“Google is launching an educational program aimed to teach kids about phishing, internet harassment, passwords and other critical safety issues.
Called “Be Internet Awesome”, it includes a classroom curriculum and a videogame called Interland. It was developed with the help of teachers, Youtube videographers, and internet safety and literacy organizations.
Resources are available online for free.
About the Curriculum
“Be Internet Awesome” tackles topics that are relevant to all ages. It includes sections on how to limit sharing personal information with people online, avoid falling for phishing scams, creating strong passwords, and avoiding negative behaviour online.
It includes a “Be Internet Awesome Pledge” that students can sign.
Google states that is it compliant with the International Society for Technology Education standards.
The program has a wide range of quizzes, role-playing activities and other abstract exercises. For the “Share with Care” module, students look at a made-up social media profile and cross out information that a parent, employer, or future self might look poorly upon.
In “Don’t Fall for a Fake”, they decide whether a series of webpages and emails look real or fake. “It’s Cool to be Kind” urges kids to avoid responding to hurtful messages and blocking bullies.
Interland
The accompanying video game, Interland, is less like a training tool and more like a sweetener to get students interested in the material.
“Mindful Mountain” for example, turns the process of sharing specific posts with the right people into a spacial puzzle.
Players promote positivity in the platforming game by tossing out friendly emoticons and hitting the “block” button to trap trolls. The password security games is a Subway-Surfer-style endless runner about collecting numbers and letters.
This is nothing new and only the latest in Google’s educational programs.
