Bullying

Students broadened their knowledge of the topic of bullying by writing a script, reflections, a checklist, and by gathering a quick collection of examples by copying and pasting from an exhaustive list of examples.

Some students (hopefully most) made a video as they practiced their intervention skills and perhaps even posted it on a popular video blog as a tutorial for their peers. All should be familiar with the Ministry of Education's efforts in the area of developing a sense of responsibility among students who use electronic communications and some may even have taken the intitiative to contact the Minister of Education directly and/or offered to get involved in an upcoming forum for same.

By now students would have been aware of the issue of bullying and the attention it has been getting lately. Perhaps the most sobering aspect of this webquest was the podcast in which Barbara Coloroso draws connections among bullies, bystanders, and genocide... a logical but not a nessessary conclussion. As well, as students look to greater immersion in the world of work, they now have some familiarity with bullying in that context.

Futher activities: in light of recent expansion of the Ontario history curriculum to include the topic of genocide specifically, since the connection has been established here already, I would invite students to download Google Earth at http://earth.google.com/ and explore educational content on Darfur at http://earth.google.com/outreach/cs_darfur.html.

To the students and educators who have used this Webquest: Thank you! You should now have a wider understanding of a problem that touches everyone one, way or the other, eventually. Armed with knowledge, you can now be part of the solution.