Description: We use digital media every day, from texting, streaming TV shows, and gaming all the way to using voice assistants or ordering our food online. For today's kids, it's a lot more than just "screen time." So how can we help students balance their online and offline lives? It starts with recognizing just how much media we use.
Essential Question: How do we balance digital media use in our lives?
Learning Targets
Students will be able to:
Reflect on their common online and offline activities.
Analyze and prioritize the activities that are most important to them.
Identify ways to "unplug" to maintain balance between online and offline activities.
Lesson Plan
Description: 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.
Essential Question: How can you protect yourself from phishing?
Learning Targets
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.
Lesson Plan
Description: 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.
Essential Question: What are the benefits and drawbacks of presenting yourself in different ways online?
Learning Targets
Students will be able to:
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.
Lesson Plan
Description: Artificial intelligence technology is evolving quickly. Students will get acquainted with how AI works and consider some of its potential benefits and drawbacks.
Essential Question: What is AI? What is artificial intelligence and what are its potential benefits and drawbacks?
Learning Targets
Students will be able to:
Define what artificial intelligence is.
Understand what makes generative AI unique.
Reflect on the benefits and drawbacks of generative AI
Lesson Plan
Description: Games, social media, and other online spaces give kids opportunities to meet and chat with others outside the confines of their real-life communities. But how well do kids actually know the people they're meeting and interacting with? Help students consider whom they're talking to and the types of information they're sharing online.
Essential Question: How do you chat safely with people you meet online?
Learning Targets
Students will be able to:
Analyze how well they know the people they interact with online.
Reflect on what information is safe to share with different types of online friends.
Learn to recognize red flag feelings and how to respond to them.
Lesson Plan
Description: For kids, miscommunication is a common occurence online and on social media. Plus, being behind a screen makes it easier to say things they wouldn't say in person. So how do we help kids avoid the pitfalls of digital drama? Help them learn tips on avoiding online drama in the first place and de-escalating drama when it happens.
Essential Question: How can you de-escalate digital drama so it doesn't go too far?
Learning Targets
Students will be able to:
Reflect on how easily drama can escalate online.
Identify de-escalation strategies when dealing with digital drama.
Reflect on how digital drama can affect not only oneself but also those around us.
Lesson Plan
Description: 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.
Essential Question: How do we find credible information on the internet?
Learning Targets
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.
Lesson Plan