Abstract Book of the 9th International Conference on Modern Research in Education, Teaching and Learning
Year: 2025
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Sounds Against Silence: Music and Digital Media to Prevent Bullying
Cristina Greco
ABSTRACT:
Bullying – especially in its digital form – is an increasingly urgent challenge within school settings, with significant consequences for students’ emotional, social, and academic well-being.
This paper presents an innovative educational model that combines music and digital technology as tools for promoting empathy, critical thinking, and digital citizenship.
The approach involves interdisciplinary workshops where students engage in creative activities such as music composition, digital storytelling, role-playing, and multimedia production. These experiences encourage reflection on online relational dynamics and foster the development of social-emotional skills. Music has always played a central role in human expression, community bonding, and education. As highlighted in the literature, from Plato’s philosophical reflections to UNESCO’s recommendations on arts education, music is seen as a powerful medium capable of fostering inclusion, emotional awareness, and civic values (Greco, 2023). Its affective and communicative nature makes it a privileged tool to support relational understanding and empathy in school environments. In this context, music becomes more than artistic practice: it acts as a social connector and a pedagogical resource. Combined with digital technologies, it allows students to explore and express complex emotions, share experiences, and critically engage with the dynamics of cyberbullying. Evidence from classroom implementation reveals increased student sensitivity toward victims, a better understanding of the roles within online bullying, and more proactive attitudes in promoting respectful interactions. The model proposed is adaptable to diverse educational settings and offers a concrete strategy for preparing students to engage with technology in a conscious, responsible, and empathetic way.
Keywords: interdisciplinary learning, digital inclusion, socio-emotional competence, technology