http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/article-protecting-kids-from-cyberbullying.html#.UIbgRRttloQ.mailto
The below link is an article I read regarding cyber bullying. We have talked a lot this semester about the positives of technology but what about all the negative influences. Is encouraging "more" technology into our classrooms creating opportunities for our youth to be bullied and even targeted by online sexual predators? Read the link below and some other articles on online predators or cyber bullying and tell me what you think. How do you protect your students? Are their programs in your district that help to eliminate these negative influences?
http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/article-protecting-kids-from-cyberbullying.html#.UIbgRRttloQ.mailto
15 Comments
Brittanee Jacobs
10/28/2012 11:17:11 pm
There is no way to completely protect students from cyberbullying and online predators. However, teachers can greatly reduce the likelihood of this happening in the classroom. At my district, all social media websites are blocked--and this is the primary location of cyberbullying. E-mail and IM accounts cannot be used as well (with the exception of the school e-mail for faculty and staff). Whenever we used the computer lab there was always a teacher in the middle of the room, and he/she could always see all of our screens at all times. I think this greatly reduces both instances because there isn't time for students to access sites that aren't related to the work at hand.
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Michelle Unnerstall
10/29/2012 09:39:20 am
I agree with Brittanee that we can try our hardest, but we can't save kids from cyberbullying outside the classroom. In school though, we have things blocked so students cannot get on social sites. We can teach students internet safety. We also have the counselor come in and talk about bullying. Our cop came last week to talk about cyberbullying online and in texts. He warned kids that the police can look up what they say even if it is deleted. Once, you press "send" he warned, it is "forever". Teachers give accounts of times they are bullied and how it lasts for a long time. Students need to know that it hurts and that bad things happen. They need to know what to do if it is happening to them or their friends.
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Angie Richardson
10/29/2012 10:33:47 am
That is awesome about the police officer talking to your students. I am sure that made the point stick a little better coming from him. I agree that as teachers we need to teach internet safety but we can't be with our students all the time.
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Lauren Noble
10/30/2012 05:52:05 am
I agree with the other two, I don't think there is a way to 100% protect students. I do think that a lot of social media is trying to prevent the cyberbullying by reporting items like that. I thought that the article had some great points for parents and others about ways to stop cyberbullying and reporting it. It's sad that it's not only kids doing the bullying but also in some cases the parents do it as well.
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Chelsea Loethen
10/30/2012 09:02:18 am
I do not work in a high school setting but remember that in my high school we had a cyber wall that blocked everything. It blocked all social media and any website that was remotely bad. If a website was blocked that we wanted to use, we had to right a written request on why this website should be unblocked for educational use. As far as protecting students that is what we did. For things like chat rooms as such, those were prohibited in our high school as well. I know not everything gets caught by the cyber wall but I think it is a good start.
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Aaron Schroeder
10/31/2012 01:33:32 am
Our school is the same. Our wall is very sensitive. Students have learned a few ways to backdoor some sites, but even then we usually find a way to shut them down. Teachers have a little more access than students, but even we are kept away from sites like facebook.
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Angel Massie
10/30/2012 11:16:17 am
I think that parenting HAS to be the key role in avoiding cyber-bullying. My own children only have limited texting and are not linked to any social networks. There is a reason there are age limits on facebook. Those that have social media pages any younger have had to have lied about their age or their parents have lied. In which case, I hope the parents are savvy with their technology no understand how their children can "hide" their information, etc. Our school just recently had a presentation on cyber bullying. A woman whose daughter was a victim of a very vicious, immature, act and ultimately took her own life. Our character ed program, counselors and adminstrators take ANY bullying very serious and our students are aware that anything that causes issues with the school day will be dealt with as if it were a school issue (texting, fb, my space, twitter, etc....)
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Aaron Schroeder
10/31/2012 01:36:51 am
Just last year, we started allowing students to use their phones during lunch. The texting issue is very hard to monitor and I am not so sure that we should allow phone use during lunch.
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Aaron Schroeder
10/31/2012 01:31:09 am
To be honest, I really have not addressed cyberbullying in class. I have overheard it in class and had the administrator come talk to students involved since it was carryover from lunch. Our school has had talks with students regarding sexting, which can be a type of bullying. But other than that I can not think of a lot that we have done as a school concerning cyberbullying either.
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Kristi Harms
10/31/2012 02:31:30 am
I understand the concern in regard to cyber bullying, however I don't think it is any different than every other "bad"influence our children are or could be exposed to. I think it is the parent's role to monitor and to educate their children in regard to what is positive and appropriate behavior. In my son's school, there is a "no tolerance" policy in regard to bullying of any kind and it is enforced at school and by parents.
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Lauren Robb
11/1/2012 12:36:42 am
In my highschool we also had a cyber block on a ton of websites. All social media sites were blocked, almost anything not used for educational purposes were blocked. A way to protect students is to make sure they have strong passwords for everything they use. We need to educate them on social media too. Make sure they know not to allow people to be their "friends" unless they are 100% sure they know who they are.
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Daniel Simmons
11/1/2012 09:53:50 am
My school was similar to Brittanee's. All social media sites were blocked, and security was tightly monitored. There were often three computer aids in the classroom, watching what the students were doing. I do remember once when our school computer systems were hacked. Anytime this happens all computers immediately go black and shut down until the IT team could control the issue. The problem with social media is if someone wants to attack a person, they likely can. Because there are a variety of ways to reach students once they exit the school, cyber bullying is simply inevitable. If a student can't say something over facebook in school they will wait until they get home, and cyber bully their target. It is a difficult issue.
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Mike Tzianos
11/4/2012 05:37:46 am
I do not work in a high school setting, and am not an educator yet but don't believe that there is a way to totally protect students from cyber bullying. Educating students about what cyber bullying is, and how to avoid it is your only option.
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Scot Davis
12/2/2012 09:57:23 am
I feel that we should first teach our students internet safety first and how to properly use computers and technology. However, we can never completely prevent these things, only give them the tools and knowledge of how to best protect themselves.
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10/15/2013 09:46:59 pm
Nice post. I read your post and i like it. You really give your valuable information and link. Thank you for sharing................
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Student BlogThis blog is for class conversations for ED 514 at Central Methodist University. These post are by the students of ED 514. We invite input form other teachers about how they use technology in their classrooms. Archives
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