HOWARD COUNTY, Md. — More than 57,000 students in Howard County Schools are learning about technology, artificial intelligence and online algorithms to help them build positive digital footprints.
Teachers in Howard County have incorporated this digital citizenship curriculum over the last several years to ensure students understand the importance of their online presence.
WATCH: Howard County teaches students about digital citizenship
"Our curriculum starts as early as kindergarten and every grade level the students get to experience kind of the progression of what are those some of those privacy skills, the skills that they need to be good responsible citizens," said Julie Wray, coordinator of instructional technology.
The program was created to help students keep up with advancing technology and learn how to be responsible with what they see and read online.
As online algorithms and artificial intelligence become more advanced, it becomes harder for people to know if what they're seeing online is true. This program helps students look beyond headlines and clickbait.
"Making sure that they're aware that just because you read it one place does not mean it's true, and now it's really just because you've read it more than one place doesn't mean it's true," said Melissa Daggett, coordinator of media.
Daggett said the program teaches students to "lateral read" and verify information they find online.
"We're really making sure that we're teaching our students to kind of lateral read and making sure if you see something in one place you have to go reference maybe where it came from or, you know, is that true, is that biased, to make sure that they're able to really responsibly understand the information that is so readily at their fingertips and constantly in front of them in their digital devices," Daggett said.
The program isn't just about finding information online. It also teaches students how to ensure their digital citizenship and online presence accurately reflects who they are in real life.
"Also teaching them what is right and what is wrong and how you know just to approach the content that we find in an ethical way so that we're always being an upstanding citizen when we are online," said Carrie Trudden, resource teacher in the Office of Instructional Technology.
Students learn about privacy and security, responsible use of technology and social media, and finding credible news sources.
"I think it's just really important that kids understand that they have that responsibility over what information they're sharing," Trudden said.
As technology continues to change, so does the curriculum, ensuring students have the most accurate information available to be responsible online.
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