MTL5350:

Societal and Legal Issues in Digital Learning

The advancement of digital technologies, and their inclusion in learning environments, causes myriad social, legal, and ethical consideration for their use. In this course, students will focus on the intersection of these considerations with existing policy and law. Topics include privacy, selection of instructional materials, digital identity, copyright/fair use, and intellectual property.

Learning Goals:

Understand legal precedents that inform decision-making and policy in educational institutions
Understand ethical issues related to digital technologies in educational environments.
Demonstrate ability to discuss legal and ethical issues with colleagues and others in work/educational environments.
Understand issues of technology as related to race, gender, socioeconomic, and geographic factors.
Create a plan to utilize technologies for the benefit of those in the community.

Technology for Social Good Project

Develop a plan for implementing an emerging technology for 'social good' – applied to societal problems – in a field such as education, public health, or elderly care. This plan should include:

A description of the targeted social change/potential benefit
An overview of the type of technology selected and the reasoning behind the selection
A brief summary of related literature related to the need for this change and the potential use of technology in the initiative (References should follow APA 7th edition)
A table or other graphic outlining the plan, including: the primary goal, specific objective(s), strategies relating to these objectives, responsibility for implementation of strategies, resources required, timeline, and benchmarks/indicators of success.
You may present your project in a format of your choice.
You will also produce a short overview video or infographic outlining your plan, which will be posted to the discussion board for peer feedback. Please include a link to this on your final project submission.

Navigate here for the Technology for Social Good Project

Ethics Scenario Activity

For this assignment, you will plan a professional development activity for your peers or other practitioners. You will develop a short scenario that addresses potential ethical issues/dilemmas in the use of digital technologies in educational settings. It should be designed to elicit conversation between your participants. You will also develop a series of guiding questions and resources (videos, quotes, etc.) to frame a culminating discussion and guide participants toward potential solutions.

Navigate here for the Ethics Scenario Activity

Legal Issues Annotated Bibliography

Develop an annotated bibliography of both scholarly (peer-reviewed) papers and news articles related to one legal issue with the educational use of technologies; when possible, incorporating sources from a global perspective and including international publications.

Your bibliography should include a minimum of 8-10 resources, and citations should be done in accordance with APA style. Should you need assistance with this, an excellent style guide is available. You may also want to use a citation manager such as Zotero or EndNote (trust me, you'll be glad you did) to help organize your work.
Please submit this assignment as a Google Doc, and make sure I have appropriate permissions for commenting.

Navigate here for the Legal Issues Annotated Bibliography

Legal Issues Annotated Bibliography

Ethics Scenario Activity

Technology for Social Good Project

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Image citation: “Appalachian State University.” CollegeVine, 2025, www.collegevine.com/schools/appalachian-state-university. Accessed 6 Mar. 2025.