EU BULLY Project: Apps for Anti-bullying Action
Background
Recommendations from the 2009 Unlearning Intolerance Seminar (held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York) called for international strategies on awareness, education, family involvement and policy change in dealing with “cyberhate”. European data protection legislation is now being applied to issues of cyberbullying, online harassment and identity theft.
In 2014, the European Parliament and Council implemented reforms to the EU data legislation. The European Commission has also been active in curbing online abuse by forming an agreement with 17 of the world’s leading social networks, including Facebook and Myspace, to ensure young people and children are better protected on the web.
In this context and in support of the digital community, the EU BULLY project has developed apps for use on mobile technologies which take the form of a mobile reporting app and a cloud-based adaptive game.
Objectives
The apps can be used by young people, teachers and parents to the following ends:
- Raise awareness of cyberbullying and other forms of bullying;
- Monitor and log anonymously the frequency and content of bullying;
- Remove the fear factor of reporting bullying to adults (parents, teachers, members of family, etc.) through the bullying log, which in turn provides ongoing detailed research data at local school level;
- Provide a positive way in which mobile technologies can be used to address bullying;
- Encourage teachers and parents to support young people in logging and reporting bullying by offering workshops on how to use the apps;
- Take advantage of this new free resource to be downloaded onto hand-held technologies, by making it available through a number of channels such as the internet, mobile internet, native iOS, Android and potentially others; and
- Log the use of the apps by the various users and collect relevant data.
EU BULLY Quiz Game App
The quiz app enables people of all ages to learn about bullying in a virtual space, by testing understanding about what types of bullying take place, challenging attitudes to bullying scenarios, asking what someone should do in a given bullying situation, and giving tips about how to stay safe online.
It uses a competitive learning game platform where pupils can play solo or challenge each other. The game content is influenced by the research undertaken with the target audience using drama techniques as a way of safely drawing out the issues. The content is broken down hierarchically into topics, facts (learning objects) and questions, all of which are stored in a relational database hosted in an EU data centre or with a safe-harbour approved provider.
The multiple choice quiz selects questions based on the user’s mastery of the topics and facts to give a personalised learning experience tailored to the individual. In terms of reporting, the system stores individual responses from users and tracks their mastery of the content. This enables a user’s understanding and progress to be monitored over time and to be compared to others. At a higher level, it is possible to analyse cross-sections of users by location, demographic, age, gender, school or arbitrary tags as required.
Users can be self-directed, peer-directed (via competitive challenges) or teacher-directed. This means that teachers and students have a high degree of flexibility in terms of utilising the game in class or outside of school. It is an interactive and fun exercise to complement workshops and lessons on bullying, or it can be given as homework. Teachers have the ability to register their students and follow their progress on a number of topics.
The 24-hour unrestricted access to content enables the quiz to also be picked up by young people of their own accord, to test their knowledge and reorientate their attitudes towards bullying, and the roles of victims, bystanders and bullies.
The game, which can be differentiated by age and is accessible through several technological devices (as described above), has been developed through consultation workshops with young people and hosted by Zammer Ltd.
The EU BULLY quiz app is available at http://zammer.co (registration required).
EU BULLY Mobile Reporting App
EU BULLY has created a separate stand-alone application that allows young people affected by bullying to speak up about their experiences in the safety of anonymity, by reporting incidences with type and circumstance as a bullying log.
The number of bullying incidents online are reported through a database and published on the EU BULLY site. This research tool enables the data collected to remain completely anonymous and stores it in a protected database. While the reporting app will use a secondary data store and have a different access point than the quiz game, it will meet the same stringent security standards.
The research survey app is another simple and quick anti-bullying activity. It allows students to be part of the solution by adding their statistics to a research database, which is collecting real-time information on the nature and scope of cyberbullying and other forms of bullying across Europe and beyond in order to inform European and national policy researchers.
This resource can be used by children from eight years and above and is accessible online, or it can be downloaded as an app onto iOS and android devices.
The survey can be found at http://eubully.eu/research-quiz/ and is also available to download on the AppStore (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/id1001216327) and Google Play.
The EU BULLY Quiz Game
This multiple choice quiz challenges myths about bullying, raises awareness of tips to stay safe online, and asks the question: what should I do in a bullying situation? This game is an interactive and fun exercise to complement workshops and lessons on bullying, or can be set as a homework. Teachers have the ability to register their students and follow their progress on a number of topics.
Access the game and register your school at: www.zammer.co
This game has been developed through consultation workshops with young people and hosted by Zammer Ltd.
The EU BULLY research survey app
Students can be part of the solution by adding their bullying stats to the EU BULLY research survey app, completely anonymously. This research app is collecting information on the nature and spread of bullying across Europe and beyond to inform the EU and national policy researchers. You can download the app which includes a simple yet fun game to grab your students’ attention and start up the conversation about bullying.
European School Heads Association (ESHA) Magazine
Take a look from page 17 to 18!