"Online ethics should begin in the classroom, educators say"

I recently stumbled across an article from the USA about University of Delaware teaching an online ethics course and requiring students to pass a corresponding exam in their first year  of university. I think this is a fantastic idea. Teachnology is so complex and the ethics sourounding it eclipse that complexity ten fold. If we as teaching can explicitly teach was is and is not ethical behaviour then we better equip students to cope and thrive is this highly technological age. I believe there is much more to emailing then simply knowing how to write and send an email. As the article states "It's very important that students understand that an electronic community requires people to behave in a responsible way,". This is something that we start to teach students  when we start to teach them how to use technology. Already in the US there has been calls to add ethical standards as a learning outcome such as requiring students to "exhibit legal and ethical behaviors when using information technology and discuss consequences of misuse,". I think this would be a positive step towards greater ethical awareness in school. When there is such a great focus on meeting the syllabus requirements i think the only effective way to address ethics in technology is to make it a part of the syllabus.


This article is great i recommend it to anyone! http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/cyber/education/16education.html