Transcript No Slide Title

Ethics in Cyberspace:
Teaching Gifted Students to Be Responsible Users of
Online Technologies
Frances Jacobson Harris
University Laboratory High School
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
November 5, 2006
Giftedness and moral development
• Advanced sensitivity to moral
concerns
• Seekers of justice, fairness, and
honesty
• Seekers of perfection
• Asynchronous (i.e., none of the
above may apply)
Are cyberethics different?
• Lack of affective feedback and remoteness
from harm
• Reduced fear of detection and punishment
• New environment means new rules
• Perceptions of fighting social injustice and
corruption
Nancy Willard, 1998
Cyberethics meets giftedness
• “Authority” has been redefined (as youth
or as “me”)
• Perceived lack of moral or ethical impact
on others
• Legal vs. ethical hair-splitting
• Using technology to right wrongs
• Testing the technology “because I can”
Case study: Hacking
• In itself, not a bad thing
• Hacktivism
– Ends justify the means
• Nerd discipline
– Sense of power and entitlement
– Rules only apply to others
Case study: Freedom of expression
vs. freedom from expression
• Publishing photos of principal
smoking (free speech)
• J. S. v. Bethlehem School District
(obscene and libelous speech)
• Online bullying
What’s a school to do?
• Regulatory approaches
• Technological approaches
• Pedagogical approaches
A pedagogical approach
• Computer Literacy 1
• Computer applications and survival
skills
• Required of all first year students
–Combined seventh/eighth grade
• One semester
• Team-taught
Scenario method
• For complex concepts
• Makes abstract ideas concrete
• Motivational and engaging
Implementation: Start with technology
•
•
•
•
Online forums
Blogs, wikis, etc.
Offline
Fill in your own...
Finish with ftf class discussion
• Clear up misconceptions
– Ethical
– Legal
– School policy
• Compare the online world to the
offline world
In
• Respond to the scenario by offering an
opinion of the behaviors involved or by
suggesting a solution to the situation. Your
response does not need to be more than a
few sentences in length (but can be longer
if you wish).
• Post at least one follow up message
responding to someone else's opinion.
Albert has a web page on the topic of
sailboats. He has collected a truly
astonishing amount of information and
receives many complimentary e-mail
messages from sailing enthusiasts. He
has downloaded numerous pictures and
articles he finds on other web sites, and is
always careful to give credit by citing the
original sources.
• So what's the problem?
• Albert is a good person. No internet
robbery.
• There could be a possible problem with
plagiarism regarding this website. I feel
that if he is giving credit and not receiving
profit from his website then he should
keep it. If it is helping people and not
hurting them, he should keep adding to
his website
• I would say Albert certainly knows what
he is doing. he should check with the
owners of the pictures to make sure he is
not breaking any copyright laws.
• It is only good if he has permission to
show these pictures. Mr. Beesley said that
even if u cite it, it isn’t enough, you have
to get permission. So i think he needs to
check on this.
Sharon and Timothy are students at Big Suburban
High School. They have designed a web page
devoted to their favorite rock band using their
personal space on the school's Web server. They
have posted song clips, lyrics, photographs of each
band member, and articles they have found in
various Web news sources. However, school
authorities have asked them to shut down their site
because of the obscene content of many of the
lyrics. Sharon and Timothy object, noting that
their First Amendment (free speech) rights are
being violated.
• I think that since it is the school's server, the students
should have to follow the school rules, and it's really
not appropriate to have explicit lyrics on there. If it
were say, the students own personal site than
obviously they should leave it on there, but the server
doesn't belong to them. It's like writing swear words
in sharpie all over your locker, it doesn't belong to
you.
• I think they should be allowed to keep their website
up, obscene lyrics and all. They can post whatever
they want, and if someone is offended by their site,
rather than making a big deal just DON'T GO TO
THE SITE. Maybe they should make a warning so
that people who object so strongly can be warned, but
really it's the problem of whoever visits their site.
See this: http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/about_uni/School%20policies/webpolicy.htm:
II. Material or Forms of Expression Not Acceptable for Publication
A. Uni High student publications shall not print the following types of material:
– Anything that is libelous or obscene (as those terms are defined by the U.S. Supreme Court).
– Ad hominem attacks or derogatory statements directed toward fellow students or members of
the Uni High faculty, staff, and administration (i.e., criticisms that are directed at the person
rather than at the policies or actions.)
– Profanities
– Material that is plagiarized.
– Material that violates copyright laws.
– Material that is illegally or unethically obtained.
B. The teacher of the web class shall be responsible for ensuring that unacceptable
material as defined above no be published.
• There are also clean versions of songs, if they
don't feel like taking off the songs. Just replace
the offensive with the unoffensive. Also, with the
lyrics, just leave asterisks in place of those
profane words and let our teenage minds decide
for ourselves what it is.
• hey don't have to change it because of the 1st
amendment, but there is a HUGE difference
between legal and ethical. Because of this
difference, they should at least put **** on the
bad words
• The kids should not only be getting in trouble for
the content but also for the copyright and the
other things that they stole from people.
• What that is a bad idea because they did not ask
permission to use the stuff and the school could
get in trouble.
• First of all, they don't necessarily have the
permission to post these things. Also, they should
consider censoring the content, but I don't think
the whole site should be shut down. As long as
they obtain permission and censor the content,
the site isn't harmful or anything.
Libby posts some complaints about Mr. Johnson on
her MySpace page. She says he’s a terrible teacher and
that he plays favorites. Roger responds by posting a
doctored photo of Mr. Johnson with devil horns and
blood coming out of his mouth. Theresa’s follow-up
comment is that Mr. Johnson “should be fired and put
on the police list of sex offenders.” More and more
people post comments (some with images) until
Libby’s page comes to the attention of the school
administration. Libby and several of the people who
posted comments are called in for disciplinary action.
The school administration blocks MySpace.com from
the school network.
• Why would Libby be expelled for having her
own opinion on a teacher? She cannot control
what other people post and other people's
actions.
• This is none of the school's business. It's true
that it might be offensive to the teacher(s), but
as long as the posting was not done at school,
then the school really can't do anything.
Libby is being a jerk and should be thrown
out of school. This is a very mean thing to
say especially because the entire internet
can read it. The people who replied are even
more stupid than libby because they were
trying to make the teacher out as a man of
hell. It should be illegal to write about
teachers on your personal forums because
of the harm it can cause to the forum head,
repliers, and the website thats posting it
• No she is not being mean she is just voicing
her opinion. But it was not smart of her to
post it online. Her friends however are
being mean because they just make up
things about the teacher.
• But if the school bans Myspace, it doesn't
matter. Students can access Myspace
anywhere. They can just go home and keep
leaving comments. They might even leave
even harsher comments because the school
banned Myspace
I think that Libby should have put a stop to it
before it got out of control, its her myspace so
whatever is on it is her responsibility. Even if
the teacher is bad, myspace is public and
everyone can see it so its not the best place to
put things like that on it. She shouldve either
deleted the comments or asked people to stop
putting the pictures on her myspace.
• If the teacher saw this it may cause a change in
the school. Besides, regardless if Libby herself
posted pictures or not there were still pictures.
• Myspace isn't a very "personal" webpage. It is
as public as anything gets! The whole reason
someone is on myspace is so that they can talk
to others and create an online community for
themselves!
Scenario 3
Lester sends e-mail to the entire student
body inviting them to a BYOB party at his
house while his parents are out of town.
Lester receives a message from a system
administrator calling him in for a meeting
with school officials. He objects because he
feels that his e-mail is his own private
business.
Privacy
• I think your e-mail is your private
business affair and no one should have
the right to read your e-mail, it is
offending our civil liberty rights.
• Your email is like your personal mail.
NO one should have the right to invade
your privacy. It is unconstitutional.
Privacy
I think that the email is private and none
of the schools business. they have no
right to punish Lester for something that
is between him and his parents. for all
the administration knows, his parents
might not even care.
Privacy
First of all, email is not private. Lester is
in the wrong. It is also a bit nosy of the
school officials to be looking in his
email. It is probably a bad thing that
Lester is having this party unless his
parents said he could. The administrator
should probably have a talk with his
parents before doing anything.
Privacy
• I agree with XXXX, nothing over the
internet is private. Phone calls would be
MUCH better.
• If Lester wants his e-mail to be private,
sending it to an address list of about 300
students isn't the answer. He should have
expected somebody to notice it.
Privacy
Lester ought to have:
a. more sense than to have BYOB party
for the whole school as such things tend to
get out of control,
b. not sent it too the whole [student] body,
unless he trusts THEM not to tell his
parents, and unless he wants the teachers
to come, too.
School responsibility
I know that it was really stupid for Lester
to email that to the entire school, but I
don't think that they [the school
administration] should get involved in it.
What he does on his private property is his
own business, and if he is willing to risk it,
he can.
School responsibility
Considering that Lester's parents are out of
town, this party really can not be allowed to
happen. The school officials are rightfully
anticipating a dangerous situation, knowing
that they would be responsible if anything
were to happen at Lester's party.
Considering he is sending this to every
student, the school officials have a right to
protest this action.
School responsibility
He should just face the fact that he's
going to get in trouble for his own
actions. The non-existent privacy doesn't
matter, because it's going out to a whole
lot of people and it's also the business of
the school administration.
Scenario 4
Word gets around that Sylvester maintains
a web site on the Geocities web server.
Besides containing sexually explicit
references to a couple of girls at school, the
web site links to hard core porn sites.
School officials find out about it and tell
Sylvester that they will be informing his
parents about the web site.
• Sylvester is a perv. However, I believe that it
is not the school's responsibility to punish
Sylvester unless he is using the Uni Server or
is sending the site to Uni students at their Uni
accounts.
• Notify[ing] his parents probably won’t stop
the problem. If he is posting stuff about girls
without their permission, legal officials should
be involved.
I think that if the school had nothing to do
with this web site (it was not hosting it or
giving him permission to build it) it has no
business in his websites. However, if another
girl from his school is being spoken of
without her consent, then she has the right to
take this case to a higher level. The porn
sites are also none of the schools business, as
long as the school has nothing to do with it.
(The school could and should hand this over
to the boy’s parents)
• But it does concern the school if it's
getting spread around through the school.
Schools have to take charge of bad
situations sometimes.
• I agree with ****-- it's really wrong to do
stuff like that. Even though it's the
internet, and he's free to do what he
wants, everyone involved should be
notified.
Scenario 6
After the September 11th terrorist attack,
many students and teachers send related
e-mail to the “all-student” or “all-faculty”
mailing lists. Most of the messages
contain information about the status of
former students and about ways people
can help in the crisis… 
But Penelope sends a long note with a heavy
religious message. And Mr. Snidden sends
out patriotic graphics and images. A small
delegation of students takes their objections
to the administration. They understood that
these all-school mailing lists, which are
screened by the school’s system
administrator, were supposed to be used for
school related, informational purposes only.
• Penelope and Mr. Snidden have a right to
share their opinions even if they are not
informational. As for the rule about allschool mailing lists, that rule is violated
several times each week and Penelope and
Mr. Snidden are not the only ones doing
this.
• Just because everyone is doing it does not
make it right. If there is anything I hate it is
being pushed with religious influences.
• If you don’t care about these messages
then don't read them!!!
• Personally… I do read them....but
they're not to the benefit of the whole
student body so they shouldn't be sent
to the whole student body.
This situation is a difficult one. Everyone is
right in some ways, and everyone is wrong.
Although I think both Penelope and Mr.
Snidden meant well and were doing what they
thought was right, some people might be
offended by their messages. However,
everyone is entitled to freedom of speech, and
so they should be able to send messages with
their own beliefs and opinions. I'm really not
sure what should be done in this situation
because everyone is right.
Scenario 7
Several students have discovered a web
site that promotes anorexia as a lifestyle
choice rather than an eating disorder. It
includes tips for weight loss, pictures that
glamorize the anorexic look, a discussion
board members use to support one another,
and other material that promotes “anorexic
pride.”
School counselors have asked that this
site and others like it be blocked on the
school network. They point out that
anorexia is a deadly disease and that
some students are particularly
susceptible to this type of
misinformation.
I think its good that they're blocking. I’ve
seen what’s happened to some people
who were anorexic and it’s really bad.
Anorexia may be a type of lifestyle, but
its a bad one and shouldn't be promoted.
It’s dangerous and I think that people
should do all they can not to fall into it
and if they do, then to try and make
themselves better rather than support
themselves and others to keep doing it.
Blocking the website on the student
network could be the first step in the right
direction. However, the school counselors
should also consider addressing the
dangers of misinformative sites like the
anorexia one and could even accent their
presentation by using the site as an
example.
Anorexia may be a deadly disease. Students
may also be susceptible to the
misinformation. However, it should not
be blocked for this reason. Many other
websites promote smoking, drinking, or
other things that that public sees as
wrong. These sites are still open and
continue to be unblocked from schools.
The websites are all opinions. If the
school was to block this site, wouldn't it
have to block all of the others?
I don't think that the sites should be
banned in the school network. I think that
the sites are bad, but if administrators feel
strongly about this, they should teach
classes or have clubs to show that
anorexia is not a way of life, it's a deadly
disease. The students should have the
right to look at the sites that they want to,
because that is what is good about the
internet. I think that the students should
be trusted not to go to sites like this.
Does it work?
The jury’s still out!
More scenarios…
Uni High Computer Literacy scenarios:
http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/library/computerlit/scenarios.html
Frances Jacobson Harris
University Laboratory High School
1212 W. Springfield Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
217-333-1589
[email protected]
http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/library