Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
anonymous, slanderous attacks on others, allowing around the clock contact, and
enabling the participation of many colleagues with the click of a button. Bullying
behavior appears to reach its apex at some point during junior high and declines
thereafter; it still remains a part of high-school social life (Swearer, Espelage, &
Napolitano, 2009; “When and Where does Bullying Occur?”).
In the past, bullying may have occurred at school, but the student enjoyed a
reprieve when removed from that specific context. NDM, however, make it pos-
sible for a bully (or group of bullies) to access or “haunt” his/her target constantly.
Similarly, most past instances of bullying were not anonymous and were in fact a
way to assert one's status, but NDM allow anyone to hide behind a pseudonym,
harass the target, and evade responsibility. Finally, bullying, which may have been
limited to a small cadre of perpetrators and victims, can now spread more quickly
and easily to a larger population. Many of our educators shared stories of such
hostile peer-to-peer behavior.
One interesting aspect of NDM-facilitated cyberbullying is that it may include
participants of significantly different age groups. In our study group, one public
school music educator recounts how a student in her school posted a photo and
derogatory comments about a science teacher on MySpace. The student's identity
was revealed, and she maintained her right to “free speech”; the science teacher
resigned at the end of the school year.
Conclusion
NDM, according to our educator participants, can engage their students and provide
unprecedented tools for expanding intellectual and social opportunities. They can
also bestow upon their adolescent users enhanced authority, considerable freedom,
and a high level of engagement via the relatively safe parameters of a screen inter-
face. Conversely, NDM have been associated with fracturing attention spans and
inadvertently encouraging less meaningful and more distant interactions with both
people and information.
Whether NDM are seen as the problem (a la Bauerlein) or the solution (Tapscott)
to current educational challenges remains to be determined. In the testimony of
our 40 knowledgeable teachers, one can find both utopian and dystopic themes and
trends. Adolescents will continue to engage with NDM; the question for educators
is how to utilize the best of what these tools have to offer while mitigating the less
desirable habits of mind they can cultivate. Our educator participants were relatively
aligned with respect to how youth engage with digital media, and the ways in which
this engagement can be improved:
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Most educators agree that successful online engagement requires the cultivation of
higher-order meta-cognitive skills. Such skills are required to help students better
assess the legitimacy of online information and to stay focused in the face of
multiple digital enticements which can easily lead surfers astray. Most educators
