A novel ICT tool to prevent bullying in schools

Abstract

[EN] In the last few years, bullying and has emerged as one of the main issues to be addressed by the Educational community. The problem of bullying in primary and secondary schools is particularly important, as students are in a sensitive age and consequences may negatively affect their adult lives too. This problem has become an active are for researchers of different disciplines. Specifically, different studies have focused this problem by means of ICT tools in order to fight against bullying in schools. According to this, in the literature we can find a wide range of ICT-based tools such as e-learning systems, intelligent tutoring systems, gamified applications, analytics, or even artificial intelligence have been proposed as technological assets against bullying. Most of these proposals focus on bullying prevention by means of educational applications. However, there is a need of ICT tools that support teachers and other educational staff in the fight against bullying, both at the detection and mitigation stage.

In this paper, we propose a novel ICT tool focused on bullying mitigation and detection. This tool is currently composed by two different components. One the one hand, this tool integrates several validated tests in order to determine the potential risk of an individual for becoming a victim or a bully. On the other hand, it also provides a notification mechanism for anonymously reporting situations related to bullying. By considering both components, the tool is able to determine those actions that should be considered by teachers and educational staff in order to mitigate potential problems and prevent future situations related to bullying.