CBSE & Facebook partner to launch curriculum for students and educators

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Facebook have partnered to launch curriculum on digital safety & online well-being and augmented reality(AR) for students and educators.

Union Minister of Human Resources Development (HRD) Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal said, “I congratulate CBSE and Facebook on its partnership to introduce certified programs in Augmented Reality for teachers and Digital Safety and online-wellbeing for students. I encourage the teachers and students to apply for the programs commencing on July 6, 2020.”

With the objective of ensuring online well-being of students and preparing them for the future of work, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), and Facebook is are launching a comprehensive curriculum on Digital Safety & Online Well-being and Augmented Reality (AR).

The modules are for secondary school students. The curriculum is now available on the CBSE website. This partnership is led by Facebook for Education, a global initiative by Facebook.

As more and more young users get online, it becomes important to educate young adults, and students on making well-informed choices online and also help them develop skills they need to safely navigate the internet. The curriculum on Digital Safety and Online Well-being covers aspects such as safety, privacy, mental health, and Instagram’s Guide for Building Healthy Digital Habits.

The module has been designed to guide students become responsible digital users, identify and report threats and harassment as well as report misinformation. At least 10,000 students will be covered in the training which will be imparted by the Centre for Social Research (CSR).

Instagram’s Guide for Building Healthy Digital Habits has been developed in collaboration with The Jed Foundation (JED) and YLAC (Young Leaders for Active Citizenship).

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It’s made for teachers, educators, and parents, with the goal of ensuring that the time young people spend on Instagram is positive, inspiring, and balanced. It is a guide to better understand the socio-emotional space young people operate in, and support them by engaging in healthy conversations around using Instagram or any other social media platform.

Also, as part of the collaboration, Facebook will support CBSE in its first-ever initiative to introduce AR as a curriculum. In the first phase, 10,000 teachers will be trained while 30,000 students will undergo the same in the second phase.

The three-week training, to be conducted in batches, will cover the fundamentals of AR and ways to utilize Facebook’s software, Spark AR Studio in order to create augmented reality experiences.

The objective is to give the learners an opportunity and platform to conceptualize, create, and brand their own AR experiences. The hands-on learning experience of AR will help in preparing the students for a career in the digital economy.

The teachers who successfully complete the training in the first phase will train 30,000 students in the second phase. SV.CO Digital Learning Platform Private Limited has been onboarded as the implementation partner.

Announcing the curriculum, Manoj Ahuja, Chairperson, CBSE said, “On behalf of CBSE, I am delighted to announce our partnership with Facebook. I am proud to share that CBSE is the only Board that has introduced the modules of Digital Safety and Online Well-being, Instagram Toolkit for Teens, and Augmented Reality. Incorporating technology and digital safety into the school curriculum will ensure students are not only gaining knowledge to succeed in the digital economy but also learning and collaborating in a safe online environment.”

Ankhi Das, Director, Public Policy, India, South, and Central Asia, said, "The current global pandemic is the most severe health and humanitarian crisis that the country has seen, with far-reaching impact on our lives. We recognize the disruption it has caused to traditional pedagogical methods necessitating a shift to virtual modes of learning the most".

He adds, "Through our Facebook for Education program in India, we wish to support the educational agencies in the country in enabling lessons on fostering safe online experiences, addressing online well-being as well as sharing easy toolkit for parents, educators, and students to promote resilience and learning in the current environment. Besides, the AR curriculum offers an opportunity for young learners to explore emerging technology for the first time as part of their curriculum. We are excited to partner with CBSE, and hope that this collaboration grows to support more teachers and students in the country".