by Beth Staats
Quick Summary
Google's two year old digital safety and citizenship curriculum for kids, INTERLAND Be Internet Awesome, now includes media literacy classes. Go
Google's two year old digital safety and citizenship curriculum for kids, INTERLAND Be Internet Awesome, now includes media literacy classes. Google recently announced that they will expand the program to include six media literacy activities that will teach kids things like what bots are, how to avoid a phishing attack, how to verify that information is credible, how to evaluate sources, how to identify disinformation online, spot fake URLs, and more. These activites were developed in collaboration with Anne Collier, of The Net Safety Collaborative, and Faith Rogow, of the National Association for Media Literacy Education.
The courses are intended to help children understand that what they find online isn't necessarily true or reliable, and that in some cases it might involve efforts to steal their identity or information. Be Internet Awesome is free and aligned with ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) and AASL (American Association of School Librarians) standards. Teachers and educators can also download lesson plans and classroom activites.
