Ethical issues of gamified ICT tools for higher education

A recent trend in e-learning is the development of ICT tools with game elements to increase the motivation of using new technology in teaching and learning. In most cases, games possess different ethical constraints than regular e-learning systems. For this reason, additional implications and issues deriving from the combined development of games and e-learning technology have to be considered. During the development process of gamified e-learning systems as well as during the use of gamified ICT tools in education special attention must be paid to ethical constraints. This paper presents ethical considerations as to how to properly motivate teachers to adopt new technology in their teaching practices. For this purpose, the paper investigates ethical issues inherent to the design process of gamified e-learning systems as well as the usage of gamified tools in teaching in order to determine how the ethics of games can affect the teachers' roles.