Legal and Ethical Contexts

Ethical dilemma

So far I haven't encountered a ethical dilemma of the kind that was shared in the example videos but I am aware of problems like these that colleagues had to face here in New Zealand. I am very critical towards social media and couldn't disagree more with the views of some people. Hence I decided for myself that I won't participate, not because I think it is all bad, it has huge benefits in terms of staying in touch with friends overseas but the drawbacks outweigh the advantages for me. My former principal encouraged every staff member to be on facebook but I declined. In terms of these extreme scenarios it is the ultimate prevention tool not to use social media but then I would never post anything like it. For me I like to separate work and private life. I haven't faced any ethical dilemmas in a digital context yet because I am not mixing the two, ever. Following the Code of Ethics for Registered Teachers is a very straight forward, kind of common sense with you adopt this simple rule.

A future dilemma that I identify for my practice is, that I have to educate young people to be critical thinkers and to engage with social media in a meaningful and responsible way without having an in depth understanding of the tools and mechanics. I am going to lack the experience and knowledge to have insights and to respond appropriately to students questions and problems. The only incident I had in my practice so far involving digital media, which posed an issue with breaching the privacy policy of my school was blogging. As a blogging novice and self-directed learner I wasn't aware of the privacy/ commenting settings of blogger. It would have been possible for anyone to leave vicious, inappropriate comments on my class blog, which in turn could have been discovered by students and whanau.

Recommendation for Schools

In my current primary school the leadership team in collaboration with the ICT lead teachers decided to address some of the ethical and privacy related issues by making sure teachers select appropriate tools when sharing and presenting students photos or work. Selecting a blogging tool like Seesaw provides teachers with a safe tool to communicate with students and whanau and easily control who has access. In this online environment students and parents alike can safely learn and practice to share their learning and provide feedback. The teacher has control over what is shared and can use it as a teaching tool, explaining and modelling how this works. The teacher invites whanau and shares the purpose of the students blog and only provides families with access. For me it was only a matter of time until the industry would responded with software like Seesaw because of the growing concerns around cyber safety and breaches of privacy settings, intentionally or unintentionally. 

Hall, A. (2001). 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://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGQbLSEPN5w

https://vimeo.com/49804201