Create a blog post where you identify an
ethical dilemma in your own practice linked to digital or online access or
activity. Explain the dilemma and discuss either:
- how
you would address the potential issue if it occurred in your own practice
or (if relevant)
- an
actual situation that you have knowledge of, and how it was resolved.
The discussion should be in relation to either
the guidelines of your organisation on online practice or the code of ethics for
certificated teachers.
Code of Ethics number 2 states that certified teachers have
a commitment to parents / guardians and family/whanau. To do this we work in collaboration with all
parties and where appropriate involve them in decision making.
One of the legal and ethical dilemmas we meet on a regular
basis is the use of social media within the school. Teaching year 5 & 6
students creates a dilemma in regard to the use of different social media. Over half of the students in my class have
Facebook accounts, Instagram, Snapchat etc. All of these have a minimum age
limit of 13, hence the students are actually accessing the software illegally.
Over the last few years the focus of the school has changed from being one that
prevents access to sites by having filtering software, to one that tries to
develop good digital citizens who make good choices.
Last year we had an incident where a student took a photograph
of another student using Snapchat, this was then shared around other members of
the school with some inappropriate comments. Once we became aware of this there
were two options available to us as a school. We could have blacklisted Snapchat
on our school network or work with the students and families to discuss suitable
digital citizenship and responsibilities that we all have linking into code of
ethics 3 teaching positive values accepted in society.
The first issue to address was Snapchat has a legal age
restriction of 13. As with many other
social media sites this is an easy rule to bypass as there is no checking of
name against age. We discussed this with
students but because it is something many do, and there is a lot of peer
pressure around social media sites we were probably not going to get students
to stop using Snapchat.
The next step was to understand what the students use
Snapchat for. The students seem to be
using Snapchat more than Facebook to share what they were doing in the day, or
just particular parts of that day. Potentially there was also an element of
using something that was not used by adults. Facebook has become mainstream for
adults, in school teachers use Facebook regularly. Snapchat was seen as an app
used for inappropriate uses because of media coverage.
·
Linking into code of ethics 1 was the next
step. We sat down with the senior
students and revisited what a good digital citizen is. We used the Netsafe
Schools Kit as a base to teach good digital citizenship, focusing on our CARE
values, especially empathy and respect. Running
along with this we had an evening run by a Netsafe trainer for our parents. All
of this helped us to promote the physical,
emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual wellbeing of all learners.
The result from all of the above was a change in attitude in
most of our students. As a school we continue to regularly discuss good digital
citizenship, and this is starting to be reflected in student behavior. At the present time we are looking at upgrading
our network filtering, not because we do not trust our students, but because we
need to ensure that should something untoward happen we have the capability to
track exactly what happened. This ongoing commitment to keeping students
safe, links to the first code of ethics, encouraging students to think
critically about how they interact online.
References
Netsafe.org.nz
Netsafe.org.nz,. (2015). the netsafe kit for schools. Retrieved 7 November 2015, from http://www.netsafe.org.nz/the-kit/
Netsafe.org.nz,. (2015). the netsafe kit for schools. Retrieved 7 November 2015, from http://www.netsafe.org.nz/the-kit/
NetSafe: Cybersafety and Security advice for New Zealand
NetSafe:
Cybersafety and Security advice for New Zealand,. (2015). Digital
Citizenship in Schools. Retrieved 7 November 2015, from
https://www.netsafe.org.nz/digital-citizenship-in-schools/
Teacherscouncil.govt.nz
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