Middle School has just finished up a unit on Cyber Bullying. Each of the classes watched and discussed Episode 1 of Adina’s Deck. All of the classes seemed to enjoy the videos though 6th grade seemed to like it more than the other grades which may have to do with the students in the class more than the video content. I plan to continue using this episode with 6th Grade in future years and plan to purchase other episodes for use later this year or next year with 7th and 8th grades.
After the discussions each class created a project about Cyber Bullying. 6th Grade created a 6-panel comic in Microsoft Word, 7th Grade created a Glog and 8th Grade created a short Public Service Announcement using Animoto. Most of these were completed well and taken seriously (even if their project was done in a humorous way) but it amazes me that some of the students still feel that cyber bullying is no big deal or that it’s okay if you’re just bullying your friends. When did bullying of any kind become okay?
This week Lori Drew was convicted in federal court in Los Angeles in a cyber-bullying trial. She may face 3 years in prison and a $300,000 fine. At this point she hasn’t been sentenced and I’m sure that if she is sentenced to the maximum that she will appeal so who knows what her actual sentence and/or fine will end up being. I just cannot fathom a mother making up a 16-year old boy on MySpace and lying to a teenage neighbor. How can we expect our pre-teens and teens to act appropriately when parents are doing things like this?
I hope that in addressing this issue with the Middle School students in my school that at least they will think before doing anything like this online. I do plan on following up with them in the next week or so about the conviction of Lori Drew in the hopes of reaching those who think it’s no big deal.
I came over to tag you with a Wordle meme that is going around and really enjoyed this post.
I hadn’t heard of Adina’s Deck before. The video quality is fantastic. How is the facilitator’s guide. I could see this being used in my school.
Are you able to make the Glog or Animoto public? I’d like to see the results.
The facilitator’s guide is okay; not very long but it gives you guided discussion questions and background information for each scene in the video and some extension projects and a survey to have students take before and after the video. I used Google Docs for that. I will order the guides with the other videos I order. Another thing I found online that I might try on Cyber Bullying next year with 7th and/or 8th is digizen.org. You can view the video online and there’s a Teacher’s Guide available to download too.
The Glogs & Animoto videos are (or will) be public. They are still being added to the wiki and are linked from the Travel Scrapbook. Most of the videos are there but only about 1/2 (if that) of the Glogs have been added so far.
I have shown Adina’s Deck to my 7th and 8th grade students. They have been surprisingly quiet through all 3 episodes, identifying with the charming actors and actresses as the mysteries unfold. My students have benefited from the content and spoken openly about either being cyberbullied, knowing someone that has been, or admitting to participating in it at some level. Adina’s Deck is a smart educational series that uses very believable middle school aged characters that are easy for students to identify with. The students commented that these were fun movies to watch and weren’t boring as other films they’re required to see in school. I would highly recommend all 3 episodes! The content is relevant and engaging.