Ethics Discussion

Scenario #3: Struggling School

In the ethical scenario, struggling school, the technology specialist is presented with the
challenge of doing what is right legally but is presently working in a school system that is very
poor. The conflict here being that most poor schools struggle to provide their students with
meaningful and relevant curriculum; however, the school has violated a code of ethics by not
purchasing the licenses to use this curriculum. Specifically, the school is violating Section 3.8 in
regards to copyright laws. In this case, code would dictate that parties go through legal channels
when acquiring or using any material (which unfortunately, the school has not).

It is our understanding that both the teachers and principal are aware of the problem because they
have found ways to “stretch their creativity to provide a decent education for their students.” In
the short video, “Copyright Basics for Teachers,” the fact that most teachers end up stealing
materials at some point in their careers is a problematic situation. Frequently, it’s common
practice to find resources online and then bring them into the classroom. Unfortunately for this
school, even though they are poor they have not done their due diligence by making sure that any
materials they are using have been obtained legally.

The options that the technical specialist has now are not the easiest. Any newcomer to a school
could have a hard time being listened to by their superiors or peers. The best thing the specialist
could do, would be to approach the principal in a non-confrontational manner about this
situation. Because the school is breaking the law as well as violating ethics codes, it would be in
their best interest to find other legal alternatives to the current resources being used. A possible
easy solution (because this is a poor school) would be to look into grants, fundraising platforms,
or, as an immediate solution, visiting online platforms to find temporary legal resources such as
the Internet Archive or Project Gutenberg to find short term resources. There are ways to fund
classrooms that come from low socioeconomic areas and obtain legal and relevant resources for
students.

Scenario #6: Confidence Collision

The ethical issue in this scenario is regarding confidentiality and integrity. It states in the
scenario that "you tell the interviewees that the information they share with you will be held in
confidence." If an internal performance improvement consultant is to disclose confidential
information given to them by employees, those employees are going to lose trust in the
consultant. When the consultant tries to receive information from employees again, they are not
going to be honest with them because they will not want what they say to get out and jeopardize
their careers.

An example of confidentiality is seen in the Association of Educational Communications and

Technology's (AECT) Code of Ethics. Section 1 is regarding commitment to the individual. One
of the examples states "In fulfilling obligations to the individual, the member shall conduct
professional business so as to protect the privacy and maintain the personal integrity of the
individual."
As an improvement consultant, it would be best not to disclose any personal information that
may jeopardize an individual's career. The improvement consultant should re-interview the mid-
level managers and explain to the Executive VP that it would be against your ethics to divulge
the mid-level managers names. As noted in Reiser and Dempsey it is important to “consider the
consequences of your actions as part of the decision process, as well as the benefits of engaging
in ethical behavior with other professionals.” In this case it would have been wise to develop
questions for the interview that would create a proactive response by the Executive VP rather
than a reactive response. The re-interview process should be focused on areas that could be
improved and ideas that would make the mid-level managers see more value in the meetings. If
both the interview and the presentation of the data is done properly there is a much higher
likelihood the data will be well received. This approach will keep everyone's information private
and help make the meetings with Vice President I.M. Grand more valuable to everyone.

References:

Association for Educational Communications and Technology. (2008). Educational technology:

A definition with commentary. Edited by A. Januszewski & M. Molenda. New York: Laurence
Erlbaum Associates.

Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2018). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology
(4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.