CBSE Partners With Facebook to Launch Digital Training Programs For Teachers & Students

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Sunday announced a partnership with Facebook to provide training on digital safety, online well being and training on augmented reality (AR) to students and teachers. The training modules are for secondary school students. The curriculum is now available on the CBSE website. The curriculum on digital safety and online well-being cover aspects such as safety, privacy, mental health and Instagram's guide for building healthy digital habits, Facebook said in a statement. The module has been designed to guide students to become responsible digital users, identify and report threats and harassment as well as report misinformation.

At least 10,000 students will be covered in the training to be imparted by the Centre for Social Research (CSR). "I congratulate CBSE and Facebook on its partnership to introduce certified programs in augmented reality for teachers and digital safety and online-wellbeing for students," said Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

Also, as part of the collaboration, Facebook will support CBSE in its first-ever initiative to introduce AR as a curriculum. In the first phase, 10,000 teachers will be trained while 30,000 students will undergo the same in the second phase. The three-week training, to be conducted in batches, will cover fundamentals of AR and ways to utilise Facebook's software, Spark AR Studio in order to create augmented reality experiences.

The objective is to give the learners an opportunity and platform to conceptualise, create and brand their own AR experiences. The hands-on learning experience of AR will help in preparing the students for a career in the digital economy. According to the US tech giant, the teachers who successfully complete the training in the first phase will train 30,000 students in the second phase.

"Through our 'Facebook for Education' programme in India, we wish to support the educational agencies in the country in enabling lessons on fostering safe online experiences," said Ankhi Das, Director, Public Policy, India, South and Central Asia. "We are excited to partner with CBSE, and hope that this collaboration grows to support more teachers and students in the country," Das added.