Criminals are glad we feel that way. They enjoy sending us e-mail spam, and running phishing scams. Phishing (pronounced “fishing”) is a dishonest technique criminals use to trick computer users into giving out their passwords, bank account numbers, and other personal information. Phishers pose as institutions most users trust: banks, service providers like AOL, and even the IRS. Most users recognize a phishing attack and ignore it. I’m sure you know not to give your bank account numbers to a Nigerian prince who promises to split his fortune with you. If PayPal or the IRS sends you an e-mail without using your name or account number and misspells words, you know it’s a criminal phishing for your credit card number or password.

The phishers, like our digital technology, are evolving. Our school network security can alert us to suspicious sites or block them altogether. Our e-mail spam filters can catch suspicious e-mails and shady offers. However, a new kind of phishing has arrived: tabnapping.

Tabnapping. Aza Raskin wrote in his blog this week about tabnapping, which is a phishing technique that disguises your already open browser tabs to look like trustworthy sites. Here’s how it works: you have several browser tabs open and you’ve navigated away from an innocent-looking site to a different browser tab. The innocent-looking site is really a phishing site and its creators have programmed the site to recognize when you’re using another tab, but have left this innocent-looking tab open. With me so far?

While your attention is focused on CNN’s headlines or on Twitter, the phisher has poked around your CSS history and quietly changed its browser tab to a page you’d trust. The new phishing page might wear the disguise of your bank account login screen and pretend that you’ve been logged out. It could look like Gmail and invite you to login to check your messages. However, look closely. The favicon (icon next to the web address) might be that of your bank, but the URL is not. The browser tab might read Gmail, but the URL isn’t from Google. You’ve been tabnapped.

For a safe illustration of tabnapping, visit Raskin’s blog post and scroll down to the video. Watch the video and then click another browser tab. Watch Raskin’s browser tab for a few seconds and see it change to that of Gmail. Notice how the site’s heading and browser tab match Gmail’s. You might even see Gmail’s favicon. Look for the web address. It should be Raskin’s. If you click anywhere on the page, you’ll return to Raskin’s blog. He’s not phishing, he’s giving you a heads up.

What can you do? Eventually browsers and Internet security software will adapt to this new phishing technique. I plan to open a fresh browser tab every time I login to anything: the schools’ online grading software, my web-based e-mail, and my bank account. If a login screen is sitting innocently in a browser tab, I’m going to close it, even if I suspect I’d opened it earlier. Every time I log off a site like my electronic medical records or even my Facebook account, I plan to close the browser tab. It’s a pretty low-tech solution to a high-tech problem, but it’s better than giving out my school e-mail account to strangers or allowing phishers access to my bank account.

What do you think? What will you tell your students about this new online phishing tactic? How can you make sure that your information and that of your family, including your teen daughter, is protected? IT professionals: I invite you to weigh in on this topic, too!

Now as a parent, I race my daughter to the bathroom in the morning and I feel around her pillow at night for the contraband cell phone.

Cell phones. The fact is, kids are wired. I’m not talking junk food and Red Bull. In their dramatic teen way, 85 percent of our secondary students have a cell phone and they insist they’d just die without it. It’s their social outlet and nearly half of the kids in our school hallways say they their cell phone is the key to their social life.

And teens love to text and spend about 90 minutes a day doing it, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation Study. They love it because it’s fast (42%), it’s stealthy (33%), and it’s fun (29%). (Harris Interactive, 2008) The problem is that over half of your students are doing it at school (65%). What’s worse is that a third of your class has used a cell phone at least once to cheat on a test (35%), yet they really don’t think it’s cheating (23%). (Common Sense Media, 2009)

Despite the trouble with cell phones, few recommend that students not have them. Teens report that they carry their phones everywhere with them not just to communicate, but for safety reasons (78%). They call someone for a ride (79%), call to help a friend who is in trouble (33%), and call for an emergency (18%). Cell phones are both a blessing and a curse. (Harris Interactive, 2008)

Social Networking. Social networking and cell phones are a closely tied. One-third of the nation’s secondary students have a smartphone that can browse the Web. When they’re on the ‘net, almost half of them are on a social networking site. (Harris Interactive, 2008)

When they’re on the computer, it’s likely they’re on a social media site, too. Ninety-two percent of kids socialize online and over half have made new friends online. Of those who have an online social life, just 1 in 4 are friending their parents. (Norton Online Living Report, 2009)

Despite friending their kids, parents have a tough time monitoring their children’s’ Internet use. Seven in 10 parents have Internet rules and their kids say they follow these rules 80 percent of the time. Most parents think it’s their responsibility to monitor their kids’ Internet use (90%) and 70 percent of them talk about online safety with their kids. But parents struggle with this (33%) because the Internet and other digital technologies weren’t around when they were kids.

We’ve all read the stories of cyberbullying and it is certainly a problem. About 30 percent of teens have reported being the victim of some kind of cyberbullying and about half have seen it online. Most of the cyberbullies knew their targets personally (84%), but just one in three victims knew who was bullying them. Over the course of a year, almost one in five secondary students were directly involved in cyberbullying. Of those kids, twelve percent were bullies, four percent were victims, and three percent were both. (Hinduja and Patchin, 2009)

Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin, who run the Cyberbullying Research Center (http://www.cyberbullying.us), recently did a study and found that 1 out of 5 students reported contemplating suicide and about that many had actually attempted it. They write that their findings mesh with other suicide studies. When looking at bullying, they found both victims and aggressors were more likely to attempt suicide than their non-bullying peers. Victims of traditional bullying were 1.7 times more likely than their peers to attempt suicide and victims of cyberbullying were 1.9 times more likely to attempt it. Traditional bullies are 2.1 times more likely than their peers to attempt suicide and cyberbullies were 1.5 times more likely to attempt it. Although these numbers seem low and almost identical, the study authors write that any suicide attempt is one too many. (Hinduja and Patchin, 2010)

One principal’s response

In Ridgewood, N.J., middle school principal Anthony Orsini sent an e-mail to all of the students’ parents to encourage them to stop allowing their kids to be involved in social media. “It is time for every single member of the BF Community to take a stand!” Orsini wrote in the e-mail. “There is absolutely no reason for any middle school student to be a part of a social networking site.” (Brody and Coutros, 2010)

Orsini recommended that parents take action to make sure their children weren’t on social networking sites. Told parents to close out their kids’ social networking accounts, install Parental Control Software, and keep the computer in a place where parents can monitor online behavior. He said parents should monitor their teens’ text messages online and make sure that all wireless devices are left at a central docking station at bed time.

Orsini wrote that middle school students are not ready to cope with cyberbullying and its negative effects. It’s not enough, Orsini wrote, to teach a student to be responsible online. Social media is uncontrollable and unsafe.

“[…]it is not worth the risk to your child to allow them the independence at this age to manage these sites on their own, not because they are not good kids or responsible, but because you cannot control the poor actions of anonymous others,” Orsini wrote.

My opinion

Our students are digital natives, a term that means they depend on electronic devices for almost all parts of their lives. They’ve never known a world where the Internet didn’t exist. Their cell phones are always at an arm’s reach and they spend a good portion of their day online. To take away their technology is to isolate them from their friends.

And let’s face it: they can just go to a friend’s house to login. In fact, over 1 in 5 students do just that. (Norton Online Living Report, 2009)

Parents and students expect our schools to prepare kids for the 21st century. Like it or not, online social networking isn’t going away. We can either embrace it or have it run amok, unsupervised and unchecked behind our backs.

Instead of powering down, we need to empower our students. We need to have the conversation about what they should do if they witness or are the victim of online aggression. Encourage students to print out the Web page as evidence and tell an adult. Keep inviting them to tell an adult and assure them that they won’t be lose their digital access if they do. Hinduja and Patchin found that 60 percent of cyberbullying victims do not tell an adult because they’re worried they’ll lose their online access.

The just turn it off philosophy doesn’t equip students to deal with the very real consequences of their digital world. Instead of turning off the technology, we should create a contract with students and outline our expectations on the front end. We need to be having the conversation every time we take our classes into the computer lab: don’t reveal private information online; you can be legally held accountable for nasty images and text you post online; if you ever have trouble online, tell an adult you trust.

Schools have a responsibility to prepare students for the world beyond our double doors. If you’d like to teach an entire cyberbullying unit, you need some scenarios for a discussion, or you want some examples of parent letters, I recommend checking out the free, extensive curriculum that Seattle Public Schools has developed. You can view it here: http://www.seattleschools.org/area/prevention/cbms.html.

Not only do we need to educate our students about social networking and online safety, but we need to educate parents as well. Instead of just having them review and sign the Acceptable Use policy, dedicate part of the school’s open house night or parent-teacher conferences to online safety. We need them to partner with us to make their kids safe at school and at home.

Taking away the kids’ devices isn’t going to remove the problem; the problem will just go underground. I would rather have open, honest discussions about technology use than to have students find ways to circumvent adults. I would rather figure out ways to employ responsible social networking in the classroom as an engagement tool as well as a model for how the technology can be used. It’s difficult and time consuming to teach the kids about responsible social networking. However, I don’t think pulling the plug teaches anything at all.

What do you think? Is social networking interfering with your ability to teach? Are the kids so focused on texting that they can’t focus on their textbooks? Should we tell the kids to close their Facebook accounts or should we use it in the classroom?

References:
Brody, L. and Coutros, E. “Ridgewood principal to parents: Get your kids off Facebook.” NorthJersey.com, April 29, 2010 http://www.northjersey.com/news/education/042910_Ridgewood_principal_to_parents_Get_your_kids_off_Facebook.html, accessed 5-13-10.

Generation M²: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds. (2010) A Kaiser Family Foundation Study, January 2010. http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/8010.pdf, accessed 5-14-10.

A Generation Unplugged (Research Report). Harris Interactive, September 12, 2008 http://files.ctia.org/pdf/HI_TeenMobileStudy_ResearchReport.pdf, accessed 5-14-10.

Hinduja, S. and Patchin, J. (2009) Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.

Hinduja, S. and Patchin, J. (2009) “Cyberbullying Research Summary: Cyberbullying and Suicide.” Cyberbullying Research Center. http://cyberbullying.us/cyberbullying_and_suicide_research_fact_sheet.pdf, accessed 5-14-10.

Hi-Tech Cheating: Cell Phones and Cheating in School. A National Poll. (2009) Beneson Strategy Group and Common Sense Media, June 18, 2009. http://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/Hi-Tech%20Cheating%20-%20Summary%20NO%20EMBARGO%20TAGS.pdf, accessed 5-14-10.

Norton Online Living Report. (2009) Symantec Corporation. http://www.nortononlineliving.com/documents/NOLR_Report_09.pdf, accessed 5-14-10.

Teacher caring and gang violence

Eleventh grader, Dyquan Caldwell, shared his tragedy in “A Mile in My Shoes Writing Project: African-American Males Telling Their Own Stories.” According to a recent study, teenagers like Dyquan are more likely to walk to school, pass through a metal detector when entering school, have major distractions from doing school work, have fewer opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities, and sadly, more likely to report that their teachers say and do things to make students feel bad about themselves.

In the years following the Columbine tragedy in 1999, many schools installed metal detectors and security cameras, and hired security officers to combat violence in schools. Although the Columbine massacre, and several copycat incidents, happened at majority White high schools, a disproportionate amount of violence reduction strategies have been implemented at predominately Black public schools.

Today, 26% of Black students, compared to 5.4% of White students report passing through metal detectors when entering school, according to data from the National Crime Victimization Survey: School Crime Supplement (NCVS-SCS, U. S. Dept. of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009). The same survey found no race differences between Black and White students’ reported carrying a gun to school (1% for each group), nor ability to acquire a gun without adult supervision (7% for each group).

Since the 1990s, all violent crimes have sharply reduced, including serious violence at schools. Compared to 15 years ago, schools are significantly less likely to experience a homicide or other violent acts on school grounds. Notwithstanding, 42% of Black students and 43% of Latino students reported that gangs were present at their schools, compared to 18% of White students. Among Black students reporting gangs at their school, 24% report that the gangs do not act out violently. In total, 17.7% report being in schools with frequent gang violence, compared to 6% for Whites (U. S. Dept. of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009).

The public perception that violence in schools is increasing, rather than decreasing, has led to less compassion among school personnel, increased anxiety among students, and ultimately lower levels of academic achievement and satisfaction among all students, but particularly Black students. A recent analysis of the NCVS-SCS found that Black children in schools with more violent activity in general, experienced more harsh treatment from teachers and perceive more unfairness in the school. Figure 1 demonstrates that across all races, students in schools with more gang activity are more likely to report that their teachers generally care less about students.

Schools’ response to violence, can aptly be described with a statement from prominent psychologist Abraham Maslow: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you treat every problem as if it’s a nail.” Recently, CNN reported that William Modzeleski, a school security administrator for the U. S. Department of Education revealed that the Obama administration plans to create secure schools, by improving overall education, getting children more involved in their studies and strengthening school communities. These changes will coincide with a decrease in spending for metal detectors and security personnel and an increase in school counseling services (See additional information at http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/04/20/columbine.school.safety/index.html). Such strategies are consistent with progressive research, including the studies featured here.

Several school-based activities were associated with less gang activity, including: spirit groups, for example, cheerleading or pep club; performing arts, for example, band, orchestra, or drama; and academic clubs, for example, debate team, honor society, Spanish club, or math club.

Overall, the findings of the study suggest that schools should measure holistic qualities of their environment based on their: (1) Abilities to make students feel supported and respected; (2) Skill at creating forums for students to express themselves; and (3) Ability to critique students without making them feel bad about themselves. Incentives for teachers to become involved with students outside of the classroom, such as through clubs, sports and other activities, could also cultivate more cordial student-teacher relationships.

Reference
U. S. Dept. of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics (2009) National crime victimization survey: School crime supplement 2007 [Computer file]. Conducted by U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. ICPSR04429 -v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor]. ]]> http://www.insidetheschool.com/articles/breaking-barriers-ending-school-violence-improving-security-and-creating-a-culture-of-learning-in-schools/feed/ 2 http://www.insidetheschool.com/articles/five-reasons-students-don%e2%80%99t-report-cyberbullying/ http://www.insidetheschool.com/articles/five-reasons-students-don%e2%80%99t-report-cyberbullying/#comments Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:00:59 +0000 diane http://www.insidetheschool.com/?p=1304 Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying.]]> Chelsie, a vibrant freshman in third period, is no longer vibrant. Most days, she’s not even present. When she does show up to class, she often comes early and alone. Her grades have slipped. She makes up excuses in the computer lab about why she can’t go online or she pleads a stomach ache and heads for the nurse’s office. When she’s in class, Chelsie prefers to work alone and not in groups. If other students ask her to join a group, she snaps at them.

Chelsie’s change in behavior is consistent with that of a cyberbully victim, Hindjua and Patchin wrote in Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying.

Students who have problems with a cyberbully often change their behavior, avoid technology, and avoid school, the authors wrote.

“Our own research identified a link between cyberbullying victimization and adolescent problem behaviors, such as recent school difficulties, assultive conduct, substance use, and traditional bullying,” Hinduja and Patchin wrote.

Chelsie’s behavior is unusual for her, but she won’t confide in any adults, either. At parent-teacher conferences, Chelsie’s mom was concerned about her daughter’s behavior, but said that Chelsie won’t confide in her. The parent is worried about Chelsie, uneasy about her constant illnesses and absences, and upset about her grades. The mom wants to help but she thinks that Chelsie’s problem is just an adolescent phase.

It’s not just a phase. Chelsie, like 60 percent of cyberbullying victims, has chosen not to confide about her cyberbullying problem to a teacher, parent, or other adult. Why do students like Chelsie choose to suffer in silence? They have their reasons.

• Embarrassment. Chelsie is mortified that another student used a cell phone to snap a locker room photo of Chelsie. Worse, that photo has made the rounds. Chelsie’s hoping that by laying low, not socializing with anyone, staying off electronic devices, and avoiding school that the whole embarrassing incident will blow over.
• Attacks will escalate. Chelsie’s not a wimpy tattletale who runs to an adult when there’s trouble. She thinks that if she tells an adult about the cyberbullying, the attacks will only get worse.
• Adults don’t understand. Hinduja and Patchin’s cyberbullying study found that students don’t tell adults because they believe that the adults don’t know enough about the technology to help, the adults won’t do anything, or the adults will over-react. Chelsie believes her teacher wouldn’t help her, even if the teacher knew about the bullying. After all, Chelsie’s problem is a cell phone photo text message and students don’t use their phones in school. It’s really not the teacher’s problem. She doesn’t want to tell her mom because Mom will call the cyberbully’s parents and escalate the problem.
• Adults will blame the victim. Instead of working out a solution with the victim, an adult might chide the student for allowing someone access to an online account, sharing a password, or giving out a phone number. Chelsie thinks that if she told her dad about the cyberbullying, he’d give her a lecture about how she’s been irresponsible with her cell phone and private information. She’ll feel like she’s to blame for the malicious text.
• Adults will restrict digital access. Students prize their access to their electronic devices and they’re afraid that an adult’s solution to the cyberbullying problem is to remove the medium – the cell phone or computer. That kind of response punishes the victim and sends her the message that she is indeed at fault. Chelsie’s convinced that telling her parents will mean that they’ll take her cell phone away. She hates the bullying text messages, but she clings to the supportive ones her friends send her.

Better responses are to encourage students to confide in an adult about cyberbullying, explain how they can block cyberbullies cell phone and e-mail messages, and create strong passwords. Make sure that students don’t respond to bullying messages, but instead take the time to print out a hate-filled screen or save a harmful text message as a record of the bullying.

Cyberbullying isn’t a victimless crime. Teens don’t have the maturity to shrug off insults or respond appropriately to a bully. Studies have shown that students who suffer from bullying are five times more likely to be depressed than their peers. One out of ten of these bullying victims drop out of school.

When a cyberbullying victim confides in a teacher, the teacher needs to listen more than talk. Praise the student for talking about the problem. Students need to know that adults will do something about the problem and that the outlook for the bullying to stop is good.

“One of the reasons why cyberbullying is not taken seriously is that there remains a number of adults who continue to perceive traditional bullying as simply ‘a rite of passage among adolescents,’ as ‘boy being boys,’ or even as an inevitable and instructive element of growing up,” Hinduja and Patchin wrote. “However, we believe that if emotional, psychological, and potentially even physical harm stemming from online aggression can be reduced or prevented, it is definitely worth the effort.”

References:

Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J.W. (2008). Cyberbullying: an exploratory analysis of factors related to offending and victimization. Deviant Behavior. 29, 129-156.

Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J.W. (2009). Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.

For the first week of classes, I had always asked my students to sit in alphabetical order so I could learn their names. That’s how I began the class.

A big guy in a muscle shirt with a tattoo and a gold-outlined tooth interrupted me. “Miss,” Sean said. “Miss, don’t put us in alphabetical order.”

I remember using some think time. “What should I do, Sean?”

“Let me assign seats.”

Sean made me a brilliant seating chart. I was too young and too chicken to ask him, but I’m sure Sean seated one gang on the left, the other on the right, and some neutral girls down the center as a buffer zone. Thank you, Sean, for looking out for me.

Life in summer English 11 was pretty peaceful until I allowed the class to divide themselves into teams for a review game. My students were completely engaged in the game. They enjoyed any opportunity to compete and began to trash talk. You can imagine how the trash talk escalated from good-natured ribbing to real insults. The original lesson plan had called for a friendly game with vocabulary words and a go-to-the-bathroom-free pass at stake, but it escalated to an event that was about honor, justice, pride, and revenge. They began to shout, stand up, and scatter desks.

I managed to end the game and settle the class, but I’m sure by now you can spot my earlier error. In my defense: I was new.

The error: don’t allow trash talk, good-natured ribbing, casual insults, or slams.

The problem with trash talk and other negative talk is that it can escalate to bigger things like harassment, bullying, or a fight.

Lay the groundwork. Know your school district’s harassment policies and explain them to the students at the beginning of the school year. If you haven’t done that already, today’s a good day to start. Let students know that you care about them as individuals, you want them to feel safe, and you want everyone in your classroom to respect one another’s rights.

Prevent trash talk.

• Set a tone of respect in the classroom. Do not rib students or use sarcasm.
• Praise students, especially when they’re nice to one another.
• Label the entire group as one of your favorite classes ever and hope that they become it.
• Instead of saying, “Stop that,” say, “Hey, Shamika. That’s not cool. How can you say that with respect?”
• Smile more than frown.
• Watch students for warning signs of disrespect – like trash talking.

No bystanders.
When faced with a conflict, some people, some teachers, look the other way. Looking the other way is the same thing as agreeing with the bullying behavior.

• Never let a negative comment slide. You must address it every time or students will think you agree with the comment.
• Reward students who stand up for one another with praise. Call their parents and let them know that their student has integrity and backbone.
• Don’t call attention to the trash talker’s target. Talk to the person privately, but don’t double her shame with a public poor baby.

Contact others and document.

• Always write down any bullying event in a notebook with the date, time, students’ names, and words or deeds, as best you can recall.
• Touch base with the victim privately the next day to check she’s O.K. Document.
• Let the guidance counselor know that the victim might need support. Document.
• Talk to parents and let them know what happened, what you’ve done, whom you’ve informed, and what the school policy is. Document.
• If the trash talking or negative speech continues, use your documentation to write a referral to the school administration. Include all parent phone calls, guidance counselor contacts, and any actions you’ve taken.

My summer English 11 class was challenging, but I learned a lot. I learned how to manage a classroom of 40 diverse kids in rival gangs and leave the room feeling like we all had a fun and productive morning. I learned to listen to my students because often they’re right. And I learned not to let insults slide. What starts out as funny can end up serious.

As teachers we know that the schoolhouse gate doesn’t serve as a barrier to information from the real world. The sexual text messages and instant messages (sexting) our teens send to one another during their online evenings can create a lot of trouble during the offline school day.

But these cyberbullying events take place off school grounds. Really, should teachers get involved in this sexting mess? What can we do about sexting, anyway?

The case for intervention. In their book, Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying, Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin make the case that teachers are in the best position to help students with cyberbullying issues. Many students spend more time with their teachers than they do with their parents, the authors write. Teachers see students interact with one another every day and might pick up on unusual behavior or a subtle cue that something is wrong with a student.

Hinduja and Patchin write that adults who are aware of teen sexual harassment, but fail to respond, can be held liable for not assisting the teen, even if the event takes place off campus.

Students who circulate sexting messages or other forms of cyberbullying can’t limit their messages’ reach or timing. Teens who check their cell phones during a school break or lunch can find a surprise sexting video waiting for them in their InBox. If the video is of someone the teens know, the whole school day can be disrupted.

The important legal principal to guide teachers and other school officials, the authors write, is this: School officials cannot discipline students for off-campus speech or behavior with which they simply do not agree unless the school environment is significantly affected.

Media as sexual exploration. Teens are curious about their bodies. They’re curious about one another’s bodies, too. This generation of kids didn’t invent sexual exploration, but they have many more ways to explore and share.

That’s both a problem and a benefit of digital media, the authors of “Sex, Sexuality, Sexting, and SexEd: Adolescents and the Media” wrote. Among gay and lesbian youth, online media give the teens a safe outlet to explore their sexuality in a way that they can’t offline.

“On the Internet, GLBT youth discuss a variety of sexual identities and queer politics, as well as seek partners, navigate the coming out process, and frankly discuss sexual practices, including safer sex,” the authors wrote.

However, teens who post or send sexting messages can also give the wrong idea about sharing sexual content. The authors wrote that teens who see risky sexual behavior online with no consequences are more likely to experiment with the risky acts. Girls who send sexting photos practice self-objectification.

The biggest worry, the authors wrote, is that teens whose sexual images appear online or in text messages have an increased risk of victimization.

Health information and the Internet. Research shows that 44 percent of teens turn to the Internet for health information, and one-quarter or more of them research sexually transmitted diseases, sex, and pregnancy. One study found that 41 percent of teens who researched a health issue online changed their behavior because of the information they’d found. The Internet can be a great place to discover answers to life’s embarrassing or awkward questions.

The problem is that they’re not sophisticated Internet searchers. They judge a site not by the site’s authors, but how slick the design is. If the site looks professional, most teens think, then it’s credible.

Some teens also don’t have the vocabulary to search the Internet for credible sexual information. Instead of using anatomical names, they search with slang terms. Of course, these teens find sexually explicit sites, the “Sex, Sexuality, Sexting, and SexEd” authors wrote. Teens who are exposed to sexually explicit images are more likely to become sexually active at an earlier age than their peers.

What teachers can do. Kids are always going to be interested in their bodies. Cell phones and the Internet aren’t going away any time soon. Inappropriate photos have been around since the invention of the camera. So how can we prevent the spread of sexting messages?

• Educate students about how to assess the credibility of Web sites
• Offer teens appropriate Web sites and vocabulary in health classes
• Encourage students to visit their privacy settings on social network sites to make sure that their privacy is protected
• Review the district rules about cyberbullying with students and make sure they understand the consequences of their actions
• Invite students to come to you privately with questions or concerns about sexting or cyberbullying
• Give students guidelines about posting images online and over cellphones
• Hold parent meetings to discuss cyberbullying and sexting

MTV has a program called A Thin Line, which is trying to stop digital abuse, Amanda Paulson wrote in The Christian Science Monitor. Parry Aftab is the executive director of WiredSafety and an adviser to A Thin Line. Aftab says that teens rarely think about the consequences of their actions. They look at sexting as a safe alternative to sex.

Paulson quoted Aftab: I tell kids the five P’s. If you don’t want your parents, your principal, a predator, the police, or your potential coach, college recruiter, or boss to see it, don’t post it publicly.

References:

Brown, J., Keller, S., and Stern, S. (2009.) Sex, Sexuality, Sexting, and SexEd: Adolescents and the Media. The Prevention Researcher. 16:4, 12-16.

Hinduja, S. and Patchin, J. (2009.) Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.

Lenhart, A. (2009) Teens and Sexting: How and why minor teens are sending sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images via text messaging. Pew Internet & American Life Project. http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2009/PIP_Teens_and_Sexting.pdf Accessed 2/1/10

Paulson, A. (2009.) Sexting: at least 15 percent of teens take part. Christian Science Monitor. 12/16/2009, p1.

According to the Norton Online Living Report 2009, parents believe their children spend 21 hours online. The reality is that students in twelve countries reported spending 39 hours online. Don’t tell me these kids don’t have time to finish their assignments or clean their rooms.

Multitasking. Researchers for the Kaiser Family Foundation’s report, Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, found that our students aren’t just watching YouTube or downloading from iTunes. When they’re on the ’Net, they’re likely to be IM-ing, texting, watching TV, or listening to their music players.

The Kaiser Family Foundation’s researchers found that rates of teen media use (TV, cell phones, computers, video games, audio, print, and movies) are up an hour and 17 minutes over teen media usage five years ago. A teen’s cell phone, smart phone, or gaming device is never out of arm’s reach.

“[…] cell phones and iPods have become true multi-media devices,” the study’s authors wrote. “In fact, young people now spend more time listening to music, playing games, and watching TV on their cell phones (a total of :49 daily) than they spend talking on them (:33).”

The authors of the Norton Online Living Report found that, “[…] six in 10 adults worldwide say kids spend ‘too much’ time online, and what’s more 45% of kids agree.”

Students as digital trailblazers. In another study from the Speak Up National Research Project, researchers disagree with parents and kids: students aren’t spending too much time online; students are the early adopters and adapters of new technology. Our students are not wasting time, they’re innovating. The authors write that our students are the “digital advance team,” the people who will lead educators and other adults into the technology age.

“The findings illustrate how K-12 students are leading the way in re-thinking education delivery and career exploration,” the study’s authors wrote. “These insights can be used to inform our nation’s education leaders in communities all across the United States, as they plan on how to use the stimulus funds for education effectively.”

The researchers believe that our students are ready and able to show adults how to use technology in innovative and educational ways; it’s our responsibility to take notes and make the kids’ 21st century technology ideas happen.

Online use and academic success. The problem is that when kids are online, they’re not likely to be doing school work. The Generation M2 report’s researchers found that students from all races and from all family education backgrounds spent an average of just 16 minutes online working on classroom assignments. Most of the time (25%), they hang out on social network sites, play online games (19%), watch YouTube or other videos (16%), and IM one another (13%).

The good news from these studies is that all of this online time and short hand text message language isn’t rotting students’ brains as much as we might think. The Generation M2 report’s researchers did find that 8- to 18-year-olds are spending five fewer minutes reading hard copies of books, magazines, and newspapers for pleasure than they did in six years ago. However, they’ve made up about two minutes of that deficit with online magazine or newspaper reading.

They also found that the same number of students who read for pleasure six years ago is about the same number who do so today. It’s also an activity that prohibits a lot of multitasking. Students might glance at the TV or play music in the background, but for the most part, when they read print, they are focused on their reading.

The Generation M2 report’s researchers also found that the time students spend online doesn’t affect their reading time. Heavy screen media users (16 or more hours a day) and light screen media users (less than two hours a day) read about the same amount of time: about 41 minutes a day. Even kids who watch TV all night long read about as much as those who don’t tune in much at all.

Students who have a TV in their bedrooms or live in homes where the TV is always on read less than other students, by about 10 minutes. Ten minutes might not seem much, but it’s a significant number that correlates to classroom achievement.

“Contrary to what is found for other media,” the Generation M2 report’s researchers wrote, “young people who are heavy readers (those who spend an hour or more per day with print media) are substantially more likely to say they earn high grades than those who are light readers (those who report no print reading on a typical day): 72% of heavy readers report high grades, compared to 60% of those in the light-reading group.”

Media use and well being. Not only do the heavy media users earn lower grades, but they’re not as happy as the kids who are offline. Of the light media users (fewer than three hours per day), 22% reported that they have a “high level of personal contentment,” the Generation M2 researchers found. On the opposite side, 20% of the heavy media users (more than 16 hours per day) reported that they had a “low level of personal contentment.”

Twenty-one percent of 8- to 18-year-olds are heavy media users. The problem is that we need to teach these kids to channel their media use. According to the Norton Online Living Report’s authors, parents know that they’re responsible for their children’s media use, but just 7 in 10 kids have rules. Thirty-three percent of the parents in the survey said that it’s hard to make media rules because so much new technology wasn’t around when they were kids.

The Norton Online Living Report researchers found that one in five students admitted they did something online that their parents wouldn’t approve. One-in-five students reported that their parents caught them, too.

“Supervision is inherently difficult when it comes to the online world,” the study’s authors wrote. “Not only is the Web’s content available to anyone with a search engine, it’s easy for kids to bypass parents altogether by logging on from outside the household.”

Educators have the tough job of balancing the curriculum with the students’ digital obsession, of incorporating 21st century skills with 21st century safety, and encouraging academic success in a world of media excess. I think we’re up to the challenge, but our role will be more to guide the digital natives with their technology use while they lead the way.

References:

“Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year Olds.” (2010) Kaiser Family Foundation. http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/8010.pdf Accessed January 26, 2010

“Norton Online Living Report.” (2009) Symantec Corporation. http://www.nortononlineliving.com/documents/NOLR_Report_09.pdf Accessed January 21, 2010.

“Selected National Findings: Speak Up 2008 for Students, Teachers, Parents and Administrators.” (2009.) Project Tomorrow. http://www.tomorrow.org Accessed December 8, 2009.

In the classroom, so much of the bullying happens covertly and is tough to see, so many of us teachers don’t realize just how widespread the problem is.

• According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2007), about one-third of middle and high school students reported that they’d been bullied in the last six months.
• The American Medical Association estimates that two-thirds of students think that schools don’t respond well to bullying. That same study found that 25% of teachers think that bullying is normal behavior and just 4% intervene on behalf of students.
• Bullying victims are sick more often. They suffer from the common cold, from stomach cramps, headaches, sore throats, and sleep problems (Journal of the American Medical Association)
• Bullying victims miss school. According to the National Education Association, 160,000 students stay home every day because they’re too afraid to come to class.
• Students who bully in elementary school keep the bullying pattern throughout their school years. (Scientific American Special Edition)
• Bullies don’t suffer from low self-esteem. They’re usually dominant kids and pretty popular, too. They rise to the top of the social order by picking on others. (Scientific American Special Edition)

Ever since beginning my research on social aggression, teachers often have asked me what they should do to help students cope with the ill effects of social aggression. I often have been at a loss for words when faced with this question, given that little research has been conducted in order to verify effective strategies that teachers can use inside or outside of their classrooms. As a result, my most recent research has involved designing and testing a method that includes three activities intended to help girls both talk about and cope with their emotions surrounding social aggression (Willer, 2009). The three activities are based in the fields of narrative psychology and therapy and involve helping girls cope through storytelling, art, and metaphor.¹

The first step in helping girls cope is to encourage them to tell their stories of social aggression. Pennebaker’s (1997) research suggests that communicating about stressful events is an effective sense-making process that helps reduce emotional and intrusive thoughts, and therefore, negative emotional outcomes. In other words, when girls experience social aggression, they are apt to ruminate about what has occurred, why it happened, and the impact it will have on their relationships. Such continuous and intrusive thinking can contribute to negative health outcomes. Giving language to their thoughts and feelings through storytelling, however, is an effective means of engaging in catharsis, gaining insight into what happened, and feeling a sense of control over what has occurred. Thus, the first activity in the coping method involves teachers allowing students to tell their stories of social aggression.

Teachers should keep in mind that telling these stories may be difficult for their students. Young people may not be developmentally and cognitively advanced enough to productively process stressful experiences such as social aggression and the complex emotions that may result. Therefore, after allowing girls to tell their stories of social aggression, teachers can engage students in two metaphor drawing activities designed to help them productively process their experiences with social aggression. Using metaphor and art can aid in storytelling, especially for children, because they are “ways to visually communicate thoughts and feelings that are too painful to put into words” (Malchiodi, 2003, p. ix).

The first metaphor drawing activity involves encouraging students to externalize social aggression. Therapists use externalization as a sense-making method that focuses on seeing the problem as the problem rather than the person as the problem (White & Epston, 1990). Therefore, the goal of this activity is to have girls draw a metaphor that represents their feelings about their experiences with social aggression. For example, a participant in my study drew a duckling who lost her family to represent how her experience with gossip made her feel all alone. Another girl drew a person who was about to be hit by a car to represent the fear she felt when her peers were excluding her. After students draw metaphors such as these, teachers can encourage them to use their drawings to orally explain and further process their emotions.

The second metaphor drawing activity provides another means for helping girls communicate about and cope with their experiences with social aggression. The purpose of this activity is to help students productively reframe their experience with social aggression by drawing a redemption metaphor (McAdams, Diamond, de St. Aubin, and Mansfield, 1997). This technique is based on research that has found that people who are able to see the redeeming qualities or the bright side of a bad situation tend to be healthier than those individuals who tend to focus on the negative aspects. Therefore, teachers can have students draw a metaphor that represents something positive that came out of the negative experience with social aggression. For example, one participant in my study drew two peas in a pod to represent how she became closer with the girl who was socially aggressive as a result of having to work through their problems. Another girl drew an eagle to represent the freedom she felt when she broke off her friendship with the girl who spread lies about her. Again, teachers can have students use their drawing as a tool to orally communicate and process their feelings.

Social aggression can be debilitating, both socially and emotionally for girls. Through simple communication processes, including storytelling and drawing, however, teachers may be able to offer girls healing and hope.

Erin Willer is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Communication Studies at the University of Denver who has experience as a high school teacher. Her research has been published in the journal Communication Studies and is due to be published next year in Personal Relationships and the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Erin also has received Top Four Paper Awards from the Interpersonal Communication Division of the Western States Communication Association.

End note:
¹Although these activities can be effective ways of helping girls communicate about and cope with social aggression, it is important that teachers take precautions before deciding to implement them. Talking about social aggression the classroom can be risky for students. Any given classroom is comprised of both victims and perpetrators, and therefore, teachers need to be careful not to set students up for revictimization.

References

Crick, N. R., & Bigbee, M. A. (1998). Relational and overt forms of peer victimization: A multiinformant approach. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66, 337-347.

Crick, N. R., & Grotpeter, J. K. (1996). Children’s treatment by peers: Victims of relational and overt aggression. Developmental and Psychopathology, 8, 367-380.

Malchiodi, C. A. (2003). Handbook of art therapy. New York: The Guilford Press.

McAdams, D. P., Diamond, A., de St. Aubin, E., & Mansfield, E. (1997). Stories of commitment: The psychological construction of generative lives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 678-694.

Paquette, J. A., & Underwood, M. K. (1999). Gender differences in young adolescents’ experiences of peer victimization: Social and physical aggression. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 45, 242-266.

Pennebaker, J. W. (1997). Opening up: The healing power of expressing emotions (rev. ed.). New York: Guilford.

White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. Adelaide, South Australia: Dulwich Centre.

Willer, E. K. (2009). Experimentally testing a narrative sense-making metaphor intervention: Facilitating communicative coping about social aggression with adolescent girls. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln.

Pappas’ quick thinking and crisis control shows that schools need qualified school nurses to care for children. But classroom teachers also need enough knowledge to recognize an ill student and to prevent the spread of viruses in the classroom.

As of May 4, the virus has affected 36 states with 279 confirmed cases and one death. CDC Acting Director Dr. Richard Besser said that the numbers are probably an underestimate of the extent of the swine flu’s impact on the nation, where teens have made up the majority of cases. The median age for swine flu cases is 16 and 62 percent of all confirmed cases are for people under 18.

Signs of illness. Executive Director of the National Association of School Nurses (NASN), Amy Garcia, R.N., M.S.N. wrote in an e-mail that teachers should send students to the school nurse only when the student’s illness is interfering with learning.

Teachers should watch for students with a fever, sore throat, and cough, she said. “Persons with the H1N1 flu may also experience lethargy, headache, nausea and vomiting.”

Besser recommended in a press conference that teachers do a visual check of students in the room. “Look around that room and see, are any of these kids looking sick?” he said. “If they are, send them home until it’s certain whether or not they’re sick.”

Stopping the spread. The swine flu’s incubation period is two – five days, which means that a student might be carrying the virus, but not showing symptoms.

Garcia said that teachers should encourage hand washing with warm soap and water for 20 seconds and ask students to cover their coughs with a tissue or sleeve.

Besser agrees. “We need to use schools as a way of really teaching the importance of hand washing and covering your cough,” he said. “These are things that schools can do.”

It’s common sense, Garcia said. Hand washing, covering coughs and sneezes, and staying home when you are sick are common but effective prevention measures. “It is important to be vaccinated for the flu every year, and for pneumococcal disease as your physician recommends,” she said.

The CDC’s Web site also recommends that people avoid touching their eyes, nose, or mouth. The site also advises people to stay away from sick people.

If you or your child gets sick. Stay home. That’s why the CDC is recommending that schools close. They want folks who are ill to stay home, get better, and not spread the virus. The CDC recommends that people with a flu-like illness stay home for seven days after the symptoms begin and not return to school until they’ve been symptom-free for 24 hours – whichever is longer.

Garcia recommends that you visit your physician if you suspect you or your child is sick. The CDC recommends seeing a physician immediately if you or your child are having trouble breathing, are not drinking, are having pain in the chest or abdomen, are experiencing severe or persistent vomiting, or are confused or dizzy.

School closings. The CDC has also been recommending school dismissal and childcare closure when a swine flu viral infection has been indicated. On Tuesday, May 4, 726 of the nation’s more than 100,000 schools were closed, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

“When you think about closure of schools, there are a couple of things you’re trying to do,” Besser said. “One is to protect children from getting this flu from each other and the other is trying to prevent children being amplifiers in the community. Children tend to share infectious diseases with each other, and then they go in the community and they tend to multiply this in their communities.”

The U.S. Department of Education’s Web site notes that the number of schools that have closed is relatively small, but a school closing is a significant disruption for individual parents and students.

“As a pediatrician and as a parent, I know the place where I want kids is in the school learning,” Besser said. “But you want to make sure they’re doing that in a way that their health is protected.”

The good news is that the CDC’s response to the swine flu has been very aggressive and the spread has been similar to that of seasonal flu. “You may only get one chance to get out in front of a new infectious disease, and so, that’s what we’ve been doing all along,” Besser said.