Three sets of computer ethics

Last week Stephen Downes wrote a short post reacting to this old set of ethical standards for computer use:

Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics created by the Computer Ethics Institute*

1. Thou Shalt Not Use A Computer To Harm Other People.
2. Thou Shalt Not Interfere With Other People’s Computer Work.
3. Thou Shalt Not Snoop Around In Other People’s Computer Files.
4. Thou Shalt Not Use A Computer To Steal.
5. Thou Shalt Not Use A Computer To Bear False Witness.
6. Thou Shalt Not Copy Or Use Proprietary Software For Which You have Not Paid.
7. Thou Shalt Not Use Other People’s Computer Resources Without Authorization Or Proper Compensation.
8. Thou Shalt Not Appropriate Other People’s Intellectual Output.
9. Thou Shalt Think About The Social Consequences Of The Program You Are Writing Or The System You Are Designing.
10. Thou Shalt Always Use A Computer In Ways That Insure Consideration And Respect For Your Fellow Humans.

Stephen offers an alternative set: 

Downes's Computer Use Guidelines 

• don't use computers to hurt people
• respect people's privacy
• don't take or use other people's stuff without permission
• be truthful in your communications
• don't send people unwanted messages
• don't write malicious or destructive code
• be generous and share what you create
• turn off the power when room and computer are not in use

I don't disagree with a single guideline of Stephens, although I might categorize a couple of these as polite behavior rather rising to the level of ethical behavior. Or perhaps that's just splitting hairs.

Personally, I still like my simple guidelines:

Johnson’s 3 P’s of Technology Ethics:

1. Privacy - I will protect my privacy and respect the privacy of others.
2. Property - I will protect my property and respect the property of others.
3. a(P)propriate Use - I will use technology in constructive ways and in ways which do not break the rules of my family, faith, school, or government.

Long lists of specific rules seem to me less effective than a few simple guidelines that can be applied in any situation. But those who enforce such rules with students need to be comfortable with a degree of flexibility, interpretation and ambiguity. Guidelines such as the 3 P's recognize that different people, different families, and different cultures may have different ethical standards. 

One of my prime biases is that education should be about teaching people to think, not to believe. Technology ethics is fine place to practice that belief.

*Note that these have been around for awhile. I quoted them in a paper published in 1998.

Social networking policy whiplash

A comment related to a recent post has been lodged in my brain. (Good thing something is.) A teacher wrote:

... social networks - ...  Last year it was you are all fools for being on Facebook, you can't friend any student not even your own kid or their friends until they are 18 ...  If you post something negative about our school I can fire you.

This year it is  - you have to join Facebook, you have to like our page, you have to vote so we get Target gift cards, you have to let us [the school] post pictures of you and tag them, ... you have to friend parents.

Our district, like many, is softening its approach to the use of Facebook by teachers, administrators, and librarians. Three years ago, we took a fairly cautious approach to teachers using Facebook and other social media with students. (See our guidelines below.) This school year seems to be starting with an increasing number of people recommending that professionals have a "Facebook presence" to communicate with parents and students.

Are a lot of teachers suffering from social networking policy whiplash similar to that expressed by the teacher quoted above? I'd bet dollars to doughnuts some of ours may feel this way.

Is it time to revise our guidelines? Your thoughts?

Scott McLeod, are these too restrictive?
Bill Storm, are these too permissive?

Guidelines for Educators Using Social and Educational Networking Sites 
August 20, 2009

Social networks are rapidly growing in popularity and use by all ages in society. The most popular social networks are web-based, commercial, and not purposely designed for educational use. They include sites like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and Xanga. For individuals, social networking sites provide tremendous opportunities for staying in touch with friends and family.

Educational networking sites are also growing in use. These sites are used by educators for both professional development and as a teaching tool, and are usually restricted to selected users and not available to the general public. These include networking tools such as Moodle, educational wikis, specially created Nings, or district adoptions of online applications such as Saywire, Live@edu or Google Apps for Education.

As educators, we have a professional image to uphold and how we conduct ourselves online impacts this image. As reported by the media, there have been instances of educators demonstrating professional misconduct while engaging in inappropriate dialogue about their schools and/or students or posting pictures and videos of themselves engaged in inappropriate activity online. Mistakenly, some educators feel that being online shields them from having their personal lives examined. But educators’ online identities are very public and can cause serious repercussions if their behavior is careless.

One of the hallmarks of online networks, both social and educational, is the ability to “friend” others – creating a group of others that share interests and personal news. The district strongly discourages teachers from accepting invitations to friend students within personal social networking sites. When students gain access into a teacher’s network of friends and acquaintances and are able to view personal photos and communications, the student-teacher dynamic is altered. By friending students, teachers provide more information than one should share in an educational setting. It is important to maintain a professional relationship with students to avoid relationships that could cause bias in the classroom.

The district does recognize the value of student/teacher interaction on educational networking sites. Collaboration, resource sharing, and student/teacher and student/student dialog can all be facilitated by the judicious use of educational networking tools. Such interactivity is a critical component of any online class and can greatly enhance face-to-face classes. Yet since this is a new means of communication, some guidelines are in order for educational networking as well.

For the protection of your professional reputation, the district recommends the following practices:

Guidelines for the use of social networking sites by professional staff:

• Do not accept students as friends on personal social networking sites. Decline any student-initiated friend requests.
• Do not initiate friendships with students.
• Remember that people classified as “friends” have the ability to download and share your information with others.
• Post only what you want the world to see. Imagine your students, their parents, your administrator, visiting your site. It is not like posting something to your web site or blog and then realizing that a story or photo should be taken down. On a social networking site, basically once you post something it may be available, even after it is removed from the site.
• Do not discuss students or coworkers or publicly criticize school policies or personnel.
• Visit your profile’s security and privacy settings. At a minimum, educators should have all privacy settings set to “only friends”. “Friends of friends” and “Networks and Friends” open your content to a large group of unknown people. Your privacy and that of your family may be a risk.

Guidelines for the use of educational networking sites by professional staff:

• Let your administrator, fellow teachers and parents know about your educational network.
• When available, use school-supported networking tools.
• Do not say or do any thing that you would not say or do in as a teacher in the classroom. (Remember that all online communications are stored and can be monitored.)
• Have a clear statement of purpose and outcomes for the use of the networking tool.
• Establish a code of conduct for all network participants.
• Do not post images that include students without parental release forms on file.
• Pay close attention to the site's security settings and allow only approved participants access to the site.

Guidelines for all networking sites by professional staff:

• Do not use commentary deemed to be defamatory, obscene, proprietary, or libelous. Exercise caution with regards to exaggeration, colorful language, guesswork, obscenity, copyrighted materials, legal conclusions, and derogatory remarks or characterizations.
• Weigh whether a particular posting puts your effectiveness as a teacher at risk.
• Due to security risks, be cautious when installing the external applications that work with the social networking site. Examples of these sites are calendar programs and games.
• Run updated malware protection to avoid infections of spyware and adware that social networking sites might place on your computer.
• Be careful not to fall for phishing scams that arrive via email or on your wall, providing a link for you to click, leading to a fake login page.
• If a staff member learns of information, on the social networking site, that falls under the mandatory reporting guidelines, they must report it as required by law.

Please stay informed and cautious in the use of all new networking technologies. 

Resources

• Should Students and Teachers be Online Friends?, Cheri Lucashttp://www.education.com/magazine/article/Students_Teachers_Social_Networking/
• A Teachers Guide to Using Facebook, Bernadette Regohttp://www.scribd.com/doc/16957158/Teachers-Guide-to-Using-Facebook-Read-Fullscreen
• Connections for Learning: a White Paper. Saywire, 2009

Written by Jen Hegna, Information Systems Manager, Byron (MN) Public Schools and Doug Johnson, Director of Media and Technology, Mankato (MN) Public Schools

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Is it my imagination or ...

are these things getting harder to get right the first, second or third time?

Am I becoming a robot?