Ethics for survival

This morning I was reading about a woman who murdered her husband...only the couple had never met face to face. Their avatars were married - yes it was in an online environment. However the perpetrator is being investigated in the real world because it is alleged she gained illegal access to a computer and manipulated data so that her 'husband's' online character was eliminated.

This highlights to me the ongoing need to work in 'all worlds' to develop ethical ways of behaving. And it is supported by recent world wide financial events and by the behaviour of politicians... Leadership for the future must bring ethical behaviour back into focus. Mentor and colleague, Wilf Jarvis, suggests that while many businesses claim that "Our People are our greatest resource" they do little to build skills in leadership before throwing them in the deep end. The ability to understand our own values, emotions and motivations; and to reflect on the effect we have on other people must become a greater part of leadership development. And we must all understand that ethics is not just a 'real world' phenomenon, but also something that is important glue for online communities. In the context of schooling, there is an ever increasing need to develop high levels of digital literacy and information literacy with ethics and safety being important throughlines in learning.