Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice

Identifying your personal ethics

Activity 5: Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice

After reading the Class Notes, create a blog post where you identify an ethical dilemma in your own practice linked to digital or online access or activity.

Explain the dilemma and discuss either:

How you would address a potential issue if it occurred in your own practice?

My co teacher and I implemented the popular class management app called Class Dojo in to our classroom environment. It is a 3 way system where teachers can post in a closed forum about daily activities, student achievements, progression, upcoming events or any pānui we wish to inform whānau. Whānau will get instant messages and notifications when their tamaiti/tamariki have uploaded mahi or been awarded stickers. The stickers are used to help encourage positive behaviour.

My co teacher and myself were promoting the app to the children and 90% adapted swiftly, the other 10% did not. The other children did not care for stickers or rewards and would continue to misbehave which usually would create a chain reaction. One particular girl pushed the boundaries and we decided to deduct points from her Class Dojo avator. Her father saw how we had deducted a point and was quick to message both teachers for an explanation. We advised him to meet with us in our class after school and he agreed. He mentioned how  he was upset that we had no explanation as to why his daughter points were being deducted, then we were pleased with his feedback. In reality we were reaching out to parents for support through the app to help manage their behaviour at school. “Henderson (2014) refers “in the context of teaching with social media we need to draw on a broader, and less defined, set of ethical guidelines. We argue that from an ethical perspective classrooms are synonymous with the culture of care the teacher brings to the classroom.” We are sharing this app with whānau so they can support us where we need. They can also see they developments and progression of their child or children. We practice safe social media so when they are of age, they too will practice safe social media.

Henderson, M., Auld, G., & Johnson, N. F. (2014). Ethics of Teaching with Social Media. Paper presented at the Australian Computers in Education Conference 2014, Adelaide, SA. Retrieved fromhttp://acec2014.acce.edu.au/sites/2014/files/attachments/HendersonAuldJohnson_EthicalDilemmas_ACEC_2014_0.pdf: