Activity 7.1 - reflections on professional values - where do they come from?

I'm sensing that the work of developing a code of ethics or principles for each profession as something that took time.. that it's really a profession's response to ensuring the public good is protected. The need is to meet minimum public expectations of a profession so that as a profession (and as a professional) they gain / maintain the trust and confidence of the public. They bolster their credibility and respect in the eyes of the public.

Keywords - trust / confidence
leading to
Keywords - credibility / respect

A little bit of speculation here but I don't imagine that such trust and confidence for current professions came over night. I imagine a series of occasions / events / even misfortunes where such trust or confidence may have been tested .. and the profession addressed these through the further refinement of their guiding principles and ethics. This was done as a means to protecting the "profession". In other words, defining the public good that each profession seeks to address is key to winning the trust and confidence of the public it seeks to serve. This becomes the means to defining these principles and ethics for each profession.

That may be easier to identify for an engineer or doctor, perhaps more challenging for an educator but I sense much more difficult for an elearning practitioner.. especially when there isn't much of a history to the "profession".

New questions emerge out of this...

What public interest or service is being addressed by elearning "professionals" that the public deems to be important .. that the public needs to be confident in leaving to elearning professionals to address?

• Perhaps efficient, effective, judicious use of technology in realizing learning outcomes .. cause for reflection.

What about defining the public? Is that public broadly defined or more focussed / specialized / specific?

• The public served may be educators, administrators, managers. What expertise are they seeking? .. cause for more reflection.