The Internet and You: Introduction

The Internet and You

Overview

This document contains activities and handouts for curricular modules intended to be used with elementary school-aged children (with a focus on grades 1-3), in conjunction with media about Ruff Ruffman from PBS (http://pbskids.org/fetch). This curriculum is designed as a series of short lesson plans, which you can use as we have laid out, or in a fashion that best suits your own needs. The first three modules cover specific topics (privacy, search engines, and advertising), and the last module is intended to summarize and expand upon the previous modules. All activities are modular, and the curriculum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.

Parent Handouts

Encourage students to share what they have learned in class with their parents at home. You can do so after each module or after the entire curriculum to reinforce their learnings. It is important for children to be able to apply what they learned with their own house rules on Internet use and also for parents to be aware of some of the risks online. Suggestions for use are included in “Extensions” for each module.

Going Online

Whenever you encourage or require students to go online while teaching this or other material, please keep in mind that you will want to make sure any online activity is consistent with any school, district, or other applicable policies, as well as any applicable privacy laws and regulations. Because of the use of video throughout the curriculum, you will need access to at least one computer and projector.

Acknowledgments

The Youth and Media team at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University (BKCIS) thanks the Digital Literacy Toolkit team for its efforts on this curriculum: Annie Chen, Sandra Cortesi, David Cruz, Urs Gasser, Paulina Haduong, Katherine Knutsen, Andres Lombana-Bermudez, Jeremiah Milbauer, Leah Plunkett, Dalia Topelson Ritvo, Alissa Wang, and Zoe Wood. BKCIS would also like to thank WGBH and the New York Public Library for their continued collaboration through the Digital Media and Learning Trust Challenge, supported by the MacArthur Foundation and administered by HASTAC. Major funding for Ruff Ruffman: Humble Media Genius is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Google. Ruff Ruffman, other characters, and related indicia are trademarks of the WGBH Educational Foundation. All rights reserved. FETCH!, the characters and related indicia are trademarks of the WGBH Educational Foundation. All third party trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Used with permission. ©2016 WGBH Educational Foundation.