Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice

Ethics has become more profound over recent decades, attracting the attention of educators and professionals alike (Campbell, 1997, as cited in Ehrich et. all (2011)). The question of what we ought to do and what might be the best course of action to take has been deemed one of the most relevant descriptions of ethics to date. Francis (as cited in Ehrich et. all (2011)) developed a set of principles specifically for professional organisations as a means to minimise the ethical risks in their practice, including dignity, honesty, equability, and goodwill. These principles have since been codified and used by professional bodies such as lawyers, medical practitioners and teachers; providing guidance on acceptable practices for people of their respective professions.

For the purpose of this reflective journal entry, I will be using Rolfe et al.'s (2001) reflective model to guide my response surrounding children sharing on online platforms. This model is based upon three simple questions: What? So what? and Now what?

What?
Our school has recently become part of Manaiakalani; a cluster of schools that belong to community of digital learning and fluency.  As a result, we are implementing digital technology into our classrooms more than ever before. Half of our school are now equipped with one device per student, allowing extensive use of digital technology in our programmes. As part of our relationship with Manaiakalani, our staff and students are in the process of creating their own blog using blogger.com. Blogger is an online platform where the owner can share information, pictures, and details to their hearts content, with the online community.

So what?
As an educator, I am somewhat concerned about the level of privacy students, as young children, have in the 21st century. Although students' digital footprint is monitored and they are being taught cyber safety at school, students are becoming more and more digitally capable, which leads to issues when they are not making positive choices when unsupervised. What a child chooses to share with the world, ideas, pictures, comments, are not only accessible to the online community, but are also set in concrete. Helton & Ray's (2005, as cited in Ehrich et. all (2011)) research identifies a number of reasons teachers face ethical dilemmas in their practice, and the conflicts between professional and personal ethics is among them. An administrative decision has been made as part of the professional ethics at our school, where our children are (taught cyber safety and) have digital opportunities to learn, create and share with the wider community. My personal ethics, however, conflict in such a way that children should be granted digital privacy to an extent.

Now what?
Because my dilemma arises from an administrative decision that is out of my control, it has come to my attention that I need to further my knowledge and understanding around the use of digital devices, and blogs in particular. Professionals and researchers have spent copious amounts of time developing Manaiakalani, a research-based cluster approved by the Ministry of Education, indicating a level of respect and trustworthiness.


References

Ehrich, L., Kimber, M., Millwater, J., & Cranston, N. (2011). Ethical dilemmas: a model to understand teacher practice, Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 17:2, 173-185, DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2011.539794

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001). Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user's guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.