The Social Web…
Tonight’s conversation in EC&I 831 has sparked memories of many conversations I have had with educators, administrators, university professors and parents on the “Social Web” in terms of it’s very real possibility of abuse, especially in terms of bullying. In Saskatchewan, all schools have been decreed to put in policies to deal with bullying in all it’s forms. In our division, bullying, in it’s “cyber” form, will be dealt with at the school level even if it occurs outside the school environment. Many would argue that education, modelling, etc. would better serve our students than a “Net Nanny” mentality. I wonder.
The problem is that it takes cases of such as, Columbine, Taber or incidents of suicide in Saskatchewan to strike fear into the hearts of school boards throughout our province and beyond. Cyber bullying, can be argued, is one of the worst kinds of bullying. As I stated in our discussion, those seeking power (bullying) find it in anonymity. How do we respond to this incidents? What about the stakeholders?
I remember a time when new schools had swing sets. Now it’s too much of a liability.
In a school environment, has e-mail, blogs, IM, etc. become, or becoming, the swingsets of a new age? Do we need technological “helmets” for everyone?
I am trying to compare the “cyber” form with traditional forms of bullying. Bullying on the schoolyard is often covert, not seen by teachers or other authorities. Legislating against it does very little to affect the more serious attacks. I think it’s the same in cyberspace. Rules and nannying may prevent minor bullying, which arguably students should learn to respond to, while doing nothing about more insidious problems. Knowledge, as usual, is more important than safeguards enforced from the outside. The young people I know have been taught by their parents to protect their MySpace accounts and use various measures to protect themselves, not have others protect them.
We are living in an age of liability where some people want to insulate their children from everything and do not want them to experience any kind of “bad” whatsoever. Whether this is an outcome of “our children having better than us” is questionable but, for children who have everything, what is left?
Having experienced some of the things you mention, one realizes you cannot keep the bad away. Instead of insulating them, we need to prepare them. Instead of ignoring and then letting them out with no preparation, we need to take the time to explain the “less than positive” that they will encounter at some point.
You’re right, cyber bullies get their power from anonymity but we don’t share with our children how to deal with those problems. Instead, we spend so much time creating policy to deal with it that we miss the opportunity to bring it into the light and expose it. Do we teach a student who to tell? That if you report it, the person, regardless of their anonymity will lose their account? Do we explain to parents how to change user names and create different accounts, check caches and histories? Like prank calls, informing someone, getting the information and being informed will do much more than Net Nannying.
As for the stakeholders, they need to be informed and be given information not out of fear but out of progress. Too many people view technology with fear, a throwback to the early years of science fiction movies I think;) We have an obligation to demonstrate the positive actions that can take place and not be deterred by the negative attacks that media use to demonise the internet. There is something to be said about how the media has influenced/influences a society’s perception of itself.
Our playground has 3 swing sets. Why? Children like them. Do they get hurt? Yep. But they get hurt in so many places that to isolate one as the cause of all problems is a knee-jerk reaction to the problem. We don’t need helmets. We need people to educate our children how to use them properly. Will there be some who misuse them? For sure but we then deal with those.
Bullying is a community problem – period. It happens with adults at the rink, on the street and in the grocery store. We won’t stop bullying. We can, however, give people the power to tell those bullying to stop and then give them the tools to resist the pressure that comes. Right now, we’re creating problems because we’re aren’t teaching children how to fish, we’re giving them the fish – all cleaned and cooked. What happens when they need to do this on their own?
You raise a very good point about cyber bullying and schools having to deal with this problem 24/7. I wonder if this is the right tactic. I recently saw a show on a case where a teenage girl commited suicide because of cyberbullying. However, it turned out that it was a parent, posing as the teen’s friend, that was sending the messages. The parent said it was intended to be a joke. How do schools fight that? I know it is an extreme case but it makes one think.
Along with the previous comments, I have to add another voice to the “teach responsibility instead of protect from all possibility of harm”. At some point, as in the case of swing sets, attempting to keep children from hurting themselves becomes ridiculous. A dose of common sense in both the physical and “cyber” world is what is sorely needed, for both students and teachers.
You have the best descriptions “a technological helmet” LOL. You bring up some very real issues and I agree with both Dean and Dan that schools need to teach responsible, safe use of the internet, because schools cannot possibly “see” everything that goes on 24/7 AND should not be expected to.
You raise very valid points. As an administrator I often struggle with what qualifies as “school issues”. I commented in my blog how we are often inclined to take away that which we are afraid of.
Angie