The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Facebook have partnered to launch a comprehensive curriculum on Digital Safety & Online Well-being and Augmented Reality (AR) for secondary school students in a bid to further their commitment towards digital inclusion and digital empowerment.
The partnership was led by Facebook for Education, a global initiative by the social media giant, with the aim to prepare students for the future of work and create a safe online environment and learning experience, according to a press statement.
Aimed at secondary school students, the curriculum covers various aspects such as safety, privacy, mental health and Instagram’s guide for building healthy digital habits. The module has been designed to guide students become responsible digital users, identify and report threats and harassment as well as report misinformation.
The curriculum is now being made available on the CBSE website. The programs are open to both students and teachers and registrations have now being opened on the website.
The Digital Safety and Online Well-being workshop, led by training partner Centre for Social Research (CSR), will teach students to understand their digital identity and how they can become responsible digital users. It will teach them how to communicate responsibly online, how to identify and respond to threats and harassment, and the tools with which they can empower themselves to stay safe and secure online. This curriculum will also enable students to explore good habits that can support their online well-being and keep their online experience healthy and happy.
The Instagram Toolkit for Teens, a collaboration between Instagram, The Jed Foundation (JED), and YLAC (Young Leaders for Active Citizenship), will look into how time spent online impacts emotional wellbeing and also share tips on dealing with bullying, hate speech and misinformation.
Congratulating CBSE and Facebook for the partnership and encouraging the students and teachers to apply for the programs, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal wrote on Twitter,
“I congratulate CBSE and Facebook on its partnership to introduce certified programs in augmented reality for teachers and digital safety & online well-being for students. I encourage the teachers and students to apply for the programs commencing on July 6, 2020.”
For Augmented Reality program, Facebook will support CBSE in its first-ever initiative to introduce AR as a curriculum. For this, School of Innovation from Facebook will train 10,000 teachers affiliated to CBSE in the first phase and then 30,000 students will undergo the same in the second phase. The program will teach teachers and students fundamentals of AR and ways to utilize Facebook’s software, Spark AR Studio, to create augmented reality experiences.
The objective of the program is to give students and teachers an opportunity and platform to learn how to conceptualize, create and brand their own AR experiences. Participants will learn how to use Spark AR Studio and publish experiences on Facebook, thereby becoming a part of the Spark AR ecosystem.
CBSE and Facebook will provide an online certificate of completion to participants who successfully complete the program by School of Innovation from Facebook. The application for the program has started on 6th July and will end on 20th July. The first batch will start on 10th August 2020. The three-week training program will be conducted in batches, three webinars for each batch, every Friday at 3pm – 4pm. For Digital Safety & Online Well-being, too, Facebook, CBSE, and CSR will provide an online certificate of completion to students who attend a full session of either program and complete a brief assessment/feedback form.
For detailed info about the program and to register, visit www.cbseacademic.nic.in/fb/training.html
