Morals and ethics, two terms so similarly used, but yet different. What is moral or what is ethical is so much more than what is right or wrong. Right and wrong come with strings attached, with questions to be answered. Right and wrong are no longer black and white, but shade of grey.
Morality is the conforming to the customary practices of societies and their definition of what is right to do in a given situation. This is an individual approach to social teachings. The society defines right and wrong and individuals pick up on those ideas in order to develop their own sense of morals or what is right and wrong. Morality is about what should or ought to be done in a given situation. The actions of a person in a society are usually closely linked with rules, obligations, and in many instances laws. It is because of this link that morality finds itself mixed up with legal situations. Laws are instituted to keep order and maintain the success of a society. This causes some confusion between what a person should do morally and what they should do legally. Louis Pojman in "What is Moral Philosophy" explains this mixing very well with his example of lying. Lying is generally considered to be immoral, i.e. it is wrong to lie to somebody, but it is not necessarily illegal to lie (unless it is to law officials, in court, or on your taxes). He provides another example of legal but immoral. You witness someone being beaten up in the street by your house. The moral thing to do would be to call the police and report the incident, but you do not legally have to. Laws have physical punishments for breaking them, but breaking morals is only punishable by your conscious and community.
Ethics is a moral code. It is a system made up of right and wrong with external implications. While morals are individually developed and internally processed due to social pressures, ethics are socially developed and externally enforced. Ethics are a social code of right and wrong that are less about the pressure to do what is right for our own satisfaction, but more about how society will punish us if we don't do what is right. Many times when we see ethics in practice it is for professional or business practices. Violating ethics or the moral code by which the occupation insists can result in punishment like being fined, having your professional reputation ruined, or loosing your job.
How does this relate to education and technology? Technology has opened up a whole new set of opportunities in education, but at the same time it has also raised a whole new set of questions. Technology is our window to the world, but on the other side of that window we will find a potentially dangerous world if not taught how to deal with it. Morals are personal behavior and students must be instructed on how to behave using technology by teaching them how technology should or should not be used. Technology can be harmful to students if not properly instructed on how to use it. The students in a school are instructed using a code of conduct, in essence a code of ethics, that if they do not follow when using technology will result in punishments. Technology can be safe and helpful, but it comes with moral and ethically obligations. Those morals and ethics start with the teacher and continue with the students.
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