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Courses, Curricula, and Tools

Curriculum

#Interfaith: Engaging Religious Diversity Online

#Interfaith is a self-paced, online learning opportunity designed to equip a new generation of leaders with the awareness and skills to promote interfaith cooperation online. Start learning now or begin by assessing your online leadership style via our digital interfaith quiz.

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About #Interfaith

Curriculum

About #Interfaith

The Internet has transformed every area of human interaction – including religion – more than any invention in history. It is disrupting traditional definitions of community, authority, and belief. It can be used to divide people or to foster understanding. The choice is up to us.

Interfaith America invites you to be part of a new generation of interfaith leaders who understand the power of the Internet, appreciate how it can be used to promote understanding across lines of difference, and are fully trained to maximize the impact of the technology for the common good.

Online Course

Options for accessing the #Interfaith curriculum:

Online Course

Individual learners access the online course via ReligionandPublicLife.org and can complete the course at their own pace. Our partners at ReligionAndPublicLife.org have made it possible for us to offer a state-of-the-art learning experience via a social learning community custom designed for learners focused on religion in civic spaces.

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Full Curriculum PDF

Full Curriculum PDF

Anyone may also access the full curriculum in PDF format here. This document includes the full course content (all 11 lessons as listed above), along with a preceding curriculum guide.

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A Note for Educators

You are welcome to use the #Interfaith curriculum in any way that you would like. You might integrate content from the curriculum into your own courses. You might utilize just a lesson or two or choose to use the full curriculum. Another option is to have your students access the course directly (and learn asynchronously). To access the course directly, students will need to register at ReligionAndPublicLife.org with a bio and a photo. (This is to ensure that all learners are actual people who are interested in learning together.) If you would like to view and manage your students’ participation, we are happy to assist in setting up a faculty account for you on the platform.

If you have questions about how to access or use #Interfaith with your learners, please contact Connie Meyer, Curriculum Development Consultant, at [email protected].

What You’ll Learn

  • Modules

    Religion & the Internet 101

    Learn about the Internet’s genesis and evolution, how it is has impacted religious communities, and some intrinsic challenges to online interfaith leadership.

    From IRL to URL

    Why should we engage in interfaith leadership online? What changes and what stays the same when interfaith work is brought into digital spaces?

    Faith, Facts, and Truth Online

    Learn about the ubiquity and danger of misinformation online and develop skills for identifying it. Identify trusted sources for religious information online.

    Building Online Community

    Examine two case studies and reflect on the necessary elements for building community online.

    Bridgebuilding Online

    Explore case studies of powerful online interfaith bridgebuilding. Learn helpful tools for your own bridgebuilding.

    Disrupting Hate Online

    Learn best practices for disrupting hate online. Better understand how hate, disinformation, and discrimination manifest online.

    How Will YOU Lead Online?

    There is a great need for online leadership, but there is no one way to lead. Reflect on your values, priorities, and goals to craft your own distinct leadership style.

    Achieving Impact Online

    Articulate a vision for your online interfaith leadership. Who is your audience? What do you want to achieve?

    Choose Your Platforms

    Explore how other online interfaith leaders have utilized different digital platforms for diverse goals. Reflect on which platforms might be best suited to your particular goals and style.

    Self-Care Online

    Online engagement can produce spiritual and emotional stress. Learn tools for recognizing harm online, taking care of yourself, and accessing support.

    Being Safe Online

    Assess and learn to mitigate personal risk online.

Expert Advisory Committee

  • Users are guests on these platforms, and we should be aware of what we’re giving up when we give our data to them.

    Josie Ahlquist , Founder of Dr. Josie Inc, Expert Council
  • It’s critical to understand how to separate truth from fiction online. We must continually ask how do we ensure that information people are sharing is healthy and true, and adds to our collective benefit as opposed to creating division?

    Cheryl Contee , CEO, Do Big Things
  • That the stuff we do online isn’t fake or any less real than offline. People think that the internet is less real than IRL, so they don’t take it seriously or hold themselves to the same moral practices that they do in other parts of their lives. Even though people are forming meaningful connections online all the time, they discount them. IRL and URL are different: but one isn’t more real than the other.

    Chris Stedman , Fellow, Davenport College; Executive Director, Yale Humanist Community
  • The Internet has been taken over by capitalist infrastructure. It was intended to connect people, and that’s been perverted and turned into a tool of financial gain on every level.

    danah boyd , Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research; Founder, Data & Society; Visiting Advisor, NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program
  • We are producers and not consumers, and that there’s a responsibility that comes with that and a set of competencies we need to learn.

    Amanda Quraishi , Contributing Fellow, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California
  • Users create the digital worlds they live in. But we also live in spaces online that have been created for us, and people don’t realize how much the choices of the designers of these spaces can begin to shape their worldview. It is called, ‘the myth of interactivity’ we see the internet as this open space of complete freedom, when actually most of the options open to us have already been determined by media designers, and the previous choices we’ve made.

    Heidi A. Campbell , Professor, Texas A&M University
  • That the internet should be a human right which everyone has access to.  Technology is neutral: people decide how technology moves. Corporations are trying to privatize it even more (net neutrality), and people need to be aware of this threat.

    Rev. Jeremy D. Nickel , Founder & CEO, SacredVR, EvolVR, Ordained Unitarian Universalist minister

FAQs

  • What is #Interfaith: Engaging Religious Diversity Online?

    #Interfaith: Engaging Religious Diversity Online is a self-paced (fully asynchronous), online course developed by IFYC to help develop civic interfaith leadership skills for digital media. IFYC believes that online interfaith leadership is critical for the future of understanding between people of diverse religious and non-religious traditions. #Interfaith learners learn about the particular opportunities and challenges of leading online and build awareness and skills to use the Internet as a powerful space for bridgebuilding.

  • Why should I learn about digital interfaith leadership?

    As someone who cares about interfaith cooperation, you’re likely looking for ways to build interfaith bridges. #Interfaith presents an opportunity to take your bridgebuilding to the next level by learning to fully harness the power of the Internet to cultivate community and connection. With the awareness and skills you’ll learn via #Interfaith, you’ll be better equipped to lead online, creating spaces, conversations, and relationships that are hopeful, fulfilling, and safe. What’s more, you’ll bolster your credentials as an interfaith leader, as all learners who complete the full course will receive a shareable, verifiable, digital certificate from IFYC.

  • Who is the target audience for #Interfaith

    The course was designed with undergraduate students in mind, as a resource for extending their interfaith leadership to online spaces. At the same time, we hope that many other types of learners and interfaith leaders will find this content useful – from graduate and seminary students to community organizers and religious leaders. Everyone has the capacity to act as an interfaith leader, and increasingly we all need to get better at doing that online!

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