The Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication (www.iroc2.org) will be honored for their efforts to keep children safe by the School Safety Advocacy Council. IROC2 will receive this national award at the National School Safety Conference to be held the week of July 26-30, 2010 at the Hilton Bonnet Creek/Waldorf Astoria located adjacent to Walt Disney's EPCOT Center in Orlando, Florida. Members of the media are invited to attend and should request press credentials through the SSAC.
Richard Guerry and The Institute will be honored in recognition of their selfless and tireless efforts to communicate a Digital Consciousness™ to youth across the nation. This self-funded nonprofit was nominated by an editor of several respected and prestigious school safety publications who states,
"I spend hours researching worthwhile programs to recommend to my readers. I attend conferences, such as the annual School Safety Advocacy Council, to find the very best of the best - to help school administrators keep students safe. And IROC2 is one of the most pro-active programs I've found. I've personally had two readers contact me to say thanks for the referral and tell me that IROC2 helped reduce problems, especially reducing in-school fights caused by online arguments. The IROC2 Web site has more positive feedback from school administrators. Digital technology is a major part of students' lives, so they must learn to use it responsibly - before making a life-altering mistake. Clearly, considering all of the sexting, cyberbullying and suicide headlines, students need this education. IROC2 fills that need. I cannot think of another individual or organization that I could possibly recommend for the School Safety Advocacy Council's Exemplary School Safety Initiative Award over Richard Guerry and The Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication (IROC2)."
The IROC2 Speakers' Bureau travels to schools across the country to teach students how to use digital technology responsibly. Most importantly, no school is ever denied access to the program because the school can't fit it into ever-tightening budgets.
Jana Perry Photography |
The program focuses on teaching students to self-monitor their online behavior. It addresses two important factors that many students ignore: Everything posted on the Web is (1) public and (2) permanent.
Rather than reacting when students engage in sexting and cyberbullying, IROC2 aims to prevent those mistakes from happening by:
teaching students that they are responsible for their online actions, and
outlining ways to avoid common digital mistakes.
clearly (visually) illustrating the sometimes tragic and scary Consequences that stem from the abuse of digital tools and technologies.
using a live internet environment to confirm the sometimes unbelievable facts communicated during the Live Events
IROC2 participated in MTV's "A Thin Line," an initiative to help students understand the real life dangers that are associated with online mistakes. The program aired nationally on Valentine's Day 2010, and Guerry was a featured speaker during the broadcast. Richard has also been interviewed on numerous occasions by Parade Magazine, a guest on CNN Sunday Morning, and featured in various local news and radio programs across the nation.
Recently, IROC2's Speakers' Bureau has traveled to California, Idaho, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Montana, New Hampshire, Maryland, Massachusetts, Texas, Wyoming, New Jersey, New York and Kansas to help teach parents, law enforcement, military, students and educators how to use digital technology responsibly; proving that your actions in a digital world are public and permanent. Their Live Event tour calendar for the upcoming 2010 - 2011 school year is already a "hot ticket" across the country!
The interactive program engages students and speaks to them on their level. Because of the tone, students pay attention, ask questions and learn to self-monitor their online behavior; preventing issues before they happen. In fact, the number one referrer of this program across the nation ─ is teenagers!
When asked about both the nomination and receiving this national award, IROC2's Executive Director Richard Guerry gave this statement for everyone involved in this process, "Thank you for caring about our digital youth. If we all shared the same passion, millions of current and future lives would only stand to benefit from the vast creativity, ingenuity and imagination of our evolving digital world."
Office of the Cyber General
www.iroc2.org
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