This Q&A contains a dialog between two Digital Citizenship Initiative companions, Amy Nakamoto, Government Vice President of Advertising and Company Partnerships at Discovery Training, and Donna Epps, Chief Accountable Enterprise Officer at Verizon and President of Verizon Basis.
Q: What roles do colleges, households, and expertise companions play in reinforcing optimistic digital habits past the classroom?
A: At Verizon, we’re dedicated to placing expertise into the fingers of those that in any other case won’t have entry to it. However we all know entry to expertise alone shouldn’t be sufficient. At coronary heart we’re connectors – our networks join individuals daily and we wish to join individuals with the sources and specialists essential to assist them have interaction with expertise in a wholesome means, and to assist them to develop the judgment they should navigate their digital lives properly. As a result of we offer connectivity, we really feel that we’ve a accountability to make sure individuals have the abilities and information they should have a wholesome and balanced relationship with expertise.
And a method we do that’s by way of our free Digital Wellness programming and sources. This work meets individuals the place they’re at—whether or not it’s children simply beginning out on-line, mother and father searching for steerage, or older adults seeking to keep related safely.
For a lot of of our new initiatives, we’ve partnered with main specialists and organizations to curate our sources for various age teams.
For instance, for teenagers and colleges, we’ve teamed up with Discovery Training to supply a free, standards-aligned digital wellness curriculum for Okay-12 colleges.
We additionally produce other packages for fogeys and caregivers, and for older adults, partnering with different nonprofits, specialists, and leaders.
Q: What measurable adjustments or outcomes have you ever seen — or hope to see — on account of equipping college students with instruments to navigate the net world safely and respectfully?
A: We’re launching our pilot this summer season, so we don’t have measurable adjustments and outcomes simply but, however measurement and outcomes are extraordinarily necessary to us and for all of our packages.
We can have quantifiable metrics to evaluate the success of the packages, and we’ll continuously benchmark and refine. The truth is, as a part of our efforts, we’re conducting a research with Sesame Workshop’s Joan Ganz Cooney Heart centered on the digital well-being of kids throughout key developmental ages of 8 to 12. The findings will handle challenges that households face with expertise use and information the creation of future digital wellness packages.
A few of our outcomes will embody the full variety of individuals we attain; the variety of Okay-12 educators and college students who’ve entry to free digital wellness content material; quantifiable info on mother and father, caregivers, and older adults who’re extra assured when selling digital wellness content material; mother and father and caregivers who’ve instruments and methods to help kids in creating a extra balanced, wholesome relationship with expertise, and far more.
Q: How can partnerships between personal firms and educators drive scalable, sustainable change in selling digital well-being and accountability amongst youth?
A: Verizon has been working with colleges for over 12 years now by way of our award-winning initiative Verizon Modern Studying. By way of this program, we’ve labored with over 650 colleges nationwide to construct sustainable approaches to technology-infused instruction and have impacted over 8.5M youth. We consider strongly in partnering with Okay-12 colleges and are dedicated to serving to educators thrive.
Verizon’s work with Discovery Training is an ideal instance of how partnering between firms and educators can drive scalable, sustainable change.
It was a superb match for us as a result of Discovery Training has a world platform reaching 4.5 million educators and 45 million college students worldwide, and its sources are accessed in over 100 nations and territories with standards-aligned multimedia content material and classroom instruments.
For his or her Digital Citizenship initiative, they goal to succeed in 1 million college students by creating entry to Digital Citizenship content material for colleges throughout the nation with a concentrate on under-resourced communities. Their measurable affect on scholar achievement is why Verizon selected to accomplice with them 5 years in the past – bringing their content material to our Verizon Modern Studying Colleges, and making a free suite of immersive content material on Verizon Modern Studying HQ.
Whereas it’s necessary to us to succeed in as many college students as doable, it’s much more necessary to take action with top quality, rigorously curated content material, and Discovery is the proper accomplice to ship on each fronts.
Discovery Training’s digital citizenship initiative is a completely digital useful resource for classroom lecturers to implement digital wellness curriculum within the classroom. All supplies are aligned with Worldwide Society for Expertise in Training (ISTE) requirements, and are developmentally acceptable for center and highschool college students to develop wholesome relationships with expertise.
All educational sources supplied by Verizon are aligned with studying requirements. It is a important differentiator that builds belief and validity with Okay-12 colleges.
The Digital Citizenship Initiative is concentrated on 4 important areas:
- The Scientific Affect on the Mind – Exploring how the mind learns and the way habits are fashioned. (Launched in February)
- Media Literacy – Exploring find out how to navigate info and creating important considering abilities round internet-based sources
- Digital Security -Studying concerning the methods your private info is tracked on-line and how one can preserve your info protected and personal.
- Digital Footprint – Exploring the affect of your web exercise and find out how to construct a optimistic on-line identification.
Discovery Training is gathering person testimonials and information, survey outcomes, and different analysis to measure the affect of the digital citizenship initiative.
About Discovery Training
Discovery Training is the worldwide edtech chief whose state-of-the-art, Okay-12, digital options help studying wherever it takes place. By way of award-winning multimedia content material, educational helps, modern classroom instruments, and strategic alliances, Discovery Training helps educators ship highly effective studying experiences that have interaction all college students and help larger tutorial achievement on a world scale. Discovery Training serves roughly 4.5 million educators and 45 million college students worldwide, and its sources are accessed in over 100 nations and territories. By way of partnerships with districts, states, and trusted organizations, Discovery Training empowers lecturers with important edtech options that encourage curiosity, construct confidence, and speed up studying. Discover the way forward for training at www.discoveryeducation.com.
About Digital Citizenship Initiative
The Digital Citizenship Initiative is a dynamic partnership that gives educators and college students with free instruments, sources, and the abilities wanted to thrive in at the moment’s digital world. Discovery Training defines digital citizenship as a set of methods and behaviors designed to advertise a safer on-line expertise for everybody.
The Digital Citizenship Initiative companions embody Affect Chief Verizon and Fortinet. Every accomplice has helped contribute skilled insights to develop standards-aligned digital sources. Sources embody ready-to-use supplies, digital classes, DEMystified sequence movies, and educational supplies spanning disciplines resembling science, well being, social research, and English language arts. Educators can anticipate quarterly content material releases masking a variety of matters that handle digital citizenship.
To entry the Digital Citizenship Initiative sources, please go to digitalcitizenship.discoveryeducation.com. Educators with entry to Discovery Training Expertise can discover these sources on the Digital Citizenship channel.
