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[Steve]

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Online Ethics Should Begin in Classroom, Educators Say   

(NY Times)---Before it is legal for them to get behind the steering 
wheel of a car, would-be drivers have to read up on the rules of the 
road and pass a driving test.   

At the University of Delaware in Newark, Del., school officials take a 
similar approach to computer use. Before they are given access to 
the campus computer network, students receive a booklet on 
responsible computing, which in simple language explains why it is 
wrong to do things like disrupt a computer network or send a forged 
e-mail message. Then students must pass an online quiz to show 
that they have absorbed the lessons.   

The idea is not to add yet another requirement to frazzled freshman 
but to teach young people, whose technical savvy may outstrip their 
ethical smarts, about appropriate use of computer networks as they 
face a future in which study, work, entertainment and commerce 
become increasingly dependent on the Internet.   

"It's very important that students understand that an electronic 
community requires people to behave in a responsible way," said 
Leila C. Lyons, director of user services in information technologies 
at the college, which has about 15,000 students.   

No one suggests that a quick course in computer ethics would have 
deterred whoever launched the attacks last week on a number of 
major commercial Web sites. But increasingly educators and policy 
makers say that schools -- at the university, high school and even 
junior high level -- should do more to teach young people about right 
from wrong online.   

"The extent of your responsibility is commensurate with the extent 
of your reach," said Lowell W. Monke, a former high school 
technology teacher and now an assistant professor of education at 
Grinnell College in Iowa. "If we are going to give kids these very 
powerful instruments that reach around the world, we have a real 
responsibility to teach them how to use them beneficially."   

There are a number of efforts underway to try to do just that. A year 
and a half ago, the International Society for Technology in Education 
published a proposed set of national standards for technology 
education of high school age and younger students. In addition to 
being taught how to do things like develop a Web site, students are 
also called on to "exhibit legal and ethical behaviors when using 
information technology and discuss consequences of misuse," the 
standards say.   

Anita L. Best, an editor at the International Society for Technology in 
Education, said one reason the standard authors decided to include 
ethics was their consternation on hearing reports several years ago 
that school officials themselves sometimes crossed the ethical line 
by copying education software without paying for or licensing it.   

Meanwhile, the United States Justice Department, which for about 
two years has posted a Web page for children that discusses 
hacking and other online misbehavior, is working with an Internet 
trade association to develop an education campaign with public 
service announcements, about good citizenship online.   

And, Gary Chapman, a social policy researcher and director of the 
21st Century Project at the University of Texas at Austin, is 
coordinating the "Responsible Use of the Internet" project for 
possible launch this summer. Working with a small foundation 
grant, graduate and high school students are developing a Web site 
that can be used by teachers as an online curriculum. The site will 
cover such issues as respect for privacy and intellectual property 
online as well as examine subjects like the pros and cons of using 
filtering software.   

Educators and policy experts say such efforts are necessary 
because schools have been so absorbed in the mechanics of 
bringing technology to the classroom and teaching students basic 
computer skills that ethics have often been neglected.   

"It's our impression that what young people are getting in school is 
mostly focused on 'how to' -- how to point and click, for example," 
Chapman said.   

Although most schools have "acceptable use policies" outlining 
correct behavior online, educators say these documents are often 
either flawed or insufficient to teach young people responsible use 
of computers. For one thing, they often remain unread, said Rodney 
J. Petersen, director of policy and planning for the office of 
information technology at the University of Maryland in College 
Park. Petersen has found that often students begin reading the 
acceptable use policy only after they have been called into his office 
for a possible violation of the rules.   

Also, younger students often simply do not understand the legalistic 
language found in many use policies. R. W. Burniske, a former high 
school English teacher and now an instructor at the University of 
Texas at Austin, recalls his 12-year-old son bringing home one such 
policy three years ago. "He didn't understand half the words in it," 
Burniske said, among them the word "prosecution."   

Burniske, who has developed a Web site, called CyberPilot's 
License with lessons about ethical behavior online, says there is 
another reason young people need computer education that goes 
beyond skills training: Often the online behavior students adapt 
comes from the no-holds-barred culture of chat rooms. In courses he 
teaches, which include online discussions, Burniske finds he 
frequently has to undo the lessons learned in chat rooms and teach 
students the civil discourse that is expected in a university 
community.   

Indeed, some people believe that it is because young computer 
users do not witness the result of abusive online behavior -- whether 
it is an e-mail flame or disruption to a Web site -- that they are lulled 
into thinking that behavior that would be unthinkable in the face-to-
face world is acceptable in cyberspace.   

"Kids know its not O.K. to go into a neighbor's house uninvited or 
open someone else's mail," said Jessica R. Herrera, a lawyer with 
the computer crimes and intellectual property section of the Justice 
Department. "But they don't necessarily know that they're not 
supposed to do that on the Internet."   

Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company 





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