If you've been watching or listening to the news lately, you already know that public schools are "failing our nation's students." A couple of weeks ago I heard a new way in which we are "failing" these students. Again, if you've been watching or listening, you probably also heard about the tragedy at Rutgers College a few weeks back where a student committed suicide due to a crime committed in a digital nature. This is not the first time a young adult has taken their life due to a digital issues. From what I heard on National Public Radio, schools across the nation are not doing a good enough job teaching young adults and adolescents to be good digital citizens.
I have a few things I'd like to mention about this. The first is that, in my opinion, being a good digital citizen is a lot like being a good citizen in general. It includes being conscientious about the feelings of others, being open to new ideas and people's differences, and thinking before you speak, act, or click post. Our school just recently had a speaker from The Civil Rights Team Project come work with our students to teach them more about how hurtful words can be. He also spent a staff meeting with us teachers to talk about cyberbullying. One thing that he said about cyberbullying that really resonated with me was "cyberbullying is like bullying on steriods." The severity of the bullying, and the speed with which it can move from person to person or group to group, really can make cyberbullying horrific.
As a teaching staff, we took a look at some of the reasons why cyberbullying can be so harsh. One reason is because there is a disconnect between humans. The computers can serve as a wall between people. Kids feel empowered to say things that they would never say to someone's face. Check out this video from The National Crime Prevention Council that give a good depiction of what cyberbullying would look like if it were to happen face-to-face.
This ad is meant to make you feel so uncomfortable that it might even make you chuckle a little bit. It is so ridiculous to think that someone would ever speak like this to someone else in front of a crowd, and that people would just sit back and listen to it. But, when you think about it, this is exactly like cyberbullying. People say things they wouldn't normally say and share things they wouldn't normally share in real life.
I do feel confident in saying that at my school we are continually trying to educate ourselves and our students in terms of bullying and cyberbullying so that our school can be a safe environment for everyone. We are also putting into place a new 10 week program, led by our librarian and our technology coordinator, that focuses on teaching students the importance of digital citizenship. This is why, when I hear things like, "schools are failing our students in terms of digital citizenship," my hackles raise. Maybe some schools are failing our students in terms of creating safe digital environment for students, but mine's not!
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