Understanding Technology Concerning Cyberbullying

This clip, which went viral on the internet a few months ago, was shared this in my social media class yesterday, when we were discussing cyberbullying. It's pretty difficult watching a group of 25+year olds get so choked up over something that we can proactively help to diminish. As a warning, it has some trigger material concerning suicide and bullying.

I too followed the Amanda Todd case last year, but not just for the interest in the video and backstory. One of my brothers was bullied in high school, much the same way she was, "jokes and memes" included. 

I'll never forget the punch to my stomach I got when I found out emotional cyberbullying had created physical illness for my brother.  While teaching at the same school my brothers attended, one time one of my brothers specifically asked me to come down to the nurse's office instead of the school calling his parents, because he felt I might have a different perspective.  While I may have diffused the situation a bit by letting it sink in during the rest of the school day, before informing my parents, my reaction and emotional side were very similar to theirs.

Sitting with me in my classroom during my plan period and he broke down.  He said he's been teased, threatened, mocked, even a few physical punches to the head--with most of the bullying done online.  When I asked what they were saying, or if he knew why they were doing it, he said yes.  Worse, some of the teachers were aware but felt the situation might diffuse itself, instead of following school handbook protocol.  These kids, most of them who have been in his classes since kindergarten, found out he had a brain tumor.  They thought saying online things like "maybe if he gets stabbed in the head it'll go away" "just punch the tumor out of his face" or "thank God he'll die early and we won't have to see that big head of his" was funny.  You can imagine the horror and sadness I felt; think of how my brother, a high schooler dealing with a severe medical issue, felt.

My brother has a facebook and twitter account, which my mom has access to, as do I, and we try to keep a "watchful eye" on the accounts.  What upset me the most was that my parents and I didn't catch even a whiff of the bullying.  We monitor his social media, I teach at his school, I even teach and tutor some of the students who were bullying!  The problem with online social media is the rapidness things can be done or changed and accountability. Comments/messages can be posted in mere seconds and then "deleted" just as quickly.  Unless you're hovering over your child while using the computer (which would be similar to following them everywhere when they're playing outside), you can't catch it all.

While I'll concede, the school attempted to take action towards the offenders, the damage was already done--he was bullied. 

Examples such as Amanda Todd and my brother show that we're at a new stage in technology where we need to not only learn how to use it, but understand and demonstrate what it's capable of and educating anyone who uses it, along with preventative measures we can take--whether it's filtering, monitoring, or just even talking to people and informing.

Repackaging Curriculum and Instruction in America

We need educational reform in America’s educational system, but since this is such a large issue with many variables, we need to start small scale and then widen our scope.  Examining other countries and their secondary education institutions captures a comparative, critical approach of how we (America’s public education system) can adapt educational setup and policies and integrate them into our instructional approaches to engage all students.  We, as teachers, parents, and educators can promote interest in a variety of learning and teaching methods while still meeting the ever-daunting role of continuous assessment data.

I'm actually writing my paper on educational reform with the working title being "Repackaging Curriculum and Instruction in America."  To diminish any bias you may think I hold, let's expose my background regarding education:  I've attended latch-key, year-round schooling on a military base my father was stationed at on the West Coast, I graduated from a public high school, and attended undergraduate and graduate schools at both highly selective, priviatized institutions as well as a state university, leading up to now, me teaching English and Spanish (a core curriculum subject and a fine arts subject) in the same district that I graduated from.  I have siblings who attended Montessori schools, receive tutoring as well as private ACT prep, and are now at my alma mater high school, but despite all of these mixed types of schools, classes, and regions, I cringe at the thought of my future children attending a public high school in America.

I feel one of our main problems is how to deliver instruction to students because it is so complex.  To establish special classes, mentors, accelerated curriculum, enrichment models, special topics, and summer camps to be successful in creating an effective classroom in which all students, regardless of barriers, can succeed is difficult, but it can be done.

I recognize that barriers such as learning levels, styles, socioeconomic status, funding and accountability will make it difficult to do so, but to better education requires a change in society’s perceptions for identifying and educating those who we feel have talent, we need to take time to develop opportunities and programs for everyone and realizing that “giftedness” can exist among the disadvantaged groups as well. 

I know America has the ability to do better, and frankly, we deserve a better education than what our country's current level and quality provides. I've seen, studied, and have been to other countries' school systems and feel that America's current education system is just at the tip of the iceberg regarding educational reform.

I know the next counter is going to be "everyone defines the problem but fails to provide an adequate solution."   I am well aware of the facors including cost, socioeconomic status, state and federal goals and mandates, etc. One aspect of Bad Teacher that I did like was that the author points out you can't make a change with the whole world at once.  Using world hunger as an example: it's impossible and impractical to start a campaign titled "Eliminate World Hunger," but we (society) do have the ability to implement small scale changes--i.e. donating to your local food bank, organizing small food drives, etc.  Small steps mean not being able to get somewhere as quickly, but you're still moving in the right direction, creating progress, and you'll get there eventually.

Accountability on the Interwebz

Accountability on the internet.

Who's responsible for it?
Simple answer would be everyone.

Unfortunately, we can't just say someone's accountable and then they will be, we (the public sphere) need to hold them accountable, and I think a start to learning accountability is developing an understanding of media literacy.

Media literacy is commonly defined as the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and produce media. It is the process of becoming active, rather than passive, consumers of media. The importance of media literacy is that it helps bridge the gap between everyday media use and applying it to another context.

Our society uses media on an everyday basis, so we have the capability to use it, but it's using it properly and effectively that's the trick.  All too often I've seen people post "So many posts about [insert here current political response or response to a major current event]" and leave their response criticizing other media users for sharing, evaluating, and communicating about important events, albeit, sometimes comments that are misinformed, biased, and/or targeted towards a group, but at least their attempting to display a form of media literacy. Whether it's leaving a comment, status, or update on Blogger, Facebook, or Twitter, integrating it into our curriculum as a teacher, or even using the tools it provides to apply it to our jobs, we have an accountability to be effective, responsible media users.