2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Preparing IST Students to Respond to Global Bio-ethical Challenges: A Public OCW-based Educational Platform
| Project/Area Number |
20K00831
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Osaka University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
ゴヴォルノワ アリョーナ 大阪大学, 言語文化研究科(言語文化専攻), 特任准教授(常勤) (30783328)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
|
| Keywords | Bioethics / Philosophy of Science / Cognitive Rhetorics / Human Significance |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
PI Govorounova has begun building the web-based system on bioethics education with the help of professional bioethicists in Japan and abroad. She designed the first round of pilot courses in the categories of medical ethics, robotics and environmental ethics. She tested out the above pilot courses with her science and medical students at Osaka University and, with the permission of her students, zoom-recorded a number of selected student debates for later use as mock debates on her OCW. She also collected data on the scientific versus media representations of the same bioethical debates and conducted a comparative discourse analysis of the use of register, style and metaphors with her students. All the above data is currently being processed for the use on the OCW.
|
| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
The present research project is progressing rather smoothly despite the obstacles created by the novel coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Most travel plans and all face-to-face interviews and mock debates were canceled in 2020, which slowed progress on the present research. To compensate, zoom meetings and zoom debates were conducted and recorded. This project was initially conceived as a bridge between the academy and industry given that it was born of a need to speak to the growing concerns of students who will themselves pursue careers in industry. The sociology of the workplace required at this phase in the research project has been effectively haltered by the pandemic given the serious constraints it has placed on sociological methods such as participant observation.
|
| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
We will continue customizing and optimizing the system on the basis of ongoing evaluations provided by student feedback collected from pilot courses. By collaborating with interested academic partners we will recast the system as an AI-enabled educational platform. We will present our progress in academic conferences and by publishing our research findings in academic journals. With the help of our international collaborators we plan to organize an international conference at Osaka University on pressing ethical issues in genomics, AI, molecular biology, neuroscience and quantum physics. The conference materials will be uploaded onto the OCW in order to stimulate students’ independent thinking and intellectual risk- taking.
|
| Causes of Carryover |
Due to the novel coronavirus pandemic all international travel, most domestic travel and face-to-face human interaction was canceled. The unused amount that had been originally allocated for travel and related expenses in 2020 will be required to cover travel expenses in 2021 and 2022 in order to proceed with the project as soon as the travel ban is lifted.
|
