Launched “Live” at IndieGoGo: CyberWise ‘No Grownup Left Behind’ Learning Hub Campaign

Los Angeles. CA (PRWEB) June 07, 2012

Digital learning site CyberWise.org announced the launch today of their IndieGoGo crowd-funding campaign, "Cyberwise 'No Grownup Left Behind'" to support their ongoing efforts to help stop digital technophobia and to bridge today’s generational digital divide. The long-term goal for CyberWise is to contribute to the positive use of digital tools for learning and engagement by adults inside and outside the home. This IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign will run from June 6 – July 15, 2012.

Having tripled in size in less than a year, the CyberWise Learning Hub is helping ease the fears of busy adults who are intimidated by today’s often confusing digital landscape. Through the use of simple CyberWise Guides, parents, educators (and even kids!) can learn how to connect, communicate, collaborate, and create digital content safely and wisely. Each of the free CyberWise videos and companion e-book guides available on the website walk users through media literacy topics such as “New Media 101” and “Digital Citizenship,” and digital tools such as “Twitter,” “Prezi”, and “Glogster” in a fun and entertaining way.

“Every day the news is full of stories about adults using digital tools poorly or not at all,” says CyberWise Co-Founder Cynthia Lieberman. “This means in a world where kids are spending more time with their digital devices than they spend in school or at home, they must learn how to navigate the complex digital landscape from peers, often without any meaningful adult guidance. That’s why we are committed to providing a Learning Hub that is keenly devoted to making sure as adults march forward into our accelerating hyper mediated culture with confidence. CyberWise wants to make sure there is ‘no grownup left behind.’”

CyberWise is the brainchild of co-founders Diana Graber and Cynthia Lieberman, two M.A’s in Media Psychology and Social Change with more than 40 years of combined experience as successful creators of entertainment programs and marketing campaigns. Also mothers of school-aged children, they are now putting their professional storytelling skills and media psychology insights to work for CyberWise.

“Our digital learning/media literacy tools are simple, and they arm adults with the necessary skills to protect children who are going online at increasingly younger ages,” says Graber. “While there are many tutorials available that demonstrate how to use digital technologies, few address the psychology of why behind them,” explains Graber. "We have discovered that the ‘not just how but why’ approach helps alleviate the fear-based resistance that sometimes deters parents and educators from engaging in the use of digital technologies in the first place.”

So far CyberWise guides have been accessed by a wide range of adults hoping to improve their digital literacy skills - from a florist using Facebook to connect with her clients, to school administrators and corporate managers attempting to moderate the use of technologies in schools and the workplace, to grandparents seeking better communication with family members and friends.

IndieGoGo.com is an online “crowd-funding” fundraising platform that securely and collectively allows individuals and organizations worldwide to donate, publicly or anonymously, any amount they choose for a project, in exchange for special rewards.

“In order to keep up with the increasing demand to produce more of these free learning tools for adults and kids, it only made sense to ‘go go’ straight to our fans and the public for ‘indie’ community support through an IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign,” adds Lieberman.

”What we really like about the IndieGoGo platform is that everyone wins. Donors get to choose from a wide array of ’perks,’ we get to make our dream come true, and lots of grownups become digitally literate,” adds Graber.

Hoot hoot! To donate to this campaign visit the CyberWise campaign page, watch the YouTube trailer and/or learn more about CyberWise:

CyberWise IndieGoGo Campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/becyberwise
CyberWise Website: http://www.cyberwise.org
Official YouTube Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/user/cyberwise1
The CyberWise Daily: http://paper.li/BeCyberwise/1309649589
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeCyberwise
Twitter: @BeCyberwise
Email: info@cyberwise.org

About CyberWise.org:

CyberWise was recently recognized as a Stage 2 winner of the MacArthur Foundation/ HASTAC/Mozilla Digital Media and Learning Competition designed to find and fund the most innovative uses of new media in support of connected learning. Dedicated to putting an end to adult digital illiteracy, our mission at http://www.CyberWise.org is to build a digital learning hub consisting of short, entertaining videos, e-books, and other resources that help busy adults become digitally literate. Why? Today many grownups are being left behind with poor or non-existent digital skills. The result? A lack of communication and understanding between generations, an absence of positive digital role models for young people, negative or dangerous online behaviors, and poor usage of digital tools for learning.

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