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The CyberEthics Podcast Transcripts Michael Read More Michael Thank you for joining us on the Cyber ethics podcast. I'm Dr. Michael Buder. Today I'm joined by Cam Wells and we'll be discussing issues of accessibility in the digital sphere. Cam Wells is a stroke survivor and he holds 4 diplomas from St. Clair College. After getting his journalism degree, he Came to realize that there's a great imbalance in the way disability stories are typically portrayed in the media. They seem to be portrayed as either bitter or inspirational without a presentation of the middle ground. After graduating, Cam set himself to the task of trying to change all that. He has been the host of the radio show Handi-Link for 15 years now. He has interviewed a wide array of people from cast members of shows like Breaking Bad and Corner Gas to everyday people with amazing stories to share. Read More Michael: Welcome to the Cyberethics Podcast. I am joined today by a very special guest. Rory Mehr is the Associate Director of Community Organizing at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They coordinate EFF's support of local advocacy groups, primarily through the grassroots information sharing network, the Electronic Frontier Alliance. Prior to joining the EFF, Rory studied activist pedagogy and adolescent use of social media as a doctoral student of psychology. As a student, instructor, and researcher, they advocated for student and worker privacy, open science, and open education on campus. They were also active in several New York City community projects like the SciPIR Collective, an EFA member group focused on accessible digital security trainings. Welcome, Rory. Read More Rory: Thanks so much for having me. Michael: Michael Welcome, and thank you for joining us. Today, I have a special guest. I'm joined by Claudio Popa. Claudio is the CEO of Informatica Security and founder of Knowledge Flow Cybersecurity Foundation, which is a nonprofit designed to raise cyber situational awareness in the home. I met Claudio through a roundtable discussion on misinformation and disinformation for Project Defuse, which he co-hosted in conjunction with NATO. One of the focuses of the Knowledge Flow Foundation is to teach safe online interactions for school-aged children, and cyber safety and privacy in education is our main topic today. Claudio, thank you for joining us. Read More Claudio Well, thank you for having me on the show. It's a pleasure. Michael So before we dive into the topic of education, last time we spoke, you mentioned the concept of dark patterns, and I was hoping you'd just say a little bit about what dark patterns are. Claudio Hello and welcome to the Cyberethics podcast, I am Dr Michael Bruder. I have been teaching Cyebrethics for the past decade and am passionate about discussing these issues with experts and bringing those conversations to the wider public. With the help of some professionals from various fields, we will be discussing the ways our increasingly digital lives raise old and new ethical concerns. We will cover such topics as the dangers of Artificial Intelligence, privacy and surveillance, gaming, social media addiction, digital accessibility, cyber-education and many more. This first podcast is intended to serve as a brief introduction to the moral frameworks and ethical principles that I will be making reference to as we discuss issues of Cyberethics. First a note on terminology: what I am calling cyberethics is sometimes called computer ethics, information ethics, or even technology ethics. These all refer to the same general scope of issues that arise when our technology brings us face to face with ethical concerns. I will also be alternating between the term ethics and morals, these can be considered interchangeable for our purposes. There are few areas of human endeavour that are growing as quickly as technology. Each new development entails a new set of possibilities and these possibilities, in turn, present new challenges to our understanding of their moral implications. What tends not to change quite so rapidly are our core values and the moral frameworks through which we assess the implications of our technological developments. Read More In Philosophy, ethics is divided into normative and applied approaches. Normative ethics studies broad questions such as:

Ethical Consulting At Aristos, we want to see you succeed, and we believe in the success of ethical planning and strategy. Better understand the worlds of cyber, business, and medical ethics with our expert guidance. Whether you're navigating the complexities of data privacy, corporate responsibility, or digital governance, our seasoned consultants provide tailored strategies to steer your organization towards integrity and sustainability. Join us in fostering a culture of ethical excellence, where principles drive progress and trust is the cornerstone of success. Allow us to be your ethical compass in the digital age! Contact Us Information Ethics Business Ethics Medical Ethics What We Can Provide: Audititing Existing Policies and Procedures Operationalizing Ethical Principles in Project Planning Reviewing of Strategic Plans Guidance on the Development of Policies and Procedures Participating in Strategic Planning Meetings and Discussions Comprehensive Assessments Our Providers At Aristos, we are passionate about ethics. Our founder and CEO, Dr. Michael Bruder, has a storied history in ethics that gives us unique insight into ethical problems. Our enthusiasm and wide range of experience set us apart from other firms in bringing you comprehensive ethical consultations. As a business owner, educator, and Doctor of Philosophy, Dr. Bruder is at a unique crossroads of expertise for providing your business successful ethical structure. Additional Services Training Modules Aristos develops training materials for in-person or online delivery based on either your proprietary content or original content developed by Aristos on your behalf. Educational Curricula We pride ourselves on providing evidence-based educational curricula for the specific needs of our clients.

< Back The Magic of Libraries Sep 2023 Exploring how local libraries can enhance your studies and connect you with new and exciting opportunities and resources. Previous Next Aristos Education Services Newsletter September 2023 The Magic of Libraries Exploring how local libraries can enhance your studies and connect you with new and exciting opportunities and resources. Dear Aristos Community, We hope this newsletter finds you well and thriving in your academic pursuits. Today, we want to shine a spotlight on an underrated and up-and-coming gem that can significantly enhance your learning experience: your local library. Libraries have long been hailed as treasure troves of knowledge and invaluable resources for students of all ages. In this edition, we'll explore the myriad ways in which local libraries complement and amplify the work we do at Aristos to support your educational journey and the ways the library can enhance your daily life. A Haven for Learning Local libraries are sanctuaries for learning. They provide a peaceful, focused environment that's conducive to study and concentration. Whether you're working on homework, preparing for an exam, or seeking a quiet space for tutoring sessions, your local library offers the perfect setting to maximize your productivity. Many libraries also have after-hours study halls that you can reserve a spot in. This allows you to come to the library after close for flexibility in work/study hours and extra quiet. The following Hamilton public libraries offer this service: Dundas, Red Hill, Terryberry, Turner Park, Valley Park and Waterdown. A Vast Collection of Resources Libraries are home to an extensive collection of books, journals, magazines, and multimedia materials. From classic literature to the latest research publications, you'll find a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips. These resources can be indispensable for research projects, improving reading skills, or simply exploring new interests. The material public libraries house might surprise you! Not only do they have a wealth of reference books and sometimes even text books available, they can also offer CDs and DVDs to check out. This can recreate the mystery and magic of the video rental stores of the 80s, 90s and 00s. You can organically discover new movies and shows, and find old favorites to revisit. In today's digital age, libraries offer more than physical books and media too. Most libraries offer e-books and audiobooks via apps like Kanopy. And for tv shows and documentaries, more and more libraries are partnering with free streaming services like Kanopy. Educational software and online databases are also often available upon request, especially for students with available student ID. You can access these resources with your library card from the comfort of your home, making research and self-guided learning more accessible than ever. Professional Assistance Libraries are staffed with knowledgeable professionals who are eager to help. Librarians can assist you in locating relevant materials, navigating databases, and conducting effective research. Their expertise can be especially valuable when you're working on academic assignments or projects. But librarians can also sometimes help you navigate difficult applications or troubles understanding websites or digital tools. Always check in with your librarian if you’re struggling with something in the library! Community Events and Programs Libraries are not just about books; they are vibrant community hubs. Many libraries host events, workshops, and programs that can sometimes complement your tutoring sessions. These include author talks, STEM workshops, language learning groups, arts and crafts, seasonal fun and more. Participating in these activities can broaden your horizons and connect you with like-minded learners. Upcoming and Ongoing Events Hamilton Public Library Stories of Migration and Belonging (Exhibit) at Central branch HPL: Monday, September 25 - 9:00am-5:00pm STEAM Learning Lab (Program) at Kenilworth branch HPL: Monday, September 25 - 1:30pm-2:30pm LEGOmania (Program) at Central branch HPL: Wednesday, September 27 - 4:00pm-6:00pm Make Art for teens (Program) at Waterdown HPL: Monday, October 2 - 6:00pm-7:00pm Burlington Public Library Family STEAM time (Program) at Central branch BPL: Sunday, September 24 - 2:00pm-3:00pm Hour of Code (Program) at Aldershot branch BPL: Monday, September 25 - 4:30pm-5:30pm 3D Design with Tinkercad at Central branch BPL: Thursday, September 28 - 7:00pm-8:30pm Knit ‘n’ Natter at Aldershot branch BPL: Saturday, October 7 - 10:00am-12:00pm We encourage all our students to make the most of these invaluable resources to enhance their learning journey. Remember, knowledge is limitless, and libraries are the keys to unlock its vast treasures. So, whether you're seeking research materials, a quiet place to study, or a community of fellow learners, your local library is your ally in academic success. Thank you for entrusting Aristos with your educational goals. We are here to support you every step of the way. Should you have any questions or need assistance in making the most of your local library, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. Happy learning! Warm regards, READ MORE ON OUR WEBSITE info@aristoseducation.ca (365) 889-3756Admin: contact@aristoseducation.ca (289) 858-6065

< Back Episode 2 - Artificial Intelligence Applications and Ethical Considerations Transcript < Previous Episode Next Episode >

< Back Episode 5 - Accessibility in Education and Tech Michael Thank you for joining us on the Cyber ethics podcast. I'm Dr. Michael Buder. Today I'm joined by Cam Wells and we'll be discussing issues of accessibility in the digital sphere. Cam Wells is a stroke survivor and he holds 4 diplomas from St. Clair College. After getting his journalism degree, he Came to realize that there's a great imbalance in the way disability stories are typically portrayed in the media. They seem to be portrayed as either bitter or inspirational without a presentation of the middle ground. After graduating, Cam set himself to the task of trying to change all that. He has been the host of the radio show Handi-Link for 15 years now. He has interviewed a wide array of people from cast members of shows like Breaking Bad and Corner Gas to everyday people with amazing stories to share. Read More Cam has been honored for his work both locally and nationally, including a nomination for Canada's Disability Hall of Fame. Welcome to the show, Cam and thanks for being here. Cam Pleasure. Always happy to get the word out about anything. Accessibility related. Michael Absolutely, and a quick personal note, happy belated birthday. Yesterday was your birthday, right? Cam Thank you very much. And, A fun note about that. I first act as a human being was wrecking a retirement party, which, it's always something I reflect fondly on because well. It's one of those things. People arrive when they feel like it. When schedule. Michael That's right, that's right, life happens. Great. So I appreciate you coming here to talk to us about accessibility issues. You, this is something that you've spent a great time focusing and shedding light on through through your show. So I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about some of the digital accessibility issues that you've encountered both personally and through the conversations with your guests on your radio show. Cam Well, most obvious thing that comes to mind is, my own experience when I was doing, Diploma is 2 through 4 at Saint Clair. And I myself being a stroke survivor I have limited dexterity in one hand and I only type with one finger. Michael Okay. Cam Distinctly remember being told that it was physically impossible for me to pass some of the speed drills that were required of me, but somehow I muddled through in the low end ones. I required accommodations for sort of the higher end ones. But therein lay the problem. The program, the software they were using wasn't necessarily designed to work with talk and type interface and therefore was sort of like saying just because you don't type this way. You can't physically do it. However, They were understanding enough and I was able to use an alternative software that had a better interface and ultimately complete my education. Some of the things that really stand out for me -is what we think of as a convenience sometimes can be a tremendous advantage for someone with a disability. Think about it in terms of a voice-activated Alexa. Someone who's got full range of motion, it's a convenience saying hey Alexa turn on the lights. But for someone to physically manipulate a light switch that is a tremendous thing. It's being able to have that sense of independence that sense of freedom for perhaps the very first time. Michael Right, yeah, that's an excellent point. So we often think of, technology as sort of supplementing or providing alternate resources for people. But it's it's important to note that it opens up options, to be like, grants independence and autonomy a lot of the time some of these supports. Cam Oh, that's the thing now. People look at something like the pandemic as all negatives. However, I did a series of interviews at the time. Talking about how it was perhaps the first time some people with this bill who were homebound were actually able to work using digital technologies. Michael Great. Cam And how employer probably won't go out of their way to accommodate everyone who could potentially be in the workforce when it's affecting them and the whole world's closed down, suddenly we're making allowances. Michael Right, that's very interesting- So yeah, go ahead. Cam There was. There's actually, Sorry. There's actually, an employment expert, a friend of mine, Sean Wiltshire. Gave me a great couple of interviews on the subject. His work actually takes him all over the world in terms of getting people with disabilities employment but seeing people enter the workforce for the first time because we realised these digital options were available to us. Just kind of a changing experience. That's 1 thing the pandemic did do. As long as we maintain. Michael Right. That's really interesting. That's not actually something I'd considered before. So the shift to being able to or being forced to continue to continue operations as a business online actually opened up some opportunities for people who may not have had them before. Cam That was, it's a great boon. I mean, You want to look at employment trends in particular as being, oh yes, we're inclusive, we're providing. Michael Right. Cam What we're legally required to. Bare minimum. However, once you realize the advantages of say providing a home computer for someone with a disability who might just bring innovation or new ideas to your business. You come to realize it's 300 bucks now but for the 3 million you might make later. Definitely worth it. Michael Right. Yeah, that's right. They always say, investing in people is one of the best investments you can make in workforce development. So that's that's that's a nice silver lining I suppose out of the pandemic. I imagine there were also some, some downsides for people facing accessibility issues during the pandemic. Cam Particularly in the educations fair, they had to very quickly transition to online learning. Fact is they didn't necessarily take into account those who might have a different learning style. It's not like you could just dial up the EA or the learning support staff easily. And facing something like a vision impairment. When you're patching together an online system, you're not going to look at things like high contrast options or whether or not it's got alternative text so someone could properly interpret what the question is. And the trouble in that space is Alternative text might read out. What the word is, but it can't distinguish between you’re and your if you catch my drift. Michael Right, I haven't thought about that. So words that sound the same when they're a converted from text to speech. Cam You have to take that in context. I mean, some people can absolutely do it. I mean, if you look at the rest of the sentence, but it all depends on how your mind works and what's your familiarity is with the language. Michael Of course. Cam For someone coming in as in the ESL for example. Say you have a disability, you're just learning the language. That could be a whole host of problems right there. Michael Right, that's a very good point. So, speaking of higher education, in light of the pandemic, I think maybe a little bit for that even. It was starting to be more of a focus, this sort of digital accessibility and general accessibility issues, this seems to be more of a focus for universities, at least there. They’re making announcements to that effect. What's your assessment of how that's going? Cam Well, I always think, first off, that it's easier to build it with accessibility in mind, reinventing the wheel later is not good thing. If your website is built, look a certain way, and then later on government mandate says, oh, you need a high contrast option. Michael Right. Cam You turn that on, it can completely alter the look of how somebody's looking at it. So is easier just to take into consideration the fact that someday you're going to have a student with disability. For them, they don't always know what's available to them. They don't always know that they're entitled to accommodations or supports. It was actually, my big pitfall, my first year at the college. I, and the transfer programs, to get into my second year, but my first year, I I didn't ask for help. I was coming out of high school. I was one of those guys who assumed the world's gonna be handed to you on a silver platter. But for a student with a disability who's had to scrape and scroll every inch of the way and it does happen. They're not necessarily going to have the confidence, the courage to say to a professor, hey. I'm entitled to this support. I've been to Learning Commons. I've been to the support office. What have you. Michael Right. Cam And honestly, this is what I need to succeed. The big myth is it's not about an unfair advantage. It is not about providing someone with an easy ride through higher education. It was about leveling the playing field. I once heard a story, from a friend of mine, Anne Karemic, great, great lady. She had actually a deaf student and there's a transcription requirement in office of main training. Michael Good. Cam They found a way to do it. It was, not only an ethical move on their part, but it was setting a precedent. And you can do it once for one student, chances are you can find a way to do it for another. Michael Right. That's a good example. So last time we chatted, you said a little bit about, with this, with this sort of thinking of mind, you know, designing things from the ground up with a view to accessibility concerns. And you mentioned a little bit of a distinction between 2 concepts in this field. Accessible design and universal design. Could you say a little bit about that? Cam Absolutely. Universal design is something that's made for everybody but might have an advantage in the disability community. Oh, see the case the Alexa I alluded to earlier. Where it's accessible design is something created in mind for people with disabilities that might have an advantage. See the case of a wheelchair button. Say you're a mother and you're looking after 2 or 3 kids and you're also carrying groceries. You need a way to get in the door. Michael Okay. So, oh I see, so that's an example of accessible design that ends up having a convenience affect other people as well. Cam Yes, and they're actually a lot of instances of that. If you look around, I mean, If you look at even the prolification of things like smartphones, one thing they were never specifically intended to do just to be able to have a disability advantage. They were just invented to be more convenient phones, but there are actually some that are set up so people in electric wheelchairs can use an app to drive. Things like that. They just happen to be a happy result of technologies advancement. Michael Right, that's nice. So to bring these points together, the idea that people should be designing from the ground up with a view to accessibility and some of the accidental benefits that come along with technological advancements. What what would you like to see in the future or what do you what do you already see coming sort of down the pipeline in the future in terms of either benefits for people with accessibility issues or things that are raising. Concerns about accessibility in the new technology. Cam Oh, the big concern. It's. Definitely, something I hear a lot about. There are a lot of mandates coming out. Michael Okay. Cam The Accessible Canada Act is a great example. Yeah, it's all these policies put together, but how many government agencies know what they're supposed to do with it and how much training is actually being enforced in the workforce. I mean, yeah, having policies is great, but quote a wise man. Don't break your arm, patting yourself on the back. Michael laughs Okay. Cam Well, thing is, having all this in place is fine. However, if it's not monitored periodically, if people don't ask the questions, and again self-advocate and say, I need this to be successful. I have seen some trends towards, more physically accessible spaces. Now, one thing about that is people just think you put in a wheelchair ramp, you're fine. That's sort of a first off. I see so many signs that aren't brailed or so many businesses or office spaces that don't have sort of a sensory. Sensory free zone. If you catch my drift. Things like autism or even some forms of Asperger's, I believe, can produce sort of a sensory overload and as an employee with that condition, you need a space to be able to go and calm down a little. Even right here at the radio station a couple of years ago they were talking about redesigning some of the studio spaces. Edits choice basically put the whole thing in something roughly the size of a broom closet. Or you-was what was the broom closet and converted into studio space that could accommodate 2 or 3 electric wheelchairs which was pretty passive at the time. Michael Nice. Right. Cam And that is a step forward, but honestly. We must never rest on our laurels when it comes to improvement. That's good enough today, but tomorrow. The question is how can we make it better? A disability - Michael Yeah. Cam It's not a limitation, it's just a different way of thinking. It's adapting what exists to suit our needs. Michael Yeah, that's a great point, Cam. So, so 2 great points. I'd like to just sort of rehash a bit. So one, your point about the legislation and the mandates are one thing, but we need the sort of ground up movement as well of education and training and understanding of implementation. I think that's a really important point. And I love your second point as well that we can't rest on our laurels because not only is there obviously more work to be done, but as the technology develops and new technology arises, there are going to be new areas of concern and hopefully new areas of opportunity as well. And, and I think it's important that we're attentive to that so that we're prepared for them as they come down the pipeline. Cam Also about that physical systems themselves need monitoring. I mean But people don't seem to realize if you misuse a wheelchair button and you press it 500 times, sooner or later the mechanism will need to be replaced. Michael Right. Cam In the education space especially. Teachers, professors, even fellow students should be educated on what's available to them. Not just in terms of the technology. How to interact with somebody who's making use of it, like when I was doing some of my studies we had one computer that was designated for someone with low vision. Michael Okay. Cam We were told, don't use that computer, it is reserved for one student. We were all fine with that. The fact is, this was what the student needed to succeed. I mean, in fact, I'm doing a presentation for an offshoot of Canterbury College. In a couple of months on adapting the world around us. It's part of a disabilities course I designed some while back. But, some of the things are just like little things. Doesn't have to be like a high technology. I got a great example from a therapeutic riding facility. I might have riders who don't understand complex instructions about manipulating the reins on a horse. So they actually just color coded it. They might not understand this reign or that reign, but they would understand blue were red. Michael Right. That's interesting. And I mean, that strikes me as a great instructional tool for anyone, right? Learning to ride. That would simplify things. That's an example of like you're saying, it provides an accessibility point for someone who needs it, but it's, it also makes it more convenient for everyone. Cam Absolutely. I mean, If you go looking for accessibility advantages in in modern technology, chances are you'll find them. You look at speech to text. I mean, they're about a zillion apps on any given phone for that that are available. Were they designed initially thinking, yeah, the disability community is going to love us for this? No, they were designed. To make texting someone a little easier. And if it has a disability advantage, so be it. Michael Yeah. Is there anything else that you would like to add that you think the listeners might be interested in in terms of think that some people who maybe work in education can try to be more attentive to or in terms of the training that you think could be provided for teachers at all levels? Cam Yeah, this is kind of a big one for me. I mean, I was once told in education. Michael Okay. Cam I'm not gonna say we're not gonna say by who, but I couldn't disclose my disability because it was quote “not a positive thing”. That led to a lot of academic issues at the time and I think honestly just a universal understanding that disability isn't always but we can quantify what we can readily understand, on the part of both the student base and instructors I'd like to see just more mandatory training, more education about education, if you will. Michael Right. Cam Can't just be a footnote as you go through teachers college. Yeah, yeah, this is a disability. That's a disability. Because nobody is the textbook definition. I say on the air, a million times – so, medical science is all a baseline. You can't factor in the way any given conditions can affect this person or that. There are people who are told they'll never walk again and they find a way. And people will never have kids. I know such a person and his 5 kids would kind of take opportunity. Michael Right, it's an important point, right, not to let a designation sort of limit the opportunities that are afforded to either buy it by someone from the outside, a teacher perhaps or for yourself from your own self understanding. I think that's such a great point, Cam. Cam And from fellow students. I mean, in any level of education, there should be at least that understanding that this is not an outcast or a monster. This is someone who is here to learn alongside us. I might like to get to know them I might not, but let's not make any snap judgments because chances are if either the teacher or the students go in with those preconceived notions of this is what I think a person with the disability should be able to do. Michael Yeah. Cam You're going to create that glass ceiling for yourself and for them. Your teacher expects less of you, chances are you're going to aim to that level. Michael Yeah. Cam I wanna see more teachers and more students encouraging each other saying, why don't you try this or I think you're capable of that. Michael Yeah, absolutely. Fantastic message, Cam. That's excellent. Well, I really appreciate you taking the time to come on and share these thoughts with us, Cam. I'm sure the audience will really appreciate it as much as I do. So, thank you. Once again, for coming on the podcast and I encourage our listeners to tune in to our next episode. Cam Thanks. Alright, and if I may give a plug to my own show, Michael Absolutely, yeah, go ahead. Cam I I do, disability issues program Handi-link, which is available through a number of online means just Google it, HAND i dash LINK and You can play any recent episode and fun fact about that. It's actually named for an old sci-fi series, Quantum Leap. A computer terminal called the handi link that knew all the answers about the future. Michael That's great. That's great a little inside, a piece of trivia there. Yeah, and I will put links to your show in notes for the podcast as well. Cam Thanks. Much appreciated. Michael Thank you. Take care. Cam And thank you < Previous Episode Next Episode >

< Back Episode 1 - A Brief Introduction to Theory and Principles Transcript Hello and welcome to the Cyberethics podcast, I am Dr Michael Bruder. I have been teaching Cyebrethics for the past decade and am passionate about discussing these issues with experts and bringing those conversations to the wider public. With the help of some professionals from various fields, we will be discussing the ways our increasingly digital lives raise old and new ethical concerns. We will cover such topics as the dangers of Artificial Intelligence, privacy and surveillance, gaming, social media addiction, digital accessibility, cyber-education and many more. This first podcast is intended to serve as a brief introduction to the moral frameworks and ethical principles that I will be making reference to as we discuss issues of Cyberethics. First a note on terminology: what I am calling cyberethics is sometimes called computer ethics, information ethics, or even technology ethics. These all refer to the same general scope of issues that arise when our technology brings us face to face with ethical concerns. I will also be alternating between the term ethics and morals, these can be considered interchangeable for our purposes. There are few areas of human endeavour that are growing as quickly as technology. Each new development entails a new set of possibilities and these possibilities, in turn, present new challenges to our understanding of their moral implications. What tends not to change quite so rapidly are our core values and the moral frameworks through which we assess the implications of our technological developments. Read More In Philosophy, ethics is divided into normative and applied approaches. Normative ethics studies broad questions such as: “what is the good for human beings” “Is there some quality that would make an action good in every context?” and “What ought we to be doing?”. In applied ethics, we are interested in how a theory guides our decisions within a specific field of action. Cyberethics is the study of the application of these moral theories to issues related to technology and our online activities. In Cyberethics Philosophy courses, students discuss the moral issues surrounding these activities, usually through the consideration of particular examples or case studies. The cases provide instances of some of the new ethical difficulties that arise with new digital possibilities. For this reason, it is important to have a firm understanding of the moral perspectives that can be taken when evaluating such cases. Moral frameworks provide us with a reference point from which we can evaluate the challenges that arise in this ever-changing environment. Since students interested in cyberethics may not have a background in moral philosophy, it is prudent to provide an introduction to these theories in order to enrich the study of these issues and to present direction for further research and investigation. It is the purpose here to provide a short introduction to moral frameworks, including a brief history of the origins and development of each theory and a consideration of the theory’s strengths and weaknesses. In this podcast, common topics and cases within cyberethics will be discussed in light of moral theories as well as some moral principles. One way to think about the different moral frameworks is by breaking down a moral action into its constituent parts. Roughly speaking, we can think of any moral action as being composed of: the person performing the action, the motivation for the action, and the results of the action. Accordingly, there are three major moral theories that focus on these three aspects of moral action: virtue ethics, which focuses on the person performing the action; deontology, which focuses on the rule or motivation for the action; and consequentialism, which focuses on the results of the action. In addition to these three major moral theories, I will say something about moral relativism which is more of a metatheory (a theory about theories) and argues against the possibility of an objective account of what is right or wrong. But first, I will say a little bit about each of the three major moral theories current in normative philosophy: First: Virtue Ethics. For those who do not have a background in moral theory, the word “virtue” may have connotations of a prudish or Victorian cultural sensibility. This is not the sense it has in ethical theory. Its origin as a term in philosophy goes back to Aristotle (384-322 BCE) in Ancient Greece. For Aristotle, a virtue is a way to excel as a human being. Aristotle orients his moral philosophy around what is good for human beings and he determines that what is good for human beings is a certain kind of activity guided by reason (Nicomachean Ethics, 1098a5-8). Our activities express virtues, which are various ways of excelling or flourishing. There are, generally speaking, two kinds of virtue for Aristotle, there are virtues of character and there are virtues of thought. Virtues of character for Aristotle refer to things like bravery and generosity. These are characteristics of actions, but also, and more importantly for Aristotle, these are characteristics of people. Virtues of thought allow us to figure out how to accomplish our goal, flourishing through virtues of character. One of the distinctive aspects of virtue ethics is its concern with the internal state of the person performing the action; the moral agent. On this model, it is not enough to do the right thing, to be brave in the face of danger, for instance. What is required is the development of an internal state, a disposition, to be brave. It is not enough to do what a brave person does, one must strive to be a brave person, and this means having the internal state of someone who behaves bravely when it is called for. Virtue ethics is a helpful moral framework for providing a reference point against which to check our goals but is sometimes criticized as being less helpful in providing specific instructions for action. Virtue ethics gives us the guiding principles and an understanding of how to build character but leaves room for our practical reasoning (or the reasoning of those who are wise in the matter at hand) to determine what is appropriate in a given context. One way of summarizing this position, is to say that we are trained to recognise the virtues we should exhibit, and then we use our practical wisdom to determine how to exhibit that virtue in a given context. One common topic in Cyberethics is the types of relationships that we form through online communication. A common question that is asked is “Can we develop and maintain real friendships through online interactions?” Virtue Ethics provides a framework for approaching this question by referring us to our human ability to develop via certain kinds of friendships. To approach this question through virtue ethics, we would evaluate how we flourish through in-person friendships and then analyze how online friendships affect that kind of flourishing. To give one possible analysis, we might think that in-person friendships help us flourish because they reinforce certain values we approve of and also expand our experiential scope by introducing us to new things. If this is a complete account of what a real friendship is, then an online friendship would be considered real if and only if it also fulfills these roles. Privacy is another issue in cyberethics for which virtue ethics may be particularly salient. The question of how much privacy we should expect, or are entitled to, in the online world is a function of why that privacy is valuable. Some people maintain that if we only value privacy to conceal wrongdoing then we may not be entitled to it at all. However, a virtue ethics analysis may assert that privacy allows us to develop intimate relationships which clearly allow us to flourish as human beings. With this understanding, one could argue that privacy is a necessary human good; necessary for human flourishing on a virtue ethics account. Because virtue ethics requires the development of practical wisdom and depends on the individual to determine the correct course of action in light of this wisdom, this theory is sometimes criticised for not providing specific direction on what to do. The second theory I’d like to discuss is Deontology. Deontology provides a nice contrast with virtue ethics since, while virtue ethics focuses on the development and internal state of the moral agent, deontology is rather concerned with the motives and rules that govern actions. It is sometimes claimed that, while virtue ethics is sensitive to context but cannot provide detailed direction, deontology provides very clear direction on what to do but is criticized as not being flexible enough to allow for contextual exceptions (Annas, 2015). Contemporary deontological theories trace their origins back to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Kantian morality focuses on whether an action is right or wrong; whether you have a responsibility to do, or refrain from, some action. The goal of a deontological theory, generally speaking, is to provide rules for acting that will be universally applicable. Kant believes that our ability to be moral depends on our ability to be rational. It follows from this, Kant argues, that our moral decisions will also be rational. Kant maintains that, since reason is universal, the guiding principles of morality will also be universal. Because of this, Kant concludes that a moral action would be one that each person could want everyone to do. In other words, each rational person thinks it would be rational to do that action in every instance. This is a paraphrase of what is called Kant’s categorical imperative, meaning that it is a command that applies everywhere. Put loosely, if you can rationally wish everyone would behave that way, then that is the moral way to behave. This universality can be seen as both a strength and a weakness of the theory. One of the often-debated questions in cyberethics is whether digital piracy, (the taking or distributing of intellectual property [IP] like a movie or song without paying for it) is always morally wrong. One might argue that there are circumstances where digital piracy is acceptable, for instance, if piracy of the material does not have any noticeable effect on the IP rights holder. On the deontological model, however, if piracy is stealing and stealing is wrong, then piracy is always wrong, regardless of the consequences or lack thereof. This issue is further complicated in circumstances where one pays for a video streaming service but digitally masks one’s location in order to access content only available in other countries. Some have claimed that the practise of Canadian Netflix subscribers masking themselves, via VPNs, as Americans to access additional content, constitutes stealing and is morally wrong. A deontologist may have reasons to agree since this is a violation of the terms of service agreed to by the subscriber (breaking a promise), however an analysis that focuses on the effects of such a practise might argue that there is little to no harm caused, since these are paying subscribers, and the happiness of these subscribers as customers is significantly increased. Such an analysis would be in line with the consequentialist approach. As you might expect, consequentialism focuses on the effects, or consequences, of an action. The most popular form of consequentialism is utilitarianism, and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) is its most famous proponent. Mill claimed that, in attempting to evaluate the morality of an action, one should consider its consequences. Specifically, one should consider whether the consequences provide for the greatest happiness of those affected by the action. Happiness here means pleasure, but not just the simple pleasures of the physical appetites, but also more meaningful pleasures such as we get from learning and accomplishments. Utilitarianism is helpful when there are competing options and we need to know how to benefit the greatest number of people involved. It is less helpful when it is unclear how to compare the competing values or if the objective is not to maximize happiness, but rather to address an imbalance or redress a wrong. While virtue ethics is concerned with how an action expresses or develops the character of the agent, and deontology is concerned with the absolute rational morality of an action, consequentialism is primarily concerned with the effect of an action. This means that an action that is morally correct in one context, may not be so in a different context, depending on how the relevant parties are affected. The issue of using facial recognition technology in the surveillance of public spaces raises issues of consent and privacy but is often justified in terms of its consequences of increasing public safety. A utilitarian analysis would have to assess the overall effect on a population’s happiness, weighing loss of privacy and consent against a reduction in violent crime and theft. To take another example, a deontological analysis may unequivocally condemn the stealing and sharing of classified information obtained from a government but a consequentialist approach would be open to assessing the effects of this information on the public. Perhaps possessing this information allows citizens to work against perceived wrongs committed by that government. While not as substantive a moral theory as the previous three, it is worthwhile to become familiar with the concept of moral relativism. Relativism traces its roots back as far as the Ancient Greek philosopher Protagoras. He is famously cited as claiming that ‘man is the measure of all things’ and this has been interpreted by some as meaning that the truth of things is simply as they appear to me. If the wind feels warm to me, then the wind is warm, regardless of what anyone else claims. This idea of the unassailable truth of my sensations is expanded in moral relativism to argue for the validity of individual or disparate accounts of what is morally correct. Modern forms of relativism tend to focus more on the widely varying moral claims found in different theories and across different cultures and concludes from this that there is no universally valid moral framework. The two most common forms of relativism focus on either the lack of agreement between and amongst cultures or on the lack of a universal criteria by which we can evaluate moral positions. In the former case, the fact that we don’t all agree is taken as evidence that there cannot or should not be unanimous agreement on moral questions. In the latter case, it is argued that there is no universally true judgement possible on moral questions and that, what may be morally right for one culture and at one time, may be morally wrong for another culture or at another time. It is generally agreed that, as a normative ethical claim, relativism is self-defeating. I.e. it is a universal claim about ethics that concludes there are no universally valid claims about ethics. This position is articulated by authors such as Allen Wood. A response to the claim that there is lack of agreement on moral concepts, is that there in fact is commonality among cultures in terms of the broad moral commitments we have. The way these claims or principles are enacted may look different in different contexts and cultures but they reveal a common underlying moral commitment. Julia Annas, in her book Intelligent Virtue, makes such a claim. Using the example of bravery, she points out that brave actions can appear to be different or even opposed in varying contexts. She gives the example of how a soldier may behave bravely in the conduct of war, but someone could also demonstrate bravery by protesting participation in an unjust war. Both actions can instantiate bravery though they may appear opposite actions: participating in a war and protesting participation in a war. Moral relativism is problematic in a practical sense because, if one is convinced that the moral rightness or wrongness of an action is relative to the culture for whom it is an issue, one may decide that criticism or condemnation of foreign policies is unjustified and inappropriate. For example, if a foreign government is heavily censoring the information that its citizens can access on the internet, it might be argued in accordance with moral relativism that there is no motivation or justification for intervening on behalf of those citizens. This moral paralysis in the face of seemingly obvious injustice is one of the common practical criticisms leveled against moral relativism. While frameworks such as virtue ethics, deontology, and consequentialism are used in normative ethics to determine broadly what makes something moral, it is often helpful when dealing with applied ethics, or ethics in real-world applications, to focus on ethical principles. Principles reflect values that are supported by the moral frameworks and offer more specific points of reference for guiding moral decision-making. There are currently four principles that are used in the fields of applied ethics. These were popularized by Philosophers Beauchamp and Childress in the context of applied medical ethics but are implemented in areas such as business ethics as well as computer, or cyberethics. These principles are understood to be supported by the moral frameworks in various ways, and so while normative ethicists may debate which framework properly establishes the human good, when discussing specific contexts in cyberethics we can focus on whether these principles are upheld or have been violated. The 4 principles of applied ethics are: Beneficence, Non-maleficence, Autonomy, and Justice. Beneficence refers to the requirement to promote good through our actions. In other words, the goal of ethical action should be to bring about some good or alleviate some harm. Non-maleficence means to avoid causing harm through our actions. The principle of Autonomy refers to our responsibility to respect and encourage the ability for individuals to make decisions about their own lives, to recognise the right of individuals to be self-determining in their actions and thoughts. The principle of Justice refers to the fair assignment and distribution of goods and also risks in our decision-making and actions. If a principle is violated by an action, that action is considered unethical (all other things being equal). If an action is seen to uphold, or be in accordance with all four principles, then we are generally considered justified in deeming that action to be an ethical one. While these principles may not always provide specific guidance, according to AI ethics researchers Burr and Leslie, they “play a vital, contributory, and sometimes explanatory or justifcatory role in deliberation”. In other words, we appeal to these principles to explain and justify why a particular decision or action is, or is not, ethical. I should also mention that there is a movement to include a fifth principle, specific to the field of cyberethics. This is the principle of explicability, sometimes called transparency. This principle stipulates that the action being performed must be explicable, or understandable, to the people being affected by it. This is increasingly important in the field of cyberethics, since, for example, if someone does not understand the data sharing policy they are agreeing to, one may say that the principle of autonomy is also not being met. I cannot be self-determining in my actions, if I do not understand what my actions are committing me to. For this reason explicability is being appealed to more often in cyberethics as a fifth principle or a supporting principle. Where the ethical dilemmas arise is when these principles conflict: in instances where it does not seem possible to avoid violating all of the principles, or when two or more principles seem to conflict. Let’s take an example: If you receive a message that was intended for your friend, and it contains something personally hurtful about your friend, you might wonder if the right thing to do is to pass the message along to your friend, even though she may get hurt by the content, or decide not to show the message to your friend to spare her feelings. Since it is intended to be your friend’s message it would seem that passing the message along would be the right thing to do. This is respecting your friends autonomy since they would get to decide what to do about information that is being circulated about them. However, not passing along the message would seem to align with avoiding causing harm to your friend (non-maleficence). It would seem here that respecting one of the principles comes at the cost of another of the principles. This can happen frequently in cyberethics where it is difficult to determine what course of action would best instantiate the principles of applied ethics. These three moral frameworks, which identify ways to assess the morality of the agent, motive, and consequences of an action are to provide guidance in our thinking about ethical behaviour, and these four principles provide further specificity to the values that we expect an ethical person or action to exhibit, or at least not violate. In this way, we make appeals to frameworks and principles to assess the actions and policies of others and to justify and support our own ethical thinking and action. This will have to serve as our brief introduction to moral frameworks and principles. We will have the opportunity to reiterate and extrapolate on these concepts as we discuss various areas of application in the coming episodes. A bibliography for further reading can be found in the episode notes. I hope you will join me again as we investigate the many ethical issues that arise in the course of our increasingly digital lives. Bibliography: Annas, J. (2013). Intelligent virtue . Oxford University Press. Beauchamp, T.L., Childress, J.F.: Principles of Biomedical Ethics, 7th edn. Oxford University Press, New York (2013) Burr, C., & Leslie, D. (2022). Ethical assurance: A practical approach to the responsible design, development, and deployment of data-Driven Technologies. AI and Ethics , 3 (1), 73–98. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-022-00178-0 Crisp, R. (2000). Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics . Cambridge University Press. KANT, I. (2021). Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals . DIGIREADS COM. Mill, J. S. (2020). Utilitarianism . Bibliotech Press. Wood, Allen. Relativism https://iweb.langara.ca/rjohns/files/2015/01/Allen_Wood.pdf < Previous Episode Next Episode >

< Back Episode 3 - Cyber Safety and Privacy in Education Michael Welcome, and thank you for joining us. Today, I have a special guest. I'm joined by Claudio Popa. Claudio is the CEO of Informatica Security and founder of Knowledge Flow Cybersecurity Foundation, which is a nonprofit designed to raise cyber situational awareness in the home. I met Claudio through a roundtable discussion on misinformation and disinformation for Project Defuse, which he co-hosted in conjunction with NATO. One of the focuses of the Knowledge Flow Foundation is to teach safe online interactions for school-aged children, and cyber safety and privacy in education is our main topic today. Claudio, thank you for joining us. Read More Claudio Well, thank you for having me on the show. It's a pleasure. Michael So before we dive into the topic of education, last time we spoke, you mentioned the concept of dark patterns, and I was hoping you'd just say a little bit about what dark patterns are. Claudio Oh, well, thank you for asking. Dark patterns are something I've been fascinated with for about fifteen years now. It was one of the reasons why I decided to write the Canadian Cyber Fraud Handbook, which was published by Reuters. But it's for a legal audience, for law enforcement. And dark patterns have been an offshoot of the pressure put on marketers to deliver results. And so we've seen that the internet as a whole has been turned into a for-business, for-profit tool, much to our horror. People like me who have been online since the green screens back in the late eighties, and we saw the web come up and so on. And you used to be able to do transactions and make your own decisions, but with the more advanced abilities of the internet, the new languages behind the World Wide Web, we've seen capabilities for marketing and for influence take shape. And that kind of influence is something that has been tremendously useful for businesses, small and large, but usually larger ones. And so I have a presentation in which I took a screenshot of an Amazon screen and it shows two, three, four, five, five different elements of the page that all converge to get you to buy more or to buy a particular product or to be influenced to have a positive view on a particular decision that you should be making right this moment. So essentially dark patterns are influences that you do not perceive to be happening that often have a financial driver to them. And we can certainly provide examples. They range from something as innocuous as literally showing up to pick up your pizza, and there's a tip request. And so you're like, well, we're not. This is a pickup. We're not sitting down to eat at a restaurant. Why is there a tip that has been added to my bill? Oh, it's actually a service fee for us to cover operating costs. Well, that's a significant service fee at fifteen or eighteen percent, which sounds like a tip amount. But online and offline, these things are now normalized. And that's a concern because We have seen not just Amazon do this type of thing, but I often get calls from my own mother who says, you know, my antivirus is expiring and it's asking me for money. And I say, no, no, just click the free option and stick with that for now until I've had a chance to review it. And she says, no, there is no free option. And I look at the screen and the free option is clearly there, but it's grayed out. And I keep seeing more indications that there's a subset of the population that only sees highlighted things on screens. And it's very difficult for people to actually perceive grayed out buttons and prompts and words that simply say, you know, download free in gray on light gray versus bright yellow with some contrasting text color that says, buy now. And so she feels that, well, you know what, only the buy now option is available. And it's not just this type of deceptive practice, but it's the anxiety that goes along with it for a certain subset of the population that has made the decision The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is a nonprofit group that protects people's digital rights and privacy, to partner up with Consumer Reports to create a tip line where people can report their own dark patterns. If you're looking for it, it's at darkpatternstipline.org , which is very interesting. I found out about it myself when I was preparing for our interview today. It's a growing aspect and it's a type of deception that unfortunately just adds to all the other baggage that we have whenever we go online. Everything is trying to influence us and whether that's ethical or not, sometimes marketers that are under pressure don't seem to care and they try to push the envelope. Michael Right. So these are design choices in the presentation of information for us that leverage what's known about human behavior and human psychology and human tendencies to try to direct us towards the desired outcome from the company or the marketers. So just to play up your example a little bit more, you might join a marketplace looking to shop for a particular item, and you think that you're surveilling the options and making an informed decision based on the options presented to you. But in reality, the website that they're using is actually funneling or otherwise manipulating you towards an outcome that they desire rather than letting you sort of have free reign amongst the available choices. Does that sound like a fair description? Claudio That's exactly right. And if it has to use psychology mixed in with misdirection to get you to make a decision, not just the particular decision that they're looking for, but that particular decision right now. is really the goal. because keep in mind this is transactions per hour. That's the metric that most organizations care about. And this is why there's such high pressure when there's a data breach to stall investigative reports. There's a whole, as part of my business, in information security, whenever there's a reported data breach, there's an entire communications program that is designed to effectively delay providing as much information about breaches as possible, because it impacts sales per unit of time. And that's expensive. We've seen it in a number of organizations, most notably here in Canada, we saw Indigo, be put out of business for a month. This was an online e-commerce activity that brought in something like a billion dollars or hundreds of millions or something crazy like that. I may be completely wrong on the numbers, but all that to say, as soon as that is interrupted, that's a big deal. So if people perceive that there's no incentive to buy, they simply walk away and they give their money to somebody else. So that's the impetus for a lot of this, what we perceive to be misleading and deceptive. They simply perceive as efficiency and effectiveness in e-commerce transactions. Michael Right. So there seems like a willingness to sacrifice the autonomy of the consumer in the name of the desired outcome for the company. Claudio That's correct. It brings about an entire set of discussions around, is it fair to influence using psychology, misdirection, et cetera, the decision process of someone? Do they still do so willingly and intentionally, or have they just been influenced by somebody who's an expert at this type of thing and who's accountable? Michael That's very interesting. Probably should dive into that on a different day, but thank you for describing that to us. It is a very intriguing concept, something that people need to be aware of, I think. Claudio I'm sure our listeners can think of any number of these dark patterns because sometimes you emerge from a website and you've just found yourself ordering a whole bunch of stuff. Amazon Prime members are typically primed to keep ordering stuff because suddenly two days have gone by and nothing arrives at the door. It's a similar situation to when you're late at night and you're watching these infomercials and you find yourself buying something. Well, you certainly were not planning on staying up late and buying stuff, but there you are. Michael Thank you for that. Let's pivot a little bit now and talk about our intended topic for today's podcast. So you're an expert in privacy concerns, specifically having to do with children and as that relates to education. So this was already happening before COVID, but certainly with COVID, it exacerbated the process of including or incorporating digital tools into our classrooms. And so I was wondering if you could just say a little bit about some of the concerns that you're seeing in terms of the way that digital tools are being used, implemented or introduced in education. Claudio Absolutely. I think it's always been inevitable and quite frankly, desirable for technology to enhance the way we educate. Technology has always been an enabler. Technology is something that is near and dear to my heart. I've created tons of technology tools and designed them and so on. And it's always been the intention of public and private education to leverage tools. Right around the turn of the century, the twenty three years ago, we saw more and more programs that are both engaging for students and able to track the performance of a student population over time so that you're able to extract some sort of statistical data based on the usage patterns of the software that's running on school board equipment, which used to be some of the safest in the world. So anytime I visited a school board, I saw that they had servers, some heavy duty servers, mainframes, et cetera, some regular Windows machines that were secured and lived inside of server rooms with people that took care of these things. So the care and feeding of these machines was always taken very carefully by qualified IT experts and specialists. As of the year of the cloud services and software-as-a-service. In other words, software-as-a-service had been coming for a long time. We called it the ASB model for a while and it just means delivering technology services over the internet. Instead of having programs running on your computer, suddenly you open a browser and there's the program and it looks like a simple interface. And that simple interface is, technically speaking, a website. It's served up from a server room somewhere. It may be in our country or another country. That's why we call it the cloud. It just kind of obfuscates this entire idea of where where's the data. So that's the beginning of the slippery slope. When people stop asking, where is my data? You know that there's a vast risk that is certainly looming because this is what the word cloud wants you to do. It tries to make you forget that all data is stored somewhere. So what we typically say in our business is the cloud is somebody else's computer. And so you can get stickers that say that. You just type it into Google Images, you get your sticker. It's a reminder that anytime you put data into the cloud or in any website, it's certainly not on your computer. so it's outside of your control instantly. Between between the years of the year of the website and the year of the web, tons of organizations started putting in a lot of effort into developing these website-based educational tools. they initially were doing the exact same as regular educational technology, and then they started expanding and getting more ambitious. And the reason for that ambition is because venture capitalists and investors came along and said, well, it would be nice if we had some data from demographics that we typically aren't allowed to collect, which is to say children, minors, students. And so that data is definitely something that they can't directly exploit. But what about indirectly exploiting it? What about just knowing how many children are in a particular jurisdiction? What about knowing a distribution of ages, seeing patterns as far as their likelihood to click on stuff? Let's say, and by the industry matured to the point where we were looking at tens of millions of dollars being invested into the e-learning space and these venture backed education companies took a turn for what I think is the worst. for two reasons. One, they started aggregating information without ever offering to delete it. So there was no data retention policy in place. The data just goes one way. It goes into a system. That system is under the control of an external company. The case was made for school boards to not need server rooms anymore. And if they don't have server rooms, they have no need for IT specialists to manage them. So they lost a lot of brainpower at that point and expertise. So suddenly, you're depending on an actual vendor, which is usually a small company that has just started in the past few years, or in some cases, months. And you depend on these developers, who are not security or privacy specialists, they are software development professionals. And they work as part of a group to create an interface that is pleasing so that people will enjoy using the technology, but they are specifically funded for a reason. And the funding goes into them because they are able to have touch points with specific information that's collected from students. This is important because the agreements, the legal agreements, the contracts that are put in place with the school board can never be changed. And the reason they can't be changed is they are tied to the investment that goes into these e-learning companies. So they come out and they say, look, we are going to monetize the data at some point. We may be able to sell part of this company. We may be able to sell the entire company, at which point all of this data will go along with it. have a stated objective to share this information with as many connectors as we can. Those connectors are external companies that school boards and schools have no visibility into. They simply provide little tidbits of code and additional services. They are part of the supply chain of the vendor, of the e-learning company. And so they're not even included in the agreement and the contract. So this is how far the personal information or perhaps the statistical data collected from students can go. It can go until you can no longer see it. So from the perspective of what happened in the year of the virus, in the year of the virus, we saw the beginning of massive data breaches. We saw that e-learning companies did not have adequate security in place, and it resulted in tens of millions of students' data being lost, being breached as part of some of these security incidents, which resonate to this day. I was doing a TV interview a couple of months ago, and the cameraman actually said, well, that's an interesting topic you're speaking about. My son I'm still getting spam that resulted as part of the data breach that took place. He was with one of the largest school boards in the Toronto area, and my son's information was stolen. And I said, well, that was quite a few years ago. And he said, yeah. We've been getting spam ever since. And the data was apparently leaked and released online, which is why this is such a big deal. It's a bigger deal than information belonging to adults. These are young people who are impacted perhaps for tens of years, for a generation. So anyway, the breaches began in twenty sixteen. And they continued right up until twenty nineteen when companies started being aware of the fact that their reputation was being impacted by these losses, by these privacy breaches. And of course, there was additional pressure from regulators to say, hey, you know what, we appreciate the innovation, but could you please tighten up your security practices because it's impacting children in so many different ways. So that in a nutshell is the evolution of e-learning in public education in particular. There really hasn't been a concerted effort to figure out procurement. So the procurement question is the crux of the problem because you have a number of incentivized individuals who build relationships with the school board. They sell technology to administrators. Administrators are not security or privacy folks. So they don't know what questions to ask as part of the service contracts. And they don't really have that much of a grasp of the actual harm that can come from data being stolen. And I presented to a number of law enforcement teams. I said, here are some screenshots just so that I'm not doing all the talking. Here are some screenshots. These were screenshots of cell phones. They were text messages sent to mothers saying, I can see that your child is in such and such a classroom. You're not going to see them again. there's a bomb attack in the school, we know exactly where they are at any time of day, you need to pay us now or you'll never see your child. So, of course, it's extremely stressful and likely the accountability for this is not just on the part of criminals, it obviously needs to be shared by the decision makers who adopt those types of insecure technologies. Michael Yeah, absolutely. To that point, I know that you work with the Privacy Commissioner. Is it the case that they were just sort of behind the times in terms of having legislation in place that requires school boards to vet these or to the limits of how the data can be used by these educational venture capitalists? Or what was the role there of the Privacy Commissioner? Claudio Well, that's a very interesting situation. So in my previous work with Privacy Commissioners has seen a number of of activities take place. One was in the design of best practices for handling personal information for kids, for adults, et cetera. So within the scope of privacy by design, that has everything to do with adopting privacy and security for their own sake, as opposed to making the case that, hey, you know what, we are in business, we need to maximize profits, but we will comply with the law as much as we can. In this particular case, we're talking about school boards that are regulated provincially. So provincial legislation that typically deals with privacy. Well, that kind of provincial legislation used to be very innovative back in the early eighties. But that predated e-commerce and the internet itself and even some bulletin board systems, BBSs, if any of our listeners are that advanced. So we're talking about the kind of legislation that structurally is meant to protect, you know, names and addresses. Back in those days where we used to buy, let's say, a computer program from a store that sold such things, we used to get a little card in the in the box and the card said, please fill out this card so that we can know our customer and we'll send you an update because we appreciate your paying for this thing. That is a form of consent that today is frowned upon because just look at the opportunities for friction. Just look at how many people do not return that card and all of those are seen as wasted opportunities. Back then it was seen as a nice option to have to know your customer. And if they didn't want to return the card, then so be it. We've already got their twenty two dollars. And now we need to be able to extract information in real time and potentially monetize it in some way or another. The legislation, municipal or even the federal legislation, basically said you need to. You need to care about personal information wherever possible. Try to ask for consent, but if you can't, just, you know, it can be, it could be passive. You could opt people in and then maybe give them an opportunity to opt out. Of course, all of this hinges upon the great assumption that people understand. what privacy is, what control over their information might be or entail, what the harms are in having your data in the custody of someone else. The simple fact that when somebody has your information, they don't have your information, they have a copy of your information. Therefore, you do not necessarily suffer at that particular moment from somebody else having a copy. But of course, if everyone has a copy of your information, your information has less value. I was having this discussion yesterday with a company that creates identity management software, and they have at three different identifiers, and they use that as a selling as a differentiator. And I explained that the more of their partners that information is shared with, the higher the risk of identity fraud, because with that many identifiers, you're essentially inviting somebody to clone the identity of a victim. The law has not been in place to curtail that type of data collection. It has not been in place to force people to request express consent, nevermind informed consent, which is verbiage that is used now at the federal level. How do you make sure that your customers are informed but not scared? Because there's this concept of data salience or privacy salience that says the more you talk to people about privacy, the less likely they are to share it. And so if it's your duty to inform people, then you're shooting yourself in the foot by providing them information. with choice. And so that is the big ethical question for marketers today. Michael Yeah. And one of the topics we talk about in my class is not just the importance of having informed consent as a goal, but the practicality of it. So there are some people who say, you know, given the recursive dynamic nature of information, dissemination, packaging, and resale, even if you could clearly convey to a client at a given point in time, exactly how their information is going to be used, that story might not be true a week from now, right? As you mentioned, there are different connections. There are third party relationships where this information is in a vast swirling whirlpool of intermingling with other information, repackaging connection to other things. And so, as you said, you could inform a client of how you're using their information now, but there's no, without safeguards in place, you have no idea how that information is going to be used in the future. And so informed consent becomes exponentially more difficult where first you have the obstacle of explaining to somebody who's not an expert what's going on with their information now, but you're also in the impossible situation of trying to have an exhaustive account of how that information might be used in the future, which, you know, even if they have good intentions and want to do that, which as you point out, they're disincentivized to do, it's not, it may not be practically achievable. Claudio Absolutely. So to my way of thinking, asking organizations to get informed consent, you're essentially asking organizations to find loopholes around this verbiage. And if it puts them in an ethically challenging position, they don't mind that because their loyalty is to the investors, for instance, or to their growth objectives. What I prefer to do, and I recommend this, I prefer informed consent to be accompanied by a number of privacy harms. And if you can list the categories of privacy harms, you are building credibility with the audience. You're building credibility around your own space. And you, by default, would become a privacy champion as an organization that simply says, you know what, there's a number of harms that come along. You don't have to list out scenarios, right? Because there are infinite scenarios. But there's almost a finite set of types of harm. For example, economic harms, discrimination harms, autonomy harms, physical harms, reputational relationship harms, psychological harms. These are serious sounding things, which if I read it in a privacy policy, I would say, oh, well, that's interesting. So, there could be a physical harm to the simple act of me agreeing to allow my information to remain in the custody of this organization, right? Because they've already collected it. They're just notifying me that there are such harms. So maybe I can start there and look into what scenarios might unfold. This is much better than just empty use of the word express consent. I consent to sharing something and I accept all risks. How can I accept all the risks if I don't even know what the risk categories are? Michael That's an interesting approach. I think that's possibly fruitful. So then categories, instead of needing to spout in detail exactly what's going to happen, you might be better positioned to explain the possible nature of harms, right? Like you said, so there could be physical security concerns with the type of information they're sharing. That's interesting. Claudio Again, we always get inspiration from somewhere and I got this idea because if I say it in a vacuum, it sounds outlandish. Who's ever going to adopt this? That already exists today. when you buy shares on the open market. You buy a couple of shares of a particular stock and it comes with a prospectus. In my case, I was reading this prospectus that was four hundred and twenty seven pages long to figure out why this stock dropped. And in it, one hundred and sixty pages was dedicated to risks associated with your investment. They were itemized exhaustively in a printed book that I have. And that, to me, is an ethical approach to informing people about their investment in a company that could go to zero. It's the same thing when your investment in an educational technology not only can deliver no value from an educational perspective, but it can go beyond zero in that your economic harms, your physical harms, and all the other different classes of harms can actually occur during a breach, during mishandling, monetization of your data, et cetera, et cetera, this could actually ruin your life. And that should be made clear, not in those words, hey, you're about to click on a button that will ruin your life. No, but if we're looking for an effective use of the word informed decision-making, of the term informed consent, then the ethical thing to do would be to list the categories of harm that can come as a result of your accepting the risk. Because keep in mind, this is what they're always doing. They're asking you to accept the risk. The problem in the public education sphere is that administrators do not understand the risk. Teachers are not educated to identify it or to exercise their autonomy to basically say, hey, you know what, we read the privacy policy and we don't think this is appropriate for our classroom. Parents are never asked and students are certainly not in a legal position to accept or reject a privacy consent form. So there is an ethical foundation to the entire e-learning stack, technology innovation stack, because the word innovation comes up a lot. There's a ton of pressure to modernize public education processes. And if you don't, then you're a laggard. There is an ethical stack here that should be looked at in a layered way. And the lack of leadership particularly from regulators, show that as a country or as an economy, we're not quite able to protect individuals. We are prioritizing growth and profit by monetizing the personal information of those most vulnerable who don't even have a voice, children. Michael Yeah, that's an important point that you raised there. I just want to touch on that for a moment that that in this instance, I mean, privacy is a valid concern for, you know, people considered fully autonomous adults, but in the situation of children, school aged children, where it's further complicated by the fact that the parents are surrogate decision makers for the information. that's, you know, ultimately about the student. And so that further complicates things, and I think is another area that's worth diving into. But for today, so let's refocus back on education, as you mentioned there. And if you had, you know, the ear of the Minister of Education, or the various ones across the provinces, what are some recommendations you would make to try to address some of these concerns that you've been raising? Claudio One big one goes back to our discussion about dark patterns. At the beginning of each school year, a letter ideally arrives, and parents need to be aware of which technology tools are going to touch the personal information of their children. That entire process is fraught with ethical concerns, and anyone can see it. For one thing, there's a delay. When this letter arrives, the school year has started. Secondly, when the letter arrives, it's a tiny bit of information about each tool and each description downplays the impact. It does not talk about harms. It doesn't talk about the processing that takes place within these e-learning tools. And the biggest issue with it is that it's an incomplete list. So this list, for example, at our school, we have something like a hundred tools that are used as part of the e-learning ecosystem. We are asked about three of them. Are you okay with using this math program which has been endorsed by such and such? Yes, no. Keep in mind that if you say no, your student will be excluded from such and such activities. So there's a ton of the kind of pressure that may be considered to be dark patterns, both in the verbiage that's used in these forms and in the implied threat of exclusion that comes with parents exercising their rights to not share that information. There's a ton of peer pressure that happens. All parents are saying, what do you mean, you opted out of that? Why would you do that to your child, et cetera, et cetera. So there are concerns with the consent process. So that's one thing I would definitely speak to the Ministry of Education about. Two additional things that I would talk about. The most important one is securing the supply chain. It doesn't just mean auditing the individuals who knock on the door and say, I have a better e-learning tool. It means auditing their fourth and fifth and sixth parties that they depend on because no cloud-based tool is self-sustaining. They all depend on suppliers and that relationship is based on sharing data. Data is the raw material that makes the new business model of the web function. All of that hinges upon somebody taking responsibility for the use of data. In all cases today, school boards come out to parents and they say, don't worry, the school board is accountable and responsible for your children's data. As soon as you push back on that and you ask questions, they either use secrecy, to withhold information, or they simply say, we are authorized to do this because of the Education Act of the year. Therefore, you do not have the right to withhold consent as a parent. That requires a ton of reform, but the focus here is on securing the supply chain and carrying out proper professional audits. That means learning how to do it, employing professionals who know how to audit a vendor. Right now, I have not seen it. I just have not met a school board that has a competent individual or set of individuals who know how to carry out proper vendor risk assessments. And these are year over year relationships that just get renewed at the end of the year. Why? Because the data is cumulative. And that is my third point. And perhaps most important, the fact that you need to have data deletion, you need to have a data purge. Data is like hot coals. If you're increasing your appeal to criminals and others, you're likely going to have a data breach. At the moment, part of the reason for the cloud, the success of the cloud model is the fact that you no longer have visibility into the attacks. It used to be that IT folks, they could name exactly number, the number of attacks against their firewall per second or per minute or per day. All of that is outside their control today. It is under the control of vendors and businesses. People who have not been properly vetted, do we know that they're using software developers that have been trained in secure coding? I really see that as a rarity. But what we need to remember is that data deletion is a way to protect students. So once a year, that information that gets collected throughout the year needs to be deleted securely from all of the systems of the vendor and all of their own ecosystem of third, fourth, fifth parties, partners. This is critical. Today, it's not happening anywhere in Canada. Data just grows immensely. That means if my son skips school on a particular day, as he goes into university, time will be remembered by the system and may be used for a decision for him to be accepted in university, because you never know what metrics are going to be in use when the competitiveness of the field increases, right? At that point, they might look at any kind of metric in order to put a quantitative score on somebody's eligibility. And so that data which could be mixed in with camera views, with schoolyard incidents, with all kinds of stuff dating back to grade one. All of that just keeps on accumulating and becoming that much more valuable for the company, for the vendor company. It's a terrible idea to store that information beyond the end of any school year. So that is a huge data purge that I see. I recommend that there should be a data deletion week at the end of each school year where you're celebrating and partnering with vendors who are conducting their business ethically and are saying, you know what, we are securely purging and you get a data deletion, data disposal certificate that says we've deleted everything and in the fall we start fresh. That is responsible use. of children's data, and that to me would be a hugely ethical improvement to public education, at least in Canada, but really all around the world. Michael Right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's very insightful. I appreciate that. Yeah, that's an important point you make that it's not just the principle of we want to protect the privacy of individuals as a principle that we uphold, but the sort of nefarious possible uses of that information against that, you know, without that person's initial consent is obviously a significant concern. That's fantastic. Well, thank you so much, Claudio. I really appreciate you taking the time today. You've got a lot of amazing insights into these topics. Do you want to list your website or some places people could possibly learn more about this type of information from you? Claudio Well, sure. I don't know if it was mentioned, but as the founder or a co-founder of the Knowledge Flow Cyber Safety Foundation, I'm very privileged to be working with a fantastic team of just privacy focused people of all ages. And we keep on adding resources to the knowledgeflow.org website. Anyone who goes there, they can be seniors, they can be new Canadians, they can be students, teachers, administrators, law enforcement. They will find a section that just has free resources in multiple languages. They've been professionally translated. tip sheets of all kinds created professionally. There are many opportunities to volunteer as well because this is the only cyber safety foundation in Canada that's certainly focused on these same topics. And we always appreciate people reaching out and saying, hey, you know what? We really appreciate your materials and would you like to speak at our group? for example, and that's how we end up speaking all over Canada. As far as my company is concerned, it's DataRisk.ca . It's a cybersecurity company that's actually a twin sister of Managed Privacy Canada organization. So ManagedPrivacy.ca is a twin sister of DataRisk.ca . Together, they are security experts. and privacy.ca . It's an interesting thing and I only mention it from the perspective of the fact that you, any organization, any association needs to really pay attention to both security and privacy, but you can pick and choose what you're looking for, whether you're looking for privacy compliance or are looking just for security to have the assurance that you can, you can protect yourself and others. It's an interesting way of doing that. And if you're a nonprofit, you go through knowledge flow, and you will get those same services from certified professionals, but at fractions of the cost, because our goal with knowledge flow is to deliver as much as possible that's free. So forget about everything I said about companies, What's important to us is to deliver free information and knowledge through knowledge flow, through kids, through volunteers, through passionate professionals. And also don't forget the coalition that I mentioned earlier, the darkpatternstipline.org . It's kind of fun to be coming across. Now that you've been sensitized, hopefully all of our listeners have been sensitized to the existence of dark patterns. You can go to darkpatternstipline.org and think of something to submit because a lot of companies are extremely innovative and it's always neat to see examples of dark patterns. I mean, at the moment, they're infinite. I have three-hour presentations on dark patterns and it's nice to have a place to submit these things. I have nothing to do with the site, but it seems like a really cool place. place to visit. Either way, thank you very much. It's been an honor to take part in today's podcast and look forward to next time. Michael Thank you so much. This has been incredibly informative and interesting. Obviously, so much more we could have dove into, but I appreciate you taking the time today. I'll say thank you very much for joining us on the podcast and enjoy the rest of your day. Claudio Thank you. Thank you. You too. < Previous Episode Next Episode >

< Back National Novel Writing Month Taking a look at NaNoWriMo, where it came from, how you can get involved, and why it’s great! Previous Next Aristos Education Services November 2023 Newsletter National Novel Writing Month Taking a look at NaNoWriMo, where it came from, how you can get involved, and why it’s great! Dear Aristos Community, November is here, and with it comes the thrilling challenge of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! It's the perfect time for all aspiring authors, educators, and students to embark on a creative journey and let their imaginations run wild. In this month's newsletter, we're diving into the world of NaNoWriMo and how you can make the most of this inspiring event this month and all year long. What is National Novel Writing Month? NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month, is an annual event that takes place every November. The goal is simple yet challenging: write a 50,000-word novel in just 30 days. It's a global endeavor that encourages writers of all levels to kickstart their creativity, overcome writer's block, and accomplish their writing dreams. NaNoWriMo is a product of the internet, invented in 1999, that spread organically among writers and educators. In 2006, they became a non-profit and launched official programs including NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo that takes place in April and July and allows you to select your own word count. They also started their “Now What?” months, taking place in January and February, that provide resources and tools to help continue your writing journey throughout the year. Fostering Creativity At Aristos, we believe in nurturing creativity and providing the tools and support necessary to help individuals explore their creative potential. Whether you're an educator guiding students or a student with a passion for writing, NaNoWriMo is a fantastic opportunity to encourage self-expression and storytelling.Creativity is a skill, one that can be unfortunately neglected, but it is easily practiced alone using tools and events like NaNoWriMo! All you need to gain creativity is to create, and the community of creating together with other educators and students worldwide is powerful. Additionally, constraint breeds creativity, and the gamification of writing in NaNoWriMo can be an invaluable inspiration to create. Author Marissa Meyer wrote 3 New York Bestselling novels during November one year, inspired by a Star Trek NaNoWriMo contest. The NaNoWriMo exercise has resulted in a number of famous novels like Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen, and Wool by Hugh Howey, which was revisited during a NaNoWriMo exercise, resurrecting his novel from the book graveyard. Fueling Your Imagination - Resources To help you make the most of NaNoWriMo, we've put together a selection of resources and tips: Writing Prompts : Stuck on where to begin? We've compiled a few engaging writing prompts to inspire your novel's plot, characters, and themes. For more writing prompts, check out Reedsy Set your story before dawn. Your character has woken up early for a particular reason. Start your story with a student discovering a hidden room in a university library. Write a story from a ghost’s point of view. Write a story about a warrior who doesn’t want to kill the dragon. Writing Prep and Organization : NaNoWriMo has an official Prep Course for November, but it contains very valuable planning resources for writing any time of year, like more prompt generators, advice on creating and nurturing an idea, and blog posts written by professional and experienced writers. Follow along with the course, and celebrate at the end with a fun certificate! Below, we’ve included links to the prep course as well as other NaNoWriMo writing resources like their blog and recorded pep talks. Prep course: https://nanowrimo.org/nano-prep-101#howtonanoprep Youtube playlist for prep: https://www.youtube.com/@Nanowrimo/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=3 Pep talks: https://nanowrimo.org/pep-talks NaNoWriMo blog: https://blog.nanowrimo.org/ Programs and Groups : NaNoWriMo has a number of official programs to make use of or join in November and year round. We’ve included some links to their programs with brief descriptions and also ways to get involved locally. Young Writers Program - Signing up for the YWP allows you to draft and store your novel directly on the NaNoWriMo website, leads you through the prepcourse, tracks progress, and allows you to gain feedback from novelists and other participants in NaNoWriMo. https://ywp.nanowrimo.org/ Camp NaNoWriMo - Camp is a less challenging version of the writing event, taking place over two months, and allowing you to choose the type of work you create as well as its word length. Signing up for Camp puts you in the NaNoWriMo community, allows you to draft and store your work directly on the NaNoWriMo website, tracks progress, and gives access to camp-related resources for your writing. https://nanowrimo.org/what-is-camp-nanowrimo Now What? - Now What? Is a program by NaNoWriMo designed to encourage continued progress in your creative journey outside designated event months. Signing up allows you to draft and store any written works on the NaNoWriMo site, gets you access to the Big, Fun, Scary Adventures forum to discuss non-NaNoWriMo related creative plans, and allows you to track and set goals related to your creations. https://nanowrimo.org/now-what Local Writing Resources - The Hamilton Public Library system has a number of different regular writing programs across its branches. These include, a monthly zine club, Tween Writing Circles, and Literacy Labs for a variety of different ages. The events for all Hamilton Public Libraries related to writing can be found here: https://www.hpl.ca/events/literary/writing A Moment for Remembrance This November, let us take a moment to honor and reflect upon the sacrifices made by the brave men and women who served and continue to serve our nation. This solemn month provides an opportunity for us to express our gratitude to those who have dedicated their lives to preserving our freedom and ensuring the peace we enjoy today. At Aristos, we recognize the importance of remembering and understanding the sacrifices made by our veterans. Let us come together as a community to pay our respects, educate future generations about the significance of November 11th and this month, and cultivate a deep appreciation for the values of courage, service, and sacrifice that define our nation. Lest we forget. We hope this November and beyond, you let your creative spirit soar as you embark on the exhilarating adventure of National Novel Writing Month. Whether you're an experienced or novice writer, NaNoWriMo and its resources are an opportunity to make your writing dreams a reality. Thank you for entrusting Aristos with your educational goals. We are here to support you every step of the way. Should you have any questions or need assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. Happy learning! Warm regards, Aristos Administration READ MORE ON OUR WEBSITE info@aristoseducation.ca (365) 889-3756 Admin: contact@aristoseducation.ca (289) 858-6065

EXECUTIVE FUNCTION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE Executive Function refers to a range of abilities that can be grouped into three general categories: working memory , inhibitory control , and cognitive flexibility . These three categories of abilities have a significant effect on academic performance. In fact they are the greatest predictor of academic performance. They are also the areas of deficit most common with a diagnosis of ADHD. Strong executive function skills do not guarantee academic success, the student also needs to be organised and effective, but it is very difficult to succeed in the contemporary classroom without these executive function skills. Some EF skills can be developed independently of their academic application, and then transitioned to be applied in the academic context. Other skills are better introduced through direct application to school content. Working Memory : The ability to hold information in mind for the short term, the ability to work with multiple pieces of information held in mind, adding new information to information being held in mind. Inhibitory Control : The ability to resist an initial impulse or urge and reflect on choices, regulating emotion and attention, and resisting distractions. Cognitive Flexibility : The ability to think about your thinking, the ability to change processes in light of new information or negative feedback, being able to anticipate and account for obstacles to a goal. It has been shown that EF interventions improve school performance, not only on trained tasks but also on cognate tasks. I.e. Working Memory training not only improves recall specific items but also fluid reasoning and reading comprehension (Zhang et al., 2018). BACK TO MANUAL CONTENTS

Aristos provides Highly Qualified Teachers for All Levels of Education For University Students One on One Support from Graduate Student Tutors Who Possess the Degrees Undergrads are Earning Certified Teachers who know the Curriculum working one on one with your Elementary Student