Michelle’s response to the news article “Don’t Hurt: Schools win $1m to fight cyber-bullying” written by Tim Jamieson, Leader Community Newspapers online, September 14, 2010.
In a move that will hopefully encourage not only educators, but parents and the community in general, to deal with issues of cyber-bullying, a new “eSmart” initiative funded by the Victorian State Government and national charity The Alannah and Madeleine Foundation will be rolled out across Victorian Government schools in 2011. With staff training programs, and student teams to help promote discussion of cyber safety between students and parents, it certainly sounds like a promising step towards dealing with issues of cyber bullying and online safety.
The simple fact is that although some may try to deny it exists, and some may have never heard of it, cyber bullying IS a problem (See Boyd, 2007, p.139, Campbell, 2005), and we not only need to put in place measures to prevent it, but we also need to teach our children and students what to do when it occurs. Youths in both Australia and the United States have taken their own lives due to cyber bullying, and this is a situation we need to be doing everything in our power to prevent. As educators, we are in a situation to teach our students the skills to stay safe and to deal appropriately with unpleasant situations when they occur, so it disturbs me when I hear reports of schools who would rather believe that because this bullying may be happening outside the school grounds, that it is not their concern.
Among other digital media platforms, social networking sites have been identified as locations where online bullying may occur (Boyd, 2007, p.139; Jamieson, 2010), yet it is important that we do not simply ban the sites and call the problem done. After all, we do not remove playgrounds from school grounds to deal with lunch time bullying, so why remove access to social networking sites to deal with cyber-bullying? In this respect, the “eSmart” initiative must be congratulated even before it is rolled out, as far from suggesting that students be prevented from accessing social networking sites, its aim instead is to teach youths strategies and skills to avoid bullying. It is my hope that as educators, we all make it our business to teach our students how to prevent, avoid and deal with bullying, no matter the format that it takes.
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References:
Boyd, D. (2007). Why Youth ♥ (heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life [Electronic Version]. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning – Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume (Ed. David Buckinham), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Retrieved September 20, 2010 from http://www.danah.org/papers/WhyYouthHeart.pdf
Jamieson, T. (2010, September 14). Don’t Hurt: Schools win $10m to fight cyber-bullying [Electronic Version]. Leader Community Newspapers. Retrieved September 30, 2010 from http://leader-news.whereilive.com.au/news/story/dont-hurt-schools-win-10m-to-fight-cyber-bullying/
1 comments:
Short Response 1
Michelle raises the interesting concept of cyber bullying. With the changing environment that young people are participating in, there is also a change in the way bullying occurs. This initiative by the Victorian State Government is a smart idea, but not something new. In schools in Queensland there is a Cyber Bullying policy that schools need to examine and address in their own school policies. A solution that the Education Queensland has had to this problem is banning students from social sites such as Facebook. Michelle raises a valid point that schools cannot simply ignore the problem by banning sites; they really need to explore these issues. Skills need to be developed by young people to deal with issues of bullying. If these cannot be learnt as young person, then when they enter the workforce this will continue. Similarly bullies need to be dealt with properly and similar measures should be put in place by the workforce as is done in schools because these young people will grow up. Policies will need to ensure that cyber bullying does not occur in the workplace. Cyber bullying is an issue and the Victorian Government is producing an initiative that will benefit the current generation of young people by ensuring that bullying is dealt with by schools in the most practical way possible.
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