Ethical Issues in the Use of Technologies in Education Settings

Abstract

The increasing technology usage in educational settings has not always regarded the ethical implications that may involve its use. Despite its impact, educational practice has shown limited interest in caring about ethics, and research has only sparked slight attention to explore these issues. This scoping review aims to provide an overview of the evidence available in educational research and practice concerning ethical issues of educational technology and the knowledge gaps in the topic. A sample of 99 studies was included in the review and coded according to the basic characteristics of the study, research scope and methods, strategies, and recommendations. Data collected provides evidence of important research growth in two concrete time periods: 2006-2010, with the emergence of social media, and 2015-2020, which includes the pandemic educational emergency time. The findings also show two prominent research topics: Data privacy/confidentiality and Academic honesty and intellectual property. Many topics were present from the early years of the Educational Technology field, while others appeared recently in the 21st century. An important presence of theoretical studies shows that philosophical discussion is still predominant, and timid movements concerning educational practice are observed. Conclusions reflect the need to work on further recommendations towards practices that actively consider these ethical issues in educational technology.