1

Digital Citizenship Collaborative Unit

Leland Jones
Dr. Elizabeth Downs
FRIT7739
November 7, 2022
 2

Overview
This collaborative unit will be taught to a 6th grade class. The class is taught by Jennifer
Craft. Jennifer and I worked together when I taught 6th grade as well. We have collaborated on
some projects before, but they were all math based. This will be new for us in creating a unit
about digital citizenship! I am looking forward to working with Mrs. Craft in this project.
The topic covered in this unit will be Collaborating. We will begin the unit by discussing
what digital citizenship is and looks like in the middle school setting. Our school system follows
a traditional 6-8 middle school. So, these students are new to middle school and possibly new to
digital citizenship. Therefore, I would like to begin the unit explaining what digital citizenship is
and why it is important. Once we establish a clear understanding of digital citizenship, we will
discuss cyberbullying in the second lesson. The final lesson will be about shopping safe online.
My goal for the unit is for students to come out of it with a clear understanding of digital
citizenship,cyberbullying, and safe shopping online. To give students who are curious more
resources, I am including extra resources and activities for students to explore on their own.
In the class we will be teaching the unit, there are 18 students. 10 are male and 8 are
female. There are 12 Caucasian students, 4 African-American students, and 2 Asian students.
The students are all 12 years of age. 14 of the students say that they either have their own social
media account or frequently use someone’s. There are 4 students with IEP’s in the class. 3 of the
students are SLD and one student is OHI. 6 students in the class are served by a 504.
To ensure that the lessons met the needs of all the learners in the classroom, I
collaborated closely with Mrs. Craft when writing activities to be sure that the SWD in her
classroom would have their needs met. Based on my knowledge from Morrison, Ross, and
Kemp; these activities were easier to design that if I did not have this knowledge. Since I figured
out the learner characteristics first, I was able to meet these needs before hand rather than trying
to tweak my lessons last minute. Also, since I will be delivering the unit in 3 separate lessons, I
will have the chance to revise the lessons as needed before delivering the next lesson!
 3

Module 1: What is Digital Citizenship

Introduction:
To introduce this unit, I will give students a piece of paper, and have them write what they think
of when they hear "digital citizenship." After this, students will toss their paper into the center of
the room. Students will all get a paper from the middle. I will assess what students believe digital
citizenship is versus what it actually is based on these answers.
Curation:
​Click here to view my curation for the unit, which includes resources for students to explore
beyond the lessons.
Activities:
Since this is just an introductory lesson, I want most of the activity to be conversation based. I
want to give students a voice in their learning. Therefore, I am giving my students a chance to
create posters describing what they believe digital citizenship is. Students can use Google Slides,
Canva, or pen and paper to complete their posters.
​Assessment:
To assess students on this module of the lesson, I will asses their posters to see if they have a
clear understanding of what digital citizenship is. I will also provide students with a rubric so
they know what I am expecting in the poster.
 4

Module 2: Cyberbullying
Introduction:
To introduce students to this lesson, we will watch this short video and discuss the different parts
of the video. Students are not always aware of the different types of cyberbullying, so this will be
a great conversation starter.
Curation:
​Click here to view my curation for the unit, which includes resources for students to explore
beyond the lessons.
Activities:
I will start students in small groups to complete the following activity from HealthPoweredKids:
(see Curation for complete lesson) Since lesson times are 20 minutes, this activity will be the
only one we have time for.
As a group, make a list of things that people can do to help stop cyberbullying. Here are some
things you can add if they aren’t mentioned:
If someone is being mean to you or someone else online tell a teacher, parent or other trusted
adult.
If someone is being mean to you or someone else online, tell them to stop. Sometimes quietly
standing up for yourself or someone else is enough to convince a bullying to back off.
Only accept friend/follow requests from people you know in real life. Set privacy settings so
information about you (including images) are not visible to the public. Every time you post or
share, carefully consider whether you want it to live on forever, because it might.
Use good passwords and never share them with anyone. Generally, the longer the password, the
stronger it is. Adding complexity, such as uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special
characters, makes it even stronger.
uppercase letter (e.g. A, B, C, D, E)
lowercase letter (e.g. a, b, c, d, e)
number (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
special character or symbol (e.g., ! @ # $ % & * _ + ~ . ,>)
Make your password memorable for you. Don’t use information people know about you, such as
family members’ names, pet names, addresses or license plate numbers. And don’t repeat
characters more than three times in a row.
Ask your parents or caregiver to help you if someone if cyberbullying to help you decide how
you should respond. If your caregiver is asking for your password – maybe be willing to share it
so that they can help protect you. Remember, sometimes caregivers ask for passwords not
because they don’t trust you, but because they are helping to protect your from cyberbullying!
​Assessment:
To assess students on this module, I will create a Blooket. Blooket is a review game that students
love. Questions are created by the teacher and become gamified when uploaded. I can also
review the data from the Blooket to see where students are having shortcomings.
 5

Module 3: Digital Commerce (Online Shopping)

Introduction:
To introduce this lesson, I will have students post on a Jamboard ways or things they have
shopped for online. Jamboard is great because students can post anonymously to the discussion
board.
Curation:
​Click here to view my curation for the unit, which includes resources for students to explore
beyond the lessons.
Activities:
I will use the posts on the Jamboard to begin the discussion. I will begin by talking with students
about some of the things I shop for online. We will then discuss how to know if a site is safe to
shop in online, or not. To explain how to know if the site is safe or not, I will have the students
go through the process of shopping in an online store for a new teacher chair. I will make up a
story about how I need a new one, want to stay under a certain budget, and have began looking at
3 stores. I will remind students at this point that this is just an exercise and that they should not
really purchase anything today. I will then give my same small groups from lesson 2 a website to
look for my chair. When students have reached the point to enter payment details I will have
them pause. I will ask the question "What do you see on the screen that tells you it is safe?"
Possible answers I anticipate are: Lock images, safe logos, and other answers. I will then instruct
students to look at the web address and ask if they notice anything different about it. Such as
extra letters, or different letters added in. At this point, I will explain that the main way to tell if a
site is safe to make purchases on is to look for the https:// at the front. I will explain to students
that if they do not see the s, it is not safe!
​Assessment:
To assess students, I will have them write on a sticky note 2 ways to tell if a site is safe to
purchase items on and post it in our Jamboard.
 6

Reflection and Data

Overall, I was happy with the lessons presented. Students were engaged and able to
answer questions. I also feel that they benefited from these lessons. To collect data, I used the
assessments from each of the lessons. Overall I found that students showed a genuine interest in
what was being taught. I feel as though my lessons applied directly to their lives in the 21st
century. I feel as though they were appreciative of me trying to apply the lessons to real life and
real world situations where they would benefit from having learned them. I even had a student
come up to me a week after the lesson and she told me she was shopping online and did not see
the s so she didnt shop! I liked that saying! A revision I would bring into the unit would be more
time for each lesson. I used 20 minutes because that is the time we have built in for our mindset
lesson. So, the collaborating teacher and I used that time for the lessons. If I were to do these
lessons again, I feel as though 30 minutes per lesson would be more effective. I created the
infographic below to display the data from my survey.