The Nature of Bullying

From Chesi - Fotos CC on Flickr

Bullying isn't an exact science. It's an organism that grows; it's like a weed. With every new technology and Web 2.0 tool, there are always new methods and processes adopted that may harm our students. We need for our students to understand cyber-bullying as a concept, as an organism that eats and breathes. As it stands now, too many students are learning bullying as a requirement for the EETT grant, and most likely with cracker jack curriculum materials that were designed strictly for compliance, not analyzation.

If you desire to have students do a bullying unit, perhaps have them create their own concept map of bullying. Start with resources such as:

• http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/serial.htm
• This pdf from Stop Bullying Now offers info on what to look for if a child is being bullied. 
• Digizen.org: Great movie on bullying. 

Have them use Dabbleboard.com or Mywebspiration.com to create a flow chart of the concept of bullying, showing what behaviors to look for in a bully, or the bullied child. Have them demonstrate the relationship between the types of bullying or cyberbulling, and the consequences for allowing bullying to happen. Make sure to incorporate the bystander's role and their consequences as well. Here's a version that I am working on:



Here's the direct link:
http://dabbleboard.com/draw/drezac/safetymodel

In this concept map, I offer bullying as an organic process, one that has beginnings, behaviors, and methods. The profile behaviors alone may not elicit abuse, but when combined with technology tools, they can have all sorts of consequences, such as suicide, expulsion from school, and depression. What's also important is how to prevent the consequences. If students create these maps, the aim is for them to know what the consequences are for all of the parties involved, as well as what are the possible solutions to prevention?

This concept map was created using Dabbleboard, a very accessible tool that any students can use without signing up. It's important to have tools available to kids that work right out of the box, so that the concept map is the lesson, not the tool.

Does the concept map work? I think that it's a good start, but, of course, the concept may change when new technologies emerge, as may the consequences.

If we can get students to understand the process of bullying and the systems in place to prevent it, then I think we'll have done our job as educators. Let's not work to just comply; let's work to create.