Week 11: Ethical & Legal Issues

Week 11 Question.

Choose one 'dilemma' from either reading, and briefly explain what you think needs to be done to address it. 

Response.

I have wondered about a question raised by Buchanan (2019, p. 3) regarding the issues of data ownership.  For me this issue even relates to putting together this e-portfolio.  I have a problem with having this available on the internet.  I purposely have tried to have small digital footprint (as much as I can); I do not have an Alexa type device in my home; I do not use a smart watch. I have been using digital media since the early 1990s, but I do not wish to broadcast my thoughts and information to the world.  Perhaps I am being paranoid, perhaps not, however, I find it unnerving to look up a product in my local area and then be bombarded with advertisements for that product next time I use digital technology. 

Computer applications (apps) collect data (Buchanan, 2019, p. 3), this is widely known.  Are we allowing these apps to collect large amounts of data about us (teachers and learners) by encouraging the use of digital technology in the classroom? What exactly is being collected?  Do we know what they do with this data?  Is it on-sold to third parties? It is well known that most people do not read the legal disclaimers which are supposed to tell us this (Kemp, 2018); and they often cannot be understood without some legal training. For many of these 'free' apps, selling data is how they make money, along with constantly bombarding people with advertisements upselling the product or other products (Logic(s), 2019). Are we selling out children’s right to privacy before they are old enough to know of the ramifications?  This is especially important when most adults do not really know or understand the future ramifications.  This feeds into the collection of educational data as discussed by Buchanan (2019, p. 4).  Students will be living with the decisions made now on their behalf well into the future.  Given that “even the most trivial content is hard to remove from the internet” (Buchanan, 2019, p. 6) should more care be taken regarding this matter?

e-portfolio task

For this task I utilised information about cyberbullying and online gaming safety from the e-Safety Commissioner utilising their adivce for young people.  I did know quite a lot of this information already as my partner was involved in the internet in the early days in the 1990's and he attended Senate committee hearings regarding keeping young people safe online.  We have ensured our children follow these instructions; they are extremely quick to block and report any online game users who become abusive.