The Ethics of Technology Use

How necessary is it for me, as a teacher, to use technology ethically in my classroom? I would say it is essential. If I were to pirate materials online and then use them in my lessons, what sort of message is that sending to my students? As a teacher, I consider myself to be not only an academic instructor, but a life coach as well. In a world in which students spend more time playing video games than they do speaking to their parents, I feel that teachers need to help further their students' moral knowledge just as they need to further their knowledge in English or mathematics. If I download something illegally and use it to teach my students, the bigger message that they will receive is that I condone activities such as downloading materials online without purchasing them. 

I, however, am not completely innocent in terms of downloading things online. This summer, I was hired to tutor a girl in Japanese. I had a textbook and workbook from when I was just starting out, but I needed a new copy of the workbook for my student to use. Instead of buying a new one or forcing my student to buy one, I downloaded a new copy. The job never came to fruition, though, so I deleted the downloaded workbook from my computer. At the time, I felt that I was doing a good thing by getting the materials that my student would need without any added cost for her, but I now regret this action despite having purchased the workbook from the company previously. I definitely don't want to show support for downloaded material, least of all to my students. I will never do this in the future - anything worth using in my classroom is worth paying for.

In my classroom, I will make sure to use only the technology that I can access legally, such as videos on YouTube (that aren't copyrighted) or websites specifically used by teachers. Perhaps I would even have a short lesson on the negative effects of downloading pirated materials. I want to help my students to see that illegal activities, no matter how innocent they seem, are never a legitimate option in life.

Monitoring Internet security is a major issue in the digital age. Opening a certain web page or email can result in a debilitating virus, which usually never ends well. I also would not like having my students click on a link and find their computer screens flooded with inappropriate advertisements. Before I have my students do any sort of activity online, I would make sure to investigate the website thoroughly to make sure that nothing inappropriate or harmful will come of using it in my classroom. I would also advise my students to create secure accounts to prevent hacking issues in my classroom.