Educators go over the garden wall

摘要

In the last three or four of years, more and more educators have started using popular digital technologies in their work. In this context, we mean mobile devices notably phones and media players; social networking sites such as Bebo, Linkedln and Facebook; blogging sites such as Twitter and Jaiku, immersive virtual environments, mainly Habbo Hotel and Second Life, and gaming platforms such as Grand Theft Auto, World of Warcraft and DoomEd. This is an important development and it is completely different from the use of technologies that are educational and institutional, such as interactive whiteboards, e-portfolios or virtual learning environments (VLEs), where educators and their institutions procure, install, maintain and control the technology and lay down the rules. With these popular digital technologies, those beyond the walled garden of the institution, other rules have already developed, both formal and informal. Educators in many subjects and sectors have several years' experience of using these technologies, including taking learners into these places, virtual field trips in effect, thereby raising ethical issues and possibly legal questions too, in terms of a duty of care. There is now research and evaluation of these educational activities and this too is interesting and important from an ethical point of view. The ethical dimensions of researching these various pedagogies and technologies are however perhaps lagging behind other aspects of this exciting but emergent and fragmented research area.