Legal and Ethical Issues in Adult LearningLegal and Ethical Issues in Adult Learning

By: Robert Mason By: Robert Mason

Why Is It Important?

The introduction of technology has raised a wide range of legal and ethical issues that are distinctive to the 21st century when it comes to adults and their learning in the new modern day era.

Legal and Ethical Issues to Adult Learning

• Appropriate Use

• Privacy

• Copyright

• Intellectual Property

• Ethical Policies

Appropriate Use

Any modern day education program must have a policy that deals with appropriate use.

Appropriate use protects an institution or program resources to ensure that they are not being used for activities that are for illegal or contrary to education or business policy. It help ensures that every user is responsible for the integrity of these resources.

Privacy

Privacy such as the FERPA Act(Family Education Privacy), help protect student’s privacy as well as make sure that an adult learner can receive the same type of education, regardless of race, sex, religion, disability or age.

Privacy is important in the adult learning process because if not properly upheld it can cause lawsuits or civil litigation for any education entity. Privacy of student records is a very important standard that most universities take seriously.

Intellectual PropertyThe law of intellectual property typically encompasses the areas of Copyright, Patents, and trademark law. It is intended largely to encourage the development of art, science, and information by granting certain property rights to all artists, which include inventors in the arts and the sciences.(World Intellectual Property Organization, n.d.).

These rights allow artists to protect themselves from infringement, or the unauthorized use and misuse of their creations. (World Intellectual Property Organization, n.d.).

Promotion of fair use of intellectual property is important when it comes to the adult learning process. Teachers and professors have to be careful in making sure they get proper permission to use specific property by others to enhance the learning process and to prevent their educational institute from being penalized.

Copyright With the wide use of the Internet, the importance about use and knowledge about copyright law and its implications for such activities as Internet research, downloading literature and documents, creating Web sites, and installing software on school networks has significantly increased.

Ensuring that the adult learner understands the laws and impact of protected written work of another person or entity will prevent plagiarism or any other federal violation of copyright infringement.

Ethical Policies

Ethical policies play a intricate role in the adult learning process. Ethical policies set the standard for integrity and are usually incorporated in every university’s student code of conduct. Ethical policies help ensure that academic work is honest and does not violate or infringe on the work of others, as well as the law.

By having ethical policies in place, it helps promote learning at the highest level, and ensures that the student is maintaining academic integrity.

Conclusion By understanding the proper parameters to take and the important issues when it comes to legal and ethical challenges in the physical and online classroom, will help make sure the adult learning experience is one that is unique and upholds integrity at the same time.

References

Alsop, R. J. (2006). Business ethics education in business schools: A commentary. Journal of Management Education, 30 (11), 11-14.

Levine, S.J. (2002). Faith in legal professionalism: Believers and heretics. Maryland Law Review, 61, 217-242. Lindeman, E.C.L. (1926). The meaning of adult education. New York: New Republic

World Intellectual Property Organization. (n.d.). What is Intellectual Property?. Retrieved November 12, 2013, from