Moral and Legal Issues with Technology in Education

Technology is quickly revolutionizing our education system. Some of the common moral and legal issues encountered when using technology in the classroom include search engines, filtering, pornography, and access; data mining, privacy, and security; use of e-mail, social networking and free speech; intellectual property, copyright issues; and software piracy. (Moursund, n.d.)

http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number/teachers-say-that-for-students-today-research-googling/

Teacher responsibility is high. As educators, we are accountable for our student’s actions and internet use. The wealth of information at our finger tips increases the occurrences of plagiarism, copyright and trademark infringments. Too often students and teachers are cutting and pasting from web resources without proper citation. To our current students "research=googling."(PEW Research, 2012)  According to PEW Research, 94% of teachers indicate Google or a similar search engine, tops students lists of sources for research. (PEW Research, 2012)

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for Teachers Standard 4(a) Promote and Model digital citizenship and responsibility, states educators need to “model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources” (ISTE, 2008) As educators, we need to model proper citation and sourcing of digital information in our own lessons. Common Sense Media has several lesson plans for educators to use to teach digital citizenship in the classroom. (Common Sense Media, n.d.) Common Sense Media’s digital citizenship lesson plans include lessons for internet safety; privacy and security; online relationships and communication; cyberbullying; digital footprints; self-image and identity; information literacy; and creative credit and copyrighting. The lessons support both Common Core and ISTE standards. The lessons even include summative assessments.

The ease at which data is obtained via the internet, ease of manipulating images and information as well as ever changing rules on fair use policies make plagiarism, copyright and trademark infringement rampant and difficult to detect. However, with proper instruction and modeling, our students will understand the repercussions of these infringements and become global digital citizens.

References

Common Sense Media. (n.d.). Digital Citizenship. Retrieved from Common Sense Media: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/scope-and-sequence

ISTE. (2008). ISTE Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE): http://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards/standards-for-teachers

Moursund, D. (n.d.). Discussion of Legal and Ethical Issues. Retrieved from University of Oregon: http://pages.uoregon.edu/moursund/ICT-planning/legal-ethical.htm

PEW Research. (2012). Teachers Say that for Students Today ‘Research = Googling'. Retrieved from PEW Research: http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number/teachers-say-that-for-students-today-research-googling/