Like most things, there are issues surrounding the two strategies outlined in Artefacts 2 and 3. Collaborative learning and structured lessons both have ethical issues that can impact the learning of students. An ethical issue in education may mean to breach academic integrity, favour students without learning difficulties or to exclude students from varying backgrounds (Copyleaks, 2022). To ensure all students are achieving the standards they need to be by the end of year 8, a teacher needs to be able to implement safe, responsible and ethical use of digital technologies within their teaching. To be safe, responsible and ethical whilst using technology, schools need to have specific guidelines in place to ensure their students can access resources that will allow them to expand their knowledge in an age-appropriate manner. Teachers are trained in ethical and responsible uses of technology under a ‘code of conduct’ to protect themselves and their students.
Collaborative learning can be ineffective when executed incorrectly which can impact all students. HITS explains that collaborative learning does not work when the teacher is centred around discussion and allows very few interactions for students to support each other (Victorian Government, 2020). To ensure that students are using OneNote ethically, safely and responsibly, teachers can use a variety of tools and strategies to manage this. A digital tool that can be used is called Classwize, this tool allows teachers to monitor student behaviour on their individual devices, the screens can also be paused so students are reengaged with the teacher during instructional parts of the lesson. This tool can be functional during collaboration work to ensure that all members of the group are using their device responsibly. Teachers need to consider ethical issues that relate to students of lower socioeconomic backgrounds as they may not have access to a digital device which does not allow for a universal learning design. The Universal Design for Learning is a framework designed by CAST (a leader for inclusive education and research to transform learning) (2025), which aims to consciously design learning experiences that benefit all learners. Teachers will need to adjust their teaching to allow for students who do not have access to a digital device to use OneNote, one simple solution would be to ensure the students who do not have a device are included into a group with at least one or two students who do have a device, the students who have the devices can be scribes for the group and any other jobs can be allocated otherwise. The students without the device may be elected to present or create the task, depending on the mode of presentation. This is a solution to ensure ethical, safe and responsible uses of technology are implemented into the classroom.
Structured lessons have ethical issues when digital technologies are involved. These issues may not include support for students who struggle with school and learning as teachers may focus on meeting curriculum targets and assume all students will be able to understand and benefit from the learning experience. However, structured lessons are purposely designed to support all students to safely, ethically and responsibly use digital technology. Each time digital technologies are used, students need to be reminded about the resources they can access safely. This can be implemented into the lesson by explicitly teaching what safe and responsible use of digital technology looks like, this can be implemented each lesson until students begin to demonstrate autonomy and will not need reminders about the appropriate way to use digital technologies.
To commit to using these two strategies in a classroom, I would design a contract with students that would outline the guidelines that students need to follow to be successful at enhancing their learning, I would place a system of consequences in action for misuse of digital technology. I would consciously make sure to include options for disadvantaged students and ensure the guidelines are accessible for students of all abilities.
