Author Alecia Berman-Dry describes a new "Issues in Technology" class that six graders at her school are participating in. The idea for this class came after students as well as parents reported cyberbullying incidents outside of school. The teachers concluded that not enough was done at school to teach their students to be good digital citizens. They started 12 week classes dealing with Digital Citizenship and chose a debate form for the students to personally connect with the problem. During one of the classes one student actually wrote insults about a fellow debate team member, not realizing what he did. The teacher used this incidence to make the connection for the students. It was this moment that made the kids aware of what cyberbullying actually means, and that it related directly to them: "they were the bullies and the victims". Both teacher and students thought very positively about this class. Many students said it changed their behavior because they now know what can happen on the internet.
This article relates to NETS-S No. 5, Digital Citizenship, specifically a -understand and use technology systems, and d - transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies. The class teaches the students to use new technology responsibly, to make good choices in their behavior on the internet in private settings in the the same way as in school.
As a parent of a middle schooler, I feel guilty of not monitoring my child's internet behavior enough. We just assume they know how to behave responsibly, however reality is often different. I would very much appreciate similar classes at my kid's school, because even though I do not want to shed my own responsibility as a parent, I think it may be more successful to teach these general rules in the school setting with teachers and fellow students. Kids respect rules learned there better, the parental involvement can be seen as too much criticism and invasion into their privacy.
I like the approach the teacher took here. By choosing a debate style forum, the children got close and personal, and even had a first hand experience to show them how insult does not hurt less when it is not told to an actual face. I will suggest classes like this at our school!
Berman-Dry, A. (2013). Making it personal: A new approach to teaching digital citizenship. Learning & Leading with Technology 41(1). 24-26.
Hi Astrid! Wow, what an awesome class for middle school students to take. There are far too many stories of how cyber bullying hurts students, and I think that classes like the one you described could definitely help to reduce the number of these incidents. It's much easier for students to hide behind a computer screen when they are bullying a classmate. Bullies don't have to face their victim in the same way that they would if they were face-to-face. Classes like this seem like a logical addition to every school. Educators already expect appropriate behavior at school; it only makes sense to expect the same appropriate behavior in the cyber world. As technology becomes more intimately tied to our daily lives, the barrier between the cyber world and the real world will become increasingly faded. Not teaching kids about etiquette online is thus like failing to teach them how to behave at school.
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