Embedded Files
Values in the Digital Age
Values in the Digital Age
A Good Cyber Image, Casts no Cyber Shadow!
A Digital Moral Framework - Dr John Bellavance
The purpose of this site is to outline the values and abilities that support meaning and connection, what is needed for individuals to manage themselves and their relationships well; namely, how each person should be and how their relationships should be. We are all on this life journey.
The resources on this site can also be used to understand the values and behaviours that drive the moral and immoral use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and how moral values and moral behaviours can be fostered. The Digital Moral Framework can serve as a proactive means of fostering morality and as a preventive measure for addressing potential or existing concerns associated with the use of ICTs by young people. Additionally, The Cyber Values System model can be used to analyse moral issues associated with young people’s ICT uses. The purpose of this understanding is to provide a moral framework that parents and teachers can use to foster moral practices and address moral challenges faced by secondary school students. This work can also support existing cyber-safety programs by drawing on the motivating power of moral values and moral abilities.
What is Values Education?
Values education with respect to young people is basically conceptualised in three ways. First, children acquire values through both role modelling and socialisation from parents, teachers, individuals and groups that the child is emotionally attached to. Second, because the child as an active interpreter of information. Individuals grow morally through self-reflection by making an effort to become aware of their habits of mind and behaviour, by trying to overcome their biases, and by working to understand others. Third, this provides the foundation for individuals to act morally in their world. Individuals also grow morally through their behaviours. In summary, first, individuals need to acquire the values that sustain a moral and effective life. Second, apply these values in how they live their lives, namely in their relationships with others and their natural environment.
A Holistic Approach to Values Education
I maintain that values education needs to be holistic. Holistic values education must incorporate three constructs - take into account the individual’s cognitive (reasoning), affective (emotions) and behavioural domains of moral and psychological functioning, and development. Values education framework needs to foster values and abilities that can underpin the moral domains.
Opportunities for Learning in the Digital World
Computer ethics does not rely merely on compliance to rules, but also on the intrinsic motivation of individuals. Moral behaviours are less likely if the individual does not hold moral values. Reacting to problems after they have occurred is a form of damage control. In the digital age we need to take a proactive approach to fostering the moral use of ICTs. Hence, the need to acquire values and abilities that enables the individual to take a proactive approach to their world. Because young people manage their own uses of ICTs, the individual plays the most significant role in determining moral practices.
Page updated
Report abuse