Our Digital Footprint

Title of Project: Our Digital Footprint

Schools and Teachers

Shore Road School Teacher: Jessica Barrett and Nicole Osterhoudt

ENL Proficiency Level | ENL Program | Standards | Technology

Transitioning, Expanding | Integrated ENL/ELA, Integrated ENL/Math | SL.5.1, SL.5.4 | Google Forms, Google Slides

Assessments

Students will be identifying different types of safe and unsafe online behaviors using a checklist/Google Form.

Students will also be creating a digital footprint collage and writing piece reflecting on what they have learned and what they feel is safe to include in a positive digital footprint.

Description

As our 5th grade students move more freely through the online world, it is important to begin educating students about online safety and how their online actions create a digital footprint. Students worked to identify which online scenarios are safe and unsafe and worked together to think of actions they can take to create a positive digital footprint. Students then created their own footprint collage to showcase what they have learned and what they would include in their digital footprint.

Content

I can identify situations that are safe online.

I can create a collage with symbols representing a positive digital footprint.

Language

I can participate in a group discussion, answer questions about scenarios, and form a constructed response on online safety and my digital footprint.

Technology

I can independently navigate digital tools such as Google Slides, to create a positive digital footprint collage.

I can participate in a Google Forms survey to identify situations that are safe and unsafe online.

Procedure

  1. Students will watch a video introducing the concept of Digital Footprints.

  2. Students are given realistic scenarios related to their experiences with technology and online safety. They will identify which scenarios are safe and which are unsafe.

  3. Students will reflect on their answers and participate in a group discussion to build background knowledge about online safety and share their own personal experiences to create meaningful conversations with their peers.

  4. As a group, students will brainstorm what makes a positive and a negative digital footprint. They will be sorting their ideas and answers into two categories on an anchor chart.

  5. Based on their ideas and brainstorming, using a sentence starter, students will write some ways they will keep their digital footprint safe. They will also be reflecting on what their own personal interests and ideas are and what would be safe to add to their digital footprint.

  6. Students will then be creating their own digital footprint collage adding images to represent both the ways they will keep their digital footprint safe as well as some of their own interests that are ok to share with others.

Resources and Other Materials

Reflection

Recently, technology has become a more integral part of our childrens' lives both inside and outside of the classroom. As educators, it is our responsibility to teach our students how to properly and efficiently navigate these new types of technology. But the most important thing that we can teach our students about how to use this technology is how to safely navigate social media and all of these online resources that are readily available at their fingertips. Children, at a young age, need to learn the impact of their digital footprints and how anything and everything that they put on the internet can impact them for the rest of their lives.

At the beginning of our lesson, we recognized that there were misconceptions about what a “digital footprint” was because of the fact that the name can make the concept seem very abstract (especially to ELLs). The video from Common Sense Media helped to explain what a digital footprint is in a way that was easy for our students to understand. Students utilized their Chromebooks to find images to put on their digital footprints and were actively engaged throughout the lesson because they were able to look for images that represent themselves. They enjoyed utilizing technology in the classroom such as Google Slides and enjoyed sharing their completed projects with their peers. We believe that this will make an impact on the way that they approach social media in the future.