Understanding Cyberbullying - Virtual vs. Physical Worlds
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Level: Grades 7 and 8
Duration: One hour per activity
Overview
In this three-hour lesson, students explore the concept of cyberbullying and learn how the attributes associated with online communication may fuel inappropriate or bullying behaviour. Connections between other contributing factors to bullying-online and offline-are also reinforced as students develop an understanding of the role played by bystanders and the ways in which our own responses may fuel or stop this kind of behaviour. As a class, students will establish a class “code of (N)ethics” for online conduct.
Learning Outcomes
Students will demonstrate:
- understanding of how online communication differs from face-to-face conversation
- awareness of how the distinct attributes of online communication may contribute to inappropriate or bullying behaviour
- recognition of cyberbullying behaviour
- understanding of the crucial role played by bystanders, including themselves, in fuelling or stopping bullying behaviour-online and offline
- awareness of the impact of cyberbullying on targeted individuals
- knowledge of appropriate action to take when cyberbullying occurs
- awareness of rules for “good Netizenship”
Preparation and Materials
Preamble
Generally, students perceive school as an environment that is separate and distinct from their home environment-a perception that can act as a barrier to the transfer and application of knowledge. In the case of cyberbullying, which often occurs in the home, this is a critical issue: what is the point of developing techniques at school if students do not apply them at home? In response to this problem, the activities in this lesson have been designed to bridge both environments by encouraging students to picture themselves in their home and personal virtual spaces.
Procedure
Activity One: Perceptual Benchmarks
This first activity introduces the concept of cyberbullying by encouraging students to consider the differences between direct, face-to-face communication and communication using technology. It also encourages them to consider how these distinctions might contribute to bullying behaviour.
Before beginning this class, write the following quote on the board:
When people use technology, there is a lack of tangible feedback
about the consequences of actions on others.
-Nancy Willard, 2000
Class Discussion
Explain that you are going to be looking at cyberbullying. Ask students whether they can tell you what cyberbullying is. Record the main points on the board.
Ask students the following questions:
- Does anyone here use the Internet to communicate with people?
- How do you usually do this? (Examples may include using chat rooms, instant messaging, and social networking sites such as Facebook.)
- When you are communicating online, do you “chat” only with people you know offline? (If students have friends they chat with whom they know only on the Internet, ask them to write their names on a sheet of paper.)
- Do you ever try to picture these friends in your mind?
- Have you ever been surprised at how they have reacted to comments that you’ve made during an online conversation? (Instruct students to write their responses next to their virtual friends’ names on the sheet of paper.)
- What caused this miscommunication? (Have students record their responses to this question as well.)
- Has this ever happened while you have been chatting online with friends who you know from school?
Review the quote by Nancy Willard with students. Ask them:
- What is she saying in this quote?
- What kind of “tangible feedback” do you get in a face-to-face conversation that you don’t get when you’re talking to someone online?
- Have you ever accidentally said something online that offended someone?
- Have you made a comment meaning to be funny, and had it backfire?
Explain that if we had to put a general label on the challenge outlined in Nancy Willard’s quote, it would be “You Can’t See Them.” Not being able to see the person you are talking to is one aspect of using technology to communicate.
A second quote draws attention to another issue. Write this sentence on the board:
On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.
(If you wish to make an overhead, a copy of the cartoon from which this quote is taken can be found at www.cartoonbank.com/item/22230.)
Ask students:
- What is the meaning of this quote?
- How would we label this aspect of using technology to communicate? (They Can’t See You.)
- Are there times when not being seen by the person you’re talking to might be a good thing?
Group Exercise
Divide the class into small groups and ask students to do the following:
- Think about these two aspects of communicating using technology like the Internet: “You Can’t See Them” and “They Can’t See You.” List all of your ideas about positive and negative things that relate to each of these. Provide, where possible, concrete examples from your own online experiences.
- Indicate whether each point on your list is positive (+) or negative (-).
Once students have discussed and recorded their responses, ask a member of the group to share the group’s responses with the class. As students do this, record their thoughts and examples on the board, grouping them in a similar manner to that shown in the diagram below.
Have students consider the more negative implications. Ask them what can be done to avoid the negative side of online communication.
Encourage students to find concrete and positive ways to address the lack of visual and auditory benchmarks by developing a series of guidelines or rules. (For example, relating to “They Can’t See You”, students might suggest avoiding being aggressive or threatening toward others — i.e., do not send anonymous messages; before sending an angry message, sleep on it.)
For “You Can’t See Them,” encourage students to apply empathy in their online interactions and to anticipate the impact of what they say or do on the person they are communicating with. Would they like to receive a similar message or be treated in the same way?
Record the rules students have developed. This will form the basis for a class code of (N)ethics which they can build upon as they go through various activities in this lesson.
“Think Before You Click” Self-Test
To teach students to quickly decide whether something they are about to do online is a good or a bad idea, ask each student to:
- Think of two people:
- someone famous he or she admires for his or her courage, and
- an adult in her or his life who is trusted and respected.
- Record these two names in a specific place in their agenda. Explain that as of today, these two people will be their “virtual conscience.” Every time they intend to do something online which they’re not sure is right, they will ask themselves: “What would these people think about this?”
Activity Two: Bystanders Taking Action
As we saw in the first activity, everyone makes mistakes, and anyone can sometimes behave in an inappropriate manner online by impulsively saying things that are rude or hurtful-this is called flaming. But flaming is different from cyberbullying, which is based on power relationships and involves someone using the Internet or a cell phone to intimidate and harass others on purpose.
Role-Playing
For this activity, ask for two student volunteers, one to play the role of a perpetrator and the other to act as the perpetrator’s target. The rest of the class will assume the role of bystanders who are at their home computer instant messaging their friends.
Have the student volunteers act out the following scenario (or something like it):
Perpetrator: “What’s up with the T-shirt? Did you find it at the dump?”
Target: “No! I happen to like this T-shirt. It’s sick!”
The target sits at the front of the class reading a book, while the “bully” goes home (to his or her desk), turns on an imaginary computer and writes a message on a piece of paper which is then passed to a member of the class who is sitting nearby. The message says “(Name of target) is so lame! Pass it on!” (Arrange to have the first receiver of the message in on the scenario, so that she or he can set the scene by silently reading the message and then smirking while passing it on to another student. If a student chooses not to pass the message on, have the student who passed it to him/her give it to someone else. Repeat this process until the message has been passed to all the students.)
Class Discussion
Once the message has gone around the class, ask students the following questions:
- How many people were involved in this incident? (The point to be made is that this incident was not just between two people: the whole class was involved. This exercise is intended to dramatically introduce the idea of bystanders’ responsibility.)
- How did bystanders react? (Reactions might include laughing, obeying the perpetrator by passing on the message, and making comments.)
- How else could bystanders have reacted?
- Did anyone refuse to pass on the message? Did anyone consider not passing it on? Why might classmates pass it on even if they don’t think it’s a nice thing to do?
- What effects can cyberbullying have on people who are targeted? (All bullying has negative consequences. Answers might include increased anxiety, embarrassment, not wanting to go to school, not wanting to use the computer, stress, sadness, withdrawal, and inability to concentrate or enjoy activities.)
- Which do you think is more hurtful: someone saying something mean about a person, or someone forwarding a cruel message to people online? (Both are extremely hurtful, but once something has been sent online, there is no taking it back. Unlike a verbal message, a written message is permanent and can reach many more people, making it more powerful.)
Explain that whether bystanders receive mean-spirited instant messages about someone on their home computer or watch a yelling match in a schoolyard, they have a lot of power when it comes to encouraging or stopping bullying behaviour.
Display the Students Speak Out Against Cyberbullying overhead, and share the following two real-life examples with students:
- In September 2007, at a high school in Cambridge, Nova Scotia, a new Grade 9 student was bullied because he wore a pink polo shirt on the first day of school. When two Grade 12 students heard what had happened, they decided to do something about it. They went to a discount store, bought 50 pink T-shirts, and e-mailed their classmates requesting them to wear one of the T-shirts in support of the Grade 9 student.
Word got around, and instead of just fifty students, hundreds showed up the next day wearing pink clothes. When the bullied student arrived at school, he was surrounded by a sea of pink. According to students, there “hasn’t been a peep” from the bullies since then, and the two Grade 12 students who decided to take a stand-David Shepherd and Travis Price-have been getting calls and e-mails from around the world and have inspired “pink days” at other schools.
- A few years ago in Manitoba, when a student posted an online poll asking other students to vote on the “ugliest kid” at their school, students stopped the poll from going forward. They responded instead with a slew of messages condemning the poll as “hurtful and mean,” and asking how the student who set it up would feel if his name appeared on it.
Ask students whether they have any other positive stories to share. After discussion, have them add rules for bystanders to the class code of (N)ethics.
Activity Three: Am I an Active or a Passive Target?
During this activity, students assume the roles of targets to learn the impact of cyberbullying first-hand. The purpose of the activity is to help them develop psychological resistance strategies, by distinguishing between two possible responses to cyberbullying.
Class Discussion
Point out to students that you have been referring to victims of bullying as “targets,” not “victims.” Ask them why you might have made this distinction. (The term target is used because the word “victim” implies powerlessness and passivity, whereas the term “target” does not imply anything about that person’s ability to respond. Individuals who are targeted by bullies can, with support, take action.)
Tell students that a passive response (where the victim deletes or ignores an aggressive message) is an attempt-usually unsuccessful-to avoid cyberbullying by hoping it will just “go away.” An active response, on the other hand, tackles the situation in a way that may be more successful in leading toward a more socially acceptable and definitive resolution.
Instruct students to form small groups. Allocate each group as either “anonymous” or “non-anonymous.”
Once the groups have been struck and allocated, have students return to their seats to work independently on the first part of the exercise.
When students are seated, take them through the following visualization exercise:
Picture yourselves going home after school. Think of the streets, the sidewalks, the trees that you pass. Picture yourself coming through the front door, grabbing a snack and sitting down at your computer. When you log on to your favourite chat room, this conversation thread, which is about you, is on your screen (display overhead).
Tell students in the “anonymous” groups that they don’t know who sent the message. Tell students in the “non-anonymous” groups that the message is signed by another student at their school.
Distribute the handout If I Am a Target of Cyberbullying and instruct students to circle the emoticon that would most closely illustrate their frame of mind.
Ask the following questions:
- What would you do then? (Answers might include turn off the computer, delete the message, talk to a family member or someone else who is at home, or phone a friend to talk about it.)
- The next day at school, what would you do? How would you feel?
In small groups, have students write all their ideas and reactions in the first two columns of the handout-even if they don’t appear to be the “best” way to respond.
Pooling of Views
Ask for a student volunteer to record group responses on the board.
(The main difference between the “anonymous” and “non-anonymous” groups will most likely be the target’s counterattack where the perpetrator is known.)
Ask students the following:
- Did you react differently based on whether or not the message was anonymous? Why might we respond differently? (Point out that although the message appears to be “anonymous”, it is possible for Internet service providers to find out who sent it by using the IP address of the source computer if necessary.)
- If you ignore cyberbullying, do you think it might just go away? Why or why not?
Ask students to share their responses to the cyberbullying scenario. For each response recorded on the board, ask students to decide whether this is consistent with an active or passive target, filling in the last column of the table in the handout.
Present the following information to the class:
Key point: Anyone can, at any given time, become a target-you are not responsible for this; you can’t please everyone. But this situation must never be tolerated: you must react to bullying in a proactive way-one that will lead to a resolution. In other words, to resolve the cyberbullying situation, you need to address it, but not get involved in further exchanges with the bully because that may escalate the situation.
Generally, a four-step STOP process is recommended to actively deal with and stop bullying. Review the following with students:
- STOP- immediately leave the online environment or activity where bullying is going on.
- BLOCK e-mails or instant messages received from bullies. NEVER RESPOND.
- RECORD all harassing messages and send them to your Internet provider (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.). Most providers have policies about users harassing people on their server.
- TALK to a trusted adult about the cyberbullying; alert the police when bullying involves physical threats.
Closure
Ask students:
- Who are the people you could talk to about cyberbullying?
- Would the same process work for physical bullying?
Review with students the class code of (N)ethics they have developed during the course of this lesson. See if there is anything they would like to add.
Extension Activity
If there are younger students at your school or at a school nearby, have groups of students develop presentations for younger grades on ethical online behaviour and how to deal with cyberbullying.
