Comments on: Random thoughts from AERA http://edinsanity.com/2008/03/26/random-thoughts-from-aera/ “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:57:43 +0000 hourly 1 By: Justin http://edinsanity.com/2008/03/26/random-thoughts-from-aera/comment-page-1/#comment-49 Justin Thu, 27 Mar 2008 04:39:23 +0000 http://edinsanity.wordpress.com/?p=73#comment-49 Right back at you Jon. Yeah, the Cyberbullying session was on one hand the best presentation I attended at AERA and on the other ... ehh? I think there is this idea that seemed pervasive throughout the session that somehow cyberbullying is different from bullying ... I just don't think I buy that either. It is bullying, which just happens to occur online. Like you said, I don't mean to devalue the seriousness of cyberbullying and certainly as Kevin Brady pointed out the Web opens up new bullying avenues that otherwise might not have existed such as web impersonation, but someone made the point, I can't remember if it was Kevin or someone else, that the kids don't consider it cyberbullying. They don't make a distinction between what happens online and what happens offline. Their online life is intertwined with their offline life and you can't really separate the two. It's just their life. So, it seems to me that if there is no actual difference to the kids, then there is something artificial about this distinction between bullying and cyberbullying that the scholarly community seems insistent on making. My reservations about the distinction between online and offline bullying aside, though, the conversation this presentation started was one of the more valuable ones that I saw, at least from the Law and Ed. SIG presentations. It is almost like cyberbullying is serving as a jumping off point. Whether or not such a thing as cyberbullying even existed, we needed to start having a conversation about becoming technologically literate educational law scholars anyway - and we have needed to do that for a while now. I have sort of begged and pleaded with my colleagues, Jon I am sure this is the same for you, to start learning about the Web 2.0 world that kids inhabit these days. The typical response goes something like ... ohh, that's cool, I will have to check that out sometime. ... And then ... waiting ... waiting ... nothing. Right? That's what happens. But, suddenly with cyberbullying there is a reason. There is a lawsuit. There is a legal issue they can get their heads around. When Kevin Brady stands up there and says the biggest use and avenue of cyberbullying is IMing, I am willing to bet that over 1/2 the audience had no idea whatsoever of what he was talking about. And that is bad, but it is also sort of good. Here are multiple educational law scholars saying this is an important legal issue that we need to be teaching our school administrators. I think that is the kind of mental validation (both from a standpoint of yes this is a legal issue, but also, people in my field are using words I don't know, I gotta catch up) that could start people down the line of becoming a bit more technologically literate. So, right, I don't think we fully have a grasp on how to talk about the "cyber" in cyberbullying yet, but, also, at least we are starting to dive into what the heck "cyber" actually is as a community. I think that is good progress, so I was feeling good after leaving that session. But, I share your concern that there is so much technological illiteracy that fear as developed and this distinction may lead some to just attempt to build the brick wall that was referred to in the presentation. Hope the receptions were nice. I was sad to miss those. Right back at you Jon. Yeah, the Cyberbullying session was on one hand the best presentation I attended at AERA and on the other … ehh? I think there is this idea that seemed pervasive throughout the session that somehow cyberbullying is different from bullying … I just don’t think I buy that either. It is bullying, which just happens to occur online. Like you said, I don’t mean to devalue the seriousness of cyberbullying and certainly as Kevin Brady pointed out the Web opens up new bullying avenues that otherwise might not have existed such as web impersonation, but someone made the point, I can’t remember if it was Kevin or someone else, that the kids don’t consider it cyberbullying. They don’t make a distinction between what happens online and what happens offline. Their online life is intertwined with their offline life and you can’t really separate the two. It’s just their life. So, it seems to me that if there is no actual difference to the kids, then there is something artificial about this distinction between bullying and cyberbullying that the scholarly community seems insistent on making.

My reservations about the distinction between online and offline bullying aside, though, the conversation this presentation started was one of the more valuable ones that I saw, at least from the Law and Ed. SIG presentations. It is almost like cyberbullying is serving as a jumping off point. Whether or not such a thing as cyberbullying even existed, we needed to start having a conversation about becoming technologically literate educational law scholars anyway – and we have needed to do that for a while now. I have sort of begged and pleaded with my colleagues, Jon I am sure this is the same for you, to start learning about the Web 2.0 world that kids inhabit these days. The typical response goes something like … ohh, that’s cool, I will have to check that out sometime. … And then … waiting … waiting … nothing. Right? That’s what happens. But, suddenly with cyberbullying there is a reason. There is a lawsuit. There is a legal issue they can get their heads around. When Kevin Brady stands up there and says the biggest use and avenue of cyberbullying is IMing, I am willing to bet that over 1/2 the audience had no idea whatsoever of what he was talking about. And that is bad, but it is also sort of good. Here are multiple educational law scholars saying this is an important legal issue that we need to be teaching our school administrators. I think that is the kind of mental validation (both from a standpoint of yes this is a legal issue, but also, people in my field are using words I don’t know, I gotta catch up) that could start people down the line of becoming a bit more technologically literate.

So, right, I don’t think we fully have a grasp on how to talk about the “cyber” in cyberbullying yet, but, also, at least we are starting to dive into what the heck “cyber” actually is as a community. I think that is good progress, so I was feeling good after leaving that session. But, I share your concern that there is so much technological illiteracy that fear as developed and this distinction may lead some to just attempt to build the brick wall that was referred to in the presentation.

Hope the receptions were nice. I was sad to miss those.

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