Perceptions and Analysis of Digital Risks. Группа авторов

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      Ethical risks

Ethical risks can refer to the use of personal data and tracking during web browsing. Even if such use is not always harmful to the user, they are rarely well informed about the nature of the personal data collected or the ways in which it might be used. In addition, the security of this data is not always fully ensured and poses problems regarding the protection of privacy on the Web and respect for others (Merzeau 2013; Rouvroy 2014, pp. 407–422; Cardon 2015).

      Legal risks

      The legal risks on the Internet are complex given that the application of the law has been adapted to technological evolutions and the use of the Web. If the law applies on the Web as in everyday life, digital spaces generate new cases that require necessary adaptations. In particular, the risks concern the violation of intellectual property, personal data, image rights or even identity theft. These infringements are punishable by law and can be subject to fines and prison sentences.

      Environmental risks

      The environmental risks linked to digital uses are less related to the current consumption of energy for operating, storing and recharging electronic devices than they are to the pollution generated during the manufacturing of the equipment: the lithium in the batteries, the tantalum in the electronic cards, the indium in the screens and other components are produced far from the assembly sites and require a lot of energy to assemble them. These are also scarce resources that are being depleted at an increasing rate. The fact that this equipment is not recyclable also has a major ecological impact. The speed of technological advances and the obsolescence of digital equipment lead to the production of more and more waste which is not treated in a responsible way.

      This diversity of digital risks is reflected in the media and societal and scientific discourses, thus fueling the debates. Often presented in an alarmist way in the media, these speeches alert users to dangers that are likely to have real impacts on their daily lives, often playing on the register of fear. However, while the stakes around digital technology are real and deserve to be considered, the probability of being personally affected by one of these threats remains low and occurs only in very specific cases. These discussions on risks are, however, likely to have a particular resonance with teachers, parents, educators and, whether directly or indirectly, with teenagers.

      1.2.2. What are the risks in education?

      For several years now, the educational system has been communicating on the need to prevent certain abuses such as cyberbullying, violation of image rights or disinformation. Many actors work closely with schools to produce and disseminate information to members of the educational community. The Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) works on the rights and duties on the Web and the protection of personal data; the Centre de Liaison pour l’Éducation aux Médias et à l’Information (CLEMI) assists in the analysis of sources and the critical evaluation of sources; the police or associated organizations are also involved in informing and supporting the actors of the educational community, who are faced with digital risks.

      Those critical of digital technology in schools argue that it is likely to increase inequalities among students. They consider that the digital practices of young people are essentially consumer or leisure practices, far removed from academic expectations. Thus, working at school with these tools would likely present risks for students such as cognitive overload and attentional deficit, and could reinforce certain stereotypes related to the heterogeneous support of families on the Internet, which does not allow all students to have cultural references or sufficient critical distance from the content available. According to this presupposition, which is still widely criticized, “a large proportion of young people would thus fall prey to commercial or ideological manipulations of all kinds and could in no way take advantage of the potential for emancipation and access to culture offered by digital technology…” (Becchetti-Bizot 2017).

      On the other hand, the school system has been trying for years to set up several plans to develop digital uses, including the computer plan for all in 1985, the digital plan for education in 2015, and the digital plan for school confidence in 2018. However, digital practices are still not permanently embedded in school practices and the digital literacy of students is often a one-time practice that is not yet fully integrated in disciplinary teaching.

For Vincent Liquète and Benoît Le Blanc (2017), a “shift from comprehension to use or even manipulation” occurred between the 1970s and the 2000s with the arrival of digital technology in schools. Whereas audiovisual and radio technologies were established in schools from a comprehension and critical perspective, the integration of digital technology seems to be based on the need for technical mastery of these tools. This new approach could therefore run the risk of reducing students’ ability to understand, analyze and criticize these information and communication technologies and their uses in society. The authors note a diversity in the ways in which teachers have appropriated and invested in digital technology over the course of this decade:

      [There is] the “prophet” teacher singing the praises of technologies and, more recently, the digital environment, the “sales” teachers wishing primarily to link the school to market trends and employability issues, the “activist” teachers proposing alternatives especially via freedom and the common good, and the “innovator” teachers claiming that digital technologies drive creativity and new ways of doing things (Liquète and Le Blanc 2017, p. 11).

      Our hypothesis is that another mode of investment in digital technology by teachers has emerged in recent years in the face of perceived dangers for students or for the teacher themselves: that of renouncing any desire to integrate digital technology into the classroom, on the grounds of the risks incurred with respect to families, a feeling of incompetence or a certain moral code. This hypothesis led us to investigate in order to better understand teachers’ feelings about these topical issues.

1.3. Questioning perceptions of digital risks among new teachers

      1.3.1. Why was this target audience chosen?

      Most of the new generation currently entering the teaching profession are “digital natives” (Prensky 2001), native to the Internet and digital tools. This generation uses digital technology on a daily basis to connect, communicate, inform themselves, entertain themselves, etc. These practices developed in the personal sphere are then likely to have an influence on their perceptions of digital technology and on their teaching practices with students.

We have chosen to focus on one category of teachers: that of new teachers with less than three years of experience in the profession. This choice seems judicious to us for several reasons. First, it is plausible that this new generation, which has grown up with digital technology, could be the bearer of a new, more realistic view of digital technology, against the idea of a certain utopia that the Web initially embodied for many. Secondly, teachers who are starting out in the profession are committed to meeting institutional expectations and are therefore expected to carefully consider the official texts that promote this education in and through the digital world. Thirdly, teachers who are just starting out have high expectations in terms of training and are likely to bring to light shortcomings and needs, thus leading to a re-evaluation of teacher training.

      1.3.2. Methodology and data collection

      The survey conducted as part of the eRISK project took place between 2016 and 2019. Based on the typology of digital risks presented above, the survey explored the reported representations and practices of new teachers. The survey questionnaire, entitled “Enquête sur les pratiques numériques des enseignants” (survey on the digital practices of teachers), was distributed to all elementary school teachers and secondary school teachers, as well as principal education advisors in the academies of Bordeaux and Créteil, regardless of their seniority level. A total of 3132 teachers