TPC-Journal-V2-Issue2

The Professional Counselor \Volume 2, Issue 2 175 5. Add music to the background at Aisha and LaTosha’s homes. 6. Put a realistic scene on the television. 7. Add a transition at the end; the scenario ended too abruptly—fade to black at the end and then bring up the questions. The participants also discussed how the argument between Aisha and LaTosha should take place (i.e., via Facebook chat or “wall-to-wall”). While Rick seemed adamant about using chat features of Facebook, Bridget was not as concerned, believing that similar conversations do take place wall-to-wall. After much discussion, we decided to keep the text interaction between the two girls as wall-to-wall postings since the production in the virtual world would be clearer to read, based on previous problems experienced by the developers. Discussion As noted earlier, cyberbullying is a growing concern for today’s adolescents. The purpose of this study was to use data to inform the scripting of two counseling scenarios that could be used for cyberbullying prevention with middle school students. Using a virtual environment to “act out” the scripts and later capturing the scenarios for off-line viewing was intentional and purposeful. While research on using virtual environments to teach cyberbullying prevention is limited (Wright et al., 2009), the use of virtual worlds to teach other skills and concepts has been successful (Amon & Campbell, 2008; Cobb et al., 2002). Further, using virtual worlds can offer a safe place to conduct scenarios of sensitive content (such as cyberbullying) (Zoll et al., 2006) while allowing for real world replications that can be engaging (Paperny & Starn, 1989). Thus, the intent of developing the scenarios was to provide a safe, alternative educational method for counselors and other helping professionals, as well as parents, to use in cyberbullying education and prevention, while assuring that the well-being and rights of youth are upheld. There were limitations to this study. First, this study focused on one school system in one state, thus generalizability to other middle schools is questionable. Second, video feedback from a more diverse population of students (e.g., African- American girl, feedback from 6th and 7th grade students) would have been helpful. The data informed our production and scripting, thus allowing the students’ voices to emerge in these scenarios. We believe reflecting the students’ voices, their actions, and the technologies they most use throughout the scenarios’ development provides further engagement in what can be more “teen-like” and meaningful to this specific audience. In the future, another phase of this study is needed. Feedback from school counselors, teachers, and students in diverse school settings will inform the researchers about the usefulness of the videos and whether or not additional videos are merited. It will be important to evaluate the effectiveness of the videos in terms of capturing students’ attention and facilitating useful discussions about cyberbullying. If additional videos are made in the future, we would make modifications. For example, we would seek diverse school populations for each phase of the study and note the potential differences across students in grades 6–8. We learned several lessons from this study that can inform future studies. (1) Iterations of the videos take time. Based on the data, both scenarios were reworked to reflect student participant input and concern; (2) Although working in a virtual environment presents challenges to researchers, we believe it can be a viable and safe medium to educate adolescents about cyberbullying prevention; (3) Creating fluid movements in SL can be problematic (e.g., awkward movements of avatars were sometimes distracting to the students); (4) By capturing the videos for off-line viewing, the scenarios can be utilized in multiple educational settings (e.g.. lecture, small groups, large groups, or individual viewing sessions); and (5) Videos offer “ice-breakers” to generate further discussions about cyberbullying prevention and intervention. Implications for School Counselors Cyberbullying-related deaths have continued to rise in recent years (e.g., Jesse Logan [Starr, 2009] and Hope Witsell [Inbar, 2009]) in 2009, Phoebe Prince in 2010 [McCabe, 2010], Tyler Clementi [Freidman, 2010], Natasha MacBryde [Loveland, 2011], and Britney Tongel [Leskin, 2011] and Amanda Cummings [Calabrese, 2012], in 2011 and 2012, respectively). With the fact that many of the given cases reached the point of suicide in high school underlines the need to focus on cyberbullying interventions in middle school, where literature has noted it peaks (Beale & Hall, 2007; Cassidy et