cultivate accountability and leadership in the IT organiza- surprises, and consider these lessons we learned along the way. tion, and demonstrate your skills along the way. Before long, you First, your view of a team through an external lens can be very may find yourself blazing trails and turning heads in your second different from the view you will get from the inside. It is easy to be career as a CIO+. n critical and think you have all the answers until you gain an insider perspective. Then, as you learn more and become a part of the Notes team, you may become protective of the group. Try to maintain 1. Wayne A. Brown, Higher Education Technology: The Chief Information Officer and Technology Leader (Albany, NY: Center for Higher Education CIO Studies, objectivity and revisit the external lens as you are evaluating and 2018), pp. 38–39. contemplating change. Both perspectives are valuable—and you 2. Monika Sinha, “How to Structure IT Like a Service Provider,” Gartner (website), October 11, 2018. may want to rely on a trusted colleague who can provide you with occasional reality checks. Sharon Blanton ([email protected]) is Vice President for Information Technology and When a new responsibility is added, prepare yourself and those Campus Safety at The College of New Jersey. Carlos García ([email protected]) is Vice President for Technology and Human Resources at Vassar College. around you so that you can let go of something. This is a great time to provide others with the chance to grow and to identify their own © 2020 Sharon Blanton and Carlos García
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54 EDUCAUSEREVIEW 2020 Issue #2 PEOPLE PROCESS TECHNOLOGY
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