Student-Led Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign
The EGUSD student-led #UnfollowBullying campaign won a second award — this time at a national level. The National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) selected #UnfollowBullying for a Golden Achievement Award which recognizes exemplary public relations activities, programs and projects. Congratulations EGUSD students!
The student creators of the #UnfollowBullying campaign celebrated their Edublog Award for Best Twitter Hashtag at a recent meeting of the EGUSD Superintendent’s Student Advisory. Almost 60 high school students from across the district have been involved over two years in the creation and planning of the anti-cyberbullying campaign.
The 2012-2013 students enjoyed a special #UnfollowBullying cake while planning the next steps of the campaign. The EGUSD Board of Education will recognize these students at the March 5, 2013, Board of Education meeting.
A huge congratulations to all EGUSD students who participated in the recent #UnfollowBullying campaign. Your student-led initiative caught the attention of an international audience, earning a nomination for the 2012 Edublog Awards for the Best Twitter Hashtag. At last night’s Edublogs Virtual Awards ceremony, #UnfollowBullying, out of 116 nominations in this category, moved from nominee into the top 5 – and by a significant margin – was declared the winner!
The Edublog Awards are an annual, community-based program that recognizes and celebrates excellent practice in the use of blogs and social media to facilitate teaching and learning. Nominations in various categories are submitted from any country, in any language, from educators working with any age group or type of learner, including learner-led initiatives.
The annual Edublog Awards competition started in 2004 with a focus on blogging-related categories. Over the years, with the emergence of new social media technologies, such as Twitter, the categories have changed. In 2009, the Best Twitter Hashtag (#) category was added.
Last year, Superintendent Steven M. Ladd, Ed.D., asked his student advisory committee to select a digital citizenship campaign topic, create a name and design a campaign. Students selected cyberbullying as the topic of focus. They brainstormed a number of campaign names before selecting #UnfollowBullying. The students shared that Twitter has fast become a favorite social media tool for teens and that the term hashtag (#) is now part of their everyday language. #UnfollowBullying clearly resonated with the global audience of voters.
We are sure this award will act as a catalyst to keep the campaign momentum moving forward. A special thanks to all of those who supported and voted for #UnfollowBullying.
Here’s a shout out to all the EGUSD students who have participated so far in the #UnfollowBullying campaign. It’s exciting to see students in other districts joining in your efforts to eliminate all forms of bullying and recognizing your efforts to bring about positive changes at your school sites! Students at La Paz Middle School in Salinas, California, attribute their anti-cyberbullying campaign to you:
By taking action, EGUSD students have inspired us to speak out, too. We especially love their excellent tweet advice (e.g. “Be sweet with your Tweets!” ”Don’t be bitter on Twitter”) included in their online student toolkit at #UnfollowBullying which helps students everywhere “stand up, speak out and be the change.”
#UnfollowBullying Tweets from La Paz Middle School
Congratulations, EGUSD students, on the positive impact your campaign is having within – and beyond – the district!
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