Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Beware of Terror in the Classroom

Many adults, based on their own perceptions of traditional, face-to-face bullying, may not recognize cyberbullying as a real threat. We must education ourselves to be aware of the 21st century terror in the classroom, cyberbullying.

What is Cyberbullying?

Bill Belsey, President of Bullying.org Canada says, "Cyberbullying involves the use of information and communication technologies such as e-mail, cell phone and pager text messages, instant messaging, defamatory personal Web sites, and defamatory online personal polling Web sites, to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group that is intended to harm others".

Nancy Willard, author of "An Educators Guide to Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats" breaks down cyberbullying into the following categories:

  • Flaming. Online fights using electronic messages with angry or vulgar language.
  • Harassment. Repeatedly sending nasty, mean, an insulting messages.
  • Denigration. "Dissing" someone online. Sending or posting gossip or rumors about a person to damage his or her reputation or friendships.
  • Impersonation. Pretending to be someone else and sending or posting material to get that person in trouble or damage their reputation.
  • Outing. Sharing someone's secrets or embarrassing information or images online.
  • Trickery. Tricking someone into revealing secrets or embarrassing information and then sharing it online.
  • Exclusion. Intentionally and cruelly excluding someone.
  • Cyberstalking. Repeated, intense harassment that includes threats or creates extreme fear.
For more information, view: www.bullying.org and www.stopcyberbullying.org/

1 comment:

Simplicity said...

Its a shame that students are using their tech tools to terrorize other students. I will be sure to increase my awareness of these activities in my school so that I can take action against them. Thank you for this information.