Central Aroostook school recognized
for teaching students digital citizenship
MARS HILL — Common Sense Media, a national non-profit organization dedicated to helping children and families thrive in a world of digital media and technology, has certified Central Aroostook Junior-Senior High School as a Common Sense School for educating its students to be safe, smart and ethical digital citizens.
Central Aroostook has demonstrated its commitment to taking a whole-community approach to preparing its students to use the immense power of digital media to explore, create, connect and learn, while limiting the perils that exist in the online realm such as plagiarism, loss of privacy and cyberbullying.
“We applaud Central Aroostook for embracing digital citizenship as an important part of their students’ education,” said Rebecca Randall, vice president of education programs for Common Sense Media. “Central Aroostook deserves high praise for giving its students the foundational skills they need to compete and succeed in the 21st century workplace and participate ethically in society at large.”
According to the Common Sense Media website, the organization exists because “our nation’s children spend more time with media and digital activities than they do with their families or in school, which profoundly impacts their social, emotional and physical development. As a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization, we provide trustworthy information and tools, as well as an independent forum, so that families can have a choice and a voice about the media they consume.”
Central Aroostook has been using Common Sense Media’s innovative and research-based digital literacy and citizenship resources, which were created in collaboration with Dr. Howard Gardner of the GoodPlay Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
The resources teach students, educators and parents tangible skills related to Internet safety, protecting online reputation and personal privacy, what not to share, managing online relationships and respecting creative copyright. The free resources are currently used in more than 65,000 classrooms nationwide.
Principal Kevin Grass said the school is honored to be recognized as a Common Sense School.
“By preparing our students to use technology safely and responsibly,” he said, “we are providing them unlimited opportunities to maximize and personalize their learning.”
To learn more abut the criteria Central Aroostook had to meet to become certified, visit www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/recognition-schools.
