TPC-Journal-V2-Issue2

The Professional Counselor \Volume 2, Issue 2 173 Results Scenario One Scenario I, “Mark Goes to the Counselor,” was the educationally-based video (i.e., the school counselor listens to a student regarding a Facebook joke that escalated into a problem). Based on focus group feedback from adolescents, this educational scenario fulfilled a need for adults and counselors to be more aware of how to prevent cyberbullying. While the students viewed “Mark Goes to the Counselor,” they pointed out minor problems with the rendered scenario. For example, the male participant (Rick) was distracted by the avatar’s movements. He stated that the counselor’s hand movements were “awkward.” Rick’s other major concern had to do with the buildings in the scenario, noting that they “looked too academic” as compared to a middle school setting. The female participant (Bridget) was not as distracted by the avatar’s movements. She noted that the scenario seemed “realistic” to her. From the researchers’ observations, the scenario engaged the participants. In the ensuing discussions following the scenario, both students noted the educational value of the scenario for their peers. Because “Mark Goes to the Counselor” had an interactive segment at the end which posed questions related to cyberbullying, the students also critiqued this part of the video. Reponses from both students included information about the appropriateness and usefulness of the questions. The students believed that the questions would generate discussions about cyberbullying prevention and how to “deal with it (cyberbullying).” Scenario Two Data also informed the scripting of second scenario, “Aisha and LaTosha on Facebook.” This behaviorally-based scenario focused on two adolescent African-American girls who were involved in online gossiping (via Facebook) which quickly escalated into a cyberbullying incident. The social network, Facebook, was chosen for this scenario because it is recognized as the most popular social networking medium (see online data collection venues which monitor web traffic such as Nielsen, Compete, ComScore, and others) and remains popular among adolescents. For this scenario, capturing the texting exchange between the girls was important to illustrate how the gossip escalated. However, a texting exchange presented problems for the scenarios’ developers. Basically, the initial text messaging exchange that was sought for the “Aisha and LaTosha on Facebook” video was illegible and difficult to understand on the first attempt. Thus, the scenario had to be reworked prior to the students’ viewing. About two months later, the same male and female participants ( n = 2) agreed to critique the second video. While viewing “Aisha and LaTosha on Facebook” on a laptop, the male participant (Rick) paused the video frequently, pointing out technical issues he noticed. For example, a few seconds into viewing he commented on “bad timing” between the sound of the avatars’ typing and the typing movements the girls made on the computers. Moments later, he paused again, this time pointing to a cursor which was located over the text. He noted how difficult it was to read one of the girl’s texts as she posted on the Facebook wall. Rick also believed that some of the text and punctuation was “too grammatically correct.” He remarked, “teens don’t use that” giving a specific example of using a “w” with a slash (/) mark (w/) versus typing the word “with” and that teenagers use “u” for you. He stated that we should make the “grammar more teen-like.” Rick also commented that it would be more likely for the two girls to have this type of conversation (i.e., depicted in the scenario) in “chat” versus “posting on each other’s wall in Facebook.” Another video quality issue was resolved with participant feedback. While the second scenario was written to focus on the conversation of two girls and their gossip, a third girl (Sierra) also was present at the beginning of the scenario. Rick believed that Sierra’s presence was confusing and thought she should be removed. Upon completion of the video, Rick had additional comments regarding the actual scenario production. After viewing, we asked if Rick believed the scenario made sense. He said “yes” and that he could “follow along.” We also asked Rick what message he received from the scenario. This question caused him some difficulty and after being prompted a second time, he stated that the scenario depicted how “gossip starts” and illustrated how students should not “jump to conclusions