4.8 Assignment Critical Reflection Journal – Blog

Ethical Dilemmas in Educational Technology

What is new to my thinking or learning this past week?

Every child should be educated, and the United States has made it one of the fundamental human rights of every child, recognizing the harm in having uneducated persons and the importance of an educated citizenry. Unfortunately, there are some barriers to effective learning that receivers and givers of education have dealt with for decades, and some are rooted in our ethics. The list of unethical educational issues that sometimes act as stumbling blocks to effective learning can be said to be endless. However, some of the more recent common ethical issues educators face are technology and its use in education.

Several ethical dilemmas in educational technologies need to be considered, including Privacy concerns, Inequity in access, Bias in algorithms, Digital Citizenship, and Intellectual property.

The first is the issue of privacy concerns. Educational technologies often collect personal data about students, including their academic performance and behavior, which can be used to track and monitor them. Therefore, ensuring that the data collected is kept confidential and that student’s privacy is protected is essential.

The second is inequity in access. Not all students have equal access to educational technologies. This can create a digital divide, leaving students from low-income backgrounds behind. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that educational technologies are accessible to all students, regardless of socioeconomic status.

The third issue is bias in algorithms. Some educational technologies use algorithms to assess student performance and make recommendations. However, these algorithms can be biased, leading to unfair treatment of some students. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that algorithms used in educational technologies are free from bias.

The fourth issue is that of digital citizenship. Educational technologies can help students develop digital citizenship skills, such as responsible use of technology and online safety. However, it is essential to ensure that students are appropriately educated on these topics and that the technologies they use do not inadvertently promote harmful behavior.

Finally, intellectual property. With the ease of copying and sharing digital content, protecting intellectual property rights in educational technologies can be difficult. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that students understand the importance of respecting intellectual property rights and that the technologies they use do not encourage piracy or copyright violations.

How has this new information challenged me? How has this stretched my professional growth and development? What are the implications of this week’s learning on my professional practice?

As an educator and, more specifically, an ethical educator, I need to be mindful of all these ethical issues and others to create a safe and ethical learning environment for my classroom. Resolving common ethical dilemmas requires forethought and insight. Analyzing case studies of similar ethical dilemmas may help teachers make the “right decision” when faced with similar situations. What is considered ethical often comes down to determining the student’s best interest.

How can these new learnings be used to impact my personal faith journey and my impact for the Kingdom?

Who am I? Why am I the way I am? What do I believe? Why do I believe the way I do? And how does my personal ethics as an educator impact my personal faith journey and the impact I desire to have for the Kingdom? These are a few questions I have had to wrestle with this week as I attempt to connect my personal ethics statement with my ethical foundation. As I have explored the idea of ethics, how I approach ethical dilemmas in educational technology, and what it means to be an ethical person, I examined the word’s origin and found that it comes from the Greek word “ethos,” relating to the word “character.”

When I look at a foundation, the image of something strong comes to mind. As I explore my personal ethics statement related to ethical dilemmas, I look at the strong foundation that it is built upon. When building a house, the builder must first pour a concrete or solid foundation, and in doing so, that foundation must be on solid ground…” bedrock,” if you will, so that in times of storm and turbulence, the foundation of the house will hold strong.

As a child many years ago, who grew up in Sunday school, we often sang a song based on scripture that talked about a wise man building his house upon a rock and the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. The song went on to say that when the rains came down and the floods came up, the house built upon the rock stood firm, but the one built upon the sand collapsed. My personal ethics are built upon a firm and solid foundation rooted deeply in the bedrock of my unshakeable faith in God.

Words like morals, integrity, honesty, responsibility, commitment, and honor are just a few of the virtues and traits which make up that foundation. In fact, I see a person of ethics as someone with high moral and internal standards. The image of Christ forms these moral and internal standards and who He calls me to be daily. These same moral and internal standards shape my decision-making process as an ethical educator.