esr507+-+introduction

Recent technological advances that have made communication devices convenient, inexpensive, and readily available have become part of everyday life for many people. Teenagers, with their affinity for the latest technology, are especially drawn to the newest media innovations. However, it is these new communication devices that have enabled a modern and more destructive form of bullying today. Bill Belsey, a Canadian researcher who created the website [|www.cyberbullying.org] defines this modern way of bullying: “Cyberbullying involves the use of information and communication technologies such as e-mail, cell phone and pager text messages, instant messaging, 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.” Girls especially, are using cyberbullying as a common and relatively easy way to harass their victims. Technology has given female bullies the tools to make attacking their victims instantaneous, constant, and far reaching. The widespread use of instant messaging and profile sites such as MySpace and FaceBook has enabled girls to post rumors, innuendos, and accusations that can be spread to countless others with the click of a mouse button. In addition to verbal attacks, unflattering and manipulated pictures can be posted to these web sites in order to ridicule the victim. Within minutes, comments and pictures are forwarded again and again to a virtually unlimited number of people. Some technologies also make it possible to assume the identity of others, further clouding the true identity of the perpetrator. Victims of cyberbullying can have no idea of the actual number of people that read the messages about them or who enabled the proliferation of the rumors by simply forwarding them on. As a result, cyberbullying is worse than face-to-face bullying. The victim cannot be sure who her real friends are. The anonymity of screen names and the ability of the forwarder to hide the list of recipients contributes to the feelings of invincibility for the bully and/or enabler. It is much easier to write nasty remarks and hurtful rumors on a computer or cell phone than it is to say these hurtful rumors directly to someone’s face. Cyberbullies may feel they will not get caught because of the anonymity gained from the use of technology, and therefore the abuse is likely to escalate. And unlike a victim of a playground bully who can find safety at home, victims of cyberbullying must endure the pain and humiliation even in their own home as the computer or cell phone becomes a portal for the constant degradation. For our qualitative research project, we researched the question of why some adolescents feel it is acceptable to enable bullying of others by disseminating mean or hurtful information for our qualitative research project. After interviewing girls between the ages of 12 and 18, we found a common thread of a lack of feeling any responsibility by those that enabled the bullying. These girls felt that once the information was “out there” (either on MySpace or instant messaging), they were not doing any harm by forwarding the hurtful messages, because the information was then already available. Since they were not the original authors of these negative and nasty comments, the enablers felt that they were not to blame for the cyberbullying. For this quantitative study, we would like to try to determine at what age girls develop this attitude of a lack of responsibility for their actions on-line so that we might identify at which ages intervention might be most effective. =Rationale= Erica

I am in my second year as a technology teacher in a Junior High School in a fairly affluent Western Suburb of Chicago. My transition to public education began as I worked as an adult educator for two proprietary educational institutions for several years. Prior to entering education, I spent 20 years as a systems security professional and systems consultant for a number of different Fortune 500 companies. I have two children, an 11-year-old boy (6th grade) and an 8-year-old girl (2nd grade). I have a particular interest in the role of technology in cyber bullying for a number of reasons. I was bullied as a junior high school student and I have witnessed bullying in the lives of both my own children and those that I teach. Based on personal observation, I believe that technology has led to an increase in bullying and a decrease in detection, and I would like to conduct some research to see if my inclination is correct.

Patrick

I am in my first year as a high school science teacher. My background includes more than 20 years in the military as a pilot in the Marines and Air Force. In ESR 506, we learned that those who start, or continue, a cyberbully type message do not feel as accountable as those who address their problems directly and in person. With miles of cyberspace between themselves and their victims, they feel protected from physical retribution. My students are all either 16 or 17 years old, and they communicate constantly via instant messaging and myspace. Many of them have been involved in cyberbullying. Additionally, I have an eleven year old daughter who is just now getting into communication via electronic means. I hope to compare the attitudes towards, and uses of, electronic communications of girls my daughter’s age and girls my student’s age to learn what differences exist.

Kim I am near the end of my M.A.T. program and will be student teaching a first grade class in the fall. I have three children, including two middle school daughters. I am very involved as a PTC President at my son’s elementary school, and a former Girl Scout leader. This topic is of interest to me because I was shocked and disheartened this past Winter Break when my daughter asked me to read a posting on AIM that one of my former scouts (12 years old) had written about a classmate. The nastiness and utter disdain of the comments were impossible to miss. I can only imagine what deep hurt and damage this bullying caused the victim. I am hoping that through our research we will uncover ways for teachers and parents to help stop the rising number of girls that are becoming bullies or victims of cyberbullying. = = =Hypothesis= We believe that the results from our research project will show that the older the teenage girl, the more likely they will be to facilitate cyberbullying by disseminating mean or hurtful information. Reasons for our hypothesis include a number of factors. Although teens should be maturing and becoming more compassionate as they gain life experiences, they are also more likely to become more susceptible to peer influence and the desire for peer acceptance. The age-old battle for the strong to continually keep down the weak to retain their social status may also come into play. Secondly, like any tool, the more one uses it, the more comfortable they become with that technology. As teen girls get older, more and more of their peers have access to and use instant messaging and profiles as an intricate part of their social interactions. Third is the lack of parental supervision of the teens technology use as they grow up. In our previous project, we explored the technological gap between teens and their parents, and how this affected the increasing prevalence of cyberbullying. While teens see computer use as a necessary requirement for their social livelihood, parents see computers and cell phones as tools. Many parents also feel that as long as their children are at home (even if they are on the computer in the privacy of their own rooms), they cannot be getting into trouble. All of these factors point to a generation of teen girls that have convinced themselves of a lack of accountability for their actions as they mature into young adults.