The Ethical Choices with Educational Technology (ECET) Immersive Technologies Decision Support Framework

Abstract

Technology developers are often so focused on creating software that entertains and works well that they never ask whether they should make a specific application or if it might have unintended side effects. This problem is compounded in educational spaces as instructors are invited to implement various technologies with their students, often without any consideration of how effective the software may be or if a better application is available. Considering these problems and combining them with the common situation faced by most instructors - too much to do, too little time in the day - unsurprisingly, ethical issues have become of limited concern in the classroom. The Ethical Choices in Educational Technology Framework (ECET) was designed to provide instructors with a tool to evaluate the ethical issues involved with technology selection and implementation during the instructional planning process. The original ECET tool, although good for many standard educational technology tools, did not excel when considering specific features and concerns related to emerging technologies. As a result, we developed ECET for Artificial Intelligence. Still, instructors lacked a tool for evaluating Immersive Learning Environments in the same manner. Thus we authored the ECET-Immersive Decision Support Framework, which excels at helping users of immersive learning environments to consider the ethical issues involved in integrating them into learning environments.