Abstract: This paper argues that e-teaching, the use of computers and information technology in teaching, can pose moral threats to the legitimacy of the educational process. One of the reasons for this is the strong relation between e-teaching and business interests. The paper will discuss this relationship and why it can be perceived as a moral threat. Briefly, the paper argues that the necessary legitimacy that education enjoys in a high degree is a result of the ethical quality of education. This ethical legitimacy depends on the impartiality of different views and on the fact that all legitimate stakeholders have equal possibilities of influencing the content and processes of education. This equality and impartiality is jeopardized when one stakeholder threatens to dominate the system. This, it is argued, is what threatens to happen when business interests take over as a result of the increasing use of e-teaching.

Keywords: E-teaching, Ethics, Morality, Business interest, Capitalism

Download this article: JISE - Volume 15 Number 2, Page 155.pdf

Recommended Citation: Stahl, B. C. (2004). E-teaching - the Economic Threat to the Ethical Legitimacy of Education? Journal of Information Systems Education, 15(2), 155-162.