Seeing that the Department of Education is hosting a cyber-bullying summit this week caused me to wonder aloud something that I and others have wondered before:

How much of the cyber-bullying and other online safety issues would be helped if schools were encouraged, empowered and supported in moving to a new pedagogy where technology was ubiquitous, and therefore made safe use and ethics lessons as prevalent from an early age as are traffic/crosswalk safety, scissor safety, playground safety, bus safety, stranger danger, swimming/water safety, chemistry/science class safety, various PE safety and more? How much money would be saved versus the cost of dealing with cyber-bullying and other online crime? Would that, coupled with not purchasing textbooks (or at least not as many) and other “programs” pay most of any added cost to ramping up technology purchases and professional development costs involved?

Oh, and maybe our children would be safer too.

Learning is messy!