RAISING DIGITAL CITIZENS By: Karen A. Fiorillo EdD and Elizabeth Young EdD ABSTRACT Raising digital citizens is the job of all stakeholders. Parents, supervising school personnel, administrators, and the local authorities play a role in cyber-safety. A need exists to implement programs and training opportunities related to cyberbullying awareness and prevention. Behaviors of cyberbullying are difficult to identify. Increasing awareness of the dangers of cyberbullying and inappropriate websites may encourage school age children to make better decisions when using personal digital devices such as cell phones, iPads, and the computer to interact with peers. It is never too early to introduce children to netiquette. All stakeholders must educate themselves on the trending websites designed to lure unsuspecting victims into the sites. PAPER The purpose of this exploratory single-case study was to discover through personal interviews how K-12 guidance counselors perceived the covert behaviors of cyberbullies and cyber-victims as well as suggest ways administrators might provide training to help supervising personnel identify cyberbullying behaviors. Participants in the study were guidance counselors from a Southeastern Pennsylvania Suburban School district who handled cases of cyberbullying in the school environment. Counselor interviews occurred in a face-to-face setting then culminated in a focus group to explore the cyberbullying behaviors and training. Data were transcribed using Dragon Naturally Speaking® software and verified with counselors using the member checking process. Interview data were analyzed using NVivo 10® software to uncover three themes: all users of personal digital devices are susceptible to cyberbullying, any student can be involved in cyberbullying, and behaviors of the cyberbully and cyber-victim are difficult to identify. Focus group data were analyzed to uncover two themes: parents, supervising personnel, administrators, and the local authorities play a role in cyber-safety and a need exists to implement programs and training related to cyberbullying awareness and prevention. Behaviors of cyberbullying were difficult to identify resulting in a recommendation for training of staff and students. Guidance counselors perceived the need for additional training for teachers and staff to be more proactive when managing cyberbullying behaviors of students. School system administrators who experience budget cuts or reduced technology spending implement policies allowing students to bring your own device (BYOD) to school (Burfield, 2011). The intent of BYOD is to supplement the schools’ lack of adequate technology to accomplish instructional goals. Researchers agree even when cyberbullying does not originate at school, cyberbullying activity filters into the school and becomes a school problem (Ang & Goh, 2010; Bauman, Rigby, & Hoppa, 2008; Burrow-Sanchez, Call, Zheng, & Drew, 2011; Cassidy, Brown, & Jackson, 2012). The BYOD initiative was designed to save school districts money, but management of student behavior while using PDDs can be daunting (Goff, 2011; Gatewood, 2012). A moral and legal obligation exists for school personnel to protect students from inappropriate cyber-activity (Nye, 2014; Shariff & Hoff, 2007) Educators must recognize cyberbullying behavior to maintain a safe environment for students (Cassidy, Brown, & Jackson, 2012, Force, 2013). When cyberbullying becomes a problem at school, counselors are most often the personnel who become involved. The general problem in this exploratory single-case study was supervising personnel cannot always identify the covert student behaviors that often lead to cyberbullying (Davison & Stein, 2014). The specific problem in this exploratory single-case study was cyberbullying can occur at school because supervising personnel do not have specific training provided by administrators in identifying the cyberbullying behaviors (Katzer, Fetchenhauer, & Belschak, 2009; Swan & Park, 2012). In the personal interviews and focus group, guidance counselors provided answers to help explore the problem of supervising personnel not always being able to identify the behaviors associated with cyberbullies and cyber-victims. The guidance counselors in this exploratory case study work with all students in the K-12 environment. To support the purpose of this exploratory case study, two central research questions were constructed to seek a more thorough understanding of covert student cyberbullying behaviors. The first central research question was how do guidance counselors perceive the covert behaviors of cyberbullies and cyber-victims. The second central research question was posed to the counselors in the focus group, what suggestions can be offered to school administrators to help supervising personnel identify the covert behaviors of cyberbullies and cyber-victims. During the focus group, the guidance counselors discussed strategies and programs to implement in the district. Recommendations included training of supervising personnel by district instructional technology teachers and specialists. Emergent Themes from the Study Theme 1: All users of personal digital devices are susceptible to cyberbullying. If students possess a PDD, interact on social media, contribute to blogs, post videos of oneself or others, or text, the school age children are susceptible to cyberbullying. One comment can spur a viral spread of positive or negative remarks. Perceptions of comments may be misconstrewed by readers and cause a trickle down effect. Comments made to a post can grow and morph into more than a child can handle or deserve. Based on the perceptions of the guidance counselors, early intervention is essential when identifying covert incidences of cyberbulling. If a student is mature enough to make the correct decision and act quickly by removing the post and blocking any inappropriate commenters, severe repercussions may be averted. If the posts are more than the child can handle, referring the situation to a responsible adult is a feasible coping skill to resolve the problem. Theme 2: Any student can be involved in cyberbullying School age students must be aware and prepared to interact safely on PDDs. No matter who the student is or what demographic the student represents, each child can be a victim of cyberbullying behavior. Students who are cyberbullied may retaliate and become cyberbullies. Students who have been face-to-face bullied in the past may find cyberbullying as a new platform to strike back at the students who have bullied in the past. The anonymity of users on the Internet enables school age children to verbally attack others easily and without consequence. The ease in splicing together videos using online applications such as Vine® enables cyberbullies to make deceiving videos. The short videos may be unrelated but appear as if a school age child did or said something viewers might see as entertaining. Video cyberbullying is another example of the deliberate harm shown to other students using PDDs. Unsuspecting students may be victimized when students have done nothing to deserve the mistreatment. Theme 3: Behaviors of the cyberbully and cyber-victim are difficult to identify. Because cyberbullying activity is a quiet and personal experience at first, recognizing symptoms is difficult. Unless a student reaches out for help, a parent presents evidence of cyberbullying activity, or a bystander steps up to report an incident, supervising personnel have no way of knowing what students are doing on their PDDs. Although members of the sample provided several scenarios that might describe a student involved in cyberbullying activity, no definining characteristics or signs surfaced to clearly identify a student involved in cyberbullying as a perpetrator or victim. Because more students are bringing PDDs to school, supervising personnel who are teaching now have another responsibility in the classroom when managing the technology use of all students. Students may appear engaged on the devices when actually, the school age children may be accessing sites to harm others. Supervising personnel must not compromise student rights. At the same time, supervising personnel also need to maintain the safety of all students. Emergent Themes from the Focus Group Theme 1: Parents, supervising personnel, administrators, and the local authorities play a role in cyber-safety. Early and frequent intervention by responsible adults who are role models to the school age children involved in cyberbullying behavior are key to managing the activity of students at school especially when the behavior carries into the home. The same intervention should take place at home so the problem is solved before it carries into school. While at school, supervising personnel should inform students of the dangers of the Internet. Preparing the school age children with reporting options, mediation activities, clubs, and coping skills to withstand the treatment are steps toward combatting cyberbullying. Local law officials may address the students through the D.A.R.E. program, which is presented to the students in small groups. Giving the students a voice and a chance to ask questions in a nonthreatening environment may prepare the students for digital interaction. The training may also give the students a reporting voice to help protect other students who may be victimized by cyberbullies. Allowing supervising personnel to participate in the D.A.R.E. activities may give the school staff an opportunity to communicate with the students who may not feel comfortable reporting cyberbullying activity to a staff member. Knowing supervising personnel care and want the students to have a voice against cyberbullying is a step toward reducing incidences of victimization. Theme 2: A need exists to implement programs and training related to cyberbullying awareness and prevention. Cyberbullying awareness and prevention programs for all stakeholders including students, parents, bus drivers, coaches, supervising personnel, and guidance counselors should be offered by administrators. The training may be an in-service program, after school workshop with technology integration specialists or members of the instructional technology team, online video training, summer workshop, or self-paced webinar. If all stakeholders participate in the training, are taught how to recognize cyberbullying behaviors, and can empower students to speak up against cyberbullying, awareness and coping skills will continue to flourish. All stakeholders should become more aware of Internet jargon, be familiar with the new social media platforms and applications the children are using. Teachers and support staff can participate in role play in the classroom to demonstrate for the children what cyberbullying looks like and what cyberbullying can do to a person’s self-esteem. Guidance counselors and technology integration specialists can be invited to speak to the teachers students about the dangers and repercussions of cyberbullying behavior. 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