AUTHOR
Nuno Sotero Alves da Silva, Simon Rogerson and Bernd Stahl

ABSTRACT

Nowadays connectivity and interactivity proclaims a tremendous impact on educational process, transforming curriculums, learning materials and pedagogical strategies. Thus, Web based educational delivery platforms are enabling students to receive and interact with educational environment, and to engage with teachers in unmistakable new ways, making possible the transfer of traditional instruction. Nevertheless, e-learning models implementation demonstrate that a simple transfer of traditional practices, do not fully exploit capabilities for transforming and enhancing educational environments (Mason, 1998), namely effectively and efficiently customising and personalising learning (Silva et al., 2009) worldwide.

This paper aims to discuss some empirical evidence about e-learning technological implementation of Lusíada Universities in Portugal (Europe) and Angola (Africa) using a multiple case study analysis. Furthermore, education is recognized as central to sustainable economic and social development, for individuals to escape from the viciousness of poverty (Dhanarajan, 2002). So, educational challenges (ethical and cultural) in Africa are enhanced when compared with European educational environments and consequently, higher levels of loyalty and commitment are necessary (Curran, 2008) regarding Kantian and Aristotelic fundamental conceptions, and the role of university in society (Brey, 2004).

The following diagram demonstrates the underlying operations concerning the case studies:

Once the objectives are clear, we remember the first co-author theoretical research framework regarding successful ethical and cultural development of e-Learning technology within universities (Silva, et al. 2008). Such framework distinguishes three technical phases regarding project implementation analysis (Technological Infrastructures and Services, Knowledge/Content Management, and Computer Mediated Communication), and a strategic one. Similarly to other worldwide educational institutions Lusíada universities have embraced global learning, requiring an observation concerning applied flexible learning programs, diversity and multiculturality (Rutherford and Kerr, 2008), which progress will be under analysis throughout the several phases of the framework. For that, is necessary attend to different curriculum planning due to language and culture dimensions (Spector, 2009). Moreover, the necessity of including ethical consideration in e-Learning is clear, since Stahl (2002) identified some moral problems (power, privacy, monitoring, surveillance, access, opportunity cost, and awareness) that should be considered.

Given the theoretical basis, as well as the nature of the study, qualitative approach was chosen because it allows obtaining in-depth, “rich” data directly from participants (Karpova, Correia and Baran, 2009). The empirical evidence can be broadly classified as interpretive IS research (Klein and Myers 1999), as a consequence of the iterative process between field data and theoretical model evolved in a longitudinal time frame, providing a “thick” description of participants’ experiences (Walsham, 1993), assumptions, beliefs, and desires. Such methodology implied data collection through semi-structured interviews, field notes, documents, participant observations and some historical stories. In addition, we have also collected data through direct observations, archival records, and focus groups.

The key organizational position of the first co-author within Lusíada Universities organizational context (ICT manager and lecturer), suggests that the relationship between institutional and research boundaries justify the words “Action Case” (Braa and Vidgen, 1999) to reflect a method that is a hybrid of action research (Lewin, 1946), and soft case study (Walsham, 1993), improving the trade-off between intervention to problem solving and interpretation.

In order to highlight an empirical data analysis and interpretation of the data collected over 4 years, the value of hermeneutics perspective was considered potentially very relevant during the systems implementation, trying to make the sense of the whole, and the relationship between people, organization, and information systems. As a result, interesting findings will be presented in a comparative analysis for each case study and comments will be welcome.

REFERENCES

Braa, K. and Vidgen, R. (1999). Interpretation, intervention, and reduction in the organzation laboratory: A framework for in-context information systems research. Accounting Management and Information Technologies, 9, 25-47.

Brey, P. (2004). Ethical issues for the virtual university. In T. W. Bynum, et al. (Eds.), ETHICOMP 2004, Syros: University of the Aegean, Greece.

Curran, C. (2008). Online learning and the university. In W.J. Bramble and S. Panda (Eds.), Economics of distance and online learning: Theory, practice, and research. New York: Routledge.

Dhanarajan, G. (2002). Learning in the digital world: A treacherous road to flexible learning. Paper presented at the 20th International Conference on Technology and Education, Potchefstroom University for CHE, Potchefstroom, South Africa.

Karpova, E., Correia, A. P. and Baran, E. (2009). Learn to use and use to learn: Technology in virtual collaboration experience, Internet and Higher Education, 12, 45–52.

Klein, H. and Myers, M. (1999). A set of principles for conducting and evaluating interpretive field studies in information systems research. MIS Quartely, 23, 1, 67-93.

Lewin, K. (1946). Action research and minority problems, Journal of Social Issues, 2, 4, 34-46.

Mason, R. (1998) Models of online courses. Asynchronous Learning Networks Magazine, 2, 2, 9-19.

Rutherford, A. G. and Kerr, B. (2008). An inclusive approach to online learning environments: Models and Resources, Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE, 9, 2, 64-85.

Silva, N. S. A., Costa, G. J. M., Rogerson, S. and Prior, M. (2009). The evolution of e-learning management systems- An ethical approach. In P. Madsen, H. Horta and A. Vaccaro (Eds.), Network Ethics 2009. Lisbon: Catholic University, Portugal.

Silva, N. S. A., Rogerson, S. and Stahl, B. C. (2008). E-learning in Lusíada Universities- An ethical and cultural inquiry. In T. W. Bynum, et al. (Eds.), ETHICOMP 2008, Mantua: University of Pavia, Italy.

Spector, J. M. (2009). Reconsidering the notion of distance in distance education, Distance Education, 30, 1, 157-161.

Stahl, B. C. (2002). Ethical issues in E-teaching- A theoretical framework. In G. King, et al. (Eds.), INSPIRE VII 2002. The British Computer Society. Limerick, Ireland.

Walsham, G. (1993). Interpreting information systems in organizations. Chichester: Wiley.

AUTHOR
Nidhi Sharma and Shalini Kesar

ABSTRACT

In 2005, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) launched ‘Moving on up-Minority Ethnic Women at Work’, as part of a major investigation into the participation, pay and progression of ethnic minority women in the Great Britain labour market (i). This investigation aimed to improve understanding of the diverse experiences of ethnic minority women and the key factors which impact on their participation and progression in the labour market. As a result of this investigation, various projects, like Working for Families Projects (WfFP) were initiated in Scotland mainly to identify employability skills opportunities. These projects used Information, Technology and Communications (ICT) tools as a means to facilitate and hence improve skills of ethnic minority prior to entering the job market.

This paper reflects on phase II of an on-going research that focuses on one of the Working for Families Project (WfFP) initiated in Scotland. The scope of phase I was on the holistic support and resources such as child care and ICT training/learning skills in particular. Our findings in phase I found that a lack of capability and gaps in provisions of child-care facilities provided by WfFP was one of the most common barriers for ethnic minority women to avail ICT training. This is in turn had an impact on the jobs and other opportunities not being taken up by women in the ethnic minority group in particular (also see paper presented at Ethicomp2008 conference (ii.) ). These findings were consistent with the recent report published by the Napier University that presented the Final Evaluation Report of the Working for Families Fund programme up to the 31 March 2008 (from April 2006- March 2008). It was carried out by the Employment Research Institute, Napier University, Edinburgh, for the Scottish Government (iii.) , where the price of childcare was also stated as a main barrier for parents. It also showed a mismatch between clients starting work and having to pay for childcare, and receiving their first wages. Some of the challenges for parents included hours of work, finishing-time, use of public transport, and closing times for nurseries and registered after-school clubs.

As mentioned earlier, the main focus in phase I was to identify the problems linked with affordable and flexible childcare facilities provided by the WfFP. Hence, the research questions addressed in phase I included:

• Why do the women within the ethnic minority do not avail affordable and flexible childcare facilities provided by WfFP?
• What are main barriers that prevent women from ethnic minority to seek education or/and training for employment purposes?

Based on our findings, few suggestions were incorporated in the WfFP in 2008. It was found that there was an increase in the number of ethnic women who availed various employability skills such as ICT training. Women seemed to be more motivated to use the flexible childcare facilities to enroll in seminars and workshops to enhance their employability skills prior to seeking employment.

In phase II, we conducted interviews and surveys again on the same women from ethnic group from phase I to further evaluate and understand “What motivated women to avail employability skills such as ICT training?” In this research, our method for data collection included qualitative techniques such as surveys, workshops and focus groups. This will help us to better understand how to augment ICT facilities and tools in future seminars and training. As in phase I, it takes the support of Kolb’s cycle (1984) as part of action research method to collect data from ethnic minority group. This framework has been most suitable to increase our understanding of an immediate social situation, with places emphasis on the complex and multivariate nature of this social setting. Further, action research assists in practical problem solving and expanding knowledge.

The finding of this research is significant in many ways. Firstly, the findings of this study will also help the Scottish Executive to further continue developing good practice and criteria for allocating ICT resources to improve employability among ethnic minority, particular among women. Secondly, studies indicates that projects vary between different local authority areas and therefore they need to be modified and designed to fill gaps in existing service provision in each area (see, Napier University Report (iv.) ). Thirdly, studies on minority ethnic people in Scottish context are very limited and fragmented (v.). The existing studies available clearly highlight the complexities involved in analyzing minority ethnic experience. They also indicate that ‘easy’ and narrow cultural assumptions are frequently made about the employment position of minority ethnic women and references to their social and family roles mask other factors, such as workplace discrimination. This is also clear from our findings of phase I. Fourthly, the minority ethnic population in Scotland increased by 62% between 1991 and 2001 (vi.) (Scottish Executive, 2004). Yet, in Scotland, minority ethnic women are underrepresented in the labor market with only 45% of minority ethnic women in employment compared to 59% of white women. Therefore, the ’employment rate gap’ between white women and minority ethnic women is 19% (also see Office for National Statistics (vii.) ). Although, it is not easy to gauge the real picture of the opportunity gap by gender and ethnic group, it is clear that projects such as WfFP, are needed to train and enhance employability skills of these women who have never been in formal employment, or have never been engaged in any type of work with technology. This paper contributes in providing a rich insight to the importance of ethnic women-focused support that is tailored to their needs which will lead to effectiveness in dealing with their circumstances. To conclude, this research is significant to explore patterns over time and analyze causes and consequently using ICT tools and facilities to work towards improving employability skills opportunities for women within ethnic minority group.

ENDNOTES

i. See http://83.137.212.42/sitearchive/eoc/Defaultbdae.html?page=18694&theme=print

ii. See Ethicomp08 by Sharma, N. and Kesar, S. (2008), “Engendering Action to Fill the Gap of Ethnic Minority Employability: A Study on Working for Families Project for Women in Scotland.

iii. See http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/04/20092521/2

iv. Source: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/04/20092521/2

v. See Scottish Executive, 2001, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications

vi. See Scottish Executive, 2004, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications

vii. See http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Equality/18500/MinorityEthnicWomen

AUTHOR
Montse Serra and Josep M. Basart

ABSTRACT

Classroom analysis of ethically relevant professional engineering dilemmas (cases) is one of the most useful strategies to explore this kind of professional ethics in engineering schools. Cases are important because they stimulate the moral imagination of students (what alternatives are possible and what are the consequences for each choice); they show that divergences and disagreement are frequent in practical complex situations; they are contingent and context-bound and, finally, they help students to develop the analytical resources required to cope with realistic problems.

Dialogue and debate are two quite different approaches to the analysis and evaluation of these cases. The first modern precedents of this distinction can be found, from different points of view, in the works of David J. Bohm, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paulo Freire, Jürgen Habermas and Peter Senge, among other scholars. In fact, the border between dialogue and debate is not always clear enough; moreover, a conversation can mix both, phases of dialogue and phases of debate. Finally, what has started as a dialogue may end up in a debate (while the contrary is very unusual). Taking into account these difficulties, we introduce here a set of seven distinctive features that show why dialogue instead of debate should be promoted among students, especially when this learning appears in a virtual education context. Furthermore, this choice implies also the acceptance and application of the principles guiding dialogical ethics; this is an ethical perspective quite different from substantive ethics theories such as deontology, consequentialism or principlism, whereas some works claim that virtue ethics does not seem to be incompatible with dialogical ethics.

First, an historical distinction. Etymologically, dialogue (from Greek dialogos) refers to words like “talk” or “meaning”, whereas debate (from Latin battuere) refers to the idea of “beating” or “blowing”. Thus, dialogue seems to point to construction and comprehension, whereas debate would point to confrontation and division. This focusing is capital when trying to establish a significant contrast between them. The final thing constructed in a dialogue is open (undefined) at the beginning; it will be shaped while advancing all together, piece by piece. In a debate, the confrontation appears precisely because there are two, or more, much defined ideas of what has to be constructed.

Second. In all the dialogues, there is an increasing enrichment, or clarity, through the contributions of the other sides. Dialogue creates an openness to change. In a debate, arguments divergent from mine appear as obstacles or nuisances to be removed. Debate values the wearisome insistence of closed minds.

Third. A dialogue can be kept open easily, because what is looked for is an agreement, a consensus, a better understanding or new findings. A debate tries to close the discussion as soon as possible by convincing the other parts. In a dialogue, we are interested in listening to other voices, we need them, whereas in a debate to hear them is enough, because we are just waiting for our turn.

Fourth. In a dialogue, there are neither winners nor losers. It gravitates over arguments, ideas or proposals. In a debate, we seek for a single winner. It gravitates mainly over persons, groups or teams.

Fifth. Dialogue promotes tolerance actively towards what is different as one of the main ways of showing respect to others. A dialogue with intolerance is a contradiction. Debate can bear passively what is different or what is opposed to my own position. But in it difference is never a value, because any substantial difference is just an error.

Sixth. Dialogue valuates pauses and silence. Debate tries to take advantage of these breaks.

Seventh. Finally, the dialogue is an important aspect of the art of living together in harmony; so, it is an end in itself. In a dialogue you may, and often need to, reevaluate yourself. Debate appears as a technique that requires some skills; it is just a means. When debating you persist in trying to get all the credit.

Dialogue and dialogical ethics appear as a very suitable approach to students learning engineering ethics. Even more, whenever they are integrated in a virtual education frame. In this case, cultural diversity calls for a flexible, well-balanced and powerful device to integrate them advantageously in the deliberations generated by the analysis of cases. This treatment of cases and stories rejects, at the beginning, the use of abstract procedures and formalisms. In addition, it avoids the introduction of dogmatic values or principles to analyze them. The features of dialogue considered above help the students to feel the essential empathy required during negotiation and critical discussion of choices, necessities and consequences. Through dialogue, they learn to postpone initial judgments, to modulate their own position, to ask questions, and to be sensitive to other feelings, ideas, perspectives and interpretations.

AUTHOR
Manuel Sanromà and Joan M. Adserà

ABSTRACT

E-Health, this is healthcare practice supported by electronic processes and communication, has become a commonplace, particularly since the popularization of the Internet. In as much as healthcare is, in many countries, one of the most important public services, it can be considered a part of E-Governance. In any case, healthcare is an information intense activity and therefore Information Technologies should have much impact on its practice. Yet E-Health lags far behind, as far as its common use by citizens is concerned, compared to other activities like banking, shopping or even administration. Of course citizens are able to find much health information on the Internet and use this information as an instrument to socialize and share their concerns related to their health, but the vast majority of health organizations and/or health professionals in most countries are still reluctant, or simply failing, to offer online services to their patients.

We maintain that this is so because unlike in those other activities, where much of the information belonging to citizens is available in digital form, Medical Records are not yet so. Indeed Medical Records are at the base of Health Information Systems: they not only contain all the relevant information for the relationship between health professionals and patients as far as healthcare provision is concerned, but also of the healthcare activity from the economical, entrepreneurial and social point of view. Until recently, and even today in many organizations and countries around the world, this information is fragmented in a jumble of paper files and archives, even among the same organization. During the last few years we have witnessed a move towards computerization of this information in what is commonly known as Electronic Health Records opening the possibility of transforming Medical Records in powerful databases useful not only for the healthcare provision but also for research. This move towards computerization has opened new possibilities. On the side of health organizations it has allowed the implementation of quite a number of (not yet fully operational) projects of Shared Health Records at the regional, national and even international levels, where several organizations, with different information systems are able to share the basic information of patients which was fragmented and spread among the organizations. On the side of the patients it also allows a real control of their information by patients themselves, in what is commonly known as Personal Health Records; last year some well known companies of the Net, Google and Microsoft among them, launched websites where patients take full control of their health information.

We review all these developments and introduce an evolutionary model in five steps that allows us to integrate and understand all of them. Following this model we claim that a new a natural step of this evolution is ready to appear: what we call the Personal Health Space. This is a virtual 3-dimensional space where all the recent and new developments of ITs applied to healthcare provision will become integrated and that will substitute (or better include) the previous real space of healthcare centres where health professionals and patient used to (and still do) interact. One dimension of this space is shaped by the Personal Health Records, a patient-oriented (and not organization-oriented as Medical Records are) information system. Another dimension is the extension of the current model of face to face interaction: it is the world of multichannel interaction (which includes real face to face interaction plus all the possibilities of Telemedicine). We have finally as a third and last dimension all the possibilities opened by the Web 2.0, the social web: social interaction among patient and professionals has always been in place as far as healthcare is concerned, but when it is combined with the possibilities opened by Personal Health Records and Telemedicine it empowers patients and healthcare in general in ways not know before.

We discuss the direction towards which Information Technologies, combined with the cultural assimilation of these technologies, will be leading healthcare in the next years/decades. The Personal Health Space will change not only the way professionals and patients interact but their very same roles in this interaction along with that of health organizations. It will also alter the role o public and private spheres in healthcare provision. We also take into account the new issues raised by these developments which are of particular concern for such a sensitive and vital subject as healthcare is: digital divide, access, privacy and security are but some of the topics that will become even more important when patients’ health related information be concerned. In any case with the new tools available in the Personal Health Space, patients will have complete access and control of their own medical records as well as those of their close relatives, they will use knowledge coupling tools in conjunction with providers to support medical decision making, and they will be taught from childhood on how to interact with the system, just as they now learn how to interact with transport systems. As patients assume such decision making power they will reshape the whole and socially strategic healthcare marketplace.

AUTHOR
Jean Rohmer

ABSTRACT

Applying standards and methods is a must in modern society. However, in the domain of information processing systems or of computer-automated systems, we have observed that misuse or abuse of standards and methods can lead to very negative effects. We consider that contemporary misuse of standards may offend elementary scientific and technical ethics. In this note, we concentrate on these negative aspects, and we will not balance them with their positive ones. Among our concerns:

1) Standards and methods may prevent a project / product from succeeding If you ask designers of successful software products or services, they often explain that their secret is “never use standards” : they are too slow, change too often by keeping to fashion, the tools supposed to support them are faulty. They deliberately develop programs their own way, using tools tailored to their needs and fine-tuned year after year. Alternatively, when programmers are urged by to stick to standards, the risk of failure increases. Our own experience in managing large advanced software projects leads to the same conclusions. This is a problem for the conduct of scientific and technical projects: should a developer accept to comply with standards knowing it will impair the process, should management take the risk of departing from the common policy knowing that opinion –or justice- can blame this decision?

2) Standards and methods may be an obstacle to innovation and they decrease human skills Standards are designed to do standard things the standard way. If the standard you use is at low-level enough, it may be a good launching pad, but a high-level standard confines you in somebody else clothes and ideas. People lose their freedom, their responsibility, they stop to learn by try and errors. Moreover, management believe that, since there exist standards, all problems are solved by advance. In their eyes, standards depreciate the work of their employees, which become interchangeable.

3) Standards and methods may create the illusion of scientific progress Historically, standards were created after something had been invented and broadly adopted, to make its variants compatible. Recently, some authors found it faster to invent the standard first, make enough buzz around it, justifying more and more investments from governments and economy to reach the self -claimed Graal. We call them standards of fantasy. For instance, this is happening for years around the so-called “Semantic Web” W3C standards, which claim to make the Web an intelligent unified shared database at the scale of the Planet simply by the magic of standardizing the representation of elementary information. One of the bad consequences of such standards of fantasy, is that thousands of people generate research projects of fantasy, from the sole belief that in the future theses standards will give birth to a reality. Research becomes standardized, researchers become standardized, research programs become standardized … Then indeed standardized rhymes with sterilized. In such circumstances, ethics urges to resist to standards. And any scientific community should examine itself accordingly.
Standards of fantasy survive and flourish by creating vicious –not for them- circles: more and more projects are justified by the existence of these standards, which in their turn boast of their adoption by more and more projects.

At this point, it is tempting to make a parallel with the current financial crisis. Abuse of methods, abuse of standards, may lead to a spiral of catastrophes. If we play this game, we can develop the analogy:

— giving a method to people is like lending them experience, knowledge, intelligence they are missing, and that they will not be able to refund, except at the price of adopting another method supposed to correct the bad consequences of the first one, as subscribing a new loan. In another words, a kind of Ponzi pyramide.

— the method of splitting a given activity or project into many sub-activities or subprojects delegated to third parties is like securitization in finance . This is frequent in engineering with cascades of subcontracting, and in cooperative research projects with too many partners. Each partner is chosen because it is supposed to excel in applying such or such submethod. Finally, risks are diluted and nobody knows where they hide.

— fiscal paradises, money laundering also exist in the world of standards and methods: their name is Powerpoint presentations: by using formatted ways of writing and communicating, they transform poor content, empty ideas into the appearance of professionalism and trusted knowledge.

— junk bonds are simply the standards of fantasy mentioned earlier

— finally, the cement of this analogy is the existence in both sides of a pensée unique : the belief in standards and methods versus the belief in extreme liberalism and deregulation (a kind of paradox )

To conclude on a positive note, we propose that a way to escape the crisis created by abuse of standards and methods, it to reempower all actors of information systems. We must stop imposing programmers standards of programming which cripple them, and in fact have the only aim of preventing them from programming, by fear of their potential mistakes. And if we fear we fail. We must encourage liberal rather than carceral programming. We must also propose end-users themselves tools to let them become programmers of their own knowledge, rather than simple consumers of online information. In this direction, we advocate in other publications -under the expression of litteratus calculus- for using natural language and dialogue as the ultimate standards, standards built by human history, and which span from millennium to millennium.

AUTHOR
Anne Rogerson

ABSTRACT

ICT has revolutionised learning opportunities and the tools available to teachers and schools to deliver knowledge, and more especially to develop a love of learning, amongst the young people with whom they work. There can be no disputing the increased breadth and depth of information available through the internet and sources such as Wikipedia. The web has revolutionised the way pupils can access information. There are possibilities of drilling down to find statistical data, maps and plans which would have been generally inaccessible at local level, much less available within the school or home, for the average adolescent prior to the web. Such sources make personalised learning a reality and provide the path to realisation of individual potential. An initial examination of the current climate and the changes which have occurred in schools’ use of ICT over the past two decades may therefore lead to the conclusion that they fall into the category of “forward changes”. Other forward changes could include the opportunities to communicate with young people of similar age in other countries and from other cultures. Such interaction can create the means of breaking down barriers which so often are the foundation of prejudice based on ignorance.

Looking at the last example of a possible forward change, such interaction would fall under the broad banner of social networking. Does this mean that social networking, per se, represents a forward change in the use of ICT, particularly as it effects young people?(For the purpose of this paper young people are defined as pupils aged 11-16 years who, in England, would be at the secondary stage of statutory education) There are a host of examples to be culled from news reports of the potential, and in some cases the actual, abuse of young people by contacts made on the internet. Does this then mean that ICT has produced a “backwards change” in terms of social impact, providing a broader platform and a vehicle for those who would do children harm? Are young people significantly more at risk, through social networking, of being “groomed” by potential paedophiles?

Sexual abuse is but one aspect of abuse and is usually, not always accurately, perceived as being perpetrated by adults on minors. It can of course sometimes be a dominant minor involved in perpetrating such abuse. However, arguably, a more common form of abuse is that of bullying. This can take the form of one on one , or one on many, in the on-line world, just as in the real world. Is the risk of being bullied greater on-line, via social networking sites, than it is off-line? Is on- line bullying different from off-line bullying? Are the effects different? What are the remedies and, more crucially, what are the attitudes of young people, born in the digital age, themselves to these issues?

There are other aspects of social networking which merit examination in terms of use by minors. Does the use of social networking enhance or stilt the development of more conventional means of social intercourse? Is there a danger that increased use of the web will lead to a reduction in face to face meetings, increasing isolation and a risk of losing what are currently regarded as commonly accepted inter- personal skills? Such skills may include the ability to respect and acknowledge personal space, read visual cues such as facial expressions alongside auditory stimuli such as tone, volume and pace of voice. Furthermore, is this group of young people more vulnerable than adult users and so should there be controls/strictures in place aimed at their protection? Do the adults in society have a duty of care to these young users and if so, who should exercise that duty of care and what form should the expression of that care take? Is it an issue of control through statute and policing, or will that simply serve to stifle the creative, beneficial uses of social networking sites by the young? Should the care come from the providers of social networking sites( the conduits) such as Facebook, My Space and Bebo? How can they assist in the protection of young people, or indeed is it their role to do so? What is the role of the ultimate child carers, namely the parents? Last but not least of these adults with a duty of care, what is the role of schools and education professionals in this safeguarding debate, which must surely aim at achieving a balance between protecting the young from abuse, whilst enabling them to develop through harnessing the benefits of this very powerful medium of ICT. The obverse of this “duty of care “coin is should adults be the instigators of safeguarding or should they simply be the channel empowering young people themselves to develop their own safeguarding techniques?

It is necessary to know the views and experiences of young people on these issues before being able to answer the broader question of whether ICT changes, which have enabled the growth of on line social networking, have proved a backwards or forwards step change in terms of social impact, or indeed whether social networking constitutes a sideways change. For this reason, the final paper will present the results of a detailed survey examining the issues, including the use of social networking sites, preferred providers, origin of contacts and purpose of use by young people. The sample population will be drawn from pupils at two secondary schools in different locations within England. Based on the outcome of that survey, focus groups will be established to discuss questions raised in this abstract and to enable conclusions to be drawn, within the constraints necessarily imposed by the sampling of the young people, on the issue of the nature of the changes in ICT.