Another case for the “cyber-space cop” has been reported by Bridie Smith in the Age Newspaper. This time on 15 March 2007, on page 3 under the heading “Parents under fire for cyber-bullying”.
The Age article claims that an “anonymous blog was set up by parents upset at changes to the Essex Heights Primary School’s arts, sports and after-school programs” Searching for "Save Essex Heighs Primary School" I have come across this site (http://saveehps.com/Error.html?aspxerrorpath=/2007/02/15/before-and-after-school-care.aspx on Quickblog - with an error message, obviously the site was closed down soon after (or before) the article appeared in the newspaper. .
According to the article “A sustained campaign of cyber-bullying by parents at a Mount Waverly primary school has forced the principal to take extended leave because of the relentless harassment”. Jim Watterston, Education Department eastern region Manager is quoted as saying “It’s quite bizarre that it’s been done in such a public way”. I agree with the statements made in the article by the Victorian Principals Association president Fred Ackeman about the blogsite “a landmark of the worst kind. This is making judgements in the public domain ….you can’t go any more public than this…” He obviously believes that many people in the school community will be “blog” readers.
What I find particularly interesting is that no where in the article is anyone – journalist or quoted experts – prepared to offer a “solution” to the problem of cyber-bullying.
The headline states that “Parents are under fire”, the journalist states that “Some parents have described the outcome as a victory for the people” so my question is who is putting the “Parents under fire”? Another case for the “cyber-space cop”??
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
The bully you can't see
Many of you will have read in the Age Newspaper on Saturday, March 2007 (page 6 of the “Insight” section) an article written by Farrah Yomazin and Bridie Smith with the title “The bully you can't see…..”. In the article they make some very interesting statements about cyber-bullying. They classify cyber bullying as “bullying that has “gone techno” – from abusive text message and emails to degrading digital photographs, mobile phone videos and teasing or humiliation within the virtual walls of an internet chatroom” In the article they quote adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg (I haven’t tried to find out who he is or if he actually exists) as saying that cyber-bullying is “probably the most important, unaddressed public health issue facing young people today” (They don't state what is the most important addressed issue). However, the survey figures quoted are alarming “A 2004 survey of 13,000 girls aged 12 to 15 by the National Coalition Against Bullying and teen magazine Girlfriend found that 42 per cent of those surveyed reported being intimidated or denigrated online or by text messaging. Such is the extent of the problem that Victoria Police has just appointed the state’s first “cyber-space cop” to track down online perpetrators”. (I can’t find any reference to this cop on the Victorian Police Website but they do produce a booklet titled “Who’s chatting to your kids” http://www.police.vic.gov.au/content.asp?Document_ID=1250)
So if this “cyber-space cop” can’t fix the “problem” of cyber bullying quickly what can we mere mortals do before we push even more social software into the classroom?
If you work in a private school or a private RTO you could just ban the students from using social software like many schools are attempting to do, but as the Age article points out “When poor MLC decided it was going to ban MySpace, within three days there were 16 websites that you go to which would give you software to usurp the school’s (computer) filter” Although, I haven’t been able to find any specific reference to it on the Victorian Department of Education website http://www.education.vic.gov.au/students/default.htm (but they do have information on bullying in general) the Age article goes on to state that “Last month the Government announced that its 1600 state school would have access to video-sharing websites such as YouTube and MySpace blocked in an attempt to stamp out the growing problems of cyber-bullying. The move relies on a filtering system to pick up key words and sequences” Let’s hope they have more success than MLC.
If you are serious about tackling cyber bullying I suggest you start by looking at the Australian Government Net Alert website: http://www.netalert.net.au/03711-CyberSafe-Schools.asp on it you will find numerous tips and PD ideas. You can even sign up for their newsletter.
Netsafe, is the website of the internet safety group in New Zealand http://www.netsafe.org.nz/home/home_default.aspx and also has many publications that can be downloaded. The 2006 International conference held in Wellington produced some very interesting papers that can be freely downloaded.
This is a particularly interesting blog site http://www.blogsafety.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1100000006 which introduces itself as
“Welcome to the BlogSafety.com forum, where parents, teens, educators, and experts discuss and learn about safe blogging and social networking. You might call this social networking about the social networks!”
This site needs further research – maybe a topic for a future blog.
So if this “cyber-space cop” can’t fix the “problem” of cyber bullying quickly what can we mere mortals do before we push even more social software into the classroom?
If you work in a private school or a private RTO you could just ban the students from using social software like many schools are attempting to do, but as the Age article points out “When poor MLC decided it was going to ban MySpace, within three days there were 16 websites that you go to which would give you software to usurp the school’s (computer) filter” Although, I haven’t been able to find any specific reference to it on the Victorian Department of Education website http://www.education.vic.gov.au/students/default.htm (but they do have information on bullying in general) the Age article goes on to state that “Last month the Government announced that its 1600 state school would have access to video-sharing websites such as YouTube and MySpace blocked in an attempt to stamp out the growing problems of cyber-bullying. The move relies on a filtering system to pick up key words and sequences” Let’s hope they have more success than MLC.
If you are serious about tackling cyber bullying I suggest you start by looking at the Australian Government Net Alert website: http://www.netalert.net.au/03711-CyberSafe-Schools.asp on it you will find numerous tips and PD ideas. You can even sign up for their newsletter.
Netsafe, is the website of the internet safety group in New Zealand http://www.netsafe.org.nz/home/home_default.aspx and also has many publications that can be downloaded. The 2006 International conference held in Wellington produced some very interesting papers that can be freely downloaded.
This is a particularly interesting blog site http://www.blogsafety.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1100000006 which introduces itself as
“Welcome to the BlogSafety.com forum, where parents, teens, educators, and experts discuss and learn about safe blogging and social networking. You might call this social networking about the social networks!”
This site needs further research – maybe a topic for a future blog.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Web2.0 and the middle aged woman (more about me!)
I am from the generation when kids were sent home from school in the middle of the day so they could watch “The first man on the moon” on our scratchy old black and white TV’s. The school only had one TV, situated in the “TV room” and to where us kids were herded in every so often to sit silently in front of the Channel 2 test pattern before being subjected to a flickering “ABC for schools” program. My daughters who are 7, 5 and 5 just love hearing that story - before they even started school they could “drive” the remote control for the video and DVD player and were proficient with a computer mouse (thanks to the ABC website). Now my 7 year old who is in Grade 2 at our local primary school uses Google to do her homework (I don’t think she has her own blog yet or using any other form of social software but I will quiz her on it tomorrow!)
Apart from the introduction of colour television to Australia and watching the "Jetsons" on TV technology just passed by me for many years. We were still using printed logarithm tables up to year 11 but could use a very expensive and enormous calculator in year 12 for basic calculations.
At Deakin University in the late 1970’s Science students were required to do a subject called “Statistic and Computer Concepts” – at the time I could some value in the statistics section but computers – what a waste of time!! These were the days pre personal computers – surely no ordinary person would find the use for a computer, they were noisy, unpredictable machines that required their own room and you needed to understand binary numbers before you could use them! All I remember of this subject is being told how to program in BASIC by a lecturer writing down lots of unfamiliar notation on a blackboard (with chalk!). Completing the assessment was a nightmare with 100+ students trying to get some time on the 20 or so terminals, I recall lots of plagiarism with the few “computer nerds” happy to supply the answers for extra computer time!
Although I did science and maths methods at Melb Uni during my Dip Ed year in 1982, I can’t recall any reference at all to computers in the classroom.
I can remember living in a share house in the early 80’s and we had a video player but can’t remember us actually watching anything on it – were there video hire outlets then? When I began teaching (at a secondary school) in 1983 we were still handwriting handouts and using the very messy carbon printing or more often just writing a blackboard (with chalk!) full of notes for the students to copy down.
I had a 7 year break from teaching but by 1992 I was back and using a Commodore64 (sharing a house with a journalist) and had learnt to use Word perfect (well sort of) – WOW my teaching handouts looked great, I could make changes to the originals and then photocopy them at work. We got a PC in our staffroom in 1995 to share among 10 staff but there was no problem in getting access to it – I think I was the only one “brave” enough to turn it on, we were given no PD in how to use it – it was basically just sink or swim.
Things moved quickly from there, I had a work email and a home email address by 1996, was a net surfer and confident with using Word to produce and store documents. Returning to my TAFE after maternity leave in 2001 I was thrown into the deep end and began teaching online (using WEBCT).
Which is what brings me here – online teaching and learning has not been well accepted by the staff (that will be a topic for another blog) or students (another blog!). Over the past 6 years online teaching and learning (via WEBCT) has gone through a variety of guises with a variety of departments taking on the cause before there is an administration restructure and it moves on to being someone else’s responsibility. In the past I have been timetabled for an online class only to be told a week before that it is to be delivered face to face, with no real explanation given. I am unaware of any staff currently using any other forms of social software to deliver or assess units. Lots for me to learn and many to convert.
Apart from the introduction of colour television to Australia and watching the "Jetsons" on TV technology just passed by me for many years. We were still using printed logarithm tables up to year 11 but could use a very expensive and enormous calculator in year 12 for basic calculations.
At Deakin University in the late 1970’s Science students were required to do a subject called “Statistic and Computer Concepts” – at the time I could some value in the statistics section but computers – what a waste of time!! These were the days pre personal computers – surely no ordinary person would find the use for a computer, they were noisy, unpredictable machines that required their own room and you needed to understand binary numbers before you could use them! All I remember of this subject is being told how to program in BASIC by a lecturer writing down lots of unfamiliar notation on a blackboard (with chalk!). Completing the assessment was a nightmare with 100+ students trying to get some time on the 20 or so terminals, I recall lots of plagiarism with the few “computer nerds” happy to supply the answers for extra computer time!
Although I did science and maths methods at Melb Uni during my Dip Ed year in 1982, I can’t recall any reference at all to computers in the classroom.
I can remember living in a share house in the early 80’s and we had a video player but can’t remember us actually watching anything on it – were there video hire outlets then? When I began teaching (at a secondary school) in 1983 we were still handwriting handouts and using the very messy carbon printing or more often just writing a blackboard (with chalk!) full of notes for the students to copy down.
I had a 7 year break from teaching but by 1992 I was back and using a Commodore64 (sharing a house with a journalist) and had learnt to use Word perfect (well sort of) – WOW my teaching handouts looked great, I could make changes to the originals and then photocopy them at work. We got a PC in our staffroom in 1995 to share among 10 staff but there was no problem in getting access to it – I think I was the only one “brave” enough to turn it on, we were given no PD in how to use it – it was basically just sink or swim.
Things moved quickly from there, I had a work email and a home email address by 1996, was a net surfer and confident with using Word to produce and store documents. Returning to my TAFE after maternity leave in 2001 I was thrown into the deep end and began teaching online (using WEBCT).
Which is what brings me here – online teaching and learning has not been well accepted by the staff (that will be a topic for another blog) or students (another blog!). Over the past 6 years online teaching and learning (via WEBCT) has gone through a variety of guises with a variety of departments taking on the cause before there is an administration restructure and it moves on to being someone else’s responsibility. In the past I have been timetabled for an online class only to be told a week before that it is to be delivered face to face, with no real explanation given. I am unaware of any staff currently using any other forms of social software to deliver or assess units. Lots for me to learn and many to convert.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
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