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Today’s feature in this week’s look at online safety and digital citizenship resources is the “CyberCool” curriculum put out by the Ophelia Project (authored by Erika Dauber, M.A., Learning, Design, & Technology, Stanford University).  Let’s see what’s on offer with this curriculum …

Background Information on the Ophelia Project

As their website notes, the Ophelia Project is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1997 by Susan Wellman.  Inspired by the work of psychologist and author, Dr. Mary Pipher (“Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Lives of Adolescent Girls”), the Ophelia Project initially focused on increasing social and emotional support for adolescent girls, but its mission has since evolved to encompass boys, and is also exploring the issue of covert aggression in the adult workplace.  The project is committed to creating safe social climates in communities, i.e., where behaviors such as taunting, exclusion, gossip, rumor spreading, or any other forms of covert aggression or bullying are not accepted as rites of passage.  The Ophelia Project “believes that the work of creating safe social climates cannot be done alone, and the support of many passionate individuals [students, educators, administrators, health care professionals, youth programming leaders, members of the business community, parents and other adult role models] is necessary to foster long-term, systemic social change” (see Public Policy).

“CyberCool” Curriculum (Grades 6-9)

The curriculum is made up of 15 lessons to teach digital citizenship and stop cyberbullying.  The lessons are project-based and suitable for students in Grades 6-9 in both in-school and after-school settings.  The curriculum meets national standards for communication and collaboration and digital citizenship and employs engaging technology resources for student discovery and assessment.  The lessons help students explore peer aggression, empathy, communication, anonymity, empowerment and privacy in the digital world and to develop the courage and skills to take a stand against un-cool cyberbullying behaviors. 

The 15 lessons are centered around six “Core Concepts”:

Core Concept 1: Peer Aggression

• What is peer aggression?
• Peer aggression continuum
• Direct and indirect aggression
• The cycle of aggression

Core Concept 2: Communication – Communicating and identifying feelings

Core Concept 3: Anonymity

• Anonymity and empathy
• Anonymous comments
• The anonymous bystander
• Disinhibition and human rights

Core Concept 4: Empowerment

• Bystander empowerment
• Designing positively powerful solutions
• Digital time capsule

Core Concept 5: Accountability — Social norms

Core Concept 6: Privacy — A thousand hurtful words

As noted in the set of lessons, the curriculum can be implemented by a technology teacher or counselor in schools, after-school care programs, community centers, or summer camps.  The lessons are not blocked out in specific time intervals so that the facilitator can be flexibile, depending on class scheduling.

The CyberCool lessons will:

• Increase students’ empathy skills
• Make students aware of physical, verbal, relational, and most importantly, cyber aggression
• Educate students about the long-term consequences of cyberbullying in the digital space
• Engage students as investigators, designers, and mentors of safer cyber climates
• Empower students to write a manifesto regarding their beliefs and goals in making the Internet a safer social climate.
• Provide students with opportunities for blogging, “tweeting,” and sharing digital files in a safe, structured, bully-free environment.

The “CyberCool” curriculum costs $75 (as to 07/14/10 currently on sale for $60), and can be ordered from the website or by callling 1-888-256-KIDS (5437). 

Our Editorial: We applaud the many positive aspects of this impressive curriculum which we believe is a very useful resource for educators and students.  We particularly appreciate:

• Its acknowledgment that there are no “quick fixes” and that the “focus needs to be on long-term systemic change … by standing up against destructive social norms that perpetuate the cycle of covert aggression in children, youth and adults”;
• The program is “designed around the latest academic research”  and is evaluated annually to determine its effectiveness;
• It engages young people in positive, fun, and relevant ways with technology;
• Students are actively engaged in the “doing” of learning – they are encouraged to be investigators, designers, and mentors;
• They are actively engaged in helping create their own solutions, which we know engenders more “ownership”;
• The curriculum is linked to national standards, teaching 21st century skills such as communication and collaboration, and encouraging cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures;
• Focuses on relationships and behavior issues by and between young people rather than making the technology itself the focus;
• Works toward creating more positive social norms, both on- and offline;
• Addresses the crucial role bystanders (witnesses) play in cyberbullying;
• Encourages young people to be leaders of positive change.