Wednesday, February 3, 2016

What’s the story with Cyberbullying? Pt 1 - Different Digital Worlds

Cyberbullying garners a lot of media attention. Often we hear the horror stories and we worry for our children in this digital world that they so love to inhabit.  A large body of research shows that students who are cyberbullied are less likely to tell their parents or teachers if it is happening.  What is the story with Cyberbullying?  How prevalent is it?  What can we as parents do to help our children?

In order to understand cyberbullying, we need to understand our children and the differences between them and us in terms of digital use.



Digital Immigrants vs Digital Natives 




Prensky (2001) posits that we fall into one of two groups:  digital natives, or digital immigrants. Each group has characteristics worth noting:

Digital Immigrants

  • latecomer to the tech revolution - have adapted to technology but have their feet in the past
  • have a tech “accent”  eg. call and ask if someone got their email?  Type out text messaging in full words
  • try and work around or second guess technology (natives know no other way)
  • grew up linear - one topic at a time, everything in order
  • phones, email and internet are separate to who they are -  tools to reach someone or set up face to face meetings

Digital Natives

  • are today’s adolescents - more comfortable and aware of cyber issues than adults (who tend to be digital immigrants).
  • grow up immersed in technology
  • always had internet, laptops, cell phones, social media and other digital tech where they can instantly capture and communicate with their world
  • use digital tools as extensions of body and mind - fluidly incorporating them into daily routines
  • adapt quickly to tech change and look for ways to integrate it into their world
  • texting is primary form of e-communication
  • are burst thinkers - jump from idea to idea
  • are fluid at communicating through a variety of media eg. text, instagram, facebook

It is important for us to realize that digital communication is as important to natives as face to face meetings are to immigrants. In part two of this series we will discuss digital socializing.

Part 2 (next week): What's The Story With Cyber Bullying? Pt 2. Digital Socializing

References:
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

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