Preventing Cyber Bullying
Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin
In chapter 10 the authors discuss a number of ways that teachers, administrators and parents can help prevent cyber bullying. It starts by addressing the teachers role in preventing cyber bullying. Teachers can do a number of things to prevent cyber bullying but first teachers must be aware of the level of cyber bulling at their school and the must educate students about examples of it. The major step that educators can do to help decrease cyber bullying is to increase the awareness of acceptable uses of technology at school and at home. With clear rules that are reinforced by the teacher, students will be more aware of classroom computer use and portable electronic use (cell phone). Rules can also effectively be reinforced by peer mentoring that helps students relate to one another about cyber bullying issues. Schools can also do much to change the climate by helping to maintain a safe and respectful school culture, limiting inappropriate web material with filtering software or even the implementation of a school wide anti-cyber bullying program. The chapter then concludes by discussing the parents, students, and law enforcement's role in preventing cyber bullying.
I have heard a number of teachers at my school say, "There have always been problems that with bullies at school...I made it through it, so will they." However, as this chapter outlines, the major difference between then and now is...technology. It seems to me that technology has given the word bully a new meaning. Bullies no longer have the persona of being a big, bad person that is going to take your milk money. Now bullies can hide behind computer screens or behind a facebook/twitter page. For example, either this year at my school two students were suspended for making a twitter account making fun of some football players after a the team suffered a few losses in a row. I read some of the tweets that these kids were posting and it horrified me the types of things kids will say about each other. Schools must do something to help students see the harm these types of messages can do towards their peers. I realize schools can only do so much, so when does some of the responsibility fall to the parent/guardian?
I think there definitely needs to be a balance on who is responsible for teaching students about cyberbullying. How did students and parents react to the suspension based on Twitter comments? Do you thin that if teachers model how Twitter can be used in a classroom, and have open discussions about cyberbullying then there would be a difference in students demeanor on Twitter?
ReplyDeleteI don't know of the parents of the students that were suspended but the ones that I did hear from were outraged by the kinds of things kids say to each other. However, I don't think those parents made their children get off of twitter or even censor what they say. I do believe if the students were involved in open discussions about cyberbullying then there would be a more positive influence on students. However, many of the students see no harm in the comments. This can be a dangerous situation that can get out of hand, if we are teaching students that cyberbullying is an acceptable behavior.
Delete