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 New York, NY - Successful ways to discourage cyberbullying on the Internet will be actively spread to middle school students, parents, and caregivers -- and to their teachers and school IT administrators -- in a model program announced by Pace University and WiredSafety, the rapidly-growing cybersafety group.
The new program involves workshops this fall in pilot middle schools, and new course modules and courses open to undergraduate and graduate teachers and school administrators. The organizations announced it on the second day of a two-day “Stop Cyberbullying” conference conducted by WiredSafety.org. that was addressed by Tina Meier, mother of the 13-year-old who was bullied on line and committed suicide. Pace is a co-sponsor of the conference.
“This initiative is one of the first of its kind in the United States,” said David Sachs, PhD, Associate Dean of Pace’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. “We saw cyberbullying cropping up in our own families and we saw the immense progress WiredSafety has made in fighting it. As parents, educators and computing experts we started to see ways of pulling the pieces together so kids all across the country can benefit.”
“We had been looking for a university partner, and Pace stepped forward at just the right time,” said Parry Aftab, the founder of WiredSafety. “I said, ‘hello, we need you.’”
Parent workshops and “Teenangels.” Starting this fall, the multilevel Pace University/WiredSafety program involves
* New cybersafety workshops for middle-school parents and caregivers, using concepts and materials from WiredSafety and given in NY Metro-area schools by Pace faculty and student volunteers.
* Coaching for fourth to ninth graders in safe and responsible uses of interactive and digital technologies, conducted by Pace students who will be meeting a university-wide civic engagement requirement in a course titled “Computers for Human Empowerment.” The coaching will include use of a WiredSafety innovation, the use of trained teenage “Teenangels” who speak directly to their peers.
* A new three-course graduate sequence leading to a graduate certificate in Cybersafety and in WiredTrust’s Web 2.0 Risk Management for Schools.
* Internet safety modules in teacher-certification courses drawing on WiredSafety methods. These are being added to current Pace courses in Child Abuse, Human Development, and Educational Technology for school technology administrators.
The Pace/WiredSafety initiative initially is expected to reach more than one hundred future teachers and administrators, plus current teachers taking courses, each of whom has an impact on at least 30 students. In addition, it will reach parents, caregivers and students in the New York City and Westchester County pilot schools to which Pace sends students as interns and volunteers. Moves are under consideration to draw on Pace’s experience in making online courses nationally available.
Multilevel. “At all levels of the University we intend to address these issues, in person and online,” said Geoffrey Brackett, DPhil, the University’s Provost. The multidisciplinary efforts involve both Pace’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems, one of the nation’s first comprehensive computing schools, and its School of Education, one of the largest in the New York Metropolitan area (www.pace.edu). The Seidenberg School is named for Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg, a Pace alumnus. Verizon was the lead sponsor of the WiredSafety conference.
WiredSafety www.WiredSafety.org is the world’s largest cybersafety and help group. It provides help, information and education to Internet and mobile device users of all ages, and helps victims of cyberabuses ranging from online fraud, cyberstalking and child safety to hacking and malicious code attacks. It also helps parents with issues such as participation in MySpace and cyberbullying.
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thanks,
Parry Aftab
Founder and Exec Director
WiredSafety.org