Preparation Information
This curriculum web was created using a combination of Weebly, Digication, and YouTube. Assignments and evaluations should also be made available on the instructor’s website, if one exists.
While students are required to provide the traditional materials for classroom participation, such as notebooks and writing utensils, the most important requirement for this collection of lessons, especially given the focus on digital media, is a computer-lab or a collection of laptops equipped with internet access. This internet access should include access to YouTube or a similar site.
While students are required to provide the traditional materials for classroom participation, such as notebooks and writing utensils, the most important requirement for this collection of lessons, especially given the focus on digital media, is a computer-lab or a collection of laptops equipped with internet access. This internet access should include access to YouTube or a similar site.
Implementation Plan
This curriculum web is meant to be used in an advanced high school classroom. Students should have demonstrated a heightened level of maturity before being allowed to spend a significant number of days in a row in the computer lab. More engagement means better results.
The instructor is encouraged to demonstrate their computer knowledge early on, demonstrating that they are able to tell when a student is playing games and not focusing on their work. Circulation and observation is key to keep students engaged. Towards this end, the teacher should demonstrate proper computer lab behavior on the first day in the lab, and should reiterate these expectations each morning. Students who do not demonstrate proper computer behavior should be more closely monitored, and should eventually lose their computer privileges and be expected to complete the work at home.
Each mission in this curriculum web represents an individual lesson. Days can be inserted between missions for further classroom discussion at the instructor’s discretion, and if necessary, these lessons can be interspersed in a larger unit which addresses similar issues. The individual missions are meant to be completed in order, and the assessments contained therein are meant to build in complexity, difficulty, and individuality. This curriculum web is appropriate for a history, social studies, or technology classroom. It could also be adapted for an English classroom, particularly if a book such as 1984 is being read.
The instructor is encouraged to demonstrate their computer knowledge early on, demonstrating that they are able to tell when a student is playing games and not focusing on their work. Circulation and observation is key to keep students engaged. Towards this end, the teacher should demonstrate proper computer lab behavior on the first day in the lab, and should reiterate these expectations each morning. Students who do not demonstrate proper computer behavior should be more closely monitored, and should eventually lose their computer privileges and be expected to complete the work at home.
Each mission in this curriculum web represents an individual lesson. Days can be inserted between missions for further classroom discussion at the instructor’s discretion, and if necessary, these lessons can be interspersed in a larger unit which addresses similar issues. The individual missions are meant to be completed in order, and the assessments contained therein are meant to build in complexity, difficulty, and individuality. This curriculum web is appropriate for a history, social studies, or technology classroom. It could also be adapted for an English classroom, particularly if a book such as 1984 is being read.
Aim
This curriculum web aims to promote in high school students the value of privacy, as well as the importance of a free Internet. Students will come to understand that the Internet does not yet represent an immutable right, and they will learn of ways that they can work to keep the Internet unfettered.
Rationale
Throughout this program, students will explore the various reasons that a free and unfettered Internet is so direly important. Without a free Internet, much of the social progress made in the past thirty years would have been impossible. In today's globalized civilization, a free Internet represents one of the most important ways to bridge cultural gaps and to build a shared human condition and understanding. With all of the recent threats to the opportunities that the Internet represents, it is important that the next generation of voters realize just how important the power that they hold is.
By providing students only with online resources and requiring that any additional research be done digitally, this WebQuest helps to teach of the importance of free and unrestrained access to technology and the Internet. Many of the activities in this WebQuest rely on a student's ability to navigate the information of the Internet, and this, combined with the constant focus on the threats currently facing the Internet, will intrinsically teach students of the importance of a free Internet.
By providing students only with online resources and requiring that any additional research be done digitally, this WebQuest helps to teach of the importance of free and unrestrained access to technology and the Internet. Many of the activities in this WebQuest rely on a student's ability to navigate the information of the Internet, and this, combined with the constant focus on the threats currently facing the Internet, will intrinsically teach students of the importance of a free Internet.
Learners
The activities included and the articles linked to within this program are intended for a relatively mature high-school audience. This audience must understand certain core concepts of freedom, and must be at least tangentially knowledgeable in the Internet and various popular websites. With the rate at which younger students are adopting social technology and the Internet in general, this program could very easily be adopted for use in a middle school setting.
Teaching The Missions
Each mission will be graded on a standard four point rubric, provided to the students here. This rubric will be made available to them before they begin the program and the concept of rubrics will have been discussed earlier in the year.
Why Censorship and Why Now? is an ungraded activity meant to encourage students to work with each other both in groups and as a class to explore the role of censorship in our country's history. While teachers are encouraged to provide feedback on the work of their students, and might even go so far as to give a participation grade for the activity, this is not meant to be the first graded activity within the larger curriculum web.
Pre-Activity - HYPERPOWER! is an initial lesson meant to be conducted in a computer activity meant to be completed in a computer lab or a computer-equipped classroom.
By the end of the Pre-Activity, students will explore their opinion on the role of government in Internet regulation.
The Pre-Activity includes two videos, one to be watched by students who already believe the government should not censor the Internet, and one video to be watched by students who believe that the government should play some role in internet regulation. After watching the videos, students will write a half page essay exploring how their opinions have or haven’t changed, and what they thought the most convincing argument was.
Mission 1 - The Beginning of the End is an initial lesson meant to be conducted in a classroom.
By the end of Mission 1, the students will assess their online behavior as either acceptable or unacceptable, and will understand and be able to vocalize the relationship between power structure placement and privacy needs.
Mission 1 begins with students breaking into groups of three. They are asked to discuss and list the various ways in which they communicate with other peers. This free discussion is teacher-moderated by way of circulation and observation. The class reconvenes and shares their respective discussions. The instructor then introduces the conflicting ideas of authority and privacy by asking for definitions. After the terms are adequately defined, the instructor allows the initial groups to discuss a hypothetical relationship between the two. Instructor explains the assessment goals for the mission- a short essay exploring the relationship between authority and privacy. This essay can be shaped into a group discussion. After each group has presented, the class once again reconvenes for a group discussion that ends the lesson. Students are asked to consider their social media actions that night in terms of the day’s discussion.
Mission 2 - Another Version of the Truth is a lesson meant to be conducted in a computer lab or a computer-equipped classroom.
By the end of Mission 2, students will begin to understand the transmutability of truth, and the ways in which media and the government shape our ideas of “truth”.
This Mission includes the first individually crafted essays of the curriculum web. Students will explore the relationship between facts and truth, questioning the conventional logic that ‘Internet sources aren’t reliable’ in light of a number of new studies. They will explore not only news articles on the subject, but the reaction commentators have had on those articles. The final assignment for this Mission is an essay exploring both sides of the Internet source issue.
Mission 3 -Vessel is a lesson meant to be completed in a computer lab or a computer-equipped classroom.
By the end of Mission 3, students will understand, at a basic level, the structure and function of the Internet, and will better understand the forces that are working to control it.
Mission 3 explores the actual structure of the Internet so as to build a working knowledge of the concepts and issues that will be explored in later Missions and in the students’ personal explorations. Using the metaphor of water and jugs, the ownership of the Internet is explored, touching on such issues as data privacy and claims to personal information. The Mission ends with a number of short writing assessments and related articles exploring Net Neutrality, Internet as a basic right, and the monitoring we are all subject to.
Mission 4 - The Greater Good is the first lesson meant to be completed in a computer lab or a computer-equipped classroom.
By the end of Mission 4, students will describe the danger (or, if their opinion is such, the acceptability) of monitoring all speech as a means to protect certain individuals from certain kinds of speech, and with this knowledge, they will begin to form an opinion on cyber-monitoring and cyber-censorship.
Mission 4 begins with an initial class-wide discussion concerning bullying and its prevalence in the school. The instructor should note how quickly the class makes the transition from bullying to cyberbullying, and provide statistics on the prevalence of digital bullying. The class discusses possible solutions to the problem before reading an online news article on a bill being proposed in Arizona meant to end cyberbullying. After reading the article, students reenter their groups from the previous lesson and discuss a selection of questions that press the issue of the safety of a broad bill meant to regulate actions taken on the Internet. They are meant to think about whether this first bill is a slippery slope towards more regulation, and this idea is where the mission gets its name from (‘the path to hell…’).
Mission 5 - Meet Your Master is meant to be completed in a computer lab or a computer-equipped classroom.
By the end of Mission 5, students will understand that internet censorship already exists in a very real way, and will create a written document assessing their opinion on its use and acceptability.
Mission 5 transitions away from group discussion and towards individual exploration. The lesson introduces the active censorship occurring on the Internet by way of graphics and active censorship of the mission itself. The initial image students are presented upon beginning the mission is the same image displayed on websites seized by the Government in suspected cases of computer piracy. Students are instructed to read a number of articles concerning the mishandling by the government of a recent piracy case, articles that directly challenge notions that the Government has every citizen’s best interest in mind. These articles, coupled with a reading of excerpts from SOPA, a recent bill meant to limit Internet piracy, help to shift student thinking away from the hypothetical and towards the tangible, the present, and the real. Mission 5 is meant to be a challenging lesson for students who may very well pirate content on a daily basis.
Mission 6 - Survivalism is meant to be conducted in a computer lab or a computer-equipped classroom.
By the end of Mission 6, students will create a written artifact exploring their own role in the future of internet freedoms, and will explore with some finality the issue of whether the government has a right to censor or control the internet.
Mission 6 is the final lesson in this curriculum web. It continues the motif of active censorship by blacking out sentences and leaving out content. Students are meant to be challenged and perhaps confused by this new presentation style. This idea can be furthered by the instructor directing students to sites which are known to be blocked on the school’s network, such as YouTube. In the same way that the previous mission made a transition from hypothetical ideas to recent real history, this lesson encourages students to stop thinking of themselves as powerless and to start thinking of themselves as activists. The lesson begins with a video by Anonymous, the hacking group, and features articles demonstrating the Internet’s reaction to the SOPA bill that was read about in the previous lesson. Anonymous, the hacking group, and features articles demonstrating the Internet’s reaction to the SOPA bill that was read about in the previous lesson.
Final Project - Zero Sum is meant to be finished on the student's time.
By the end of the Final Project, students will have fully evaluated their stance on Internet censorship and regulation, and will have demonstrated their new knowledge by way of their writing and research.
The Final Project represents the largest assessment opportunity of the curriculum web. Students are asked to construct a website using a resource such as Wix or WordPress on which they will compile not just the work they have done for the curriculum web so far, but on which they will explore their own opinions and thoughts on the issues that have been explored so far. Students are encouraged, but not required, to register the site in their name and to take ownership of their opinion and their thinking. This represents not just an opportunity for a fantastic demonstration of maturity, but also an opportunity for students to actively contribute to the battle which they should, if the curriculum web has served its purpose, be newly invested in.
Why Censorship and Why Now? is an ungraded activity meant to encourage students to work with each other both in groups and as a class to explore the role of censorship in our country's history. While teachers are encouraged to provide feedback on the work of their students, and might even go so far as to give a participation grade for the activity, this is not meant to be the first graded activity within the larger curriculum web.
Pre-Activity - HYPERPOWER! is an initial lesson meant to be conducted in a computer activity meant to be completed in a computer lab or a computer-equipped classroom.
By the end of the Pre-Activity, students will explore their opinion on the role of government in Internet regulation.
The Pre-Activity includes two videos, one to be watched by students who already believe the government should not censor the Internet, and one video to be watched by students who believe that the government should play some role in internet regulation. After watching the videos, students will write a half page essay exploring how their opinions have or haven’t changed, and what they thought the most convincing argument was.
Mission 1 - The Beginning of the End is an initial lesson meant to be conducted in a classroom.
By the end of Mission 1, the students will assess their online behavior as either acceptable or unacceptable, and will understand and be able to vocalize the relationship between power structure placement and privacy needs.
Mission 1 begins with students breaking into groups of three. They are asked to discuss and list the various ways in which they communicate with other peers. This free discussion is teacher-moderated by way of circulation and observation. The class reconvenes and shares their respective discussions. The instructor then introduces the conflicting ideas of authority and privacy by asking for definitions. After the terms are adequately defined, the instructor allows the initial groups to discuss a hypothetical relationship between the two. Instructor explains the assessment goals for the mission- a short essay exploring the relationship between authority and privacy. This essay can be shaped into a group discussion. After each group has presented, the class once again reconvenes for a group discussion that ends the lesson. Students are asked to consider their social media actions that night in terms of the day’s discussion.
Mission 2 - Another Version of the Truth is a lesson meant to be conducted in a computer lab or a computer-equipped classroom.
By the end of Mission 2, students will begin to understand the transmutability of truth, and the ways in which media and the government shape our ideas of “truth”.
This Mission includes the first individually crafted essays of the curriculum web. Students will explore the relationship between facts and truth, questioning the conventional logic that ‘Internet sources aren’t reliable’ in light of a number of new studies. They will explore not only news articles on the subject, but the reaction commentators have had on those articles. The final assignment for this Mission is an essay exploring both sides of the Internet source issue.
Mission 3 -Vessel is a lesson meant to be completed in a computer lab or a computer-equipped classroom.
By the end of Mission 3, students will understand, at a basic level, the structure and function of the Internet, and will better understand the forces that are working to control it.
Mission 3 explores the actual structure of the Internet so as to build a working knowledge of the concepts and issues that will be explored in later Missions and in the students’ personal explorations. Using the metaphor of water and jugs, the ownership of the Internet is explored, touching on such issues as data privacy and claims to personal information. The Mission ends with a number of short writing assessments and related articles exploring Net Neutrality, Internet as a basic right, and the monitoring we are all subject to.
Mission 4 - The Greater Good is the first lesson meant to be completed in a computer lab or a computer-equipped classroom.
By the end of Mission 4, students will describe the danger (or, if their opinion is such, the acceptability) of monitoring all speech as a means to protect certain individuals from certain kinds of speech, and with this knowledge, they will begin to form an opinion on cyber-monitoring and cyber-censorship.
Mission 4 begins with an initial class-wide discussion concerning bullying and its prevalence in the school. The instructor should note how quickly the class makes the transition from bullying to cyberbullying, and provide statistics on the prevalence of digital bullying. The class discusses possible solutions to the problem before reading an online news article on a bill being proposed in Arizona meant to end cyberbullying. After reading the article, students reenter their groups from the previous lesson and discuss a selection of questions that press the issue of the safety of a broad bill meant to regulate actions taken on the Internet. They are meant to think about whether this first bill is a slippery slope towards more regulation, and this idea is where the mission gets its name from (‘the path to hell…’).
Mission 5 - Meet Your Master is meant to be completed in a computer lab or a computer-equipped classroom.
By the end of Mission 5, students will understand that internet censorship already exists in a very real way, and will create a written document assessing their opinion on its use and acceptability.
Mission 5 transitions away from group discussion and towards individual exploration. The lesson introduces the active censorship occurring on the Internet by way of graphics and active censorship of the mission itself. The initial image students are presented upon beginning the mission is the same image displayed on websites seized by the Government in suspected cases of computer piracy. Students are instructed to read a number of articles concerning the mishandling by the government of a recent piracy case, articles that directly challenge notions that the Government has every citizen’s best interest in mind. These articles, coupled with a reading of excerpts from SOPA, a recent bill meant to limit Internet piracy, help to shift student thinking away from the hypothetical and towards the tangible, the present, and the real. Mission 5 is meant to be a challenging lesson for students who may very well pirate content on a daily basis.
Mission 6 - Survivalism is meant to be conducted in a computer lab or a computer-equipped classroom.
By the end of Mission 6, students will create a written artifact exploring their own role in the future of internet freedoms, and will explore with some finality the issue of whether the government has a right to censor or control the internet.
Mission 6 is the final lesson in this curriculum web. It continues the motif of active censorship by blacking out sentences and leaving out content. Students are meant to be challenged and perhaps confused by this new presentation style. This idea can be furthered by the instructor directing students to sites which are known to be blocked on the school’s network, such as YouTube. In the same way that the previous mission made a transition from hypothetical ideas to recent real history, this lesson encourages students to stop thinking of themselves as powerless and to start thinking of themselves as activists. The lesson begins with a video by Anonymous, the hacking group, and features articles demonstrating the Internet’s reaction to the SOPA bill that was read about in the previous lesson. Anonymous, the hacking group, and features articles demonstrating the Internet’s reaction to the SOPA bill that was read about in the previous lesson.
Final Project - Zero Sum is meant to be finished on the student's time.
By the end of the Final Project, students will have fully evaluated their stance on Internet censorship and regulation, and will have demonstrated their new knowledge by way of their writing and research.
The Final Project represents the largest assessment opportunity of the curriculum web. Students are asked to construct a website using a resource such as Wix or WordPress on which they will compile not just the work they have done for the curriculum web so far, but on which they will explore their own opinions and thoughts on the issues that have been explored so far. Students are encouraged, but not required, to register the site in their name and to take ownership of their opinion and their thinking. This represents not just an opportunity for a fantastic demonstration of maturity, but also an opportunity for students to actively contribute to the battle which they should, if the curriculum web has served its purpose, be newly invested in.
Assessment Plan
For all Missions and activities, students will be evaluated on a four-point grading rubric, one which is familiar to them from other implementations in the class. Students will be made aware of the intricacies of this rubric.
In Pre-Activity - HYPERPOWER!, students are evaluated on the logical skills they demonstrate in evaluating their changing opinion and the most convincing argument they encountered.
In Mission 1 - The Beginning of the End, students are evaluated on their participation in the final two discussions and on the depth of their thinking and the clarity of their rationale.
In Mission 2 - Another Version of the Truth, students are evaluated on a second presentation within their groups.
In Mission 3 - Vessel, students are evaluated on a number of short writing prompts that address the structure and flow of the Internet, ranging in topic from the balance between economic interests and privacy rights, to Internet access as a basic human right, and the extent to which our Internet activity is monitored.
In Mission 4- The Greater Good, students are evaluated on a number of short writing prompts revolving around the specific issues raised by cyberbullying and the attempts to end it.
In Mission 5 - Meet Your Master, students are assessed by way of an individual writing assignment to be collected at the beginning of the next class., one which asks them to explain their current Internet use, and how that would be impacted if a bill such as SOPA were to pass. Students are asked to reference the online resources explored during the day.
In Mission 6 - Survivalism, students are evaluated on a writing assessment, meant to be completed in class, is an informal exploration of a student’s place in the online community, and the role they could hypothetically play in helping to stop a future SOPA-like bill.
On the Final Project - Zero Sum, students are evaluated using the same four-point rubric they have been graded on for the entirety of the project. Of particular importance are the student's clarity and depth of thought, their willingness to take academic risks (in terms of content addressed and in terms of ideas explored), and the complexity of their arguments.
In Pre-Activity - HYPERPOWER!, students are evaluated on the logical skills they demonstrate in evaluating their changing opinion and the most convincing argument they encountered.
In Mission 1 - The Beginning of the End, students are evaluated on their participation in the final two discussions and on the depth of their thinking and the clarity of their rationale.
In Mission 2 - Another Version of the Truth, students are evaluated on a second presentation within their groups.
In Mission 3 - Vessel, students are evaluated on a number of short writing prompts that address the structure and flow of the Internet, ranging in topic from the balance between economic interests and privacy rights, to Internet access as a basic human right, and the extent to which our Internet activity is monitored.
In Mission 4- The Greater Good, students are evaluated on a number of short writing prompts revolving around the specific issues raised by cyberbullying and the attempts to end it.
In Mission 5 - Meet Your Master, students are assessed by way of an individual writing assignment to be collected at the beginning of the next class., one which asks them to explain their current Internet use, and how that would be impacted if a bill such as SOPA were to pass. Students are asked to reference the online resources explored during the day.
In Mission 6 - Survivalism, students are evaluated on a writing assessment, meant to be completed in class, is an informal exploration of a student’s place in the online community, and the role they could hypothetically play in helping to stop a future SOPA-like bill.
On the Final Project - Zero Sum, students are evaluated using the same four-point rubric they have been graded on for the entirety of the project. Of particular importance are the student's clarity and depth of thought, their willingness to take academic risks (in terms of content addressed and in terms of ideas explored), and the complexity of their arguments.