Boise State School of Public Service faculty member Isaac Castellano and Director of the Games, Interactive Media, and Mobile program Anthony Ellertson, in partnership with the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, were awarded a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention grant for $265,000 to fund the development of a suite of digital teaching tools that will support and supplement human rights education at the secondary grade level. The initiative partners with Idaho teachers from across the state to help develop the products with the goal of integrating them in classroom across and the state.
Attracting young people to the content of human rights education will require innovating in the digital space where so many young Americans spend up to eight hours a day, Castellano and Ellertson said. This project aims to advance human rights education learning objectives by utilizing accessible technology and tailoring it to the needs of Idaho teachers. Underserved rural communities, in particular, will greatly benefit from the project as the technology can be easily deployed at no cost to teachers or home-schooled students.
The project will run for two years.