Cyber Ethics In the Classroom

"Cyber Ethics: The New Frontier", by Baum, J. highlights the importance of addressing the issues revolving around the use of technology or more so the internet in classrooms and schools. The issues revolve around ethics and how students view moral principles in relation to the Internet as opposed to moral principles aside from technology.
According to Baum, "49% of juveniles do not consider hacking to be a crime" and "25 percent of post-secondary students surveyed said they had "cut and pasted" from online sources without a citation" (Baum, J., p.54). The issue of plagiarism is a large one when dealing with cyber ethics in the classroom. Students can actually go to a website and download a paper to claim as their own! This is like stealing something and a student wouldn’t normally try to pass a book off as their writing but can justify it if it is downloaded off the Internet.
Buam is making the suggestion with this article that teachers can help students be more responsible with the internet and part of the curriculum should be set aside to teach ethics and responsibilities of using the Internet. The same moral principles that are valued in reality should be applied to technology and students should learn this at a young age so they respect the use of cyber tools.

At what age do you think we should introduce cyber ethics as a lesson in the classroom and teach the moral judgments that should be practiced when using the Internet for school?

By Ashley

Related Links:

http://cyberethics.cbi.msstate.edu/

http://www.cybercrime.gov/rules/kidinternet.htm

http://www.cybercrime.gov/rules/lessonplan1.htm

Reference: Baum, J. (2005) Cyber Ethics: The New Frontier. TechTrends, Vol.49, Issue 6, pp.54-55.

Cyber Ethics Article Summary

The article "Cyber Ethics: the New Frontier," discusses the need for educators to teach their students about what is and what is not ethical online. This article begins by questioning whether students' poor judgment when using technology is related to a lack of care toward school policies, do they just not care, or has the internet brought about a change in the core values of these students. The article continues on to address topics related to cyber ethics including digital plagiarism and the computer ethics curriculum.

Scholastic Inc., in a study of 47,235 students, revealed that 48% of juveniles do not consider hacking a crime. They found that although most youth today are unlikely to commit serious crimes, they will not think twice when performing a cyber crime. Internet plagiarism is also a rising problem through websites allowing students to download papers, as well as post their own.

With all of these problems on the rise, the introduction of the computer ethics curriculum seems to be a necessary component when using the Internet in the classroom and has been found to be effective in a short session related to each computer use in the classroom. Although many educators have found it challenging to begin to implement such change, students are gradually being given cyber ethics training, which will hopefully continue to lessen the problems associated with using the internet in the classroom and allow for the internet to be used productively.

Do you think that taking time out of intructional time is worth it for the use of technology in the classroom?

Related links:
Rules in Cyberspace http://www.cybercrime.gov/rules/kidinternet.htm
Tools for Teaching Cyber Ethics http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech055.shtml
Teaching Kids About Cyber Ethics http://www.shsu.edu/~lis_mah/documents/TCEA/brightideasportal.html

by Shauna