Alan LiuAsking #DigitalHumanities community: Does anyone know of a guide, protocol, manifesto, or discussion of the ethics of digital instruction (or digital humanities instruction)? I'm thinking of such issues as student privacy, FERPA law, unequal access to technology, etc. (Issues that bear, for example, on what assignments are ethical to ask students to do. Is it ethical, for instance, to ask all students to get an account on social media to do a social media assignment?)
Here's a good piece from the education research community on ethics of digital teaching: Lin, Hong. “The Ethics of Instructional Technology: Issues and Coping Strategies Experienced by Professional Technologists in Design and Training Situations in Higher Education.” Educational Technology Research and Development 55, no. 5 (2007): 411–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-006-9029-y.
It seems like the #DigitalHumanities community should put together a working group to consult with the education research community on current issues in ethics of digital teaching. I think we need a shared protocol in DH (extensible for each nation's regulatory context) on higher-ed digital teaching ethics related to privacy, intellectual property (teachers', students', and others'), access & equity, and relation to tech industry and ed-tech. Not the same as similar issues for lower-ed.
On one hand, #DigitalHumanities seeks to encourage learning about digital online culture through new courses & assignments. On other hand, there are clear risks. Re: privacy alone, problems I have run into with digital assignments: students fearing vetting by future employers, foreign students adverse to surveillance by home nations, students subject to stalking. How can we develop guidelines in DH for rapidly evolving circumstances before regulatory & institutional frameworks can catch up?
Kathy Harris@ayliu @kfitz Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities authors broach this topic throughout the collection in various keywords and assignment briefs. Might we start with those curators who already work in this area, specifically as it relates to pedagogy so that we include the truly teaching-intensive faculty in this conversation?
https://digitalpedagogy.hcommons.org/search/privacy
#digitalhumanities #digitalpedagogy #digitalhumanitiespedagogy
https://digitalpedagogy.hcommons.org/search/privacy
#digitalhumanities #digitalpedagogy #digitalhumanitiespedagogy
Kathleen Fitzpatrick@ayliu The HCommons team is working with a group of STEM ed researchers on helping them develop a research coordination network grounded in FAIR/CARE/OS principles. They would *love* to be involved in this conversation.
Derek Kompare@ayliu I don’t know of any guide or similar off-hand, but FWIW I’ve included a statement on my syllabi that the only “required” tech and accounts in my classes are the ones they already have anyway through the school (eg Canvas, MS, Adobe, Zoom) and that any additional platforms (eg Insta, TikTok, Netflix, etc) are never going to be required for any assignment. I also discuss, and, as appropriate, do an assignment on, the privacy risks of online participation.
@dkompare Thanks. I provide on my assignments a variety of options and opt-outs too. It seems like we need a shared protocol in higher ed though, with extensions or variants for each nation's regulatory framework. We also need something like a student bill of rights in regard to digital instruction. (I don't have enough connections with the education school research community to know their work on all this.)
@ayliu I agree that more guidelines would be useful, even at the field or institution level. It mostly feels like social media and ed-tech companies throw stuff at us (some of it genuinely useful, tbf), and our institutions and IT departments don't do much to filter it.
Ann H@ayliu @thatandromeda not DH specific but a manifesto for teaching online https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262539838/the-manifesto-for-teaching-online/
Arturo Serrano 🇨🇴🤖👽🧙🦄@ayliu
UNESCO has many:
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000370984
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000372786
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373655
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373733
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374947
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000375776
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000376709
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000377071
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000378847
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000378951
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000380598
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000380926
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381494
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000382513
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000385364
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000386070
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000386092
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000386100
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000386162
@ayliu
And:
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000382765
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000385877
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000385723
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379707
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000385364
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000377456
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000383682
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000382302
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000375242
There are hundreds and hundreds more. These titles looked like the most important.
@carturo222 Thanks, Arturo. I didn't know this UNESCO repository. For the specific purpose I had in mind (guidance for higher-ed instructors experimenting with curricular structures, assignment types, & pedagogy methods that both use digital tech and teach students about that tech) it seems like a working group would need to distill such literature into a set of guideline documents, one on ethics consisting of, say, 8 to 10 principles with references to laws and useful readings.
Danica Savonick@ayliu I'm on the MLA Digital Humanities Committee. We could think of the MLA 2025 conference as one possible venue/forum for collectively discussing these issues. Would be happy to work with you in co-organizing!
@ayliu And/or we could do something collaborative at ASA between the Educators' Alliance Caucus and the DH Caucus.
@danicasavonick Thanks, Danica. I'm on the MLA Committee on Information Technology (though I stopped chairing it this month). This does sound like something that one or more of the MLA committees could address, starting with a panel.
@ayliu DPiH has a series of keywords and assignments that deal with this (found in a search for "ethic"): https://digitalpedagogy.hcommons.org/search/ethic
#digitalhumanities #digitalhumanitiespedagogy
#digitalhumanities #digitalhumanitiespedagogy
@triproftri Thanks, Kathy. There is also material on ethics in various locations in Hybrid Pedagogy (such as in essays like this: https://hybridpedagogy.org/hybrid-teaching/). There is a lot of thinking & practical policy on ethics of digital teaching in many places, including individual syllabi. The question is how (and by what body or consortium) a set of consensus guidelines might be distilled that rests on general principles but can be tuned to fast-moving, problematic tech (like currently with ChatGPT & X).
@ayliu agreed. The pointer towards DPiH was less about pedagogical materials and more about pointing towards the people who authored those materials to perhaps get them involved in the conversations, if any are convened because they are the ones interacting with students the most