Common Sense, the national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids and families thrive in a world of media and technology, has recognized Learning Together Anywhere School as a Common Sense School.
Learning Together Anywhere School has demonstrated its commitment to taking a whole-community approach to preparing its students to think critically and use technology responsibly to learn, create, and participate while preparing them for the perils that exist in the online realm, such as plagiarism, loss of privacy, and cyberbullying. With the right support, kids can take ownership of their digital lives, engage with real issues, and change their communities for the better. The recognition acknowledges our school's commitment to creating a culture of digital citizenship.
"We applaud the faculty and staff of Learning Together Anywhere School for embracing digital citizenship as an important part of their students' education," said Kelly Mendoza, vice president of education programs at Common Sense Education. "Learning Together Anywhere School 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."
Learning Together Anywhere School has been using Common Sense Education's innovative and research-based digital citizenship resources, which were created in collaboration with researchers from Project Zero, led by Howard Gardner at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and are grounded in the real issues students and teachers face. The resources teach students, educators, and parents tangible skills related to internet safety, protecting online reputations and personal privacy, media balance, managing online relationships, and media literacy. The free K–12 curriculum is used in classrooms in more than 80,000 schools by more than 1,00,000 educators.
"We're honored to be recognized as a Common Sense School," said LTA School Principal Brandon Isert. "By preparing our students to use technology safely and responsibly, we are providing them an opportunity to build lifelong habits to help them succeed in a tech-driven world."
For more information about Learning Together Anywhere School, go to learningtogetheranywhere.ca. To learn more about the criteria Learning Together Anywhere School met to become recognized as a Common Sense School, visit https://www.commonsense.org/education/recognition-schools.
About Learning Together Anywhere School
Learning Together Anywhere was first introduced in 2020 as a learning pathway for NLPS families to provide families with an alternative to sending their children to in-person classes during a pandemic. Starting in the 2021-22 school year, Learning Together Anywhere officially became a stand-alone K-9 online school in Northern Lights Public Schools.
Students from anywhere in Alberta can participate in online learning delivered by certified teachers. Students will have the opportunity to engage in real-time live virtual instruction, pre-recorded teacher-directed lessons and activities, and project-based learning. LTA offers a rigorous, highly interactive curriculum that follows the Alberta Curriculum.
About Common Sense Education
Common Sense Education supports K–12 schools with free, timely, and research-based resources for teaching in the digital age. We believe that learning digital life skills is essential for students to thrive in today's world and that all students should have access to learning these skills. That's why we make our digital citizenship resources available for free, ready for any educator to plug in to tomorrow's lesson plan. Our core resources include a comprehensive K–12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum, all-inclusive reviews of the most popular and latest edtech tools, and expert advice on how to use those tools most effectively in the classroom. Over half a million educators in nearly half of K–12 U.S. schools use our resources to teach kids digital life skills. We're excited to keep that number growing so all our kids can thrive in the digital age.
Common Sense is the leading independent nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology. Every day, Common Sense supports parents, teachers, and policymakers with unbiased information, innovative tools, and trusted advice to support kids' digital well-being. To see all of Common Sense Education's resources, visit https://www.commonsense.org/education.