Following on from the successful Roi Et workshops another one was conducted in Nong Khai. This time there were 38 student participants and it was facilitated by University of Plymouth PhD researcher Ram Herkanaidu, teacher Pao Wright and Silvie Hylton-Potts who took the photographs.
The first activity was for them to write on the board what they did online.
To demonstrate how news can spread quickly online they each had to write down the names of two fellow students. One person was chosen at random to stand up and read out the names on their list. Those students had to stand up and read from their list and so on. It proved a fun and visual way to demonstrate how news spread and that we should think carefully before we post/send a message, photo or video.
In groups they were asked to discuss and write down 5 good (positive) and 5 bad (negative) aspects of the Internet and draw a picture of one item on each list. Each group then had to present their lists to the rest of the class.
Students were asked to watch a short Thai video on cyberbullying:
As in previous workshops they agreed that it happened a lot but they did not usually discuss it with anyone except sometimes with friends. They either thought it was not important enough to bother parents or teachers or that they would be the ones that are blamed for it.
The last exercise of the day was on how to build resilience to negative online experiences. One way that was proposed is the Buddhist practice of Sati (mindfulness) essentially to think before acting and especially to not react when feeling upset or angry.
Students said they enjoyed the workshop especially learning more about cyberbullying.
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