September 1, 2020: CODE PAKISTAN-trained students of NED University completed the last of a series of 12 training sessions to their fellow students on Digital Citizenship and the Responsible Use of Social Media today. The process of training the students on digital citizenship and responsible use of social media had started earlier this year in February.
On February 25, 2020, CODE PAKISTAN organized a training at NED University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi on Digital Citizenship and the Responsible Use of Social Media. Facebook-designated trainers were engaged to conduct the full-day training aimed at raising the awareness of student society members on promoting positive messaging and on the importance of tolerance in the online and offline space. The training was further intended as a sensitization exercise for educating the audience of over 50 student society members from NED University on how to counter online extremism by understanding what it entails and how to identify such content online.
Subsequent to the training, 12 participants were designated as student trainers following a post-training evaluation process. These trainers undertook the responsibility of delivering 12 sessions on Digital Citizenship and the Responsible Use of Social Media over a period of 4 months to the greater student body of NED University. These awareness sessions were based on the training the student trainers had previously received and covered a wide spectrum of topics, including but not limited to the importance of protecting digital identity, communicating respectfully, positive online engagement, critical thinking, and the need for greater awareness and caution when receiving and sharing online content.
These interactive trainings on “Digital Citizenship and the Responsible Use of Social Media” were conducted online with focus on discussions, activities and participant engagement. As a result, the participation and appreciation for the trainings and the trainers remained high for all 12 sessions with many participants requesting that the trainings be made a regular feature with coverage on an even greater scope of relevant topics.
The student trainers—Sadia Zulfiqar, Muhammad Saad Wasif, Ummehani Rashid, Inshal Chauhan, Rafia Memon, Syed Ameem Mustafa, Taqya Amna, Sumaiya Ali, Shahrukh Khan, Afiya Siddiqui, Fozan Ahmed, and Syed Faraz Ali Jafri—also shared their appreciation of the experience, which allowed them to take on leadership roles in raising awareness among their peers on the importance of the responsible use of social media.