Ethics of AI in Education: Towards a Community-Wide Framework

While Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) research has at its core the desire to support student learning, experience from other AI domains suggest that such ethical intentions are not by themselves sufficient. There is also the need to consider explicitly issues such as fairness, accountability, transparency, bias, autonomy, agency, and inclusion. At a more general level, there is also a need to differentiate between doing ethical things and doing things ethically, to understand and to make pedagogical choices that are ethical, and to account for the ever-present possibility of unintended consequences. However, addressing these and related questions is far from trivial. As a first step towards addressing this critical gap, we invited 60 of the AIED community’s leading researchers to respond to a survey of questions about ethics and the application of AI in educational contexts. In this paper, we first introduce issues around the ethics of AI in education. Next, we summarise the contributions of the 17 respondents, and discuss the complex issues that they raised. Specific outcomes include the recognition that most AIED researchers are not trained to tackle the emerging ethical questions. A well-designed framework for engaging with ethics of AIED that combined a multidisciplinary approach and a set of robust guidelines seems vital in this context

Approaches in biotechnological applications of natural polymers

Natural polymers, such as gums and mucilage, are biocompatible, cheap, easily available and non-toxic materials of native origin. These polymers are increasingly preferred over synthetic materials for industrial applications due to their intrinsic properties, as well as they are considered alternative sources of raw materials since they present characteristics of sustainability, biodegradability and biosafety. As definition, gums and mucilages are polysaccharides or complex carbohydrates consisting of one or more monosaccharides or their derivatives linked in bewildering variety of linkages and structures. Natural gums are considered polysaccharides naturally occurring in varieties of plant seeds and exudates, tree or shrub exudates, seaweed extracts, fungi, bacteria, and animal sources. Water-soluble gums, also known as hydrocolloids, are considered exudates and are pathological products; therefore, they do not form a part of cell wall. On the other hand, mucilages are part of cell and physiological products. It is important to highlight that gums represent the largest amounts of polymer materials derived from plants. Gums have enormously large and broad applications in both food and non-food industries, being commonly used as thickening, binding, emulsifying, suspending, stabilizing agents and matrices for drug release in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. In the food industry, their gelling properties and the ability to mold edible films and coatings are extensively studied. The use of gums depends on the intrinsic properties that they provide, often at costs below those of synthetic polymers. For upgrading the value of gums, they are being processed into various forms, including the most recent nanomaterials, for various biotechnological applications. Thus, the main natural polymers including galactomannans, cellulose, chitin, agar, carrageenan, alginate, cashew gum, pectin and starch, in addition to the current researches about them are reviewed in this article.. }To the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientfíico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for fellowships (LCBBC and MGCC) and the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nvíel Superior (CAPES) (PBSA). This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit, the Project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462) and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) (JAT)

Divane de Vargas CORRESPONDING AUTHOR

Submission: 11-04-2014 Approval: 07-28-2015 ABSTRACT Objective: to describe and understand the conceptions of nursing assistants working in Psychosocial Care Centers for alcohol and drugs (CAPS ad), about the patient with addictions. Method: sixteen nursing assistants and technicians from nine of the CAPS ad in São Paulo were interviewed, and data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Results: performing the functions in the CAPS ad enabled the change in staff's conception from a stigmatizing and prejudiced view, to the concept of chemical dependence as a disease and those who are chemically dependent as patients with comorbidities and family problems, in need of help and treatment. Conclusion: professional practice in specialized services for alcohol and other drugs enables changes in the staff's conceptions about chemically dependent individuals, highlighting the need to include the subject of alcohol and drugs in the school curriculum. Key words: Nursing, Team; Substance-Related Disorders; Mental Health Services. RESUMO Objetivo: descrever e compreender as concepções dos profi ssionais de nível médio em enfermagem dos Centros de Atenção Psicossocial álcool e drogas (CAPS ad), perante o dependente químico. Método: foram entrevistados 16 auxiliares e técnicos de enfermagem de 9 CAPS ad do município de São Paulo, e os dados foram analisados utilizando-se o método de comparação constante. Resultados: o desempenho das funções no CAPS ad possibilitou a mudança de concepção dos trabalhadores, de uma visão estigmatizante e preconceituosa, para a concepção da dependência química como doença e dos dependentes químicos como pessoas doentes que possuem comorbidades e problemas familiares, que necessitam de auxílio e tratamento. Conclusão: a prática profi ssional em serviços especializados em álcool e outras drogas favorece a mudança nas concepções dos trabalhadores sobre o dependente químico, destacando-se a necessidade da inclusão do tema álcool e drogas no currículo escolares. Descritores: Equipe de Enfermagem; Transtornos Relacionados ao Uso de Substâncias; Serviços de Saúde Mental. RESUMEN Objetivo: describir y comprender las concepciones de técnicos y auxiliaries de Enfermería de los Centros de Atención Psicosocial alcohol y drogas (CAPS ad), frente al dependiente químico. Método: fueron entrevistados 16 auxiliares y técnicos de enfermería de 9 CAPS ad del municipio de São Paulo, los datos fueron analisados utilizando el método de comparación constante. Resultados: el desempeño de las funciones en el CAPS ad facilitó el cambio de la concepción de los trabajadores, de una vision estigmatizante y prejuiciosa, hacia una comcepción de la dependencia química como una enfermerdad, y de los dependientes químicos como personas enfermas que poseen co-morbilidades y problemas familiars, que necesitan de auxilio y tratamiento. Conclusión: la práctica professional en servicios especializados en alcohol y otras drogas favorece el cambio en las concepciones de los trabajadores sobre el dependiente químico, destacandose la necesidad de la inclusion del tema de alcohol y drogas en los curriculos escolares

Ethics of AI in Education: Towards a Community-Wide Framework

While Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) research has at its core the desire to support student learning, experience from other AI domains suggest that such ethical intentions are not by themselves sufficient. There is also the need to consider explicitly issues such as fairness, accountability, transparency, bias, autonomy, agency, and inclusion. At a more general level, there is also a need to differentiate between doing ethical things and doing things ethically, to understand and to make pedagogical choices that are ethical, and to account for the ever-present possibility of unintended consequences. However, addressing these and related questions is far from trivial. As a first step towards addressing this critical gap, we invited 60 of the AIED community’s leading researchers to respond to a survey of questions about ethics and the application of AI in educational contexts. In this paper, we first introduce issues around the ethics of AI in education. Next, we summarise the contributions of the 17 respondents, and discuss the complex issues that they raised. Specific outcomes include the recognition that most AIED researchers are not trained to tackle the emerging ethical questions. A well-designed framework for engaging with ethics of AIED that combined a multidisciplinary approach and a set of robust guidelines seems vital in this context

Patterns of collaboration: towards learning mathematics in the era of the semantic web

With current digital technologies there are a number of networked computer-based tools that provide ways for users, be they learners or teachers, to collaborate in tackling visual representations of mathematics, both algebraic and geometric. For learners, there are various ways of collaborating that can occur while the learners are tackling mathematical problems. In this chapter we use selected outcomes from recent innovative research on this aspect of learning and teaching mathematics with digital technologies to review the patterns of collaboration that can occur in terms of teacher and learner experience. Given that such patterns of collaboration are via current digital technologies, this chapter goes on to offer a view on the likely impact on the cyberlearning of mathematics of progress towards the next generation of Web technologies that seeks to make use of ideas related to the web of data and the semantic web. Such impact is likely to be in terms of enhancing the learning applications of digital technologies, improving ways of administrating the educational programmes that they support, and potentially enabling teachers to maintain involvement in technological development and use over the longer-term