Fresh off of announcing a new partnership with Sesame Workshop, which will see YouTube become the online home of Sesame Street content, Google has also announced a new digital education initiative, which will see popular Sesame Street characters present online learning lessons about healthy web use.
As you can see in this example, in a new series of YouTube clips, Sesame Street puppets will provide quick, easy-to-understand digital literacy lessons for kids, in order to help expand knowledge about key concerns.
As explained by Google:
“With support from Google.org, the global nonprofit behind Sesame Street is launching new resources to help children build healthy relationships with technology from a young age. New videos and digital resources featuring the beloved Muppets of Sesame Street teach children, families and caregivers how to create healthy digital habits – from how to ‘stop and take a breath’ when using digital media to prioritizing connections with loved ones.”
That could provide a valuable connection to younger audiences, ensuring that increasingly important digital usage guidance is being passed on to kids.
Indeed, with the internet now playing such a critical role in everyday life, it’s important that children are being told how to assess and access key information, while also keeping safe, and avoiding harmful exposure.
That’s been the focus of several major inquiries, with various regions now looking to increase the age of social media access, in order to better protect kids from online harms. Some regions have also seen significant success in reducing the impacts of misinformation by educating kids, and the integration of popular Sesame Street characters into such lessons will no doubt help to increase take-up and retention of key information.
In addition to this new online series, YouTube is also partnering with Sesame Workshop on a series of IRL activations to promote the new lessons.
“Throughout the fall, Sesame Workshop will take these digital wellbeing resources on the road with librarian-led workshops for children and caregivers at public libraries across the country. To complement these resources for kids, Sesame Workshop has also created a free professional development course that brings to life the healthy habits for adults, including teachers, social workers, healthcare professionals, and caregivers.”
This is an important area of focus, and the use of characters that kids are already familiar with will help to enhance these lessons, and improve knowledge sharing.
You can learn more about the new Sesame Street content and IRL activations here.
