Applying Science Fiction to Course Design - A case of computer science

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Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Perustieteiden korkeakoulu | Master's thesis

Authors

Date

2019-10-23

Department

Major/Subject

International Design Business Management

Mcode

SCI3062

Degree programme

Master’s Degree Programme in International Design Business Management (IDBM)

Language

en

Pages

89 + 12

Series

Abstract

Entry-level technical and scientific courses are provided for both tech and non-tech students in universities. Currently, the teaching materials used in these courses are mainly academic papers and real business cases. Learning with only formal materials that are full of terminologies is lacking pleasure and challenging for entry-level students. Previous studies also show that teaching technology and science with science fiction (SF) could have many benefits, including can successfully engage students (Vrasidas et al., 2015), let students remember knowledge a longer time (Negrete & Lartigue, 2010), and brings up discussions about ethics (Burton, Goldsmith & Mattei, 2015). However, a study focuses on teaching computer science with SF materials is lacking. This study focuses on applying SF to teaching computer science. A case study is conducted. An SF video: Hated in the Nation is selected as additional teaching material for the course Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. Students who enrolled in the course voluntarily join the research. A questionnaire and an open question are used for data gathering. Both the students’ answers to the questionnaire and to the open questions are analysed to answer the research questions: 1) What are the attitudes of students to using SF in teaching AI? 2) How does watching the SF stories Hated in the Nation support students in learning AI at entry level? The results of the case study demonstrate that the benefits of including Hated in the Nation as an additional learning material can be summarized as three points: 1). making the learning process more interesting, 2) inspiring students from many perspectives, and 3) enhancing students’ critical thinking. The main challenges of teaching with Hated in the Nation are: 1) learning with Hated in the Nation has a relatively low learning-time ratio, 2) Hated in the Nation contains exaggerating AI technology, 3) and explanation about AI technology is limited in Hated in the Nation. Overall, the results of the study encourage educators using SFs to introduce technology concepts and science theories at entry level, and also using SFs to teach ethics related to technology and science development. Which needs to be clarified is that SFs should be used as additional materials to increase the diversity of teaching activities and increase learners’ interests in learning. SFs are not a replacement of formal and traditional teaching materials.

Description

Supervisor

Vartiainen, Matti

Thesis advisor

Kauppinen, Tomi

Keywords

science fiction, course design, learning motivation, artificial intelligence, teaching material

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Citation