LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONTEXT IN MY DIGITAL PRACTICE. Week 29

LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONTEXT IN MY DIGITAL PRACTICE. Week 29

This Blog covers the challenge of High School Students having their own internet connection through personal devices and data plans and the subsequent consequences for us as practitioners in protecting our students when not in the classroom. The use of school networks are closely monitored and safeguarded. However, what are our responsibilities when students access inappropriate material in school time but not in the classroom or over the school network and what does this mean for our practice?

I recently had an incident where 2 senior school students were viewing inappropriate and offensive material on a mobile device, just  having left my classroom and starting breaktime. I spoke to the students who acknowledged that it was unsuitable and reported it to the Dean who in turn followed the procedures as laid out in our Safe User Policy adopted from Netsafe. On investigation it transpired that the student was not connected to the school network and in effect that he was not breaching any of the school network rules. The parent was reluctant to acknowledge that the material was objectionable even though the site was R18. When asked why I reported it to the school management I referred to the Education Council's code of ethics which states “To teach using the code of ethics we will be positive role models, be respectful of others privacy, keep confidentiality and maintain professional relationships” (Education Council (n.d). The parent was concerned about the legal aspect of accessing the site. The Dean and I referred to The Ministry of Education's document DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY Safe and Responsible Use in Schools (February 2015) which gave this advice:

“Identifying whether problematic conduct is inappropriate or unlawful will have a significant impact on a school’s response. For example, if a criminally unlawful act has occurred, the police should be contacted directly for advice” (p6). 

We both did not feel that it was a matter for the police and preferred to deal with the issue at school.

To resolve this issue the Dean and I had to reinforce  the safeguards put in place at school to prevent  offensive material reaching our students. We had a long discussion at how effective they are are came to these elucidations.

Safeguarding our students.

When students report classmates watching inappropriate material on their BYOD or mobile device when they should be engaged in a class activity - there are clear boundaries that have been overstepped. Most schools will have a Digital Use policy and Digital Citizenship statement that the student parents sign. School networks will have sophisticated filtering systems and safe sites identified by Netsafe and their internet provider (usually NT4L). Yet it is becoming increasing more difficult to filter out the inappropriate content due the website providers tagging the content with innocuous words so that it passes the test around keyword alerts.

Classroom monitoring. 

Additionally with more sophisticated IT classroom systems that show and list the users website history plus real time displays of user activity (such as Hepara dashboard) one would think it would be easy to identify inappropriate content and activity by simply looking at the website address. One obvious strategy to prevent students accessing inappropriate material is to give them a safe or known list of websites from which to resource their information. However, this also means that the teacher is directing the activity and limiting the information available and therefore stifling their creativity and access to further knowledge.

Consequences at school.

To support the user agreement policy there are clear procedures and consequences. If students access inappropriate material, rules are breached and the standard procedure is to call the parents in and restrict or even prevent internet access. This has significant impact especially at Secondary School as often an assessment task is reliant on accessing the internet for information. 

Implication for the school and my practice.

Both the parent and school now recognize that students’ access to the internet is no longer limited to schools, home and WiFi hot spots. These still remain the main way we connect to the internet. However with the development of mobile devices being able to access 3G and  4G networks, students have far more independence and opportunity to access the internet when they want and view what they want. This is more often the case with High School Senior students who often work part-time and pay out of their own pocket for their plans and data.

What schools need to focus on is individuals' own responsibilities and to educate them to what is inappropriate and offensive material. This needs to evolve from the protection to learning safe and responsible usage of the internet as this graphic shows from The Ministry of Education document DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY Safe and Responsible Use in Schools (February 2015).   

(p.16)

The most telling factor was the discussion around leaving a digital footprint and that no matter how hard you try to delete your own web browser history there is a permanent record somewhere of you accessing a site and the content that was viewed. That is the moment of realisation that even though the internet is a wonderful thing it needs to be used responsibly.

References

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY Safe and responsible use in schools: Ministry of Education document (February 2015) retrieved from  http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/School/Managing-and-supporting-students/DigitalTechnologySafeAndResponsibleUseInSchs.pdf

Educational Council, (n.d), The Educational Council Code of Ethics for Certified teachers. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0

Staying Safe Online :https://www.netsafe.org.nz/resourcesengageparentscommunity/

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