Week 5: Social Networking and High School Article 2

Under the radar’: Educators and cyberbullying in schools.

By: Cassidy, Wanda, Brown, Karen, Jackson, Margaret

School Psychology International; Oct2012, Vol. 33 Issue 5, p520-532, 13p

Article

 Social media has made its way into our classrooms, and though there are great benefits to using it in our lessons, it is also important to identify the risks. This is why I chose to focus on the ever-growing issue of cyberbullying in connection to my “social networking in high school” theme.  In “Under the radar” Educators and cyberbullying in schools” by Cassidy, Brown, and Jackson we read about the research done to identify how schools are dealing with cyberbullying as the presence of social media increases in our teenagers’ lives.  Seventeen educators are asked sixteen open-ended questions in a taped interview. The end results being that they were not well informed about cyberbullying as well as they were ill equipped as a school to deal with it properly.

The article begins with identifying the importance of school policy stating that, “educator indifference or lack of acknowledge about cyberbullying may lead to policy deficiencies or inadequate prevention strategies (Huang & Chou, 2010; Sakellariou, Carroll, & Houghton, 2012)” (p. 521).  This leads us to look at teachers’ perceptions of bullying/cyberbullying.  The research conducted, discussed 17 educators and their experience with identifying cyberbullying as well as their knowledge of social networking. The article addresses the fact that very few educators in the group felt adequately prepared to identify cyberbullying or to intervene.  This was due to the fact that they lacked the proper training and skill set, as well as they were not knowledgeable about the technology itself.

In the section titled “technological challenges” on page 522, it is discussed that “In our technologically driven world, teachers and parents are generally behind youth in their knowledge of technology, which leads to inadequate supervision at school and home and an increase in cyberbullying (Popovic-Citic, Djuric, & Cvetkovic, 2011).” When the adults in our students’ lives don’t understand how to use the technology, it leaves a huge opportunity for the child to misuse it without us even knowing.  Teachers need to be trained and a strong school policy needs to be developed.  It is time that we make sure that we know what are students are bringing into our schools.  We need to understand that we now have to deal with not only what goes on inside our school walls, but the virtual ones as well.  It is necessary for the safety of our children.

The top three results that summarize this study best are:

1. The majority (15 participants) were more familiar with older technologies like e-mail than newer ones.  Only two participants were knowledgeable with social networking sites like Facebook.

2. 59% of participants said they were concerned about cyberbullying, yet four could not provide any examples of incidences and the school’s response.  This was unnerving considering that in the student-based research (not included in this article), 36% of students admitted to participating in cyberbullying and 32% had been victims in the past year.

3.  One vice principal stated that the school’s policy addressed bullying, but not cyberbullying specifically.  Furthermore, the school’s handbook did not address the “proper use of the Internet as a tool” (p. 527).

 

Connections to NETS

The issue of cyberbullying centers on NETS-S 5 “Digital Citizenship” which is created to ensure that “students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.”  When 36% of students in a corresponding study admit to participating in cyberbullying, it means that there is a serious lack of emphasis placed on developing digital citizens.  This has to change if we want to see a difference in how our students treat one another inside and outside of school.

In addition to this, NETS-T 4 “Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility” is created to ensure that “teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices.”  This article specifically addresses NETS-T 4.c “Promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information” by discussing the fact that educators are responsible for modeling appropriate behavior.  But as previously stated, even though 59% of educators in the study said they were concerned about cyberbullying, four of those individuals could not provide examples.  This means that not only are these teachers disconnected from what is taking place in the school, but they are definitely not modeling “digital etiquette and responsible social interaction.”

Connections to students:

Cyberbullying is not a joke.  The hate that is written on child’s Facebook wall, does just as much damage, if not more, as if were graffiti on their house.  It is a real-life problem that students face every day, and those students need to know that they are safe inside our school walls—even if the threat is a virtual one.   Students need to be educated on the issue and understand the consequences of their actions.  We need students to meet the NETS for digital citizenship, not just because it’s a requirement, but also because knowledge is power. When students have the knowledge they need to be responsible online, we give them the power to be thoughtful digital citizens.

 

Connections to school and the classroom:

We know how engaging social networking can be for our students; when we incorporate tools that they use in their daily lives, they see how the material from the classroom can connect to their life in the real world.  But we also need to be aware that as educators, we are the gatekeepers of our schools and classrooms. Therefore, we need to not only be educated on how to use the technology but we need to educate our students on how to be proper digital citizens.  This means that we need to have clear school policies that identify cyberbullying and its consequences, as well as the proper use of the Internet.

We need to educate our students.  We need to model appropriate behavior. We need to show them examples of what is good and what is not acceptable.  All these sentiments have been said for generations, the difference is now we need to incorporate the Internet world as well.  We need to open the lines of communication with our students about the effects of their choices online.  One vice principal in the study stated that he “believes that educators must get to know their students and have open conversations with them about inappropriate behaviour and the emotional and physical costs of victimization” (p. 526).  Creating examples of cyberbullying and sharing them with the class would be a great teaching tool to use to educate students on what cyberbullying is, as well as its effects.  The “I didn’t know” excuse should not work.  Students need to understand that though they may be behind a computer screen, their words and actions have real-life consequences.