Applied practice:Week 28

Critique and address issues of law, regulations and policy in practice using a reflective mode:

Step 1 (What):

Ethical Dilemma: I was monitoring our students email access at school using Hapara and noticed some boys that had emails from the game Grand Theft auto. These boys had used their school gmail accounts to subscribe

to an R18 youtube channel and talking on discussion boards about playing this R18 game at home. We called the parents in and they told us that they knew their children were playing the game and had no issues with it as their cousins play it.

Step 2 (So What):

The reading from Hall (2001) (supplementary) recommends these questions (among others) to guide the process:

“Which stakeholder should be given priority? Why?

1. Students: All the other students at the school have to be considered. These games have an R18 rating due to the violence and are rated due to

Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol. This group is the stakeholder that should be given priority as we need to make sure we follow school policy to keep all the students safe. We do not condone the playing of these games by any students under 18.

What restrictions are there to your actions?

The Rating on the game: Our students are only 9 and 10 years. The law states that it is illegal for shopkeepers to sell this game to under 18 year olds. But there are not legal restrictions to actually playing the game.

School policies about what school email accounts are to be used for. We have a procedure stating that school gmail accounts are not to be used for subscribing to ANY you tube channels.

Parents can allow their children to play these games at a home setting and this it outside of our school control.

School cybersafety agreements that the students signed about their use of school gmail accounts.

Which courses of action are possible?
A.                 Ignore the issue: It’s being played at home and the parents condone it so that is the parents choice

B.         Meet with the parents and share the game rating with the family to ensure they are full informed                 about the dangers of the game.

C.                  Ban the students from their devices and gmail account until they have completed a revision unit                 on cybersafety and keeping themselves safe at home.

D.                 Ban the students from using their chromebook and gmail account for the rest of the year.

How should the course of action be implemented?

We chose Option C. After taking them through the revision they chose to unsubscribe from the GTA channel and decided it wasn’t an appropriate game for them to play at home due to the violence and and they shared this decision with their family.  

Step 3 (Now What):

For registered teachers in NZ, practice is governed by the Professional Responsibility and Standard for the Teaching profession -  Our Code, Our Standards.

This dilemma comes under Commitment to Learners:

1. promoting the wellbeing of learners and protecting them from harm.

This game was unsafe and not appropriate for them, even though they were playing it at home.

We also were meeting relevant regulatory, statutory and professional requirements which is required in Learner focussed culture: Standards from the Teaching Profession. We followed our school policies on cybersafety and using school email accounts.

 References:

Education Council. (2017). Our Code Our Standards. Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/file…

Hall, A. (2001) What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Developing-leaders/What-Ought-I-to-Do-All-Things-Considered-An-Approach-to-the-Exploration-of-Ethical-Problems-by-Teachers