Facebook Wants Educators, Parents, Caregivers and Students to Get Digital

With schools shuttered across the country due to the coronavirus pandemic, Facebook introduced its Get Digital program, with resources to help schools and families create safe, healthy and supportive digital communities. [kickout id="1"] Facebook said the resources were designed to be used by educators, parents, caregivers and students, both in the classroom and at home, with the latter becoming far more relevant of late. Get Digital is based on five pillars of learning: Empowerment, Engagement, Foundations, Opportunities and Wellness. Content includes research-based lessons, videos, conversation starters and activities. [kickout id="2"] Facebook said the educator lessons in Get Digital were drawn from the University of California-Berkeley, the Greater Good Science Center, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University (which made them freely available worldwide under a Creative Commons license) and Teaching Tolerance. Other content partners include Beyond Differences, Micro:bit Educational Foundation, Net Family News and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Facebook said it is teaming up with Everfi, the International Society for Technology in Education, the National PTA and UNESCO to broadly distribute the new digital literacy tools to parents and educators around the world. The social network also provided some examples of how Get Digital can be used. Students can hear from Facebook Community Leadership Program Youth Fellows on how they are supporting their communities, and they can learn how to build resilience, prevent bullying or use social media to organize people around a cause. Parents and caregivers can help young people learn the basics of connecting safely online, look after their emotional and mental well-being and think about future career opportunities. Educators can download lesson plans across all five of the program’s pillars, including activities based on content sharing, creating a résumé, maintaining healthy online relationships, online presence and privacy. National PTA president Leslie Boggs said, “The National PTA believes in a positive, hands-on approach to parenting in the digital age, and our association is committed to connecting families with tools, research and support to encourage dialog, help them navigate the digital world and be successful online. As families are online more than ever right now due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we appreciate Facebook’s commitment to empowering families with these Get Digital resources to help children be responsible digital citizens.” [kickout id="3"]