Team 1 Ethical Scenarios

Cassandra Humphrey, Deanne (Castillo) Dominguez, Sayed Nazari, Maren Sibai

Ethical Scenario #3

This scenario deals with copyright infringement, as outlined in Copyright and Fair Use
Guidelines for Teachers (n.d.), which stipulates that, The number of simultaneous users must
not exceed the number of licenses; and the number of machines being used must never exceed
the number licensed. The AECT Code of Professional Ethics (2007), states that instructional
designers, shall inform users of the stipulations and interpretations of the copyright law and
other laws affecting the profession and encourage compliance. There are two possible options
in this situation: ignore the problem and focus on tasks at hand or address the issue. However,
it would be completely unethical for a technology specialist not to address copyright
infringement. Not only would it be illegal, it could have unfavorable repercussions for the school
and for future employment opportunities as a tech specialist.

Although the administration may be resistant at first to adding more to their plates, it is important that
they understand that this issue is as much a financial one as an ethical one. Every day, they are running
the risk of losing their software due to misuse, or potentially being charged by the company to properly
license their copies. In this situation, the best solution would be to introduce the administration to
alternative free resources such as OERs (Reiser, Robert A.; Dempsey, John V., p. 318). Reiser
et. al. (2017) sum it up best when they note that, When every single student in a course has full, no-
cost access to all the materials they are assigned to read, watch, and practice with, there is a noticeable
impact on student success (p. 320). This way, every student is guaranteed access to their learning
materials regardless of his or her financial status, and the school does not run the risk of fines or other
repercussions for using software illegally.

References

Code of professional ethics. (2007, November). Retrieved October 7, 2017, from http://aect.site-
ym.com/members/group_content_view.asp?group=91131&id=309963

Copyright and fair use guidelines for teachers [PDF]. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2017 from
http://www.xavier.edu/library/about/documents/Copyright_9-23-08.pdf

Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2017). Trends and issues in instructional design and
technology. Boston: Pearson Education.

Ethical Scenario #7
This scenario deals with ethical barriers in librarianship. It violates the ALA Code of Ethics,
which states that librarians must provide the highest level of service to all library users through
appropriate and usefully organized resources; equitable service policies; equitable access; and
accurate, unbiased, and courteous responses to all requests (American Librarian Association,
2017). Mrs. McKinney seems to lack the awareness and the professionalism needed to be able
isolate her personal beliefs from affecting her job commitments and professional judgement.

There are a few ways to approach this situation: do nothing, provide professional training, speak
with her personally and educate her on ethical practices, or be more aggressive and remind her
that she has to comply immediately or risk losing her job. In order to avoid creating further
ethical issues and develop Susans professional skills, it is better to approach the situation
indirectly by providing staff and faculty training that focuses on how to reconcile professional
duties with personal beliefs. She may be unaware of the required separation, so a refresher that
is not targeted directly at her may help her come to the realization on her own. It can also help
prevent her from feeling targeted due to her personal beliefs if everyone else has to do the
same training.

If that is not successful, the next best solution would be to show understanding and respect to
her personal views, then point out to her, in a calm but firm manner, that her position at the
school requires her to provide all kind of needed resources to the students and to grant
equitable access to those resources to everyone, regardless of her personal beliefs. She needs
to be reminded with her jobs Code of Ethics and made aware that what she is doing contradicts
with it.

Reference

American Librarian Association. (2017, September 26). Professional Ethics. Retrieved October
08, 2017, from http://www.ala.org/tools/ethics