Teachers’ newest online worry: ‘cyberbaiting’

[Babe_Ruth]

Teachers? newest online worry: ?cyberbaiting? | eSchool News

A new report sheds light on an emerging trend known as “cyberbaiting,” a phenomenon where students taunt their teachers to the point of outburst, then capture the teachers’ reactions via cell phone videos and post those videos online for all to see.
Cyberbaiting is the latest example of using social networking for bad behavior, and one in five teachers across the globe has personally experienced cyberbaiting or knows another teacher who has, according to the Norton Online Family Report, a global survey of more than 19,000 students, parents, and teachers in 24 countries.

Perhaps due to the emergence of cyberbaiting, 67 percent of teachers across the world say being friends with students on social networks exposes them to risks. Still, 34 percent of global teachers continue to “friend” their students.
In the United States, 15 percent of teachers are friends with students on social networking sites, 90 percent of teachers think that being friends with students exposes them to risks, and 11 percent of teachers know a fellow teacher who has experienced cyberbaiting.

It's crazy what kids do these days to try to embarass their teachers or even get them fired.

 

[KSpiceFantastic]

That's sad. Teachers, especially in the US, are not paid very much, so for them to lose their jobs just because of some kids being jerks is stupid and ridiculous.

 

[oxyMORON]

I remember taking a class in high school in which the students were just so rude and disrespectful to the point where the teacher started tearing up. And she was an older lady too. Who does that? This was a regular class too, not an honors or AP class. I was absolutely shocked.


Not gonna lie, I do think that the level of respect for teachers goes up significantly with "intelligence" or relative academic success, although I had experience where an honors class had pretty much no respect for the teacher either. So it depends.

but in general, it's really disappointing to see how things have changed. If you ask me, teachers should be able to kick students' asses and make an example out of them.

 

[Dekzper]

Imo, cyberbaiting is way uncool and there needs to be changes on both sides.
Teachers that aren't bots should already know they'll get flamed sometimes by some of the students. They should be able to put that on "Ignore" and deal with it when needed.
And there's no way anybody needs to bring their cell into the classroom.

I think the best solution would be to keep cells out of the classrooms and penalize GPAs if it ever does happen. That would def take some of the "fun" outa riding the teachers and let serious students get serious with their studies.

 

[Falconer]

This is ridiculous, and more than a bit sad. And I mean that in both the 'upsetting' and 'my God, grow up, you pathetic idiots' ways.

I might have to go into teaching for a while as an en-route to my eventual plan of lecturing, and I'm frankly terrified of this kind of thing. You're torn between wanting to befriend your students and get their respect that way, and not really having a clear 'line' that's just too far any more. Even adding a student on FB is enough to get you in bother in some schools. I did a placement in a sixth form centre which had a brilliant atmosphere and a culture of respect where it was absolutely fine, but I know if the teachers tried it in the comprehensive I went to, a lot of the students would abuse their teacher's trust. Even in my university, where there's a FB group for one of the classes, the teacher jumped in and sent an email around saying he was "not best pleased" with one of the discussions on the page, mind, so it goes both ways.

I agree with Dek that there should be harsher sanctions about mobiles in the classroom, but some students will try to turn that around as well -- "You're infringing my human rights!" or "You're stealing my property!" No, you assbutts, your phone has been taken from you temporarily because you're being a dick. Grow up.