Digital Citizenship Action Plan Against Bullying

The audience of this action plan is parents, staff and colleagues. This action plan is to address the identified need of bullying in the classroom or out of school or cyberbullying on line. The goal of the plan is to prevent bullying from occurring in person , and in and out of school online. Digital citizenship has been defined as: students understanding human, cultural and societal issues related to technology and practicing legal and ethical behavior. Preventing cyberbullying is one way for students to practice digital citizenship. For complex reasons, kids will bully other kids. Over 95% of high school aged children have been bullied. Over 45% of high school aged children have been bullied(1). Accompanying bullying are other types of undesireable behavior such as gossipying and backstabbing. Children that are bullied, often do not know why they are bullied or what to do about it. The perpetrator(bullier) often has as many problems as the bullied person(the victim). The whole scenario requires skilled intervention on the part of teachers, administrators and parents to resolve it. In one school district, a teacher attempted to resolve a bullying incident in the following way. She had all the bullys classmates file around him, and strike him all the while saying mean things to him. She was fined(2). This shows the need for proper training by teachers and counselors about the right type of intervention. There is no real policy in the community of Lawrence for digital citizenship. How should such a policy look? Parents should warn students about posting inappropriate things online. They should tell them that postings should be clean and helpful. Parents should go online and see what students post. They should warn students that anyone can see the post. Also at school, websites should be blocked and facebook checked. Digital citizenship should mean appropriate access to electronic devices and that students using these devices make proper choices. Choices regarding what sites to go to, where to go to on each site, and how long to stay on each site and what to do on each site should be addressed. Appropriate communication should occur on each site by the student, and monitoring or supervision should occur on sites by parents or teachers. Here are some goals or objectives to implement the action plan(For constructive use of computers in the classroom and at home and an absence of cyberbullying). Objective1-Teach parents and teachers about cyberbullying . Give concrete examples about what it is, and where it has occurred in the past(3).Objective2 -Give parents examples of what happens when students are bullied. Examples include loss of self-esteem, attempted suicide and suicide.Objective 3- Tell parents what to do in cases of bullying, and how to stop incidences of it(3) Key advice includes asking kids to show who their online communities are, and who their friends are. Kids should be encouraged to be kind and respectful on line, and treat others as they want to be treated. They also should not delete messages, respond to them or retaliate. They should be encouraged to tell adults they trust about bullying. They should be encouraged to produce positive online communities, and stand up for what is right and what makes a better world.

Lesson Plan on Cyberbullying(4) Learning objectives: (1)View the YouTube videoCyberbully and explain what causes online cruelty. (2)View the YouTube videosMy bullying story and A talk about my bullying story and explain what people can do to lessen online cruelty. Introduction: Explain and define what online cruelty is(cyberbullying). When someone uses digital media tools such as the internet and cell phones to deliberately upset or harass someone. After viewing the three YouTube videos, answer the following questions. Questions: (1)What affect does being cyberbullied have on the girl in the first video? Answer-She is criticized in a negative fashion online and cant take it. She is disoriented and deeply offended. (2)Does information circulate faster on the internet than with in person bullying? Answer-Yes-it also reaches a wider audience than offline. This can be more detrimental. (3)Do cyberbullies prefer the internet because of anonymity? Answer-Yes-They can hide behind the internet without people knowing, and communicate their comments to a wide audience. Its a sneak attack. (4)What happens to conflicts that start online? Answer-They can continue offline involving large numbers of people. Recently the Indianapolis News reported an incident involving a college student who was involved in an ganglike fight on Facebook, that escalated to a shooting incident in real life where she was killed. (5)Have you ever been a victim of online cruelty? How does it feel? (6)What does Ellouise recommend if you are bullied? Answer-Tell someone about it, and that people care. You are strong and can make it. View on YouTubeBully Suicide Project Stories and Cyberbulling campaign videos based on true story Summary: Explain to students how bullying leads to suicide, depression or attempted suicide. Have students break into small groups and explain what causes bullying and how to stop it. What should students do when they encounter another student who has been bullied. Stress to students that they tell a trusted adult what is going on. Check out this website: stop cyberbullying.org . Check this schools policy on cyberbullying: Bullyfree.com/freeresources/cyberbullyingpolicy

REFERENCES (1) Cyberbulling Toolkit:Standing Up, not standing by: A free cyberbullying toolkit for educators: Media and Technology resources for educators, Parent Resources (2) CNN news May 2012 (3)Cyberbullying Tool Kit: Cyberbullying: Tips for parents CommonSense.org (4)Common sense media-Connected culture unit lesson:Turn down the dial on cyberbullying and online cruelty(9-10) www.commonsense.org