Curriculum teaches digital literacy and citizenship

[Commentary] The goal of Common Sense Media's Digital Literacy and Citizenship Initiative is to provide curriculum to help middle school teachers, parents, and kids themselves raise a generation of responsible, smart, and safe digital citizens. The curriculum is based on the digital ethics framework developed by the GoodPlay Project, led by Harvard School of Education professor Howard Gardner. Gardner and his colleagues have done pioneering work recognizing that youth are not "passive consumers" of new media but "actively contributing to and defining the new media landscape." Still, according to a report, "Meeting of Minds: Cross-Generational Dialogue on the Ethics of Digital Life", the project issued in October of 2009, "adults need to help youth think about online life in moral and ethical ways - and to act as moral and ethical digital citizens.