TEACHING WITH TEQ DECK


Gallery Walk

 

This activity provides exposure to a wide variety of ethical questions about technology right off the bat, in a digestible, non-intimidating mode of presentation. It is versatile, as it does not depend on prior academic experience with ethical questions about technology, or ethics more generally. And, it is a surefire way of getting all participants engaged, making it a good option for both the classroom and non-academic settings (e.g., industry workshops).

Fifteen cards are taped on the wall, around the room. Students begin by walking around the room reading them. They are given stickers to put on the four cards they are most drawn to. The class then engages in two discussion activities, the first about why students gravitated to the questions they did, the second, more in-depth, about one of the questions that received the most votes.

This activity generates substantial energy, as participants are up and out of their seats, moving around the room, often interacting with each other as they walk around, exclaiming things such as “Oh, this is a good one!” or “This is the same as that film…”, etc. Their contagious enthusiasm helps activate their thinking. Gallery Walk also provides participants with a sense of ownership over their learning and focus, as the group gets to decide what topics to discuss.


Materials 

  • Printouts of 15 TEQ cards, selected by the instructor/leader;
  • Tape to affix printouts of cards to the wall;
  • Small stickers of different colors, enough to have 4 per student.


Preparation 

  • Tape printouts of the 15 TEQ questions on the wall around the room at regular spacing;
  • Distribute stickers among the students, 4 stickers per student.


Activity (~60-70 minutes)

Step 1 (15 minutes): Explain that you have taped 15 cards on the walls. Invite the students to walk around the room, reading them all and then placing stickers on the edge of the four they are most drawn to. Explicitly state that they may use their own criteria: for instance, they might select questions on the basis of which they think are most consequential or urgent, or the ones they’d most like to discuss, etc.

Step 2 (5 minutes): Give students a minute to finish and then return to their seats. Walk around the room and tally the numbers of stickers per card and report to the class which questions received the most votes and which the fewest.

Step 3 (10 minutes): Discuss as a class how people voted on the TEQ cards: Why did they vote for the ones they did? Why not the other ones?

Step 4 (15 minutes): Break the students into groups of 3 to 5 to have an open-ended discussion of one of the two questions that initially received the most votes. Each group should start by choosing which of those two questions they will discuss.

You might ask groups to begin by giving 3-4 minutes for an individual ‘quick write’ about the question they’ve chosen, in order to activate their thinking before discussing: What are their initial thoughts about it?

Once groups are engaged in discussion, walk around the room to hear what kinds of conversations are being had, offering prompts and support to any group that might need guidance.

Step 5 (15-20 minutes): After 15 minutes, give the groups a minute to wrap up their discussions. Invite individual groups to recap to the class the highlights of their discussions: the confusions, considerations, conflicts, or conclusions they discussed. Where possible, encourage back-to-back contributions between group members (who might have had different takeaways from the original discussion) as well as between groups. Time for this section can vary depending on setting.

 

* Designed and tested by Hanna Gunn, Jon Ellis, Abigail Kaun, James Read, and Emily Robertson.