Narrowing the gap between the information rich and the information poor :
New technologies and the future of the school

Information Technology and Ethics

Norrköping/Lidköping, Sweden

Information Technology and Ethics is a project developed in two Swedish schools to undertake the ethical issues of the use of new technology. Along with the possibilities offered by Information Technology (IT), however, new challenges also come with respect to Internet access. While today's technology paves the way for information and communication, it enables, at the same time, increased access to unsuitable material. The project tries to find the best way to make students aware of the problem, and to develop new methods of teaching ethical issues, face to the limits of prohibitive approaches.

The Haga Secondary School in Norrköping developed a project on computers and Internet policy. The project has involved many people in the school. The policy does not present a list of what is forbidden, and the school has not installed any high-tech systems to prevent access to certain material or websites. In this school, they believe in neither simple rules nor technical solutions. They are trying to install ethical filters in the minds of the students rather than in the chips of the computer. Students need help to arrive at appropriate ethical behavior, but this is better achieved through guidance and discussion than stringent rules. Through this project, the teachers' role is to conduct discussion on the pedagogy needed to achieve this goal. The project stresses the need for continual discussion on ethics and Internet. At Fredriksdal School in Lidköping, the Internet has been recruited as an aid to develop teaching of ethical issues. The project tries to teach students what Internet is and encourages awareness and a critical approach concerning what they might find there. Here, they may say no to censorship, but they say yes to ethical standards on how the Internet has to be used. Some form of regulatory system has to be in place, but, in order for it to work, it has to be accepted by the students.They introduce Internet in every practice while building, with students, the rules of his use.

Schools must adopt an ethical awareness in their use of Internet, in an effort to minimize the risk that a greater amount of undesirable or controversial information enters the school. They also should ensure that children receive assistance in dealing with such matters. For the project, the most important thing is that the community school talk about it and gain an understanding of the possibilities and dangers of IT.

National Agency for Education
Postal address : Skolverket, 106 20 Stockholm
Visiting address : Kungsgatan 53, Stockholm, SUEDE
Tel : 00 46-8-723 32 00
Fax : 00 46-8-24 44 20
E-mail : skolverket@skolverket.se
Website : http://www.skolverket.se

Institutional Partners
Ministry of Education

The project began in 1998

Haga Secondary School has conducted a study in 2001 on the use of Internet (website)