Security, Privacy, and Ethics

Security

Computers can store both public and private data. You ensure that what is stored on your computer is secure you can use a password to protect the material. User names and passwords can also protect the information stored on a computer. When using the Internet, one should use caution when giving out personal information.

Information Privacy

Intellectual property is a product someone creates based upon his or her thoughts or ideas. Copyright laws exits to protect those who create an idea or product. When using computers, one must respect the property, rights, and privacy of others.

One of the problems related to privacy is the tendency to regard anything displayed on a computer screen as public information. Although most people, including students, would never pick up and read a document lying on someone else's desk, many people do not hesitate to read someone else's computer screen. As word-processing and other tool software becomes more and more common, we must extend the courtesy of privacy from written documents to material displayed on computer screens or stored on disks.

Ethics and the Information Age

Ethics are the standards of honest, morality, and fairness. These standards relate to using computers. One has a responsibility to respect the property, rights, and privacy of others in the way you use computers. Today in the Information Age, one must follow a code of ethics to respect others properties and others personal information.

The legal aspects of computing are complex and multilayered. Teachers can help society by practicing ethical computer use, avoiding software piracy, and providing direct instruction on ethical computing practices.

Computer Applications in Education

Management

Computers are used in a variety of ways in the educational field. Computers can be used in school management such as budget, inventory, student records, communications, library circulation, and library public access catalog.

Learning and Instruction

Computer applications can be used in education for learning and for instruction. Instruction and learning can be divided into two major areas, teacher-centered instruction and student-centered learning.

Teacher-centered instruction examined the computer as the object of instruction as well as a tool of instruction and the management of instruction. It is subdivided into the categories of computer literacy, CAI, CMI, and design of teaching materials.

Student-centered learning views the computer as a tool for the student to use to create, access, retrieve, manipulate, and transmit information in order to solve a problem. Understanding the concept of the computer as an information tool relies on accepting the fact that the computer is a productivity tool for the student and the teacher alike.

Educational Research

Computers are used widely in educational research. Educational research includes functions relating to information gathering and processing. The teacher/researcher may examine student performance data in new and revealing ways. Bibliographic citations of studies performed by educators around the world can be acquired and perused from the desktop computer.