Schools are preparing to help kids navigate the digital age
ethically and wisely. According to the Cyber Civics website, their curriculum teaches them about ethics, privacy, balance and the decision-making aspects needed to survive and thrive in the digital age during adolescence.
It provides them with the necessary foundation at a time when there is a national, if not global, recognition that there is a real need for media literacy education.
A study published in the National Library of Medicine on the impact of media literacy education on knowledge and behavioral intention of adolescents in dealing with media messages found that mass media influences the health behaviors of adolescents.
“Evidence shows that traditional strategies such as censorship or limitation are no longer efficient; therefore, teaching media literacy is the best way to protect adolescents from harmful effects,” the study states.
The first time Karen Hite, a gradeschool teacher at Kimberton Waldorf School, Chester County, began teaching the Cyber Civics curriculum to a sixthgrade class six years ago, she found it was a good and easy curriculum to fit into a 40-minute lesson each week despite not having any specific specialization or training.
“It is designed to begin in sixth grade because middle schoolers have more exposure to social media, phones and online,” Hite said. “It’s when a shift happens and they begin looking outward to their peers more, and that increased awareness of their peers and peer pressure is part of why the curriculum was designed.”
Cyber Civics lessons range from simple concepts to more advanced ones. It begins with what it means to be a citizen in any community and how to apply that to the digital world and later moves into privacy and personal information, identifying misinformation, reading visual images, recognizing stereotypes and media representations and ethical thinking in future technologies.
Hite said the curriculum for sixth graders delved into how a computer works, how to do research and then moved more into discernment.
“They learned about fact checking and fake news and how do you trust what you see — how do you look at a story and figure out if it’s true,” she said.
There is also a lesson that involves taking some old computers apart to show them the insides.
“It’s demystifying this magic box and showing them what makes it work,” she said.
Recently, she taught a Cyber Civics lesson to her eighth-grade class that involved questions and activities to do in small groups.
“They had to figure out which pictures from the internet were real, and which were fake and they were all over it,” she said. “The activities are very engaging.”
Next, they’ll be venturing into what is safe to share online.
“We will discuss that there are trolls out there looking for your information and data,” she said.
Hite appreciates that the curriculum is designed so your average teacher can bring lessons to students that are valuable without any specialization in technology.
“It’s a valuable resource because it’s a comprehensive curriculum that addresses issues regarding devices on the internet in a very age-appropriate way, “Hite said. “They are learning how to navigate technology as ethically as possible.”