Series Common Sense Media: Super Digital Citizen

Super Digital Citizen

Lesson Objective: Create superheroes who act safely, respectfully, and responsibly online
Grades 3-5 / ELA / Digital Literacy
7 MIN

PLEASE CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT OR LOG IN TO ACCESS THIS CONTENT

Enjoy your first video for free. Subscribe for unlimited access.


Have questions about subscribing?

Click Here to learn more about individual subscriptions.
Click Here to learn more about School and Institution access.

Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

  1. How does Mr. Pane engage students in this lesson?
  2. What kinds of digital dilemmas do the superheroes resolve?
  3. How could you use gallery walks in your classroom?

40 Comments

  • Private message to Anna Lafavor

I LOVE this. I don't know how online some teachers are--but there is a huge group of people in their late teens to early twenties that clearly never got a lesson explaining that we ourselves are responsible for our online safety and proper online behavior. such an engaging lesson and it's SO critical to raising people of this generation. wonderful work!

Recommended (0)
  • Private message to lynette Mosby

awesome!

Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Kierstan Pestana
I am very excited to be able to use this lesson with my students. Thank you for sharing!
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Tamala Stuckey
Awesome lesson! Thanks for sharing..
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Erica McDonough
This seems great! Where is the Digital Life Family Tip Sheet that is mentioned in Family Resources?
Recommended (0)

Transcripts

  • SUPER DIGITAL CITIZEN TRANSCRIPT

    TCH & Common Sense Media - Super Digital Citizen - Sam Pane

    Sam Pane:
    Ladies and gentlemen, give

    SUPER DIGITAL CITIZEN TRANSCRIPT

    TCH & Common Sense Media - Super Digital Citizen - Sam Pane

    Sam Pane:
    Ladies and gentlemen, give me five and please close the lid on your laptop gently. Today we're going to focus a little bit on how to become a super digital citizen.

    Pane (Interview):
    My name is Sam Pane. I'm from Omaha, Nebraska. I teach at Wilson Focus School. It's in Omaha Public Schools, the school district and I teach fifth grade. I teach all curriculum subjects, reading, math, science, social studies.

    Students:
    I can use the Internet safely.

    Pane:
    Because really who is in charge of using the Internet safely? Go ahead and point. That's right.

    Pane (Interview):
    Today's lesson is going to be about how to be a good digital citizen and being able to evaluate when you go to websites, what kind of information they might be after. So, the way I'll introduce it is I'll bring up a quote from Spiderman.

    Pane:
    The quote says, "With great power comes great responsibility." Anybody heard that before? Is this, I kind of thought that would be familiar. The question that I need to ask you, "What kind of power does the Internet give us?" Before you talk to me, give a whisper level conversation with the people at your table.

    Student #1:
    .

    Student #2:
    You can look stuff up.

    Pane:
    What kind of information? Is it going to say give us information. Be specific.

    Student #3:
    And .

    Student #4:
    knowledge. You could know anything.

    Pane (Interview):
    We'll have a little bit of a discussion with the class and then we'll talk about what it means to be a digital citizen.

    Pane:
    A digital citizen is a person who chooses to act safely, respectfully and with responsibility whenever you are online. Now remember that a super hero is a person who always uses his or her great powers to help people out. Today, we are going to do that. We are going to create a digital citizen super hero.

    Pane (Interview):
    The website that we use, it allows people to build their own, their own super hero character. The templates are in there. You can pick between one of three basic designs. And then you can modify it and customize it all that you want.

    Pane:
    And the beauty of it is I can do a lot of changes.

    Pane (Interview):
    And as I model, I kind of give them the idea that, "Okay, you're going to get more comfortable with this as you go along." I'll take about five minutes to actually make my first character and then I'll turn them loose to do it.

    Pane:
    Do you want to build up your character?

    Students:
    Yes.

    Student #5:
    Oh, that's cute. I like that.

    Student #6:
    My guy's awesome. He looks really good.

    Pane:
    . All right. How are you going to be able to build him up?

    Student #7:
    I don't know.

    Student #8:
    There we go. There go my outfit. Should I hand it? I'll keep it right where it is.

    Pane:
    Take a screen shot of it.

    Student #9:
    Okay.

    Pane:
    So you probably, you want to go and hit the download button. That'll reduce it down a little bit. Everybody needs a .

    Pane (Interview):
    Then students are able to take their character that they created and they're able to drop it into a program that will build a comic for them.

    Pane:
    Can you build a comic showing safety, responsibility or respectful? Something where your digital super hero is going to step in and save the day. Is this something that you can do?

    Students:
    Yes.

    Pane (Interview):
    What I like about doing it with real pictures and the character that they create is it gives them a greater sense of ownership. They're making this about them. And whenever I can make it be about the students, I like to do that because it makes for a more meaningful activity.

    Student #9:
    I need to make it bigger.

    Pane (Interview):
    Matching up with English Language Standards, it's a huge deal in this lesson because the students have to create their own super digital citizen. And then they have to take that and actually put them into an imagined situation. And the imagined situation that we do are very much real world situations, very narrative based. And so the students are able to create this narrative between themselves and their super hero and put together a complete story.

    Pane:
    All right. These look great. And I saw a lot of this over here. I saw a lot of people coming up where situations where they weren't being safe, responsible or respectful. And then having their super digital citizen step in and save the day, and help them make those good choices. What we're going to do right now is we're going to take what's called the Gallery Walk. Because now you are all artists. There are some rules about the Gallery Walk that I want you to take care of. You're going to sit down and you're actually going to read what they have to say. And you're going to have to agree with them. You know, was that an example of safety? Was it an issue of responsibility? Was it an issue of respect? Go ahead. Take a walk and see what you can find.

    Student #10:
    It was actually nice going around to see what people's comic was about because some of them could inspire you on what to do before you do something online and to be smart and safe about it.

    Student #11:
    Mine was a girl. Her ability was she could stop people from gossiping online.

    Pane:
    Do I have a volunteer or two who would like to just share theirs? Uh, all right, what you got?

    Student #12:
    Well, I just won a free i-Pad. All I have to do is put my address. Hold on there, buddy. Don't put any personal info online. That is not safe.

    Pane:
    I like that. I love it. And again, we bring up those issues of safety and responsibility.

    Pane (Interview):
    The bottom line of this is that students are going to be exposed online to all sorts of opportunities. I want them to know that there are choices that they have to make. And it's going to take a super digital citizen in order to make those choices.

    Pane:
    Who does it take to be a good digital citizen? Ya'll. Everybody in here knows how to make those good choices. All right, guys, that was excellent.

School Details

Wilson Middle Level Program
5141 F St
Omaha NE 68117

Data Provided By:

greatschools

Teachers

teachers
Sam Pane