Cyber Safety & Digital Citizenship  

Nearly a decade ago, Common Sense Education began collaborating with researchers at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This collaboration supported the development of Common Sense Education's first curriculum, at that time called the Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum, which launched in 2010. Common Sense Education reaches more than 60,000 schools in the United States. 

While the free curriculum has been highly successful on many counts, the ever-changing digital landscape brings forth new issues for schools. Educators are understandably concerned about today's challenges and digital dilemmas, which necessitate updates to the curriculum. This research lays the foundation for Common Sense Education's updated Digital Citizenship Curriculum.  The curriculum's unique approach is grounded in Project Zero's research, which focuses on pedagogical strategies that support student skills and dispositions. 

As educators, we aim to educate and prepare students on appropriate online behaviors, including interacting with others on social networking websites or chats and cyberbullying awareness. We want to ensure students have the skills they need to succeed in the digital world and understand the value of students learning the digital landscape's responsible uses to succeed in college or their future careers. 

The curriculum aims to support students in developing skills such as creating a strong password or assessing the credibility of an online source, as well as helping students develop the sensitivity to recognize potential digital dilemmas and tricky decision points when they arise and be reflective, responsible, and ethical decision-makers in their connected lives.