Digital literacy

And it looks like they're doing a pilot program.

So they're going to choose a few specific schools to actually implement some of the digital literacy classes for the high school students.

And just wondering, I mean, I did a little bit of research before and it looks like within the New York City school system, there are some schools that are more affluent, some schools that are less affluent.

Is there any word on where these like pilot programs are going to be in the city? Like, have they actually chosen the schools or is it still kind of up in the air and they're going to figure it out over the next year or so?

Teaching the skills on how to use it.

On how to

actually use AI and have more digital literacy in middle school.

I think like fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade would be when you start kind of opening the door to it.

It's really important.

Um, and, and that is why we are trying to, to go to r- uh, communities, remote communities, maritime zones, and the school system as well through digital literacy, um, to work with the curriculum team in developing, uh, contents that actually enable young children as young as kindergarten to year 13 to be aware of, um, how to be safe online.

And we can only do that as a nation collectively.

And I, I think through enforcement, um, with the enforcement as a deterrent mechanism rather than, um, as a punitive only sort of measure.

Uh, a- anything else, Valrie, in relation to that?

Just to add, uh, is that one of the things we're seeing, particularly in relation to this proposal for social, uh, media age restrictions, is that, um, i- it can't work on its own.

There, there has to be, uh, digital literacy.

Uh, you know, and cy- people need to learn cyber hygiene, and this needs to be taught from the school level.

And that lends itself, in my opinion, to the argument that you need a far greater system of rules-based enforcement, but also education in terms of understanding the The nature of these platforms, how they operate, how you can switch on or switch off those parental controls, age verification.

And my argument as education spokesperson, and it's an argument that CyberSafe Kids and others have made, is that like Finland, digital literacy should be embedded in absolutely every facet of our education system from childhood preschool literally up to third level, that it's that this is, you know, it's literally the new communications.

It's a new language and our children and young adults need to be prepared for it.

So I don't for a second, back to your earlier point, there is parental responsibility here.

Absolutely.

And you know what? Social media also offers an opportunity to teach digital literacy, which is fundamental in this day and age.

Yeah.

Yeah, they need to learn how to evaluate information critically, identify misinformation, so important, and also to communicate responsibly online.

And we need to guide them on how to do this.

Like, they probably won't do this themselves automatically.

Um, but you know, anything we can do to improve their digital literacy and their critical thinking, um, will be so valuable, not only for language learning, but for life beyond the classroom.

Yeah.