Classroom Resources

Teaching digital citizenship is all about helping kids think beyond themselves and recognize the ripple effects of their actions. Personal responsibility is important, but understanding their responsibilities to others can help kids unlock new ways to learn and connect with their communities -- and even change those communities for the better.

• Examine both in-person and online responsibilities.
• Describe the Rings of Responsibility as a way to think about how our behavior affects ourselves and others.
• Identify examples of online responsibilities to others.

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Stronger, more secure online passwords are a good idea for everyone. But how can we help kids create better passwords and actually remember them? Use the tips in this lesson to help kids make passwords that are both secure and memorable.

Students will be able to:

• Define the term "password" and describe a password's purpose.

• Understand why a strong password is important.

• Practice creating a memorable and strong password.

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Belonging to various communities is important for kids' development. But some online communities can be healthier than others. Show your students how they can strengthen both online and in-person communities by creating norms that everyone pledges to uphold.

Students will be able to:

• Define what a community is, both in-person and online.

• Explain how having norms helps people in a community achieve their goals.

• Create and pledge to adhere to shared norms for being in an online community.

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The web is full of photos, and even videos, that are digitally altered. And it's often hard to tell the difference between what's real and what's fake. Help your students ask critical questions about why someone might alter a photo or video in the first place.

Students will be able to:

• Recognize that photos and videos can be altered digitally.

• Identify different reasons why someone might alter a photo or video.

• Analyze altered photos and videos to try to determine why.

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We all make choices every day about the media we consume and create. But do kids understand what makes a media choice healthy or not? Hint: It's about more than just screen time. Use the activities in this lesson to give kids a framework for making informed media choices.

Students will be able to:

• Learn the "What? When? How Much?" framework for describing their media choices.

• Use this framework and their emotional responses to evaluate how healthy different types of media choices are.

• Begin to develop their own definition of a healthy media balance.

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It's in our students' nature to share and connect with others. But sharing online comes with some risks. How can we help kids build strong, positive, and safe relationships online? Help your students learn the difference between what's personal and what's best left private.

• Identify the reasons why people share information about themselves online.
• Explain the difference between private and personal information.
• Explain why it is risky to share private information online.

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Social interaction is part of what makes online gaming so popular and engaging for kids. Of course, online communication can come with some risks. Show your students how to keep their gaming experiences fun, healthy, and positive.

Students will be able to:

• Define "social interaction" and give an example.

• Describe the positives and negatives of social interaction in online games.

• Create an online video game cover that includes guidelines for positive social interaction.

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Online tools are empowering for kids, and they also come with big responsibilities. But do kids always know what to do when they encounter cyberbullying? Show your students appropriate ways to take action and resolve conflicts, from being upstanders to helping others in need.

Students will be able to:

• Reflect on the characteristics that make someone an upstanding digital citizen.

• Recognize what cyberbullying is.

• Show ways to be an upstander by creating a digital citizenship superhero comic strip.

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It's common for kids to use images they find online, for school projects or just for fun. But kids don't often understand which images are OK to use and which ones aren't. Help your students learn about the rights and responsibilities they have when it comes to the images they create and use.

Students will be able to:

• Define "copyright" and explain how it applies to creative work.

• Describe their rights and responsibilities as creators.

• Apply copyright principles to real-life scenarios.

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Helping kids learn what makes different media choices healthy or not is a good start. But how do we help them actually make responsible choices in the real world? Give your students the opportunity to create a personalized media plan.

Students will be able to:

• Reflect on how balanced they are in their daily lives.

• Consider what "media balance" means, and how it applies to them.

• Create a personalized plan for healthy and balanced media use.

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The internet is full of catchy headlines and outrageous images, all to make us curious and get our attention. But kids don't usually realize: What you click on isn't always what you get. Show your students the best ways to avoid clickbait online.

• Define "the curiosity gap."
• Explain how clickbait uses the curiosity gap to get your attention.
• Use strategies for avoiding clickbait.

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Let's face it: Some online spaces can be full of negative, rude, or downright mean behavior. But what counts as cyberbullying? Help your students learn what is -- and what isn't -- and give them the tools they'll need to combat the problem.

Students will be able to:

• recognize similarities and differences between in-person bullying, cyberbullying, and being mean.

• empathize with the targets of cyberbullying.

• identify strategies for dealing with cyberbullying and ways they can be an upstander for those being bullied.

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Kids find and read the news in lots of different ways. But studies show they're not very good at interpreting what they see. How can we help them get better? Teaching your students about the structure of online news articles is an important place to start.

• understand the purposes of different parts of an online news page.
• identify the parts and structure of an online news article.
• learn about things to watch out for when reading online news pages, such as sponsored content and advertisements.

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Internet scams are part of being online today, but many kids might not be aware of them. How do we help our students avoid being tricked into clicking malicious links or giving out private information? Use this lesson to help kids avoid online identity theft and phishing schemes.

Students will be able to:

• compare and contrast identity theft with other kinds of theft.

• describe different ways that identity theft can occur online.

• use message clues to identify examples of phishing.

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What does it actually mean to "be yourself" or to "be "real"? Those are deep thoughts for any middle-schooler. For kids today, these questions matter online, too. Help your students explore why some people create different or alternate personas for themselves online and on social media.

• reflect on reasons why people might create fake social media accounts.
• identify the possible results of posting from a fake social media account.
• debate the benefits and drawbacks of posting from multiple accounts.

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The web is full of questionable stuff, from rumors and inaccurate information to outright lies and so-called fake news. So how do we help students weed out the bad and find what's credible? Help students dig into why and how false information ends up online in the first place and then practice evaluating the credibility of what they're finding online.

Students will be able to:

• learn reasons that people put false or misleading information on the internet.

• learn criteria for differentiating fake news from credible news.

• practice evaluating the credibility of information they find on the internet.

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Most of us use a lot of digital media in our daily lives -- even when we don't realize it! Having a balance between online and offline time is important, but a healthy media balance might look different for everyone. Help students create a personalized plan for healthy media use.

Students will be able to:

• make an inventory of their media choices and how those choices make them feel.

• brainstorm personal strategies for balancing media use.

• create personal guidelines for promoting healthy media balance.

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Every time we go online, we're giving away information about ourselves. But just how much data are companies collecting from us? Hint: It's probably a lot more than we realize. Show your students these three tips on how to limit the data that companies collect.

Students will be able to:

• explain why information about them and their behaviors is valuable to companies.

• analyze how certain types of data are used by companies.

• learn three strategies to limit individual data collection by companies.

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Kids can be voracious consumers -- and creators -- of media, and it's easier than ever for them to find and share digital content online. But do middle-schoolers know about concepts like fair use, copyright, and public domain? Give students a framework they can use to better understand how fair use works in the real world.

• define the terms "copyright," "public domain," and "fair use".
• identify the purpose of the Four Factors of Fair Use.
• apply fair use to real-world examples, making a case for or against.

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Social media can be a place to connect, learn, and, most of all, share. But how much do kids know about what they're sharing -- and not just about themselves but each other? Help students think critically about their digital footprints on social media.

• Identify reasons for using social media and the challenges that often come along with it.
• Reflect on the responsibilities they have that are related to digital footprints -- both their own and others' -- when they're using social media.
• Identify ways to make the most of social media while still caring for the digital footprints of themselves and others.

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Kids can come across all kinds of negative content online and on social media, whether it's rude, mean, or even hateful. But what counts as actual "hate speech," and how should kids respond when they see it? Use these activities to help students identify online hate speech and discuss the best ways to respond.

• Use a circle-discussion structure to strengthen their class community.
• Explore the nature of hate speech by discussing whether it could happen at their school.
• Identify specific actions to positively affect a situation involving hate speech.

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With mobile phone alerts, social media updates, and 24/7 news cycles, it's hard to escape the daily flood of breaking news. But do kids really understand what they're seeing when stories first break? Help students analyze breaking news with a critical eye for false or incomplete information, and discuss the downsides of our "always-on" news media culture.

• Define breaking news, and understand why individuals and news outlets want to be first to report a story.
• Analyze breaking news alerts to identify clues of false or incomplete information.
• Reflect on the consequences of reacting right away to breaking news alerts.

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Many of us are aware that we're being tracked when going online. It's one of the ways our favorite websites and apps know how to recommend content just for us. But how much information are companies actually collecting? And what are they doing with it? Digging into the details can help us make smart decisions about our online privacy and how to protect it.

• Define online tracking and describe how companies use it.
• Identify the benefits and drawbacks of online tracking to both companies and users.
• Analyze specific examples of online tracking and take a position for or against them.

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Tagging friends on social media is a great way to connect with others and capture memorable experiences. But what if they don't want to be tagged? Encourage your students to take responsibility for how they may affect the digital footprints of others.

• Define "digital reputation," and identify examples of social media posts that can have a positive or negative effect.
• Use the 1-2-3-1 Perspectives activity to consider the causes and effects of posting about others online.
• Generate a list of questions to ask themselves before posting pictures or information about someone else.

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We know not to believe everything we hear, but what about what we see? Advancements in computer-generated graphics, facial recognition, and video production have led to a world of viral videos that are often difficult to identify as fake. Help your students learn to read what they see on the web "laterally" by showing them how to get off the page, check credibility, and find corroboration.

Students will be able to:

• Define "misinformation" and explore the consequences of spreading misinformation online.

• Learn how to use lateral reading as a strategy to verify the accuracy of information online.

• Apply lateral reading to examples of questionable videos to determine their accuracy.

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New tech, like location services and smart devices, helps make our lives easier and opens opportunities that didn't exist before. But these innovations also come with a cost -- especially to our privacy. Help students consider the benefits and drawbacks of these new technologies -- and decide whether they're ultimately worth it.

• Identify important benefits and privacy risks that new technologies present.
• Decide whether or not the benefits of new technologies outweigh their privacy risks.
• Create a compelling video that argues for or against using a new technology.

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Social media gives us a chance to choose how we present ourselves to the world. We can snap and share a picture in the moment or carefully stage photos and select only the ones we think are best. When students reflect on these choices, they can better understand the self they are presenting and the self they aim to be.

Students will be able to:

• Describe how their curated self may or may not represent their real self.

• Analyze the benefits and drawbacks of representing different parts of their real self online.

• Create an avatar that represents both their real and curated selves.

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Our brains are great at using past experiences to make quick decisions on the fly, but these shortcuts can also lead to bias. "Confirmation bias" is our brain's tendency to seek out information that confirms things we already think we know. Help your students learn to recognize this when they encounter news online, as a way to examine competing opinions and ideas and to avoid drawing questionable conclusions.

Students will be able to:

• Define confirmation bias and identify why it occurs.

• Explore examples of confirmation bias, particularly related to news and online information.

• Identify strategies for challenging their own confirmation biases.

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Our digital footprints can have a powerful impact on our future. This can be a scary thought, given that what's in our digital footprint isn't always in our control. Teach students that digital footprints are an opportunity to showcase their best selves and craft a footprint that leads to future success.

• Learn that they have a public presence online called a digital footprint.
• Recognize that any information they post online can help or hurt their future opportunities (college admission, employment, etc.).
• Create a vignette that shows how a positive digital footprint can help someone take advantage of an opportunity.

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What you say, and how you say it, often depends on whom you're talking to, both in-person and online. The person or people you're chatting with -- and the apps or websites you're using -- affect how we communicate. Remind your students to consider their audience before they post or comment online, and help them build community and communicate effectively in the digital world.

Students will be able to:

• Apply the idea of code-switching to how they use phones and other devices in and outside of school.

• Consider different ways that code-switching online can make communication more meaningful and effective.

• Write an example post or message that uses code-switching to communicate with an online audience.

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Well-crafted headlines benefit everyone. They help readers digest information and publishers sell news stories. But what if the headline is misleading? What if it's crafted just to get clicks and not to inform? "Clickbait" headlines may benefit advertisers and publishers, but they don't benefit readers. And when they go viral, they can badly misinform the public. Help students recognize and analyze clickbait when they see it.

Students will be able to:

• Describe how advertisers and publishers make money through online advertising.

• Describe how clickbait can contribute to the spread of fake news and misinformation.

• Take a position on whose responsibility it is to fight fake news and misinformation.

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Often, the more information we have, the better decisions we're able to make. The power of data can benefit both individuals and governments. But who can be trusted with the responsibility of having all this data? Can governments collect and use it fairly and without violating our privacy? Help students think through this question and become thoughtful influencers of data policy and practice.

Students will be able to:

• Identify the pros and cons of schools having access to students' social media.

• Describe the concerns related to government access to social media and cellphone data, including those related to free speech and privacy.

• Choose a position for or against government access to social media and cellphone data, and support that position with reasons and examples.

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Research shows that happiness in life is less about what you do and more about why you do it. When your actions have purpose they lead to positive results -- both for you and the world. Help students use the power of the internet to turn their personal passions into positive impact.

• Explain what it means to find your purpose and why it is beneficial.
• Consider different ways that people have used their digital footprint to make a positive impact on the world and whether you would do something similar.
• Reflect on what your own purpose might be, including a problem you want to solve and how you might go about solving it.

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When we get news from our social media feeds, it often only tells us part of the story. Our friends -- and the website's algorithms -- tend to feed us perspectives we already agree with. Show students ways to escape the filter bubble and make sure their ideas about the world are being challenged.

Students will be able to:

• Define "filter bubble" and explain how it occurs.

• Reflect on the limitations and drawbacks that filter bubbles cause.

• Identify strategies for escaping their own filter bubbles.

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Google-created video

The settings on the sites you visit allow you to choose what you share and who you share with. Understand and adjust your settings on the sites and apps you use so that you only share with those people that you want to share with. This means posts, geotagging, photo uploading, profiles, and more.