Ethics in a Digital World

Book excerpt: Get the knowledge and resources you need to guide students through the tough questions that reside in the gray areas of humans’ relationship with the gadgets, apps and tools that permeate our lives. More and more, people are waking up to the notion that the technology we hold in our hands each day is not a neutral tool that individual users control. The facade has been cracking for years amid accusations of election interference, with the public being introduced to the complexities of hacking, the concept of bot accounts, the larger threat of information warfare, and more. The rise in rhetoric around “fake news” has social media companies examining their role in the spread of misinformation, the public asking who checks the fact-checkers and everyone from politicians to tech conglomerates wondering if, when and how information regulation needs to happen. Amid this backdrop, it has become clear that society needs thoughtful, empathetic digital citizens who can navigate the important ethical questions at the intersection of technology and humanity. This book is designed to help students consider the systems and structures in which they spend so much of their time, asking them to look at the technology around them through a critical lens. Focusing on six big ethical questions being discussed in the technology sector and larger society today, chapters include: • Key vocabulary you and your students will encounter in your investigation of each topic. • A short summary of the current research and viewpoints on the topic from leading experts in their fields. • News articles exploring the ethical questions playing out in society today. • Focused research questions that students can use to explore the various aspects of the ethical dilemma. • Stories of educators who are engaging students with lessons around tech ethics. • A “Try This” section with instructional strategies for helping students navigate open-ended questions. There are no clear right or wrong answers to the ethical issues presented inside these pages. But if you ascribe to the idea that technology is not neutral, if your students are already users of various technologies and if you understand that many of our students will go on to tech-related careers, is it ever too soon to begin talking about the ethics of technology with them?