Collaborative Unit on Digital Citizenship and Responsibility:

Instructional Problem:
Todays students are known as 21st Century Learners, that being they are more than
just your standard learners. Todays scholars must know how to navigate a text as
well as the internet. They must know how to summarize, cite, print, submit, apply,
click & drag, and so much more than any generation before them. Our children live
in a state of constant connection with the rest of the world. Because of this
terrifying fact, our students must also know where to obtain information, what
appropriate conduct looks like, and how to avoid getting in trouble for their
interactions with people and placesboth physical and digital sites. Digital
citizenship extends far beyond being a person who logs on and navigates the
millions of websites. Students need to be taught to experience the web in safety
and with awareness. There is an unlimited amount of information on the internet
being created and published every minute. Without guidance, there is a large
margin of error that our students fall into. Because of this daunting world of the
internet, Ms. G. Smith and I set out to develop an interactive session of webeducation. I developed the site while my collaborator developed an idea of the
major points she wanted emphasized.
Audience:
The audience for this unit is the 9th grade class of the high school English
teacher, Mrs. G. Smith. Mrs. Smith has 15 years of teaching experience and
obtained her certification through the TAP program. The class is made up of 8
students, 2 female and 6 male. The demographic is 87% African-American and 13%
Mixed-Race. The students are ages 14-16 and all students are taking 9 th grade
literature for the purposes of this lesson. 2 of the students receive services through
a 504 plan or IEP (individualized education plan). The classroom also has one
primary and one co-teacher to service the childrens needs.
Background Knowledge:
The students need to be aware of how to use a computer, navigate the
Internet, and the basics of web-browsing. Students also need to know how to log-in
to websites, print webpages, navigate multiple tabs, open links in new
windows/tabs, and save data from websites. Because of the independent pacing of
this unit being an online module, students will need to know how to keep on-track
and complete assignments without a teacher being the primary delivery system.
Students will also need to be familiar with various technology uses, applications,
and vocabulary.
Standards:
The IT standards are note dynamically aligned to the performances seen in this
lesson, but they do connect to the responsibility and actions that many of the
students will experience by completing this lesson.
IT-IDT-5 Understand, communicate, and adapt to a digital world.

5.1 Develop a working IT vocabulary.

5.2 Describe trends in emerging, evolving, and future computer technologies and
their influence on IT practices. a. Mobile technology, computing tablets, cloud
computing.
5.3 Recognize online risks and dangers in order to take appropriate actions to
protect the business and self while using digital tools and resources.
5.4 Demonstrate ability to access, navigate and use online resources and
technologies.
5.5 Define and demonstrate folder and file management and the importance of data
back-up procedures.
GSE:
ELAGSE9-10SL4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly,
concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the
organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose,
audience, and task.
ELAGSE9-10SL5: Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio,
visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of
findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
ELAGSE9-10SL6: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating
command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See grades 910
Language standards 1 and 3 for specific expectations.)
ISTE:
ISTE Standard 5: Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and
practice legal and ethical behavior.
a. Advocate and practice self, legal and responsible use of information and
technology.
b. Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports
collaboration, learning, and productivity.
c. Demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
d. Exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.
Essential Question and Student Objectives:
EQ: How is my connection to the internet connected to more than just the sites I
visit and how can I ensure my own safety while surfing?
Students Will Be Able To

Define digital citizenship.

Define responsibility with respect to the digital world.
Explain their role in the 21st Century.

Explain what their presence on the internet could mean.

Apply their understanding of being a law-abiding citizen to the digital world.
Apply their findings to their own applications as a 21 st Century learner.

Collaborative Unit Content Outline

Learner Analysis (5 minutes)

Introduction (5 minutes)
o Name, Topic, Overview
What do you know? (10 minutes)
o Misunderstandings
o Access
o Student-Defined Vocabulary
Digital Citizen
Digital Responsibility
21st Century Learner
What do you want to know? (10 minutes)
o Student Goals
o Teacher Goals
o Purpose of social media
o Purpose of email
o Purpose of search engines
o Purpose of the Internet
Curated List Exploration (20 minutes)
o Watch 2 videos of student-choice
o Read 2 articles of student choice
o Think-Pair-Share about the videos and articles
Similarities
Differences
Applications
Common theme
Take-Away
o Student presentations of new information
o Discussion of commonalities from the presentations
Return to initial misunderstandings and ideas about content (10 minutes)
o Misunderstandings
o Access
o Goals
o Purpose
o Definitions
Post-Assessment (5 minutes)
Evaluation (5 minutes)

Strategies:
Students will be exposed to videos, articles, help-topics, and their peerss ideas
about the web and their place in the world wide web. The teacher will ensure the

students have finished their pre-assessment to get an idea of their involvement and
their position in the 21 Century digital world. Students will fill out the first parts of a
KWL graphic organizer. This graphic organizer is intended to track the thought
processes of the students. The first step is for students to write down what they
already KNOW. This includes everything they know about the presented topics.
Following that, students write down what they WANT TO LEARN. This column is a
more dynamic column because the students can update it with information that
makes them question what they know and want to learn more about. In these
columns students will write about their participation in the lesson. Once students
have described their participation, the students will be split into groups and given
the website to guide their learning experience. Students will choose two videos to
watch regarding the 21st Century Learner and Digital Citizenship. Once they have
watched the videos, they will read two articles to pair with the content. By pairing
the reading with the videos students will be encouraged to tie together any themes
that may be present. In studying the commonalities and differences, they will gain a
better understanding of their role and responsibilities. By working in pairs, the
students can gain an understanding of collaboration and the ideas of others being
the same as and different from their ownthereby broadening their horizons.
Lastly, the students will fill out the LEARNED column of their KWL. In this last
column, students will be able to document the answers to their questions and give
evidence of their learning from the unit. In order to document a full and deep
understanding of the materials, the students will also answer an additional
application question added to the KWL.
Evaluation:
In evaluating the lesson, I performed a question/answer session with the students.
Two students said that there were topics they had questions about that they did not
get a chance to learn more information about due to the lack of time. Their
questions, it turns out, were not directly related to the topic at hand, but related to
the content from the videos. Truth be told, the questions were involved, but it was
not close enough to being a part of the focus to spend a large amount of time
talking about without losing the focus. Other than that, by looking at the
assessment data, students were able to gain the information they needed and all
reported having learned valuable information about the activities of the internet and
its users.
Reflection:
It was extremely interesting to note that the high school students stayed more ontopic and focused than the teachers did in their workshop. The lesson went really
well and the students stayed focusedI even had some ask for more resources to
look at on their own after dismissal. The major issue I had was the in the technology
department. The lesson was intended to be a self-paced, internet lesson. But, due to
networking issues and a lack of computers, the students couldnt be split into pairs,
but rather a computer group and a SMARTboard group. The computer group worked
with the co-teacher and I guided the SMARTBoard group. Luckily, the student
interactions were just as meaningful as originally intended, even if they were not
completed in the hoped-for format.

The students were all very positive and were able to take the lesson further than I
had ever thought. The take-away that I had initially thought of was commandeered,
re-worked, and given back to me as a product I could not have developed on my
own without the interaction of a 21st Century learner. The class finished the unit with
an understanding of how our decisions and interactions online affect other people
and that we need to spread more positive things on the internet and be aware of
how our own actions can affect the lives of others without that being our intention.
Another take-away for the students was regarding their safety online and the
vulnerability of information in the world. Several students has experienced the
unfortunate case of being hacked or phishedthough they were unaware of the
phrase phishing. I was very happy to find that students had actual experiences to
share with others. In this way, the students were able to learn new vocabulary and
apply those words to an actual event. This unit was the most rewarding experience
that I was able to have over the course of this semesterwithout a doubt.