Christopher D. Sessums :: Blog :: Teachable Moment: Cyberbullying

August 03, 2007

Teachable Moment: Cyberbullying

Here are two videos (each less than a minute long) from the Ad Council designed to bring attention to the effects of cyberbullying. I apologize if these are reposts.

What I like about these ads is their directness: the script and images are designed to make an impact on the audience quickly and the message is clear: words can be powerful and hurtful-- bullying hurts -- think about the impact it can have on others.

The ads don't tell you to do anything but to think for a moment how a certain behavior can cause a pain for others. The message is about prevention and not locking up computers or banning children from participating in online social networks.

Other cyberbullying resources

While on the subject, I've compiled a few links to online cyberbullying resources. Again, the relationship between our understanding of the potential of Read/Write technologies and how we educate parents and students will ultimately impact how computers will be used and funded in schools. We as educators need to be sure we know how to handle bullying situations and how to show parents and administrators how we are handling them.

Cyberbully401 -- What is Cyberbullying? and Other Resources

Stop Bullying Now! -- What Can Adults Do?

Center for the Safe and Responsible Internet Use -- Mobilizing educators, parents, students, and others to combat online social aggression

Kansas Safe Schools Resource Center -- Links to educational sites promoting Internet safety materials

Cyberbullying: Legal Issues -- The legal role of schools in dealing with cyberbullying cases.

Demystifying and Deescalating Cyber Bullying in the Schools: A Resource Guide for Cousnelors, Educators, and Parents (pdf) -- terminology, policies, procedures, interventions, and more.

STOP cyberbullying -- Why do kids bully?

Keywords: Ad Council, advertising, classroom 2.0, computing, cyberbullying, Internet, learning, PSA, public service announcements, Read/Write Web, safety, school, school 2.0, teaching, video, YouTube

Posted by Christopher D. Sessums

Comments

Thanks for the excellent resources. In English class, we will begin the year with Lord of the Flies, as a companion piece to their essential question for Civics class "Do we need government?" I plan on asking students to investigate cyberbullying as contemporary Lord of the Flies-like situation. In what ways does the Internet sometimes seem like an island without grown-ups? Why are some people cyberbullies? How can we take care of ourselves and each other on the Internet? When we need help from adults, how do we signal for that? I am at the beginning stages of planning, but I think there may be a valid connection. Thanks again for the great links.

Theda Rudd on Saturday, 04 August 2007, 14:43 CEST # |
Hi,
Great article!!
I am the Regional Office of Education's Internet Safety Coordinator. For the past 3 years, I have championed online safety education awareness not only in my local school, but entire Region.
Cyber bullying is front and center in my quest to promote this important concern. I wrote an anti-cyber bullying policy for my District and hope to push it to the entire Region, once approved.
If you have a moment, please take a look at my award-nominated educational resource blog. Perhaps you will want to add it to your listing of links?
Thanks so muc!

http://InternetSafetyAdvisor.info

Jace Shoemaker-Galloway on Thursday, 09 August 2007, 23:46 CEST # |
Fantastic resources!
I will pass them on our guidance department. I hope that it is not long until all school faze this material into their guidance and health curriculum

Justin MEDVED on Monday, 13 August 2007, 17:30 CEST # |
Great article!! Bullying is real and it impacts everyone involved, the kids being bullied and the kids that do the bullying. As a mother of 2 boys I want to know if they are being bullied or if they are bullies. I went online and bought this cool software (www.sendmescreens.com) that allows me to see what they do online while unsupervised and it has given me great peace of mind. As parents we are responsible to protect our kids from harm and also to keep them from becoming bullies, it's a two-way street.

Mon on Wednesday, 26 March 2008, 22:25 CET # |
Loved the article. I have two kids of my own and the cyber-bullying really creeps me out. I don't want to be overprotective but I dont want my kids to be harmed by kids at school or dateline nbc to catch a predator stars either. A friend of mine told me about this site humanbook.com. What makes this site different is that it utilizes web 2.0 wiki technology. Basically, people are verified through their connections and their associations and if people within many groups do not verify who and individual is then that person is flagged and pulled out of the group. Like wiki, the more people that are in the system the more powerful and accurate it becomes. Ultimately no one will be able to make false identities because that false identity will not have real connections and they cannot duplicate identities because the true holder will be able to flag it or deny false connections. It's a brand new site so I'm assuming they are working out a few kinks but I suggest checking it out!

Frank White on Tuesday, 22 July 2008, 17:20 CEST # |
I went on that humanbook.com and it was pretty intersting the way it worked. i was kinda skeptical at first because the system had my name in it before i even finished regstering. but then i realized that what frank is talkin about really works! the site is cool, and i see where they are goin with it. needs a lil more developement but great concept. i hope more people join the system so we can really take control...

Nessa on Thursday, 24 July 2008, 20:30 CEST # |
I too went on the humanbook website and registered. facebook and myspace don't do anything to monitor or prevent the cyber-bullying that goes on in their websites. This is a major problem because they are getting incredibly popular and they make it easy for our children to interact with each other. I'm going to see how humanbook turns out but if it is going to stop cyber-bullying then i am all for it.

Charles Wright on Thursday, 24 July 2008, 22:40 CEST # |