Ethics

The term ethics is commonly used in different ways, including to describe a way of being, synonymous with morals (e.g., “The President is an ethical leader.”); to identify rules or a moral code, often affiliated with a professional organization (e.g., legal ethics and the American Bar Association's Code of Professional Responsibility); to denote the philosophical study of morality; and to identify a particular philosopher's moral theory (e.g., Kantian ethics). All of these uses are relevant to educational institutions and to the professionals who work there. Some ethical problems in educational settings, such as academic integrity issues, are relevant to both institutional ethics and professional ethics. Because technology influences the pattern of ethical issues, distributed learning environments face special ethical challenges. A general understanding of academic ...