FTCE Guidance and Counseling PK-12: Basics of Appropriate Technology

ASCA's Ethical Guidelines in Relation to Counselors' Use of Technology
The technology a school counselor chooses to use must be both applicable to the student's needs and ethical in its implementation. The American School Counselor Association's (ASCA's) guidelines promote safe and confidential practices, emotional and social consideration, and equitable practices.

ASCA Ethical Guidelines (2016):

1. Demonstrate appropriate selection and use of technology and software applications to enhance students' academic, career, and social/emotional development. Attention is given to the ethical and legal considerations of technological applications, including confidentiality concerns, security issues, potential limitations and benefits and communication practices in electronic media.
2. Take appropriate and reasonable measures for maintaining confidentiality of student information and educational records stored or transmitted through the use of computers, social media, facsimile machines, telephones, voicemail, answering machines, and other electronic technology.
3. Promote the safe and responsible use of technology in collaboration with educators and families.
4. Promote the benefits and clarify the limitations of appropriate technological applications.
5. Use established and approved means of communication with students, maintaining appropriate boundaries. School counselors help educate students about appropriate communication and boundaries.
6. Advocate for equal access to technology for all students.

Potential Limitations in Virtual/Distance (Remote) School Counseling
Limitations in working with students remotely include the following:

1. Emergency situations when the client needs someone in person and the counselor is not available—Counselors should assist clients to identify one or more trusted people living near the student: in an emergency, the student has backup support.
2. Potential loss of confidentiality—Someone could enter the room
3. (either the student's or the counselor's) room during a session. An email or voicemail could be accessed by someone who is not the counselor or client.
4. Arranging student privacy in the session is important. Using a special, secure, school email server is one way to keep records of emails confidential while also assuring there's a reliable archive.
5. There is always potential for misunderstanding, especially with the written word, as there are no nonverbal cues to interpret. Ideally, a backup plan for texting and emails would be to check in by phone or video call.

Use of Technology to Provide Services to Students Being Schooled in Remote Locations
Counselors can talk with students informally or schedule formal counseling sessions via phone, Skype, Facetime, WhatsApp, or other calling apps. Online learning programs give students access to emotional and cognitive skills development as well providing information on nearly anything—health, relaxation, college preparation tutorials, or stress reduction practices, for example—by way of videos. Online courses, e-books, or audiobooks can be purchased, and there are multitudes of free resources on YouTube.
Curating and sending links to students not only provides them with important information in an accessible format—it also sends the message that the counselor is working on behalf of the student, caring, even at a distance.
Limitations in technological client care may increase risk when a student is in crisis. Ideally, when someone is in real trouble, there's an actual person available to help. In crises such as potential or attempted suicide, the counselor may contact a local crises unit, call an ambulance, or arrange and pay for an Uber ride to a clinic or away from a dangerous situation.
Technology can't completely replace a face-to-face relationship, but it can make counseling possible in places or situations in which it would otherwise be impossible.

Technical Requirements of Counselors
The ACES list encompasses the technological requirements involved in nearly every aspect of the school counselor's job from providing one-on-one services to mass communication and doing research to interpreting the research of others. Counselors need to be able to use software to build web pages, write letters, create spreadsheets and presentations, send emails, access databases, collect data, advance their own professional development, and help students use career, academic, and counseling-related resources.
Along with the nuts and bolts of knowing how to operate and maintain a computer, its software and associated printers, and other hardware, counselors also have to understand the potential pitfalls of technology use in terms of ethics and legalities. Like most professions, school counseling requires computer literacy, and counselors have the added mandate of showing students how to find the resources they need online. Familiarity with the Internet is also an important part of understanding, preventing, and stopping cyberbullying.