WALTHAM, MA | February 13, 2012
EDC has been awarded a grant from the social networking site Facebook to research schools’ efforts to prevent cyberbullying and what social networking sites can learn from local programs. The award is one of four Digital Citizenship Research Grants given by Facebook which received nearly 100 applications from 10 countries.
All of the grants focus on the interconnecting roles of teens, parents, educators, and companies working to foster digital citizenship, use social media productively, and reduce bullying.
As part of its grant, EDC will focus on cyberbullying prevention, conducting research in approximately 25 school districts in Massachusetts as they formulate and implement state-mandated bullying prevention efforts. EDC will then summarize current programs and strategies in cyberbullying prevention, offering recommendations for enhancing school-based cyberbullying prevention strategies, strengthening the anti-bullying education and outreach efforts of social networking sites, and promoting the positive use of social media among youth.
“With Facebook supporting efforts to understand and prevent bullying, the recommendations we provide will no doubt be amplified,” said EDC’s Shari Kessel Schneider, who will direct the research. “We think online safety is a responsibility shared by parents, teachers, teens, policymakers, and companies such as Facebook, and we are pleased to be part of their research endeavor.”
Other grantees are the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE), Canada’s McGill University, and European Schoolnet, a network of 30 Ministries of Education in Europe. Results of the research will be available in fall 2012.
To learn more, Facebook has posted information about the funded organizations and their research plans at go.edc.org/Facebook-Award.
Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), is a global nonprofit organization that addresses some of the world’s most urgent challenges in education, health, and economic development. EDC manages 350 projects in 35 countries. Visit edc.org.
