I've been piloting different ways to present Internet Safety/Cyberbullying lessons to groups of 9th graders. I'm working with a few of our counselors who teach a weekly guidance seminar. We've tried a few different resources - a PowerPoint from NetSmartz.org, a video from Digizens.org. It has been very hard to get kids to participate. Last week was painful - we were faced with dead silence for most of the hour.This week I tried something different, with a mixed result. I used Chatzy to set up a private chat room. We had all of the kids sign in to the room anonymously. They participated in the conversation only through the chat room. I spoke questions aloud and presented a video and a handout. My colleague (school counselor) monitored the back channel.
The results were interesting. There were several kids who just would not take the chat seriously. They joked around throughout the chat and ultimately ended up doing some cyberbullying themselves. My colleague called them on it. It will make for an interesting debrief when they next meet.
I'm still formulating a plan for next time. I think we will do the chat again, but this time with real names. Take a look at some of the highlights below. I would love to hear your observations and suggestions. Let me know what you think.
Here are some of the highlights from the chat.
Me: What is bullying?
mo247: being mean to make themselves feel more powerful
Me: What is cyberbullying
whs12: cyberbullying is when someone is online and is saying mean things to you
12345: cyberbulying is when you say things that make others uncomfortable, IM, myspace, facebook, etc.
Me: What makes cyberbullying different from bullying?
student1: it is usually anonymous
THESTUDENT: you dont really know who or what the other person is like
Lionheart: Or it can be someone who is pretending to be someone else
Me: What would you do if you were cyberbullied?
whs12: you could talk to the person being bullied and see if they're ok or just be a man and tell the people to stop
12345: i would tell my friends and see if they had any advice
mo247: i could stand up to the bully if i had people to back me up
I showed a video and we "discussed" it. There isn't much from the transcript that is worth sharing.
At the end of the presentation I asked: Was this conversation helpful?
12345: in person is prob better, less goofy
Lionheart: ya, it is helpful!
unit 6: yes, because you can work it out
creepy tuck: ya ppl dont take it seriously b/c regardless there are gunn be ppl that do it
Lionheart: Why less goofy?
fontie: ok
student 4: we aleady went over it like 10 times in middle school
Finally I asked: Was the chatroom helpful?
THESTUDENT: this is a lot more fun/interactive
creepy tuck: more peaople talked then usually in the other room in person
student 4: it was kinda fun
12345: i didnt find the chatroom helpful
fontie: yea i think it was usefull
student 4: people were probably more open in here
creepy tuck: sritcker*
whs12: probably cause not so many people were holding back. if it was in person people mght second guess themselves and not wanna say their thoughts outloud
jeff23: si
McLovin: i thought it was pretty helpful
THESTUDENT: this is like 3 times as much dialouge then if we just talked regularly
mo247: true
unit 6: what I found useful was you got to understand more about bulying in a whole different angle
Image Citation: "Safety" Skip the Budgie's Photostream on Flickr. 10 May 2006. [http://www.flickr.com/photos/skip/143977272/] 19 Jan 2008
9 comments:
I have been working on a presentation on cyberbullying for our district and anyone else who will listen. Also, I will start teaching a Web 2.0 Media Communications course on Tuesday. One of the topics I plan to cover with the 6th graders is cyberbullying. You have given me some great ideas for the lesson. Thanks.
I thought the Chatroom was a good way to go especially if the hour before was a bust. I think it would get kids to open up more, I know I would have NEVER said anything in public, but anonymously I woul've. Great idea, I'll be curious to see what others thought.
Thank you for taking up the cause of cyber bullying and for the resources you've provided here.
The chatroom is a great idea! I did the same kind of thing (but not in as much depth, wish I could have) on my classroom blog - you can check out the post here:http://mrsolson.edublogs.org/2007/12/17/cyberbullying-videos/
I only have my students for 10 days at a time, and I'm technically not even supposed to dig into cyberbullying, but I think it's way too important to skip - no one else is teaching it right now. I plan to use some of the resources you've provided here and include them on the Safety page on the class blog - thanks so much!
What a great way to integrate technologies they know and have an open conversation about cybersafety! Something tells me they learned more than you'll ever know from that one experience.
Jen, Thanks! This is an excellent use of interactive technology, and I like the scientific approach. Others can now replicate your work to determine validity and efficacy.
All over the nation, the FCE groups that work with County Extension offices are developing current lessons for adults who interact with children: parents, teachers, grandparents.
I will attend a presentation next Wednesday on CyberBullying, and I will give everyone your URL. I would like to hear more about your experiment extensions. It is my hypothesis that you will have less bullying chatter when everyone uses their real name.
This is just-in-time learning for me, because I will be presenting the Cyberbullying lesson to my FCE unit in early February. Thanks;D
One caveat: It doesn't matter how much you know about the topic, you can be affected. My HS kid is dealing with a cyberbully that also goes to my kid's school, borrowed the cell phone and the micro SD card just "happened" to disappear. We are on top of it, so I will update you.
Having followed the worldwide bullying phenomenon and its transition to the online sphere, I would suggest that you may want to access the early work in the 1980's done in Sweden...these educators and researchers were able to get to the core and discover workable solutions. Amazing insights!
Liz,
Thanks for the link.
Last semester, I took a "Privacy and Security: A Human-Computer Interaction Perspective", and I did my team project on privacy and security in K-12 settings. What I learned really opened my eyes.
Cyberbullying is a real problem. The chatroom is a good idea.
My project only tackled the the "secure password" problem.
Today ,I was writing a speech for my students regarding using internet wisely. I posted about this on twitter. Then I got to know about your this post.
It has helped me in framing few ideas about cyber safety.
Thanks liz
The truth of the matter is that we are living in a world of technology and that world is coming into the classroom. If we as teachers are introducing stduents to aspects of that world then there should be a creative and interesting way to get the students involved and inerested in cyber safety.
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