Cyberbullying and Digital Citizenship
Bullying is not a new topic, but there is a "new" threat to children, youth, and yes, even adults...CYBERBULLYING. The StopBullying.gov website reports that "cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation" (StopBulling.gov, n.d). Back in the day, there was a way to escape the uncomfortable situations of the school day once you left the school building. This is no longer the case. Today's children do not have this "break" from the torture of the school bully. The rise of digital devices and social media allows for the pressures and bullying to creep into what was once a safe space: our homes. What was once considered to be a "pathway...which [does] not originate in childhood and youth, but rather begin[s] in adulthood" (Faucher et al., 2015) is now invading our children's inboxes.
The ISTE Digital Citizenship Standards were created to help combat this new digital monster that creeps into our students' and children's rooms. Teachers are the first defense against this insistent and cowardly harassment. Before we place devices in our students' hands, we must not only share computer safety, but our duty to be positive digital citizens. Digital citizenship, as stated by Ribble "digital citizenship [is] the online display of behaviors that ensure the legal, safe, ethical and responsible use of information and communication technologies" (Ribble, 2011, as cited by Ozturk, 2021).
Educating students on the impact that their verbal and digital words have on others is the first line of attack. As a teacher librarian, this would be an ongoing year-long teaching opportunity, and could be linked to the school's SEL lessons in the general education setting. Digital citizenship should be referenced on a regular basis. It is important to not only just share the effects, but to also provide deeper more meaningful exposure through in-person talks or online (TEDTalks) examples. Having posters in classrooms, hallways, and the library will serve as reminders for students, teachers, and others in the school building. These can be premade, but having students complete their own digital citizenship projects will have more of an impact.
I love all of the information you've included, but I especially was interested in learning about ReThink. I've never heard of this program before, so it was really interesting to check out the website and view Trisha's TEDTalk. I think it sounds like a promising idea - the only barrier being districts will to spend funding on the program itself. I agree that teaching students and reminding adults about the consequences of cyberbullying has to be a big part of any curriculum. Without real world examples related to the damage cyberbullying causes, students may not see the relevance. The sites you included will be really helpful to make sure students understand the importance of this topic. Great resources!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your positive feedback. I completely agree that Trisha Prabhu's idea has great potential. I am hoping that districts and, hopefully computer companies/sites, will see this as a needed safeguard for children and will take the initiative to provide this service for our children.
DeleteHello, Liz!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your Blog! You have shared some great resources. I was especially impressed with Trisha Prabhu’s YouTube Tedtalk about Rethink. It is chilling to think about how many children’s lives have been lost because of cyberbullying. In my Blog, I stated that we need to change the behavior of the aggressors to fix this problem, so I was extremely excited to learn about her Rethink program. I think it should be installed on every media sharing application and email account to remind people that there are humans on the other end of that message.
Thank you again for some great information!
Jen Phillips
Jen,
DeleteI found great similarities in our ways of thinking after reading your blog, as well. I agree that ReThink should be installed on every media sharing application. I hadn't thought about that, but only devices.
It does seem that our district's monitoring systems need to pick up on more key phrases and words, as well as send a warning.
Thank you for your positive praise!
~LIZ