Blog Post #5- Cyberbullying
This week, I did some self-reflection on my digital habits after reading and exploring the Seven Deadly Sins web page. I had not realized how often what I thought about while on the internet pulled out some not-great things about me. As a millennial, who grew up without the internet being in the palm of my hand, I cannot imagine how this affects our students who have never known a world, but one that is intertwined with the web.
I had several takeaways from these Course resources. First, I will pull a line from the podcast, Five Ideas to Tap Social Media to Enhance PD and Student Learning, Nikki Robertson said that nowadays, kids no longer have a distinction between digital citizenship and citizenship (Robertson, 2018). This means that our real and digital lives have merged for this new generation. In other words, bullying that happens in the real world naturally carries over into the digital sphere. Now that we are in a digital era, there is more concrete evidence of bullying and it is out online for anyone to see, which also makes it easier for the bullying to spread. Second, the article, From the Sandbox to the Inbox: Comparing the Acts, Impacts, and Solutions of Bullying in K-12, Higher Education, and the Workplace, states that it becomes too late to teach how to decrease cyberbullying by the time students get to college. Third, in the same article, they reference Dan Olweus’ definition of bullying which is continuous “aggressive behavior that are intended to cause harm to a victim with relatively less power to defend themselves” (Fauncher et al., 2015). This information makes it imperative that we teach starting at an early age: what is bullying, how we eliminate it, and what can we do if we see bullying occur.
I found on the webpage, Cyberbullying Research Center, that curated a set of videos that could easily be used with K-12th grade discussing digital citizenship and cyberbullying. As I am an elementary school librarian, I especially liked the CGI “Joy and Heron”, “We Are All Daniel Cui”, “Chalk”, and the rendition of Taylor Swift’s song Mean. The Joy and Heron video consists of a wordless animated short where a dog realizes that a heron keeps taking the worms from a fishing bucket to feed its babies. The dog then gives the Heron all the worms. Then in return, the Heron provides the dog with a bounty of fish. This would help students to be aware that other people have different circumstances in their lives, yet they can work together to build community. I thought the We Are All Daniel Cui, video would be good to use with upper elementary as it showcases what cyberbullying is, how it affects the individual being bullied, and how his teammates rallied behind him to change the viral posts in a positive light, which then helped their teammate not only feel better about himself, but also helped the team become more unified. In addition, the Chalk, video is about a boy who has a difficult home situation, is bullied at school, and finds solace in his break dancing. Yet the boy doesn’t know someone is watching him and wants to learn break dancing from him. This is another wordless video that can be shared and discussed with students who feel helpless in their situation that there are friends out there. As Taylor Swift is so popular I think that her song Mean is a great anthem to not let someone’s meanness affect their dreams and goals.
Bullying affects the real world and the digital world. Parents, teachers, community member, and students need to rally together to identify it and figure out ways to stop it. In the article, From the Sandbox to the Inbox: Comparing the Acts, Impacts, and Solutions of Bullying in K-12, Higher Education, and the Workplace, it made a note that bullying does not always end in elementary school and can be observed in the workplace (Fauncher et al., 2015). Together we can instruct students to make the world a better place when these children get to adulthood.
References
(August 5, 2014). Seven digital deadly sins- Good material for conversations on digital citizenship. National Film Board of Canada. https://sins.nfb.ca/#/Grid
2006svet. (2013). With a piece of chalk. JuBarFilms- Justen Beer. [YouTube]. https://youtu.be/iAM_Q-bsUgE?si=1VTUbKUYySyY9fxh
Buchanan, H. (2013). Facebook Stories- We are all Daniel Cui. [YouTube]. https://youtu.be/WJNrNVpyzSE?si=Ir6xIebtqXKT52Om
CGMeetup. (2018). CGI animated short film “Joy and Heron”. Passion Pictures. [YouTube]. https://youtu.be/1lo-8UWhVcg?si=OqqyFbaHHtyAn1H0
Cyber Bullying Research Center. (2024). https://cyberbullying.org/videos
Faucher,C., et al. (August 27, 2015). From the sandbox to the inbox: Comparing the acts, impacts, and solutions of bullying in K-12, higher education, and the workplace. RedFame. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1078204.pdf
Robertson, N. (guest). (August 17, 2018). 5 ideas to tap social media to enhance PD and student learning. [podcast] Cool Cat Teacher, LLC. https://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2018/08/5-ideas-to-tap-social-media-to-enhance.html
Wyman, P. (2016). Taylor Swift MEAN/ Silverado Middle School// Anti Bullying PSA. [YouTube]. https://youtu.be/ZqLjmnY-ZXM?si=Y8s43yxgMddsYI8q
Hi Ashley! I also agree with Robertson's perspective on student today and citizenship - their world is so different and intertwined that they do not know any different. My personal worldview regarding technology and its impacts on children has changed over time based on my experiences in education. I entered education during the early 2000s - before every child had a personal device, whether phone or computer. Starting my 25th year this year, I've seen such a change on the impact technology has on children's abilities to self-regulate and cope with everyday life stressors. When I was a teenager, I had no idea if someone didn't like me or didn't like what I wore - unless it was said to my face, told to a friend, or written on a sheet of paper called a note. :) Now, individuals know what people think of them 24/7, without any break. I mentioned in my response to another post that it seems individuals are becoming less empathetic which is why we see the bullying/cyberbullying we do. Our role as school librarians is to teach "digital" citizenship but at the same time, we can also help students learn empathy which might help at least one student.
ReplyDeleteHey Ashley! I, too, was convicted as I looked over the Seven Deadly Sins website. I found that I struggle the most with envy. Prior to looking over the envy section, I was aware of my issue, but I didn't realize just how bad I struggle with envy. There was one article titled, Property Snooping and it described me perfectly. I am ashamed to admit how many times I get on Zillow to see other people's houses and to compare their home to mine. I have to remind myself frequently that social media is just a highlight reel...If I need this reminder, I can guarantee our students need that reminder too. I also found the Chalk video very beneficial for elementary students. This video would send a powerful message to students that we don't know what goes on in each student's home. Because of that, we should aim to be kind to all. To teach empathy, we must model it first.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree when you said, "bullying affects the real world and the digital world". When I was in school they treated "bullying" and "cyberbullying" as two separate things but they are the same. At their core both are forms of bullying. I also found it concerning when I read that bullying continues into higher education and in the workplace. Sometimes it feels like people think bullying is just something that happens to kids and then stops. Hopefully we can teach our students how to prevent this.
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