Google to bring lessons on ‘Digital Citizenship’ to classrooms in India

Google has announced its collaboration with NCERT to integrate a course on Digital Citizenship and Safety in the ICT (Information and communication technology) curriculum. Students from class I - class XII across 1.4 million schools in India will now learn how to become good and responsible digital citizens, through structured classroom modules on the social, ethical and legal aspects of Internet safety.

In addition, Google has also created a curriculum for teachers, so that they can help students learn all about digital citizenship in their classrooms.

Commenting on the collaboration with NCERT, Sunita Mohanty, Director, Trust and Safety, Google India said, "While the Internet has made life easier for everyone and offers so many opportunities to explore, create and collaborate across all age groups, users online or those coming online for the first time, need to be aware of the possible negative experiences that they may incur on the web. This makes it important for us to start a dialogue on the dangers and threats they can be exposed to when surfing the net. Through our course integration with NCERT, we aim to catch children young and teach them the essentials of staying safe, while exploring the online world."

Dr. Amarendra Behera, Joint Director, CIET - NCERT, "School education is the foundation for a successful future. We are glad to partner with Google and place on record their association in developing and transacting ICT in Education courses for School Education that is relevant in today's context. In an increasingly connected world, the internet is fast emerging as a learning space for our students and it's our responsibility as educators to provide them with a safe learning environment. We hope this initiative will prepare our students to identify the threats and ensure a safe web experience online."

Digital citizenship and safety course in classrooms

The program includes a range of specific resources for kids, and educators, enabling them with the tools they need to learn and educate themselves on internet safety. The syllabus for online safety presented in the curriculum will be systematically graded and has been divided into four overarching themes - Being Smart; Being Safe; Being a Digital Citizen and Being Future Ready. The curriculum is structured to match the intellectual and curiosity needs of different age group of the children. For example, in lower classes, students will focus on engaging with technology and learning the use of basic digital tools. In middle classes students will be introduced to basics of the internet, concepts of account safety and distinguishing good content from bad.

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As they advance through their classes, they will be taught more advanced topics such as privacy, device management, intellectual property and reputation management. Finally, as they become ready to graduate as digital citizens, they will be prepared with online financial literacy and cybercrime concepts so that they are future ready.