February-ISTE+Research+Paper

Cyberbullying: Using Virtual Scenarios to Educate and Raise Awareness

The purpose of this research was to examine adolescents’ reactions to cyberbullying with the goal of raising awareness of cyberbullying and educating others about it. Three phases were implemented for the research: Phase I: cyberbullying survey, Phase II: focus group, Phase III: development of cyberbullying scenarios. Phase I found that nearly half of the students were aware of someone being cyberbullied. 29.8% of participants had been cyberbullied. In addition, 14.4% of participants reported they had been the aggressor. It was discovered that only 4.4% of respondents noted that cyberbullying occurred at school. Phase II noted that students’ reactions, knowledge of technology and coping skills varied based on socioeconomic status. The goal of Phase II was to assess the use of virtual simulations in cyberbullying education.

[|Cyberbullying]