This afternoon, our "Internet for Educators," class was able to have a sit down chat with John Finch in the flesh! Up until now, we have only been able to see or hear our presenters through our computer screens, so John's visit to Brandon University was really nice. John's presentation also differed from others, in that he did not talk as much about the many uses educators have for the internet. Instead, he talked about some of the current "hot topics" in the education field, that involve the use of the internet.
The first topic he addressed was cyber-bullying He said if you were to ask most educators, or even just people, they would tell you that this is a huge issue right now. If you were to ask me, I would probably agree with that. The reason for this is the media. Cyber-bullying gets a tone of media attention. Unfortunately, most everyone recognizes the name, "Amanda Todd," as the girl who lost her life due to cyber-bullying which John pointed out was not actually a case of cyber-bullying but blackmail. Soon people will recognize "Brandon," as a community where students have been arrested for cyber-bullying It is easy to see why people's perceptions of cyber-bullying are that it is rampant and must be stopped. However, data collected from a student survey called the "Tell them for me survey," shows that cyber-bullying is not rampant at all. This survey measured 4 different types of bullying, and the results showed that cyber-bullying had the smallest percentage (8-12%). The reality is that bullying takes place every day, in many forms... all of which need to be stopped. Physical bullying came in at 25%. Should we not then spend more of our efforts on physical bullying then on cyber-bullying? This survey just shows the importance of collecting data so that as educators, we know where to focus our efforts and where our big problems (or strengths) lye.
John also talked to our class about the importance of having conformed consent from parents before publishing student's work or pictures online. This went without saying for me, but John brought up another point about this that I hadn't realized. He told us that the moment our students create something, they own the copyright. It is against the law to share their work without conformed consent from not only the student, but also from the parents. He also mentioned that even with this consent, it is always a good idea to cover your bases and let parents and school administration know ahead of time about your online activities, to avoid any unnecessary problems.
The last few presenters have left us with the message to "share, share, share." I think it was really important for us to hear John's message about how to share safely. Before we click the "share" button it is important to know what we are getting into, involving the rights and agreements with the sites we are using, and making sure that we are protecting our students before publishing anything online. If teachers are not careful about this, the results could be devastating for them and their students. - T
It was great to have a sit down conversation. For some reason I thought he said that the other three types of bullying combined affected 25% of students with cyber bullying being lower.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason cyber bullying is the focus of so much attention is that it's invisible. We can monitor the hallways and playgrounds, but we can't monitor students' texts and inboxes.