Address: Martvili municipality, village Balda
Country: Georgia
Project: Internet space is not created for cyberbullying
Working language during the project:
- Georgia
- English
Themes of the Council of Europe project “FREE to SPEAK, SAFE to LEARN - Democratic Schools for All” covered:
- Making children’s and students’ voices heard
- Preventing violence and bullying
- Dealing with propaganda, misinformation and fake news
Competences from the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (CDC) addressed and where / how they were integrated:
- Valuing human dignity and human rights
The students involved in the project found information on cyberbullying. Then they independently prepared a presentation, outlining what rights are violated in cyberbullying. The students watched a video on cyberbullying and held a discussion. They highlighted the principle of human dignity and the need to protect it online. - Responsibility
Students conducted an online survey on social networks. Users of different ages were interviewed. The survey found that people have more responsibility when communicating online. Cyberbullying has been found to violate human rights and has been brought to justice. Students created a presentation, outlining the laws that punish cyberbullying. - Co-operation skills
The students collaborated with each other while working. After discussion and sharing their thoughts, they jointly developed descriptors on cyberbullying and when a person’s rights are violated. Together they developed recommendations on how to protect themselves from cyberbullying. They jointly prepared a short video.
Target group age range:
- 11-15
- 15-19
Level of education:
- Lower secondary education
- Upper secondary education
Short description of the project:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the usage of digital platforms increased rapidly for personal or educational purposes, which led to a concurrent increase in cyberbullying. The problem of cyberbullying was felt particularly acutely at school. This short-term school project, which was planned and implemented in Balda public school, was dedicated to this issue.
The following National Curriculum topics were developed through the project: democracy, human rights and anti-discrimination. Various school departments were involved in the project, including the Georgian language and literature Department, the Art Department, Social Sciences Department and the IT Department. Ten secondary school students and fourteen lower secondary school students took part in the project. Firstly, they developed thematic materials on competences for democratic culture. They searched for information on cyberbullying. They also prepared presentation materials which were presented to the learning community, tutors of different classes and representatives of departments. After a meeting, class teachers conducted a tutorial on cyberbullying and human rights. The students involved in the project translated it into Georgian and made a short video on cyberbullying. The film was shown and reviewed at the school. After reviewing the film, the students wrote down the descriptors and features that characterise cyberbullying.
The students involved in the project conducted a Facebook survey. They also compiled a special questionnaire for Internet users. The purpose of the study was to determine whether they had become victims of cyberbullying and identify what is cyberbullying for a social network user, what recommendations against cyberbullying could be offered by a user to a wider audience and how we can detect hidden accounts and protect ourselves from cyberbullying.
The students involved in the project studied the data they had collected and collated and created a set of recommendations. These recommendations were prepared for school children to help them protect themselves from cyberbullying. They made posters, invented special slogans and created electronic versions that were posted on social media, privately and on the school page. The purpose of the posters was to help students learn about cyberbullying and obtain specific information on how to protect themselves from it. The students involved in the project made a short video on cyberbullying and highlighted its negative side and the consequences it can have.
At the project’s final stage, the short video clip was presented and was attended by representatives of the school council, board of trustees and management. After showing and reviewing the film, the students drafted a common memorandum with which all signatories undertook never to resort to cyberbullying. After receiving the memorandum’s text, the students ceremoniously signed it.
At the initiative of the school council, it was planned to introduce the project to other schools of the region, as well as to implement a similar project throughout the district.
Aims/objectives
- Introducing information about cyberbullying.
- Implementation of preventive activities against cyberbullying in the school community.
- Collaboration between secondary school students and lower secondary school students.
Expected results/outcomes
- A student cooperation memorandum against cyberbullying;
- A student-based reference framework on how to understand that we are dealing with cyberbullying.
Changes
- Through remote learning, the school community, students, parents, and teachers became aware of the dangers of cyberbullying;
- Collaboration between students.
Challenges you faced
- Lack of IT skills in the first stage of pandemic regulation;
- Developing a clear framework for indicating competencies.
Time-frame of the project:
The project took one month to complete
Council of Europe materials on citizenship and human rights education used while preparing or implementing your practice:
- Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture
- Living Democracy - manuals for teachers
- We CAN!