Teaching critical, Ethical and safe use of ICT in pre-service teacher education

This paper describes two studies that examined the awareness of pre-service English teachers regarding issues of digital literacy, fair use of digital materials, and e-safety. The participants in Study One designed reading and listening lessons utilizing online materials and then evaluated their lessons in terms of digital literacy and fair use. The participants in Study Two designed writing lessons based on social network services or online environments and evaluated the resulting lessons in terms of e-safety. This article reports on how these activities influenced selection criteria for online materials, methods for gathering instructional materials, and lesson plans. The results indicated that, initially, the pre-service teachers rarely considered these issues when selecting materials or designing class activities. The findings also showed that the participants’ awareness of critical, ethical, and safe use of information and communication technologies was raised through activities for evaluating and discussing the selection of instructional materials and the lesson activities associated with them. Implications for teacher education in computer-assisted language learning are discussed.