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Digital literacy is vital for students today. So much of their world is online and on devices, starting in their youngest years. And yet, the way digital literacy is taught at the elementary school levels is uneven and insufficient. Without the skills to identify harmful content or manipulation, kids remain vulnerable to the worst the internet has to offer – from bullying and violence to manipulation and predation.
What is DUCC?
DUCC is one of the first K-5 curricula to address digital literacy and critical thinking in kids ages five to eleven years old, providing them with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate their hyper-online worlds. Kids of all ages are bombarded with information of varying levels of reliability – DUCC is specifically built to develop kids’ skills in identifying reliable information, understanding the real-world impact of online actions, and developing their own confidence. The DUCC Curriculum is 24 lessons across grades K-5, built on proven strategies that support kids in better understanding how to identify and avoid harmful online content. The curriculum includes everything a teacher needs to use the DUCC in their classroom, from content to visuals to interactive multimedia. The cast of characters and high-quality videos and games in the DUCC curriculum allow kids to immerse into the lessons, identifying with the characters and their situations.
Created by a team of experts in child psychology, teaching and literacy, digital literacy, and curriculum development, and approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics, DUCC is built on proven strategies and empirical research to build kids’ ability to identify and avoid harmful online content. Learn how DUCC can be integrated into your school at www.danieltheducc.org.
What are the methods behind DUCC?
PERIL defines digital literacy as the skills and abilities to use technology to locate, critically evaluate, create, and share information, particularly online[1]. We believe that critical thinking, social-emotional learning, and literacy are central building blocks of digital literacy.
Critical thinking helps kids to recognize when they are being manipulated online (Why is this stranger messaging me? Why do they want to know so much about me?) and social-emotional and interpersonal skills enable kids to understand how consuming content connects to their mental health (How does this content make me feel? Is that OK? What do I do about it?). Taken together, this form of digital literacy provides kids with the knowledge and skills to evaluate online information, recognize potentially harmful and manipulative content, and reject it.
By teaching kids the skills to identify and reject harmful content and actors, we can decrease the likelihood that they become manipulated into taking violent action.
Why use DUCC?
DUCC believes in teachers. Our curriculum was built to support the knowledge and abilities of teachers, relying on their skills in knowing how to best communicate complex topics to the kids in their class. The DUCC curriculum does not provide a script, but instead uses prompts, examples, and outlines to support teachers’ autonomy and provide guidance without being overly prescriptive. The goal of DUCC is not to teach kids (and teachers) what to think, instead the goal is to broaden how kids think about the digital world and how it impacts their lives. We want to encourage you, teachers and educators, to take this material and make it your own so that it is as relevant as possible for you and your students’ lives.
What is PERIL and the Public Health Model of Violence Prevention?
PERIL (the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab) is an applied research lab working out of American University in Washington, DC. PERIL's approach to preventing hate and violence in schools is about getting ahead of the problem, not just reacting after harm has already happened. That means helping reduce the things that put students at risk — like online manipulation, isolation, disconnection, or feeling like no one is paying attention to them — while building up the things that protect them, like strong relationships, a sense of belonging, and the skills to think critically about what they see online.
Some of this work happens school-wide, like a program that helps every student build media literacy or feel more included in their school community; some of it is more targeted, aimed at a student who's already showing warning signs of exposure to online propaganda; and some of it is about helping someone who's already gotten pulled into harmful digital spaces find their way back to safety. PERIL's own work focuses mainly on school-wide, preventive support that reaches every student before a crisis point, not working with students already in crisis. This work happens at every level of a student's life: what's happening for them at home, with their friendships and family relationships, in their classroom and school community, and in the wider world around them.
At its core, PERIL uses a public health-informed approach to violence prevention grounded in rigorous research and evidence, built for the whole school community rather than singling out individual students. It centers the needs of those who've been targeted by hate, and focuses on fixing the systems and environments around students rather than treating any individual student as "the problem."
[1] This definition is in alignment with the American Library Association and American Academy of Pediatrics.
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