Many of you know that I talk a lot about our STOPiT class and the advantages this class has had for our school. STOPiT (Smart Topics on Personal iPad Technology) is a mandatory course for our students who have violated our Responsible Use Policy (RUP). Cozad High School began the STOPiT class in the Fall of 2012. In the Fall of 2013, Grand Island Northwest, with Heather Callihan (@hcallihan), joined us. Connecting, collaborating, and creating between the two schools has designed a program that has created positive benefits for both districts.Our technology department shares many articles, news feeds, and resources regarding digital citizenship with our staff and students. Not only is this information shared with our students through STOPiT, but through social media, discussions, and other classes. However, we still have felt we are missing SOMETHING and we believe that "something" is educating our parents and patrons. So, through collaborative thinking, we have started our new campaign we have named STARTiT.
STARTiT (Social Teens Acting Responsible Together in Technology) symbolizes that teaching Digital Citizenship must start with parent, family, and community education. It must happen to reduce the amount of students that end up in our STOPiT class (or worse social consequences). Our goal is to establish regular outreach and educational opportunities for parents in the areas of social media and digital citizenship.
We held our first conversational meeting last night of educators throughout our district and had a great representation of elementary, middle school, and high school teachers. We have decided to pursue this STARTiT campaign and our first mission is to create a team that will work toward our goal. Our team will consist of teachers, administrator, students, parents, and community representation. The group had so many great ideas and I am so excited to get this off the ground!
Stay tuned to learn more about our STARTiT campaign as it develops!
