Computer teachers’ attitude toward ethical use of computers (#ecer2009)

Computer teachers’ attitude toward ethical use of computers in elementary schools

Ozer, Niyazi; Beycioglu, Kadir; Ugurlu, Celal Teyyar
Affiliations: Inonu University, Turkey

The researchers looked at teachers attitudes to ethical uses of computers and tried to describe attitudes and understanding. (There are 60 female teachers and 81 male teachers in the study.) Looked at beliefs and behaviours.

Only 5 people had courses related ti cyber ethics in higher education and only 39 had had any cyber ethics training while in post. Most therefore used printed or visual material (e.g. internet) for information on cyber ethics.

Females showed a statistically significant more ethical beliefs about ethical computer use. Teachers who had pre-service course also showed more ethical beliefs {Should add to ITE courses? - DM}. Younger teachers also show more ethical attitudes to computer use - possibly to do with increased access to computers among young people and the development of cyber ethics courses in recent years.

Definitions of cyber ethics include things like copyright, respecting privacy, plagiarism, software theft, ...