Ethics Access & Equity in Technology
University of California at Berkeley Extension is
teaching one of the first courses aimed at giving
administrators, parents and teachers answers to these
problems.
Taught by Ana Solomon, will include topics like
copyright law,
intellectual property, profanity, pornography, online
etiquette, and gender issues related to technology.
“In schools there needs to be some guidelines for how
to use technology,” Solomon said. “It’s very easy to
break the law and not know it. Because the Internet is
coming into so many homes and classes, it has the
potential to be a very powerful and dangerous tool,
and there need to be guidelines.”
In the class, students will also formulate a “fair use
policy.” Now mandated by the California Department of
Education, a fair use policy is a contract made
between the student and their school in which the
student, parent, and teacher agree to a certain level
of behavior while using the Internet and school
computers.
The fair use policy, “puts in black and white, and on
paper what everyone’s responsibilities are,” Solomon
said.
Although she acknowledges the many ethical pitfalls
that educators come across in offering technology to
their students, Solomon feels that the Internet and
computers can be an invaluable teaching aid.
“If we do not give our kids a chance to use this
technology, we are denying them a tool of the
future.”
– University of California at Berkeley