Digital and web-based communication platforms make it so easy to share learning with the whanau and caregivers of the students in our classes. What was once hidden can now be openly celebrated with the wider class community. But how can we keep everyone safe in a digital age and what are our responsibilities as educators to ensure safety for all?
As the exploration and use of digital technologies have evolved, so too has the need for clear guidelines as students, teachers and schools begin to encounter issues that had never occurred before. Online bullying, harmful use of digital images and poor online conduct, in general, highlight a need for digital citizenship practices and the development of laws and guidelines for all involved.
In New Zealand, teachers are governed by a Code of Ethics (Education Council, nd), legislation* and various local school-based policies which help provide and maintain effective and safe learning environments both on and offline. Dealing social/digital media and all the unknown complexities of this form of communication will create times where teachers are confronted with ethical dilemmas in which they need to deal with.
Feeney and Freeman, as quoted on the New Zealand Education Council website (nd) defines an ethical dilemma as "A situation an individual encounters in the workplace for which there is more than one possible solution, each carrying a strong moral justification. A dilemma requires a person to choose between two alternatives, each of which has some benefits but also some costs (Feeney and Freeman, 1999, p.24)."
The dilemma I want to focus on was an issue that occurred over 7 years ago. At the time, cyber-based bullying incidents were quite new and reflecting back now I can see just how much things we have evolved and changed in response to issues surrounding the misuse of these technologies. Using Rolfe, Freshwater and Jasper’s (2001) reflective model, I will discuss an issue that many teachers will have encountered - cyberbullying, but also look back on how as a profession and, in part, society has changed in response to the need to deal with this issue also.
What:
A student and parent came to school after hurtful and degrading comments were sent and posted digitally by another student in my class.
So what:
Students were spoken to separately. As this incident had happened outside of school and school hours there was an unspoken feeling it wasn’t a school issue but we wanted to deal with it anyway. The student who sent the messages lied and denied her actions, even after it was clear what had occurred (it was thoroughly investigated). A meeting was set up with the principal and unfortunately, the family lied about the student's role in the incident too. The dilemma was not just about the student who was hurt during this interaction but also about a perceived lack of awareness and responsibility in hurting someone else. It wasn’t just the student receiving the messages that was being harmed in this situation.
Now what:
Although there was nothing we could do further, the family was clearly made aware of what was going on and had the facts presented to them. The school could only clearly state the guidelines they expected from student behaviour. We didn’t have a school policy concerning this as it was quite new territory. And there were no further issues as the whanau ended up moving to a new town- which was a real shame.
Today, you could say there has been a shift in focus from dealing with incidents after the fact, towards educating students about preventing incidents from happening and how to be positive digital citizens. We now have school policies, the Education Act (1989), has been updated to reflect digital elements of education, other legislative acts have been brought in to ensure safety and awareness on the internet. In my classroom students are encouraged to think about their digital actions, in and out of school and are beginning to become more aware of the legalities involved in digital interactions. Programmes of work have been developed to help students and teachers navigate within this new learning territory. There has been a move from thinking about digital behaviour that occurs ‘outside of school as not being a schools problem. In fact, the Ministry of Education (2016. p27) states “Schools have a responsibility to act…” in such incidents.
What is evident is that school communities and whanau need to work in partnership so that our students are best equipped to be responsible digital citizens of tomorrow. What I most importantly learned from this incident was that we need to take care of ALL our students, informing and helping them to make good decisions online and to think before they send or post content.
* Harmful Digital Communications Act, 2015. Netsafe.org (2016). Various amendments to the NZ Education Act, 1989, as stated in Ministry of Education (2015).
References:
Education Council New Zealand. (n.d.). Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved March 24, 2018, from https://teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/resources/frequently-asked-questions
Ministry of Education. (2015). Digital technology - Safe and responsible use in schools. Retrieved from http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/School/Managing-and-supporting-students/DigitalTechnologySafeAndResponsibleUseInSchs.pdf
Netsafe.org. (2016). THE HDC Act and Netsafe. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.netsafe.org.nz/hdc-act/
Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wanted: Digital Citizens [Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://digitaljlearning.org/blog/2016/04/19/teaching-responsibility-wild-west-cyberspace
As the exploration and use of digital technologies have evolved, so too has the need for clear guidelines as students, teachers and schools begin to encounter issues that had never occurred before. Online bullying, harmful use of digital images and poor online conduct, in general, highlight a need for digital citizenship practices and the development of laws and guidelines for all involved.
In New Zealand, teachers are governed by a Code of Ethics (Education Council, nd), legislation* and various local school-based policies which help provide and maintain effective and safe learning environments both on and offline. Dealing social/digital media and all the unknown complexities of this form of communication will create times where teachers are confronted with ethical dilemmas in which they need to deal with.
Feeney and Freeman, as quoted on the New Zealand Education Council website (nd) defines an ethical dilemma as "A situation an individual encounters in the workplace for which there is more than one possible solution, each carrying a strong moral justification. A dilemma requires a person to choose between two alternatives, each of which has some benefits but also some costs (Feeney and Freeman, 1999, p.24)."
The dilemma I want to focus on was an issue that occurred over 7 years ago. At the time, cyber-based bullying incidents were quite new and reflecting back now I can see just how much things we have evolved and changed in response to issues surrounding the misuse of these technologies. Using Rolfe, Freshwater and Jasper’s (2001) reflective model, I will discuss an issue that many teachers will have encountered - cyberbullying, but also look back on how as a profession and, in part, society has changed in response to the need to deal with this issue also.
What:
A student and parent came to school after hurtful and degrading comments were sent and posted digitally by another student in my class.
So what:
Students were spoken to separately. As this incident had happened outside of school and school hours there was an unspoken feeling it wasn’t a school issue but we wanted to deal with it anyway. The student who sent the messages lied and denied her actions, even after it was clear what had occurred (it was thoroughly investigated). A meeting was set up with the principal and unfortunately, the family lied about the student's role in the incident too. The dilemma was not just about the student who was hurt during this interaction but also about a perceived lack of awareness and responsibility in hurting someone else. It wasn’t just the student receiving the messages that was being harmed in this situation.
Now what:
Although there was nothing we could do further, the family was clearly made aware of what was going on and had the facts presented to them. The school could only clearly state the guidelines they expected from student behaviour. We didn’t have a school policy concerning this as it was quite new territory. And there were no further issues as the whanau ended up moving to a new town- which was a real shame.
Today, you could say there has been a shift in focus from dealing with incidents after the fact, towards educating students about preventing incidents from happening and how to be positive digital citizens. We now have school policies, the Education Act (1989), has been updated to reflect digital elements of education, other legislative acts have been brought in to ensure safety and awareness on the internet. In my classroom students are encouraged to think about their digital actions, in and out of school and are beginning to become more aware of the legalities involved in digital interactions. Programmes of work have been developed to help students and teachers navigate within this new learning territory. There has been a move from thinking about digital behaviour that occurs ‘outside of school as not being a schools problem. In fact, the Ministry of Education (2016. p27) states “Schools have a responsibility to act…” in such incidents.
What is evident is that school communities and whanau need to work in partnership so that our students are best equipped to be responsible digital citizens of tomorrow. What I most importantly learned from this incident was that we need to take care of ALL our students, informing and helping them to make good decisions online and to think before they send or post content.
* Harmful Digital Communications Act, 2015. Netsafe.org (2016). Various amendments to the NZ Education Act, 1989, as stated in Ministry of Education (2015).
References:
Education Council New Zealand. (n.d.). Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved March 24, 2018, from https://teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/resources/frequently-asked-questions
Ministry of Education. (2015). Digital technology - Safe and responsible use in schools. Retrieved from http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/School/Managing-and-supporting-students/DigitalTechnologySafeAndResponsibleUseInSchs.pdf
Netsafe.org. (2016). THE HDC Act and Netsafe. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.netsafe.org.nz/hdc-act/
Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wanted: Digital Citizens [Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://digitaljlearning.org/blog/2016/04/19/teaching-responsibility-wild-west-cyberspace
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