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Cyberbullying Cyberbullying or online bullying is repeated, unwanted or cruel behavior against someone through computers, cell phones, gaming consoles, or other Internet-based means. The Internet is always “on,” opening the door for 24-hour harassment. Cyberbullies can be anonymous. They never have to confront their victims, they don’t have to be physically stronger and cyberbullies may be virtually invisible to parents and adults.

Look for warning signs your child may be the victim of cyberbullying – depression, lack of interest in school and friends, drop in grades and subtle comments that something may be wrong. If your child is the victim of cyberbullying, take action. By filtering email, instant messages and text messages, you can cut off many of the ways the cyberbullies contact your child. By having your child avoid the sites and groups where the attacks occur, he/she can ignore the bully. If harassment continues, change your child’s email address, user names and Internet account. If these steps do not stop the cyberbullying, contact the parents of the child who is behind the bullying, contact the school, and if the situation is not resolved, involve the police. It’s important to compile copies of harassing emails and postings to have evidence for authorities or the school, so they can take action. Look for signs that your child may be the cyberbully themselves – if they sign onto the Internet under someone else’s name, if they use someone else’s password without their permission, if they posted rude or mean things about someone else online, if they use bad language online, or if they changed their profile or away message designed to embarrass or frighten someone. Talk to your kids about cyberbullying and why it’s wrong and hurtful.

Slightly less than half of Latinos surveyed have home computers, compared to rates of 79 percent and above among black, Asian and white Californians, the survey found. While computer usage by blacks and whites in California has increased, there's been a decline in computer usage by Latinos and Asians, though Asian use remains much higher than that of Latinos. The drop appears to be correlated with income, with a sharp divide in computer usage between those making less than $40,000 and those making more.

Only 48 percent of Latinos have home computers compared with 86 percent of whites, 84 percent of Asians and 79 percent of blacks Californians, the institute reported.

But Asians and Latinos have seen declines in use of computers. Latinos' computer use has declined from 64 percent to 58 percent since 2000, while Internet use remained unchanged. Asians' use of computers was much higher, but also declined from 91 percent to 81 percent; Internet use went from 84 percent to 80 percent. Only 48 percent of Latinos have home computers compared with 86 percent of whites, 84 percent of Asians and 79 percent of blacks Californians, the institute reported.

Simon Bunce of Hampshire, England, not only had his credit-card number stolen online but was arrested and falsely accused of being a pedophile when that card number was used to buy child pornography.

Yet that only came after he'd lost his $250,000-a-year job, his father and siblings stopped talking to him and his computer was taken away for several months, the BBC reports. Bunce had the misfortune of being caught up in Operation Ore, a massive British online kiddie-porn crackdown in 2003 that itself grew out of Operation Avalanche, an earlier American bust which began with a 1999 raid on Landslide Productions, a Texas mom-and-pop operation that handled credit-card transactions for porn Web sites.

about 7,200 people — whose card numbers showed up on the list.

In the past, the Medford district had used its umbrella policy on bullying, harassment and intimidation to crack down on cyber bullying.Spelling out the ban on cyber bullying and threatening to suspend driving privileges sends out a clear message that school officials are on the watch for such behavior, officials said.

Brown's class was discussing some of the whaling calculations in Moby Dick. When one student asked a question involving a complex computation, three students quickly pulled out their cell phones and did the math. Brown was surprised to learn that most cell phones have a built-in calculator. She was even more surprised at how literate her students were with the many functions included in their phones. She took a quick poll and found that all her students either had a cell phone or easy access to one. In fact, students became genuinely engaged in a class discussion about phone features. This got Brown thinking about how she might incorporate this technology into learning activities.

Brown noticed that many students used text messaging to communicate, and considered how she might use cell phones in summarizing and analyzing text to help her students better understand Richard III. Effective summarizing is one of the most powerful skills students can cultivate. It provides students with tools for identifying the most important aspects of what they are learning, especially when teachers use a frame of reference (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). Summarizing helps students identify critical information. Research shows gains in reading comprehension when students learn how to incorporate isummary framesi (series of questions designed to highlight critical passages) as a tool for summarizing (Meyer & Freedle, 1984). When students use this strategy, they are better able to understand what they are reading, identify key information, and provide a summary that helps them retain the information (Armbruster, Anderson, & Ostertag, 1987).

Text messaging is a real-world example of summarizing—to communicate information in a few words the user must identify key ideas. Brown saw that she could use a technique students had already mastered, within the context of literature study.