ED 205 Comment #3

I commented on "cyber bullying" here : http://edtech-mi.blogspot.com/2009/03/cyber-bullying.html

If the comment isn't approved, this is what I wrote:

I first would like to say thanks for bringing this topic up; you're right there are TONS of children that are being bullied in our schools. Bullying used to just take place at schools, now with the evolution of so many networking sites such as myspace, facebook, bebo, etc bullying has taken a whole new meaning. I remember about 2 years ago in Florida, there was a girl who committed suicide because people she was being bullied by other students for her school that were “friends” on myspace. Students would leave rude and nasty comments about her weight on her page so when she got home she would log onto myspace and the comments would be waiting for her. This went on for quite a while and no one step in to help her and no one notified a parent or educator. What a unfortunate situation that young girl was put through. By the time anyone (someone of authority) found out about this and what was happening, it was too late. As parents and educator, we have to teach our students how to use things such as networking sites as a tool to enhance educational skills and not use them as devices to discourage others. I'm currently taking a Computers in Technology course and this is just one of the issues we discussed. Now as a group we feel that networking sites really don't have a place in the classroom, but because so many students that participate on these sites, we might as well attempt to integrate them in our curriculum. I personally feel facebook has more advantages over a myspace or bebo, but no matter how you look at it they are all sites that can potentially be dangerous if we do not teach students how to use them properly. Hopefully more and more people catch onto this and what is happening within our schools. In order for this to work it will take a collective effort between educator, parents, and our students.