EdTech needs an ethics policy
Since the onset of the pandemic, the online education has replaced conventional classroom instruction and it resulted in spawning of several EdTech apps which have become popular.
- The education and technology are in a new and often exhilarating partnership that continues to grow as new EdTech players pop up around the world.
EdTech Needs an Ethics Policy
- Privacy of students is at risk: The lack of a regulatory framework in India along the lines of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe could impinge on the privacy of students who now use educational technology (EdTech) apps for learning.
- Smooth transition of educational content online: Schools and colleges have been able to move their content delivery, engagement and evaluation from offline to online, and ensure minimal academic disruption.
- Transformation of role of teachers and professors: The transition of educational content from offline to online has forced teachers to become facilitators in learning rather than being content providers.
- Customization of learning experience for students: The EdTech apps have the advantage of being able to customize learning to every student in the system.
- Applications and devices can enter private space of students: The apps collect large quantities of data from the learners through the gadgets that the students use to perform the process of learning customization.
- It provides data about the learner’s surroundings along with intimate data like the emotions and attitudes experienced and expressed via facial expressions and body temperature changes.
- Minimal Safeguards available for learners: In the EdTech industry, where investments are pouring in, the researchers and app developers are being pushed to be as intrusive as possible.
- The safeguards that traditional researchers are subject to are either missing or minimal in research that the EdTech industry promotes.
- Lack of supervision on children: The children use these apps without parent or adult supervision and the intrusion of privacy can happen unnoticed.
- Lack of concept of informed consent: It is not meaningful since there are no proper primers to explain to stakeholders the intricacies in layperson terms.
Significant role of Ethics Policy in EdTech
- Take care of technology equipment: With malware and viruses running rampant, students must learn to watch what they download, click and share.
- Explore appropriate and safe sites for learning and research: The teachers can provide a list of approved websites and students need to learn how to evaluate websites and assess whether they can trust the content.
- Copyright law, Fair Use Act and Creative Commons matter: The students learn how to copy and paste without realizing the copyright implications.
- The understanding of copyright and related laws will help ensure students follow the rules in using and sharing content.
- Help prevent cyberbullying: The anonymity of the internet and not seeing faces makes it easy to "say" things one would not utter in person.
- Teaching students about cyberbullying requires discussing not only its definition but also how hurtful and damaging it can be.
- Self-image is important: Without seeing faces, people can easily overshare in a digital world.
- Kids need to learn how future employers look up candidates' social media accounts to see how they represent themselves in public.
- Appreciation for Moral Considerations: The ability to identify and analyze conflicting and competing moral interests involved in any given situation is very important when faced with ethical dilemmas.
Features of Ethics Policy for EdTech
- Informed Consent should be at the forefront: The researchers dealing with human subjects need to comply with ethics rules that committees of their respective research organisations formulate, along with global standards.
- One of the cardinal rules that should never be broken is informed consent.
- Transparency in conducting research with students: A researcher working with children would have to convince schoolteachers, parents, and school managements about:
- The nature of the research to be undertaken;
- The type of data to be collected;
- The method of storage; and
- The potential harmful effects of such data.
- It should be done in writing, while giving the learner the option to opt out of the study at any point of time without any repercussions.
- Requiring High Ethics from Everyone: The administrators need not only concern themselves with their own ethical standards but also with the ethical standards of others in their organization.
- It includes not only teachers and staff, but extends to students and parents.
- These standards must be communicated clearly and enforced without exception in order to be effective.
- Inclusiveness: A sense of belonging is key to gaining trust within an organization, and trust a driving factor in success in any context but most especially within the educational context.
- The inclusiveness requires that all stakeholders be brought into process of making and implementing decisions.
- The consideration of and respect for members of the organization has been shown to motivate followers and lift morale, thereby increasing school performance and effectiveness.
Road ahead
- It is necessary to formulate an ethics policy for EdTech companies through the active participation of educators, researchers, parents, learners and industry experts.
- The policy draft should be circulated both online and offline for discussions and criticism.
- The issues of fairness, safety, confidentiality and anonymity of the user would have to be dealt with.
- The EdTech companies would have to be encouraged to comply in the interest of a healthier learning ecosystem.
- The ability to respond more creatively as a particular crisis unfolds is a helpful strategy and can provide another way to mitigate falsehoods and to protect an organization’s reputation.
- The schools are uniquely charged with not only affecting the people who walk through their doors every day, but the transitory nature of the population means that administrators and staff have that much more of a responsibility to execute their jobs ethically.
Next
previous
Latest News
General Studies