Teachers: Beware of ‘Cyberbaiting’
by Larry Magid
Teachers need to think about how technology affects their relationships with students (Credit: Symantec)
A study from Symantec found that 21% of teachers had either been cyberbaited or knew a teacher who had.
Cyberbaiting, according to Symantec’s Internet safety advocate, Marian Merritt, is when students deliberately provoke a teacher into doing something stupid, then video it and post it online. “This of course has the net effect of embarrassing the teacher, taking a momentary lapse of judgement in a classroom and embedding it onto the web.”
As per that 21%, remember it includes teachers who know someone it happened to. Only 4% said it happened to them. Still, it’s one more thing for teachers to think about.
The study — which included interviews from kids and parents in 24 countries including the United States — also found that 62% of kids reported that they have had a negative experience online. It also found that 95% of parents know what their kids are looking at online.
Visit my CNET Blog for a more complete report on the study and a podcast interview with Marian Merritt.
Listen to 1 minute segment
One 1-minute CBS News/CNET Tech Talk segment which includes a sound bite from Marian Merritt.
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