The Digital Citizenship Institute Wins International Award from GlobalMindED and WETC

DENVER - June 10, 2019 - PRLog -- The 2019 Digital Inclusion Award winner is The Digital Citizenship Institute (DCI), and its founder and CEO, Dr. Marialice B.F.X. Curran, accepted the award at the GlobalMindED Conference on Friday, June 7, 2019.

This award, as established by GlobalMindED and WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WETC), is "a unique recognition of an individual, organization or program having shown significant impact on low-income and/or First Generation learner populations with regard to increasing involvement in global digital leadership."

GlobalMindED is a 501(c)(3) innovation network that closes the equity gap through education, entrepreneurship, employment and economic mobility to create a capable, diverse talent pipeline.

"The Digital Citizenship Institute is so honored to receive the Digital Inclusion Award from GlobalMindED because our mindsets align so beautifully. We both believe in being empathetic, innovative, entrepreneurial, and inclusive, and it is only through honoring the human that we can be the local, global, and digital change in the world," Curran stated as she received the award on Friday.

Curran knows that diversity brings strength, and has been a leader in the digital citizenship community for the past decade, as she has worked ​to change the narrative around technology and social media use through her innovative work with local, global, and digital communities. Recognized as a pioneer in the field, Curran has focused on a proactive approach to solve today's toughest problems in education. Her digital citizenship journey began as a direct result of intolerance, cyberbullying, and teen suicide. By 2011, her iCitizen Project research began the shift towards humanizing the person next to you, around the world, and across the screen.

Humanizing others takes on many forms for Curran. One of DCI's flagship events, the Digital Citizenship Summits (DigCitSummits), allows a gathering of digital citizenship enthusiasts and influencers from four critical stakeholders: students, educators, parents and business leaders to provide an opportunity to address the positive ways to actively use social media and technology at school, at home, and at work. The DCI has established partnerships in Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Ireland, UK, Kuwait, Jordan, Canada, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, India, and around the United States, and has hosted and coordinated summits since 2015, continuing the legacy that was begun in 2011.

GlobalMindED and WCET believes, "Digital inclusion is not about infrastructure, or software deployments, but is about how learners utilize technologies to improve society. While giving technology to students with limited access is important, we must also provide educational opportunities."

Advocating for educational opportunities consistently, with her most recent effort being a published book of her mother/son digital citizenship journey, DigCitKids: Lessons Learning Side-by-Side, Curran continues to lead in the field of digital citizenship. She invited contributing authors to tell their stories from Australia, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Scotland, Spain and the United States. The DigCitKids book is a reminder that we are one world, one human race, and we are better together.

The Digital Inclusion Award recognizes that digital inclusion is leveraging "mindware," not hardware/software, is one component of a larger communications ecosystem, not a stand-alone concept, and should be the overall goal of technological evolution.

For more information about DCI, you can follow them at @digcitinstitute on Twitter and Instagram, as well as digcitinstitute.com; for more information about GlobalMindED, you can follow them at @GlobalMindEdOrg on Twitter or visit their website at https://globalminded.org/.