Virginia Makes Digital Literacy Curriculum Available to Schools

By giving schools access to an interactive learning platform, Virginia will help prepare eighth- and ninth-grade students to become good digital citizens, the commonwealth announced on Thursday.

Schools that choose to use the 3.5-hour curriculum called "My Digital Life" will help students use online tools responsibly and safely. The curriculum lines up with National Educational Technology Standards that ISTE developed and covers privacy, security, cyberbullying and digital relationships, according to EverFi Inc., the company that developed it.

The commonwealth partnered with EverFi Inc. and Neustar Inc. on this platform. Thanks to the support of corporations, foundations and community organizations, these companies will provide the digital platform to schools at no cost.

During the school day, teachers can have students work through the curriculum. Along with learning about privacy and security, students will learn how to create a blog, use social networks responsibly and find out how to tell which websites provide credible research.

“Technology is a part of our students’ lives — the Internet, text messages, streaming music, opinion blogs, finding jobs online, and social networking,” said Secretary of Education Laura Fornash in a statement. “We have an obligation to ensure each of our students not only uses the technology, but leverages it responsibly."

Earlier this month, Kentucky announced it would teach digital literacy through the "My Digital Life" curriculum as well.