This weeks lessons were about cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is where the use of technology devices and online resources are used to relentlessly and purposefully cause harm to a person. The use of the Internet has continued to grow and with the development of social media cyberbullying has become a topic of concern for adults. There have been many horrific outcomes as results form cyberbullying. The most recent is about the girl who through text messages encouraged a boy to commit suicide. She was found guilty, which has set a new precedence for the legal system. Cyberbullying has been a difficult concept for the legal system to take on and the laws have lagged behind, however now there is more understanding of the impacts that cyberbullying has and that it needs to be taken very seriously. As educators we need to be proactive in seeking out and participating in professional development to better prepare ourselves with understanding and dealing with cyberbullying and the other many digital citizenship elements. As the saying goes “it takes a village to raise a child,” we, as educators, are part of that village. The only way to combat the problem of cyberbullying and poor digital citizenship is to stay informed. It would be easy to crawl under a rock and act like it is not happening to our students but that is not going to help our students when they need us the most. During this weeks web conference an anti-cyberbullying campaign was mentioned called “I am a witness.” It uses eye emojis to shed light on the fact that what someone is doing is wrong towards another person and others can see you are standing up for what is right and join in to support you. I think this is a good start in getting young people to stand up for each other. This kind of simple campaign needs to be shared through social media networks. This is also something that can be discussed in class and shared with parents to encourage their children to be a positive light in when the digital world can be so dark sometimes. Other ways to help prevent or stop cyberbullying is to help educate parents on what is going on when their child is online. I feel that many parents do not realize the what all can be accessed on the Internet or they may think not my child but in reality curiosity can get the best of anyone and it is good to have discussions with your child. I also feel that limitations on usage and parent and child phone/internet contracts are a good idea. These contracts set up an accountability system for the child that outlines consequences for breaking the contract. It is time for parents and educators to team up to be more proactive with teaching digital citizenship instead of reactive. I feel by doing this we will see more positive results and hopefully less of the negative. Building communication between the adults and young people will help put a stop to cyberbullying.
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AuthorI am an educator, nature lover, sea turtle conservationist and dog mom. Archives
July 2017
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