Cyber Baiting

Do a Google search on "cyber baiting" and you might be amazed at the number of articles and blogs on this topic published online in the last two weeks.

The recent flurry of writing on the subject is largely in response to a Norton Online Family Report revealing that three in 10 Singapore teachers have personally experienced cyber baiting, where students taunt their teachers, film the incident and post it online to embarrass the teacher or the school.

While it is a scary threat teachers face in today's classroom, and awareness is a good thing, I can't help but worry that the publicity will mostly do harm to technology integration in the classroom.

Reactive school administrations will see this as a technology issue instead of a classroom management issue. They will continue to ban mobile devices from classroom use. They will have video and audio recording devices turned off on laptops. They will discourage teachers from creating projects where students collaborate online or post original content. Worst of all, students will not be taught, in a straightforward and candid manner, about responsible use of video and audio devices.

I do not mean to take anything away from the seriousness of the issue of cyber baiting. I just want to remind everyone that, while it will affect a small percentage of teachers and students, a much larger percentage -- virtually ALL of them -- will need to know how to use technology, including personal mobile devices, responsibly and effectively throughout their lives in academia and in the workplace.

Running scared from this issue, or banning technology in reaction to the trend of cyber baiting, will only set us back. What we need is more training on effective management of cyber classrooms.