Beaver Falls High School

COURSE PROPOSAL

Michael D. Woods
Social Studies Teacher
woodsm@tigerweb.org
(724) 372-3131

I. Proposed Course Title:

i. Digital Citizenship: Skills for the 21st Century

II. Course Description:

i. This course is to serve as an exploration of digital media and student interaction

within the digital world. Students would analyze and evaluate interactions online as
well as the use of media, advertising, and data-collection in targeted persuasion for
the purpose of learning to navigate digital media and use it as a tool for success.

III. Purpose of the course and Student Learning Outcomes:

i. Upon successful completion of the class, students will be able to:

a. Participate in safe and appropriate interactions online
b. Recognize dangers, hazards, and pitfalls in the online space and overcome them
c. Distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources of digital information
d. Utilize tools in digital media to further their learning, professional growth, and
future skills

IV. Outline of Course Content

Week Topic Elements

Digital Awareness: Use and Consumption -Digital self-assessment
1 -Screen-time and media tracking
-Application analysis activity
Digital Awareness: Abuse and Addiction -Digital addiction activity
2 -Readings on the negative effects of
extended “screen-time”.
3 Digital Communication: Relationships -Online friendships check

Digital Communication: Professional
4
Digital Communication: Influence & Audience
5
Cyber-Bullying: School and Social Media
6
Cyber-Bullying: Racism and Hate Speech
7 hate speech
Cyber-Bullying: Doxing and De-platforming
8 -Implications of the First
Privacy and Security: Digital Footprint
9
Privacy and Security: Information Access
10
Data and Information: Metadata Collection
11
-Followers v. Friends
-Sexting
-Professional social-media use
-Digital/Virtual interview
-Professional websites and
information management
-Study the influence of social-media
personalities
-Implications for society
Gender-media stereotyping
-Non-recall of messages and
information
-Studies and implications of
cyberbullying
-Creation of anti-bullying message
for students through webpage,
poster, pamphlet, or presentation
-Implications of social media in
providing a platform for racism and
-How people respond to, and
perpetuate, these tendencies
-Role of social-media companies in
providing platforms unsavory
individuals and groups
Amendment freedoms as it relates to
de-platforming
-Criminal implications of doxing
-Research individual digital
footprints (truepeoplesearch.com)
-Aggregate contributing information
that provides a digital profile
-The implications of private
information that is publicly available
-Media release and agreements from
apps and websites
-Discussing the “fine print” that is
overlooked
-Who can access this information,
and what can it be used for.
-Government collection of metadata
(Edward Snowden)
-Collection of metadata by social
media companies (Social Dilemma)
 Data and Information: Advertising and Profit -The commercial use of metadata
12 -Personalized advertising and search
returns
Misinformation: Separate Realities -Construction of competing facts
and realties
-The “YouTube Rabbit-Hole”
(www.their.tube) focusing on the
13
returns of searches based on
recommendations
-How conspiracy theories lead to
extreme political polarization
Misinformation: Fake Media -Analysis and spotting of “fake-
news” and “fake-media”
-Project on recognizing legitimate
14
sources
-Recognition of the characteristics of
charged media
Misinformation: Echo Chamber and Confirmation -The dangers of confirmation bias
-Media and social-media’s sway in
15 thinking
-Formation of echo-chambers and
how to avoid such issues
Exit Assessment -Project based assessment drawing
16 on elements from the class to help
inform others

V. Sample Reading/Resource List

i. Common Sense Media

ii. Neptune Navigate
iii. Your Undivided Attention (Podcast)
iv. The Social Dilemma (Documentary)
v. Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
vi. Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman

VI. Sample Assignments

i. Digital Footprint and Inventory Project

a. Students do an analysis of their current online presence as well as screen-time and
media usage. Students compile their online exposure and presence into a
poster/presentation detailing percentages of time devoted to apps as well as the
results found on searches. (Students may do a parent/family member other than
themselves)
 ii. Spot the Fake
a. Students will compile a presentation of three news stories to give to the class. For
the purpose of the assignment, students will be encouraged to present all three in a
similar format and include their sources. Two of the news articles must be
confirmed as true through the use of class instructed media verification
techniques, while the third article must be confirmed false. This will be presented
to the class who will vote on which they believe is “Fake News”, and students
will lead the discussion into their reasoning.
iii. Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign
a. Students will use provided resources to create Anti-bullying posters that
effectively target the known methods of cyberbullying. Building from the in-class
lesson, students will address methods and the negative effects, and will champion
the school-wide anti-cyberbullying initiative.
iv. The Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship
a. Students will work independently, or in small groups, to research the Nine
Elements of Digital Citizenship and offer a flipped classroom experience where
they are responsible for teaching the content to their classmates.

VII. Assessment Plan

i. Students will receive summative content assessments based on information that is

presented in class. These assessments will cover the content knowledge that is distributed
and determine the students’ reception and recall of necessary details.
ii. Students’ application of skills will be assessed through the use of projects so that it can
best represent their ability to apply knowledge in a way that positively shapes their
experience as digital citizens.