Teach younger elementary students about their digital footprint. A set of slides for educators.

1. Developing Awareness of Digital Traces
A lesson in online identity for grades
two and three.

2. Outline
▪ Pre-activity/Hook (10 Minutes)
▪ Discussion (5 Minutes)
▪ Activity (30~ Minutes)
▪ Reflection (5 Minutes)

3. Pre-activity
● Have the class sit in a circle
● Play a name game or a memory game
○
Have one student say a fact about themselves or a topic that the class is
currently learning while passing around a ball of yarn. Ex- My name is Tim
and the capital of BC is Victoria. Then the student tosses the yarn and the
next student speaks while passing on the twine. This creates a web of yarn
which will eventually help the students work backwards through the facts.
● Talk to the students about the activity. Did
the yarn work as a memory tool for
remembering what your classmates said?

4. Classroom Discussion
● Discuss the activity. Are there other ways you can be tracked?
Mention footprints in the snow.
● Just as your actions can be tracked in the snow, they can also be
tracked online. How do your students use the internet? Ask about
what their favorite sites are. About how many hours do they spend
online each week?
● How do your students feel about being tracked online? Ask them how
they might be tracked and teach about the browser history function.
Let them know that information isn’t private. Other people who have
never touched their home computer can gain access to that
information.
● Watch Common Sense Media's clip on “Following the Digital Trail”.
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/video/modal/3978171

5. Activity
▪ Discuss the activity. Are there other ways you can be tracked?
Remind the students about the footprints in the snow.
▪ Have the students create a craft project of “My Digital
Footprint”
▪ Trace their foot or use a cut out of a foot. Then have the
student draw their favorite website and what information that
might reveal about them.
▪ Image via▪ http://thetidyteacher.blogspot.ca

6. Final thoughts
▪ Ask your students if they will change their behavior online.
▪ Remember- This lesson is not to scare children away from
the internet but to keep them safe and to teach them that
they are not anonymous on the internet.
▪

7. Design your digital tattoo...

8. Resources for teachers
Aggregators
http://cybraryman.com/digcit.html
Over 20,000 relevant links personally selected by an educator/author with over 30 years of experience.
Curriculum
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/scope-and-sequence
Digital Literacy and Citizenship Classroom Curriculum by Common Sense Media. Which unique material from grades K-8, these free to use guides teach
digital footprint, cyberbullying, copyright, information literacy, privacy and more.Each lesson contains videos, lesson plans and assessments in english
and spanish. The site also has training materials and MOOCs for educators.
Infographics
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/posters
Created by Common Sense Media, these are designed for younger students for elementary classrooms.
http://www.pinterest.com/edutopia/digital-citizenship/
Edutopias Pinterest board aggregates graphics to help teach students about digital citizenship.
Media
http://www.brainpopjr.com/spotlights/digitalcitizenship/
BrainPop JR has two modules on cyberbullying and internet safety aimed at young elementary students. They include animated videos, games and quizzes.
http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/youtube/curric/index.html
Youtube has created a three step course for teachers and student on how to become model users of the website
Other
http://www.cyberwise.org/index.html
Cyberwise focuses on teaching adults on how they can get up to date on new media in order to teach and project youths in their community