Technology and ethical/moral dilemmas of higher education in the twenty‐first century

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to plan a relevant, professional development conference for the faculty of a small, private, suburban college in upstate, New York. The Provost and Senior Vice‐President led a college‐wide committee of faculty, administrators, and staff in a survey method to discover the priorities of the faculty, in further development of excellence in teaching and learning.

Design/methodology/approach

The committee designed 20 essential questions, and asked faculty to select three questions, in order of priority, to be used to guide the theme of the conference. Faculty members were also given the option to write their own question, if their choices were not reflected in the original list. Of the 207 full‐time faculty members, 155 responded to the survey within a two‐week period.

Findings

Of the 155 survey respondents, 22 selected question 11, “In what ways do we weigh the political, ethical and economic implications of technological platforms against their pedagogical potential, and how can we model these kinds of complex decisions for our students?”, as one of three choices.

Social implications

In this second decade of the twenty‐first century, there is a strong sense of urgency to examine and revise current public policy, so that society may connect with the realities of the present.

Originality/value

The paper addresses those needed changes in greater depth, and provides a framework for exploring issues of ethics, and the dilemmas faced by educators in the twenty‐first century, with regard to teaching and learning in higher education.

Citation

Clark, L.D. (2012), "Technology and ethical/moral dilemmas of higher education in the twenty‐first century", Campus-Wide Information Systems, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 358-367. https://doi.org/10.1108/10650741211275116