Digital Ethics

Never before have students had so much information at their fingertips and never before have they been so empowered to take actions that will affect others in very real ways. But with all of this agency comes the responsibility to behave ethically online and off and to expect the same of others. What is the right balance between privacy and openness? How can we avoid being manipulated or having our personal data become someone else’s “product”? How can we make good decisions about the interactions that we have online? What are the right and wrong ethical decisions we can make about the media that we consume online and its effects on society? The global nature of the classroom brings into clear focus just how culturally conditioned many of these questions are. Students in this course will focus on how they can live more ethically in our digital world.

Who is this course for?

This on-demand course is designed for students in grades 7-9 and is available year-round to teachers at member schools who want to personally guide their students through an online learning experience on a flexible timeline that meets their needs. There is no GOA facilitator for these learning experiences; instead, GOA provides on-campus affiliated teachers with a Teacher Playbook and student and teacher access to a complimentary learning space in GOA’s learning instance. On-demand flex courses have five parts, student engagement averages 30-45 minutes per part or 3-4 hours of total course engagement.

The use of pathways in the course design will allow classes from a variety of disciplines, clubs, and advisory programs to connect meaningfully to the program.