{"id":12144,"date":"2022-07-19T10:24:30","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T08:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oeb.global\/oeb-insights\/?p=12144"},"modified":"2023-02-16T16:31:39","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T14:31:39","slug":"ethics-duty-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oeb.global\/oeb-insights\/ethics-duty-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics, Duty, Care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Why does it feel like so many discussions of ethics take it for granted that we all agree on core values? The discussion of, say, the ethics of learning analytics so often skips over the part where we discuss our different perspectives and conflicting values and jumps straight into this list of proscribed behaviours.<\/strong>

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What has happened to ethics? In today\u2019s legalistic and formalized world, ethics seems to have been reduced to a list of things you can\u2019t do. Don\u2019t be biased. Don\u2019t violate privacy. Don\u2019t share copyright content. Where is the joy in ethics? Where is the idea that we can do some good in this world, and that ethics is the guiding light that shows us how?

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Ethics is not just law. Nor is it just a list of rules or commandments. Ethics speaks to what we aspire to when we make our way in the world: about why we build technology, about why we think learning is important, about the sort of people we would like our staff and students to become. If we have not taken the time to think of these things, then we have not become ethical at all.

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In learning technology, the ethical questions have become a crescendo in recent years. How do we manage student data and track learning activities? What role should artificial intelligence play in the design and recommendation of learning resources? Does the use of technology depersonalize learning? What are the wider social impacts on society of an education conducted entirely online?

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These questions, and others like them, take us beyond the traditional bounds of ethics. There was a time when we could approach ethical questions in a purely rational manner, appealing to our sense of ethics as a form of reason. Once we made clear the consequences of our actions, we need simply appeal to our understanding of our rights and responsibilities as a reasonable person, and the ethical answers would emerge.

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Today it\u2019s not so clear. We understand that many other factors govern our sense of right and wrong. We are not merely creatures of reason, but of passion, empathy, care and consideration. Our loved ones matter to us in a way that cannot be measured with an austere calculation. And our global society forces us to see these things not only from our own personal or social perspective, but from one far removed from the customs and traditions in which we were raised.

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And it\u2019s not theoretical, it\u2019s real. In learning technology, we may be building systems that teach pilots how to fly drones that will be used in an ongoing war. We may be employing surveillance systems to identify plagiarism and cheating in exams. We may be designing user interfaces for a company\u2019s anti-union campaign. We may be authoring a learning recommendation system that discriminates against identifiable minorities. We may be creating learning resources that will be used by a private company to undermine public education.

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I have my own views on all of these, though recent events have shaken some of them. I wrestle with the fact that there\u2019s no right answer, and yet my position demands that there be<\/em> an answer. Over the last few years, I have been exploring these questions under the heading of \u2018ethics, analytics and the duty of care\u2019. The investigative part of this work broke down into three major components:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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