Cyberbullying and the Modern School

Five years ago, most people did not know what cyberbullying was. Before social networking gained widespread popularity, bullying was mostly confined to the playground, but has now spread to spiteful and slanderous comments being left on blogs and social networking profiles  A few well-publicized cases of cyberbullying have resulted in suicide and even murder, causing this issue to become a matter of great public concern.


Although I have never had any experience with cyberbullying, I have observed it happen to other people, and know the emotional damage that it can cause. As time goes on and social networking is integrated into society, teachers will encounter more and more students who have been involved in cyberbullying in some way. Schools are now faced with the need to develop strategies and policies that will help teachers and administrators to deal with these issues.


The biggest obstacle that schools have to overcome when dealing with cyberbullying is that it usually takes place off school property. Because of this, questions arise as to whether or not schools have the authority to discipline students accused of harassing their peers online. Past court cases have set a precedent that compels schools to intervene only when cyberbullying becomes disruptive to the learning environment; other cases must be dealt with by the students' families. In some cases, it will be obvious that a student is the victim of cyberbullying: a student may approach a teacher and tell them outright that something is going on. Otherwise, teachers and administrators must pay attention to students' body language, their interactions with other students, and the content and tone of their writing to discern if something is wrong.


I agree with the courts: schools should intervene in cases of cyberbullying when it becomes disruptive in school. I believe that schools should focus on prevention, because the legal system will make it difficult for them to intervene unless they can prove that the incident was negatively impacting learning. Schools need to educate families and students on the negative impact of cyberbullying, and give students access to resources that they can turn to when they are being harassed online. I think that family education is particularly important because parents and other guardians can prevent cyberbullying from becoming an issue if they are monitoring their student's online activity.


In my classroom, I plan to deal with cyberbullying preemptively. One of my major overall goals is to make my class a safe place where students respect one another as fellow members of a community of learning. I plan on working to establish this environment through community-building activities beginning the first day of class. I hope that this will allow me to create a safe environment where my students will be able to discuss serious issues (like cyberbullying) honestly and openly. I also hope that by requiring students to treat each other with respect in my class, they will develop positive habits that will influence their behaviors outside of school. I would love to be a part of a school that would make community respect the standard of behavior in every classroom.

Social Networking and Teachers

The Internet can be a scary place. We sometimes forget that things that we do on here are constantly being archived and sent to search engines. When I searched for myself on pipl.com, I got a result, but could not see anything without paying. I googled my name as well, and that search was more fruitful. First, I searched for "Lynsey Harrison,"and there were only four or five links that were actually me on the first six pages of results:

http://twitter.com/TheLynzer

This is a link to my Twitter profile, which I use to follow other people, not to post.  It was cashed. My profile on Twitter was recently set to private, so even if I show up in search results, only people I know will be able to see anything recent that I have posted.

http://www.willamette.edu/dept/osa/programs/honors/index.html

This is a link to a page on Willamette University's (where I did my undergraduate work) website. my name is listed there because I received an award. I am not really concerned with people knowing that.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/47437940/WELCOME-TO-THE-WILLAMETTE-UNIVERSITY-Soybean-Phospholipid

This is a link to the program from Willamette's 2009 Student Scholarship Recognition Day, where I presented a paper. Again, I am not worried about people seeing this.

http://www.alumniclass.com/reynoldshs/alumni-profile?id=4351386

This was a link to my profile on my high school's alumni association website. My profile cannot be viewed by anyone who is not a member, so it is not an issue.

Next, I searched for my full name "Lynsey Nicole Harrison," which only brought up one result:

http://www.facebook.com/lynsey.nicole

This is my personal Facebook profile. Most of my information is private, so people who search for me can only see my current profile picture and who my friends are. These are the settings I have chosen because I feel that they allow people who know me to find me, but keep creepy people from knowing too much about me.

The main "handle" that I use is "littllyns."When I searched for that, the main entry that related to me was the following:

http://www.sheldoncomics.com/users/littllyns/

This is a link to some stats about how much I have posted on the forum of a web comic I enjoy. There is not any sensitive information on this page, but I might delete it just because I do not use it often.

I think that teachers are role models for their students. I think this is true in any realm where they have contact with students. Teachers may be able to differentiate between work time and personal time, but students will always view them as teachers. This does not mean that teachers have to live perfect lives, but that they should make an effort to keep questionable personal activities private. Teachers have to judiciously decide what content will be available to students, and take responsibility for what is. If they have inappropriate content in a place where students can access it, they may have to answer for that. 

Of course, I believe that teachers legally have a right to free speech, and should not be fired for being controversial. Still, I believe that they should be sensitive to their community and think carefully about the kind of example they are setting for their students.

In the article we read for this assignment, I was most curious about the teacher who was fired because of the nude pictures that her photographer husband had taken of her. I believe that, as long as the photos were non-pornographic, they should not have been grounds for her to be fired.

I will personally choose not to allow students to see my social networking information (Facebook profile, Twitter account, blog, etc.) until they have at least graduated from high school. Even then, I would choose students that I wanted to keep in touch with, not just anyone. 

My Life as a Digital Native

Considering the fact that Marc Prensky's article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" was written about young people when I was only thirteen years old, it is not surprising that I closely identify with his idea of the modern young person: the digital native. I do not remember a time when my family did not have a personal computer that I could use. I found myself laughing out loud at some of his descriptions of the tendencies of the digital immigrant; the idea of digital immigrants "printing out . . . email " had me in stitches! I could probably count on my hand the number of times I have ever needed to print an e-mail in my entire life. I also recognize that where digital immigrants may be "turning to the Internet for information second rather than first," I almost always look things up online before turning to a print source. For me, it is just faster. I was recently remarking to my mother about how much I use the Internet as a resource for information; there are many kinds of information that I would not know where to find without the Internet. 


The major point on which my personal experience differs from Prensky's description would have to be that "today's average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games." As someone who spent much of my childhood reading, and who received my Bachelor of Arts in English, I have definitely spent a lot more time reading than playing video games. I enjoy playing video games quite a bit, but reading has held a more important place in my life.


My high school had very limited access to advanced technology. I do not remember ever using anything more advanced than an InFocus projector to watch movies in Wellness. Most of the computers in the classrooms were more than five years old. Once I got to college, almost all of my classrooms had modern computers and InFocus projectors available, and a few even had document cameras and SMART boards. The increased availability of technology in my college classrooms made it easier for my teachers to access information and resources that engage students. I think the ability to use film clips from the Internet has been the most helpful for me, because videos convey information visually and aurally, which is meets my learning needs well..


I do not feel that the articles that we read for this assignment specifically changed my mind about how I would use technology in the classroom. If technology is available to me in my classroom, I will make use of it as much as possible to engage my students. I plan on using film clips and other mediums to engage them in their different learning styles and to address their unique needs as digital natives.

Me: An Introduction

My name is Lynsey Harrison and I am currently pursuing my Master of Arts in Teaching at Concordia University in Portland. I got my Bachelor of Arts in English from Willamette University and am going to be endorsed to teach both Language Arts and Speech.




I love dogs, but, in particular, I love my Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppy, Penny:



She's a total sweetheart!