Technology Ethics In the Classroom - Essay Example

? of the of the of the Technology Ethics in room Introduction: Modern day advent of technology has spread door to door. Human life without technology has become meaningless. The inevitable inclusion of technology in our lives has immersed into our everyday routines. It is for this very reason that schools have been trying hard to bring technology to their classrooms. Technology, however, has both pros and cons associated with it. Most of the schools attempting to incorporate the use of technology within them seem to overlook the cons that are accompanied with it. It is because of this very reason that they don’t seem to have any plans, in order to curb the side effects of the effort that is being incorporated for the embedding of technology in them. The role of technology in the enhancement of learning is beyond any doubt, but just as the steering of a car cannot be handed over to would be drivers before they get their license, similarly the juveniles cannot be left with technologically advanced equipment without any checks or restrictions. The main theme of this paper is to discuss the ethical usage of technology in class rooms. The paper also suggests some rules and practices in order to enforce the ethical usage of technology within the school’s boundaries. The technology and related issues: The current technological gadgets which students can carry into the class rooms may be laptops, notebooks, tablets, smart phones or i-pods etc. The connectivity to a network however is the key to entire issue. With all the above mentioned facilities at hand, each student inside a class may misuse his technological freedom in quite a number of ways. A few of them can be stated as follows: Cyber cheating and Plagiarism. Cyber Bullying. Hacking or intruding other’s privacy over the network. Missing lectures due to other entertaining provisions like chatting etc. Distribution of inappropriate materials in the class. Before proceeding towards further analysis it would be better to analyze the mediums of connectivity available to the students. The students may use the network provided by the school through Wi-Fi connectivity or they may acquire internet access through the phone service provider over their personal palmtops or smart phones that are so very common nowadays. The imposition of ethics in the classroom however calls for application of certain restrictions. This means that the connectivity to the internet should be restricted and should be available only to authorized users. Recommendations: A double edged sword in the form of two parallel policies is most likely to work for the problem of unethical usage of technology in the classrooms. The forceful impositions of rules and policies have proven effectiveness but the efforts to invoke sense of responsibility works much more effectively. The forceful strategy may comprise of the following, • MAC address based device connectivity. • IP scanning for security breach. • Usage of appropriate UTM (Unified Threat Management) systems. • A class based forum like connectivity for discussion with the classmates. • Provision of master console to the teacher/instructor to monitor individual activity like messaging. • Jammers for GPRS or GSM (phone service based) connectivity. Some schools distribute written material on responsible computing before granting permission to students to access the school’s network services. Children are often asked to pass an online quiz in order to prove that they have learnt and understood the basic criteria at which they are authorized the usage of technological devices. This is one basic effort that can be done in order to make the students responsible for any actions that they would commit otherwise. The role of school counselors is very important for the ethical brought up of students. This role is not restricted to the ethics of class rooms only. The parents of the students must also be counseled for a collaborative effort. A quick course in ethics would not be sufficient to bring about the intended change. An overnight change is also impossible. The precaution and reform process should be continuous and the following suggestions should be taken under account when conducting it. Since refraining from the use of technology would not bring any good, the students should be counseled regarding the beneficial usage of technology oriented devices. This can be done through aptitude based guidance in order to exploit the information over the internet. Interesting learning exercises with incentives may also be introduced to divert the potential of students towards constructive usage of technology. Social ethics and related issues should be discussed more often to let the students get an idea of others’ pain in case of ethical violations. The counseling of parents is required to be done in order to, enhance parent-child communication regarding the usage of internet facilitate co-viewing of the children’s activity over the net Make youngsters understand the threat of revealing personal information. Conclusion: Among all the technological provisions connectivity to the internet is of utmost importance. The ethical and responsible usage of this technology is extremely necessary for everyone. The importance of internet in learning is beyond any doubts and its availability in educational institutions is essential. However students need to be counseled morally so that they may employ this facility in a responsible manner. Along with the forceful checks and impositions the school counselors must also counsel the students. They should, not only guide the students towards the beneficial usage of technology but they should counsel the parents as well. This may produce a long lasting sense of responsibility in adolescents as compared to the timely effect inculcated via restrictions. WORKS CITED Burrow Sanchez, Call, Zheng, Drew. " How School Counselors Can Help Prevent Online Victimization." Journal of Counseling & Development. 89.1 (2011): 3-10. pRINT. Mendels. Education. 16 Feb. 2000. Web. 17 July. 2011 Valcke. De Wever, Schellens, Van Keer, Aug 2011. Long-term study of safe Internet use of young children. Web. 17 July. 2011 Newswire. SocialShield Addresses Internet Safety Issues Highlighted by New California Law on Schools and Cyberbullying. 12 July 2011. Web. 17 July 2011. Read More