The impact of cyber learning on moral development : an exploration of tertiary education in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in Adult Education at Massey University

Cyber learning is learning that takes place making use of cyberspace technology or computer technology. This encompasses any type of learning that occurs while connected to cyberspace, including the Internet, e-mail, virtual reality, computer assisted learning, or computer-mediated learning, electronic learning or telelearning. This research study is an exploration of views and ideas of tertiary level educators on the impact of cyber learning on moral development. Lawrence Kohlberg's (1981) moral development theory has been used as a framework to establish whether there are any factors that make cyber learning a challenge to moral development in tertiary level students. Kohlberg's moral development theory explains the cognitive development process of moral reasoning and decision making in an individual. The research method used to gather data was in-depth face-to-face interviews. The participants were tertiary level educators from Palmerston North in New Zealand. The themes that emanated from the data analysis were categorized as negative and positive impact of cyber learning. Related to these categories the following propositions emerged from the research study. They were: cyber learning has resulted in the birth of 'Cyber Identity'; 'Cyber Choice' in cyber learning overrules moral reasoning; cyber learning encourages alienation from human interaction into 'Cyber Isolation'; cyber learning has resulted in 'Cyber Freedom'; cyber learning introduces students into 'Cyber Illusion' in virtual reality; cyber learning is a gateway to new dimensions of learning; a paradigm shift in learning could permeate tertiary education as a result of cyber learning; and, in order to enable tertiary students to face the challenges of cyber learning successfully it is important to equip them with tools of moral reasoning and decision-making skills. Participants polled in this study believed that New Zealand tertiary education system is impoverished in moral development and as a result New Zealand students are more vulnerable to the impact of cyber learning. The findings highlighted the importance of a moral reasoning framework in tertiary education in order to prepare tertiary students to meet the challenges of cyber learning

Warfighting for cyber deterrence: a strategic and moral imperative

Theories of cyber deterrence are developing rapidly. However, the literature is missing an important ingredient—warfighting for deterrence. This controversial idea, most commonly associated with nuclear strategy during the later stages of the Cold War, affords a number of advantages. It provides enhanced credibility for deterrence, offers means to deal with deterrence failure (including intrawar deterrence and damage limitation), improves compliance with the requirements of just war and ultimately ensures that strategy continues to function in the post-deterrence environment. This paper assesses whether a warfighting for deterrence approach is suitable for the cyber domain. In doing so, it challenges the notion that warfighting concepts are unsuitable for operations in cyberspace. To do this, the work constructs a conceptual framework that is then applied to cyber deterrence. It is found that all of the advantages of taking a warfighting stance apply to cyber operations. The paper concludes by constructing a warfighting model for cyber deterrence. This model includes passive and active defences and cross-domain offensive capabilities. The central message of the paper is that a theory of victory (strategy) must guide the development of cyber deterrence

Internet innovations:exploring new horizons

The aim of this paper is to provide a standpoint on an emerging trend in sharing digital video content over the Internet. The paper is based on participative evaluative analysis of business model employed by digital video content sharing providers. The authors have found that because of wide diffusion of broadband and cheap video recording equipment, enabling digital video content to be shared online, and emerging business internet video sharing practice its users increasingly find themselves infringing the intellectual property rights of others. This has implications for anyone using online video resources. The paper offers an insight into the increasing popularity of online video and the resulting dilemmas encountered by internet researchers; it also offers a functional way for researchers, businesses and online users to understand the mechanism of infringement of the intellectual property rights relating to online video content. The paper further contributes to expanding the understanding of internet users behaviour in relation to digital video content creation and distribution in the context of challenges faced by cyberlaw

The normativity of code as law: towards input legitimacy

In the debate on how the new information and communication technologies impact on democratic politics the role played by the digital architecture seems to be surprisingly underrated. In particular, while a lot of attention has been paid to the possibilities that new technologies open up to democratic theory, few works have attempted to look at how democracy may help in shaping technologies. By adopting as a starting point the approach known as ‘code as law’, the paper aims at two objectives: to re-affirm the importance of discussing normative principles to guide the process of code writing in order to reinvigorate the debate; to claim the importance of input reasons when deciding which principles should be chosen. After having remarked that code is relevant for establishing democratic norms, the paper briefly tackles with the main attempts by European scholars to deal with this issue. Then, a couple of practical examples of how code impacts on democratic rights are sketched out. In the last section of the paper a shift from an output-based approach to the legitimacy of code to an input-based is openly advocated: an inquiry into the legitimacy of code should focus on its production

HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN CYBERSPACE

Once with the spread and use of computers and Internet on a larger scale, trafficking in persons has conquered a new space: cyberspace. The recruitment of victims through the Internet, the use of e-mails for the moral coercion of the victim and ultimately, the exploitation of victims with the purpose of obtaining widespread Internet pornography constitute human trafficking in cyberspace. This area of crime deployment raises many questions like: who will be criminally liable, which is the applicable law, which is the end point of the crime?computer crime, human trafficking

Reconfiguring Interactivity, Agency and Pleasure in the Education and Computer Games Debate – using Žižek’s concept of interpassivity to analyse educational play

Digital or computer games have recently attracted the interest of education researchers and policy-makers for two main reasons: their interactivity, which is said to allow greater agency, and their inherent pleasures, which is linked to increased motivation to learn. However, the relationship between pleasure, agency and motivation in educational technologies is under-theorised. This paper aims to situate these concepts within a framework that might identify more precisely how games can be considered to be educational. The framework is based on Zizek’s theory of subjectivity in cyberspace, and in particular his notion of interpassivity, which is defined in relation to interactivity. The usefulness of this concept is explored firstly by examining three approaches to theorizing cyberspace and their respective manifestations in key texts on educational game play. Zizek’s analysis of cyberspace in terms of socio-symbolic relations is then outlined to suggest how games might be considered educational insofar as they provide opportunities to manipulate and experiment with the rules underpinning our sense of reality and identity. This resembles Brecht’s notion of the educational value of theatre. The conclusion emphasizes that the terms on which games are understood to be educational relates to the social interests which education is understood to serve

Regulating Disruption: Blockchain, GDPR, and Questions of Data Sovereignty

The article discusses the nature of law in cyberspace. Topics discussed include distinction between regulation as infringement of private autonomy and regulation as a collaborative enterprise; blockchain regulatory conundrum; and neoliberal market-complementing regulation. Also being discussed is the regulation for economic efficiency and consumer choice

Regulating hate speech online

The exponential growth in the Internet as a means of communication has been emulated by an increase in far-right and extremist web sites and hate based activity in cyberspace. The anonymity and mobility afforded by the Internet has made harassment and expressions of hate effortless in a landscape that is abstract and beyond the realms of traditional law enforcement. This paper examines the complexities of regulating hate speech on the Internet through legal and technological frameworks. It explores the limitations of unilateral national content legislation and the difficulties inherent in multilateral efforts to regulate the Internet. The paper develops to consider how technological innovations can restrict the harm caused by hate speech while states seek to find common ground upon which to harmonise their approach to regulation. Further, it argues that a broad coalition of government, business and citizenry is likely to be most effective in reducing the harm caused by hate speech

Agency Law in Cyberspace

This short article articulates and defends the proposition that basic doctrines within common-law agency apply readily to transactions and other encounters effected through the internet. In cyberspace, as in physical space, common-law agency specifies the circumstances under which an actor\u27s conduct should carry consequences for another person\u27s legal position unless a statute provides otherwise. Recent cases illustrate an easy translation into cyberspace of concepts that are well-developed elsewhere, including the test of whether a particular relationship amounts to one of agency and whether a person acted with actual or apparent authority to bind another