Safe, Ethical and Legal Practices

Although there are numerous benefits for the inclusion of technological tools in educational, it is also vital to consider the Safe, Ethical and Legal practices. Jones, 2011 explores these terms and the meaning of these  in relation to ICT's in schools: 

• Safe – The students could be exposed to situations in which they may cause them emotionally harm, they could also be exposed to inappropriate materials. It is important that the teachers monitor what the students are accessing and posting. It is the Teachers responsibility to ensure that the students are not experiencing any unsafe viewing or offensives responses from the public (if creating a blog). If this is occurring it is also the teachers responsibility to stop this from occurring and to discuss it with the students. 
• Legal – This refers to the students & the teachers, and ensures that they aren't doing anything that breaks laws. The most obvious law that is included in the use of online materials or web based applications is copyright laws. Prior to indulging in the use of these tools it is necessary that the teachers are aware of the copyright laws. They then need to ensure that the students are aware of this. This includes the most simple of copyright laws, giving credit to the author or the site in which they found the information. Teachers need to model this and ensure that they are referencing when using these tools too. 
• Ethical –  Ethical is equally measured with what is morally correct, therefore it is important that the students model appropriate morals and behavior when using these tools. Furthermore Brown (2008) suggests that E-Learning is different from campus-based learning and one of the disadvantages is that it provides greater opportunity for academic misrepresentation. Simply, the teachers and the students need to keep in mind that although they are using online tools that they are representing the school. They need to be respectful and considerate of the schools reputation. basically, don’t do to others, what you don’t want done to you, don't use inappropriate language, post appropriate materials and be kind and respectful of people viewing and posting comments. 

Although students are digital natives and are using tools like these regularly it is not assumed that they know and understand the importance of safe, legal and ethical practices surround E-learning. It is vital that teachers know and understand this information, further, it is expected that the model this behavior, if students don't see their teachers modeling this they will assume that it is okay for them to ignore this principles. 


There are many benefits of E-learning, however, if we want to continue to use these tools within classrooms it is necessary for these precautions to be taken. It is my belief that the copyright standards are highly important and students learn how to acknowledge sources appropriately. This includes Images, text and video as well as text based information. It is important to note that these practices are put in place to protect the students, and to ensure that they are engaging in content in a safe and responsible way (Willard, n.d). 

Reference:
Brown, T. (2008) Ethics in E-Learning, retrieved from http://www.gsim.aoyama.ac.jp/ORC/iBiZ2008/papers/Brown.pdf

Jones, D (2011) Safe, legal and ethical practice for ICTs in schools, retrieved from 

http://davidtjones.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/safe-legal-and-ethical-practice-for-icts-in-schools/


Willard, N. (n.d). Safe and responsible use of the internet: a guide for educators. Retrieved from http://csriu.org/onlinedocs/pdf/srui/entire.pdf