Law & Ethics contexts in my digital practice.

Law & Ethics contexts in my digital practice


Alan Hall raises some interesting points in his paper titled "What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers".  The paper used a case study at Camp Hoha (p7) but to be honest is a rather simplistic and a dated problem.  I have just returned from camp and school policy states that no alcohol is to be consumed on camp but either students or adults.
The classroom has changed and definitely expanded beyond the four walls of 20 years ago. Indeed my interaction with students has moved from only during to school time but all the time and any time.  At our school all the teachers have a gmail account that is available for both parents and students to use as a way to contact us and us them.  This provides both a great way to communicate and provides a paper trail for this communication.  Essential in today's political educational climate.

However the area of most concern is the use of digital technologies and the subsequent school policies to adequately protect both teachers and students.  The publication by netsafe provides a reasonably comprehensive guide covering the ethics and legal obligations involved in using technology in school.

One of the interesting points when talking about ethics and digital practice is the differing beliefs and attitudes held by the teachers, parents and students.  Some teachers are facebook friends with student while others are not but their does not seem to be a school policy that comprehensibly sets out the ethics or law in this situation.

My personal ethics in dealing with technology.

Last year a speaker arrived at school from www.simulate2educate.co.nz named John Parsons he was both engaging and informative.  In fact so powerful was his message that the school policy on digital media was changed a day later.  If you get the chance I highly recommend that you attend one of his personal development sessions, they are excellent both as a teacher and a parent of preteen children.  As a result I developed a personal ethics code regarding digital technology and the various stakeholders that I deal with as a professional teacher.  I openly discuss these with the students and parents.

These ethics involve social media, communication methods and digital imaginary.  However it does seem due the the highly fluidic nature of modern teaching practices each teacher has to develop their own moral and ethical code along side the school and governmental policies which are constantly evolving.  The key here is communication between all of the stakeholders on a regular basis


Hall, A. (2001, April). What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane.

https://www.netsafe.org.nz/advice/education/

http://www.simulate2educate.co.nz/