Inclusion of social good in computer science education has been proposed as an approach that demonstrates computing’s social relevance and potential for positive societal impact, thus providing students with a motivating vision over the subject. This is particularly important as there is a recognized lack of professional ethics direction in programs of study in most curricula. In this talk, it is argued that the subject of human-computer interaction is particularly suitable to introduce such concepts, as it can relate to real life situations more easily than other theoretical or more technical subjects. Examples will be provided of teaching interventions that relate the students to critical problems, i.e. to evaluate and re-design web sites of social relevance, design technologies for social inclusion, etc.
It is argued that through such approaches of teaching human-computer interaction, the theory and methods of the computing discipline, are situated in a socially relevant context, motivating the students and increasing the learning effect of the teaching intervention.