Launching Mozilla’s Core Web Literacy Curriculum and Digital Badges

From online banking and keeping up with the news, to accessing real-time patient medical records and keeping in touch with friends, online life is now real life.

Web literacy skills like searching, remixing, and basic cyber-security are necessary for people to understand and take full advantage of all the internet has to offer. In the 21st century, these fundamental web literacy skills are as essential as reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Further, the countless stories from Equifax to Facebook to disinformation being used to stoke political campaigns to the fact that all jobs will soon be digital is a wake-up call to empower ourselves with these core skills.

Today, we are launching Mozilla’s Core Web Literacy Curriculum that will enable people to gain basic skills for how to read, write, and participate on the web, and to demonstrate these competencies by earning digital badges through Digitalme’s open badges academy.

With support from Institute of Museum and Library Services, and a host of collaborators including key public library leaders from around the country, this open-source, participatory, and hands-on curriculum was designed to help the everyday person in a library setting, formal and informal education settings, community center, or at your kitchen table:

• Understand how the internet works and connects different parts of the web.
• Share information with others in ways that make sense and protect their privacy and security.
• Evaluate information, and spot misinformation and disinformation.
• Empower themselves and their communities to participate online as citizens, learners, workers, creators, consumers, and people.

“We live in a world that is increasingly interconnected.” says Mozilla Resident Fellow An-Me Chung, a researcher and educator exploring web literacy. “Web literacy is core to the critical thinking skills needed in today’s world. Although the internet can be the greatest equalizer of information and opportunity for all, it can also widen the inequality gap. Either you keep up with the constant changes in digital technologies and content, or quite frankly, you get left behind.”

We invite you to help us spread, remix, and improve the curriculum. You can link to the core curriculum via Mozilla’s website and on GitHub, an online collaboration platform.