Ethics to Prepare Educators for Professional Service Robots in Classrooms

Abstract

This paper outlines ethical principles for educators preparing for service robots in the classroom (professional service robots). At the dawn of artificial intelligence (AI) as service robots arrive in education systems, we first define robots and professional service robots. We then review and suggest a conduct-focused ethics path over individual moral path to guide educators to consider ethics and key ethical issues involved in professional service robot design, development, implementation and partnering efforts for education settings. Borrowing from the robot ethics (roboethics) fields that has emerged from computer science and bioethics, we suggest that educators new to classroom robots and AI can ethically reduce the complexity of their work by considering simple social impact issues, specifically human relations and job issues at this early stage in professional robot thinking. We conclude by offering ethics of care principles and culture research to help educators who may adopt a caring stance to work in the diverse global context of robotics and education today.