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Cyberbullying and Digital Citizenship

 Interacting with the Seven Digital Deadly Sins was eye-opening. While I think the content is too intense or graphic for my elementary kids, the messages are important to share, even with adults including myself. Envy was the one I explored the most because I struggle with it honestly. The biggest message for my students I took away from this Digital Deadly Sin was not to share everything and to realize not everything you see online or what you hear even in person is always accurate. The people on YouTube are planning and editing to make the videos they do. The person who shares tons of pictures from their big vacation may have been miserable during the trip. These types of situations can lead to students getting upset or even depressed. I’ve seen many times when even stories in class about what students did over the weekend can send students into an emotional downward spiral.

The study of the Screenshots curriculum was interesting, especially with the comparison between females and males and their changes in mindset after the study. The data was not consistent across the schools when showing how students reacted to online conflict. “Additional work is necessary to fully understand the moderating role of gender on the effects of online conflict resolution interventions” (Bickham et al., 2021). I would be interested in the results of a different age group as well.

It’s hard to think about needing to teach my elementary students about cyberbullying because it wasn’t really “a thing” when I was in elementary school. However, kids are getting exposed to interactive programs online at a younger age, like social media, chatting in video games, and even programs used in schools. In the elementary school I work at, we’ve had instances of students sending inappropriate or harming messages on cell phones and even on Microsoft Teams. It’s important that all adults take responsibility in teaching kids early on how to use the internet responsibly, because “neither educators nor parents have the means to completely control how students use technology” (Hicks, 2015). This graphic shared by Hicks is one I've seen before, but it's a great reminder for everyone when they're interacting with others, whether it's online or in person. 



Resources

Bickham, D. S., Moukalled, S., Inyart, H. K., & Zlokower, R. (2021). Evaluating a Middle-School Digital Citizenship Curriculum (Screenshots): Quasi-Experimental Study. JMIR Mental Health, 8(9). https://doi.org/10.2196/26197

Hicks, K. (2015, July 15). Teacher’s Guide to Digital Citizenship | Edudemic. Edudemic. https://web.archive.org/web/20181129151348/http://www.edudemic.com/teachers-guide-digital-citizenship/

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