Ethical Analysis On Application Of Modern Educational Technology

As “already being here” existence, in order to “self-apparent” its intrinsic value ofpromoting human’s comprehensive development and optimizing the teaching, moderneducational technology must be applied. This is the reflection of revelation of moderntechnology in Heidegger’s thought. In fact, in the phenomenological point, the so-calledmodern education technology itself does not exist. Modern educational technology isjust in some context of application; and only through being applied, it can show its“being there” for “what it is”. So, the application is the vitality of technology. Withoutapplication, modern educational technology is only a meaningless fiction and furnishing.Thus, understanding modern educational technology can not be separated from itsapplication, which is the reason for this article seeing “application of moderneducational technology”as a whole.Application of modern educational technology means using methods, techniques,laws and other knowledge of modern teaching media tools on the basis of masteringmodern educational technology theory, with the goal of optimizing teaching andimproving education quality. In another words, the application of modern educationaltechnology is the application of modern technologies in education. As a behavioral state,the application itself does not matter of good or evil. However, when people realize thatthe application of modern educational technology can bring big transformation toeducation, they feel worries about controlling modern technology and realize the ethicalissues. As a basic lifestyle, technology application is no longer simply in an area ofreason and logic, and it also walks into the ideological field of ethics. That’s to say, onceinvolved in the way of technical application, and the way affects the teachers andstudents, application of modern educational technology is given ethical values. For thisreason, here we can analyze the application of modern educational technology from ethical perspective.Ethical analysis on application of modern educational technology is to introducethe humane direction of the ethics into educational technology, and to seek the strategiesto deal with the ethical issues with ethical methods and resources. The main contents inthis paper include: to clarify the relationship between application of modern educationaltechnology and ethics, and demonstrate the feasibility of the research; to select theappropriate ethics theory and perspective for humanities analysis, and seek the ethicalnature of application of modern educational technology; to summarize the real statusquo of the application of modern educational technology, and seek the gap betweenethical nature and ethical reality; to analyze the reasons for the gap, and address therecommendations. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of moderntechnology application on education from ethics levels, and to provide operationalguidelines or strategies. So theoretical analysis is the core, and literature researchmethod is the main one. Meanwhile, qualitative research methods such as interviewsand surveys are used as well as the quantitative methods used in statistics and analysisof the literature. Specifically, this paper consists of five parts, namely:In Chapter I, it clarified the concept of modern educational technology, exploredthe inherent relationship between modern educational technology and its application,summarized the basic meaning of the applications of modern educational technology,and demonstrated the ethics intrinsic of application of modern educational technology.In Chapter II, it determined the necessary ethical basis from ancient and moderntechnical ethical thought, and got the resources and inspirations from somerepresentative perspective such as Chinese traditional technology ethics,Marxism-technology ethics, responsibility ethics and educational ethics, paving the wayfor analyzing ethical nature and ethical reality of modern educational technologyapplication.In Chapter III, it investigated the ethical nature of modern educational technologyapplication from the determination of the target, the implement of the process, and theevaluation of the results. In the ethical requirements of application target, it should follow educational, normative, and accountability requirements; in the choice ofteaching media, the coordination of the teacher-student relationship, and the appearanceof teaching content, it should abide by the ethical norms; and in the evaluation of results,it should adopt necessary ethical evaluation strategies.In Chapter IV, it grasped application status from macro to micro, inferred ethicalstatus and unethical status, focused on e-book package, online teaching, and the collegeclassroom teaching, and analyzed them in ethical way respectively. It also analyzed thegap between the ethical nature and ethical reality from goals, processes, and results.In Chapter V, it attributed the gap to three aspects: instrumental rationalitysurmounted value rationality, ethics lacks of taking care of the technology applications,and moral education is ineffective. The ethical solution was searched to shorten the gapfrom two ways: clearing the study scope of educational technology ethics andstrengthening moral education approach.In any case, the application of modern educational technology is not only atechnological issue, but also an educational one. As a technological problem, itinevitably moves towards the thoughts of technological philosophy. As an educationalproblem, it should accord the law of education, and be nourished by the philosophy ofeducation. However, attention on educational technology ethics is nowhere near theattention on the network ethics, computer ethics and so on. In some research,technology ethics education is equivalent to educational technology ethics incorrectly.As technology continues to evolve, its influence on education ethics is growing, andeducation is bound to face this reality. So, whether in the pedagogical perspective ortechnological one, ethical research on application of modern educational technology isthe topics at the forefront of modern era.Moreover, research on the application of modern educational technology in Chinais mostly scattered in management science, information science, concerning about thetechnological operations but lacking systematical analysis and neglecting humane care.In this paper, it attempts to do the ethical analysis earlier, studies the ethical nature andits reality, analyzes the gap between the two, attributes it and found the ethical solutions. Such research is really rarely. This is exactly where the innovation of the research is.Specifically, the significance of this study mainly performances in three areas.Firstly, from the perspective of technological criticism, it is beneficial for alertingpeople to pay close attention to educational technology ethical issues in the critical way.Secondly, from the perspective of ethics, it is helpful to promote the standard ofapplication of modern educational technology. Thirdly, from the pedagogicalperspective, it is useful to enrich the theory of educational technology.