teacher's Guide
The Anonymity Factor is an interactive website that walks you and your students through Internet Anonymity, Internet Safety, Cyberbullying and the Legal Issues related to the Cyber World.
It is meant for the grade 6-8 student but can be useful for slightly lower or higher grades depending on your audience.
Please refer to the extensions page for more activities in a specific area.
It is meant for the grade 6-8 student but can be useful for slightly lower or higher grades depending on your audience.
Please refer to the extensions page for more activities in a specific area.
Website and lesson objectives
The information and activities on this website have been created to not only help students become better digital citizens but also to have educators start thinking on a deeper level about how technology truly affects each and every one of us. Teachers need to be aware of the deeper issues related to technology in our world so they are better prepared to mentor and educate students on how to navigate the cyber world.
big ideas WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO CONSIDER
BIG IDEA #1
Psychologically, how are our students impacted by the cyber world?
RESEARCH QUOTES TO CONSIDER FOR BIG IDEA #1
"Stephen Kerr (2004) proposes a number of points for the sociology of educational technology: “Is there any consensus on how technology affects the life of organizations, or the course of their development” (Kerr, 2004, p. 119)? “If the general conclusion of some sociologists that the organization effects of technology are best observed on the micro level of classrooms, offices, and interpersonal relations, rather than the macro level of districts and state organization, then we would be well advised to focus our attention on what happens in specific spheres of school organizational life” (p. 123). Kerr concludes that “there is a sociological dimension to the application of educational technology that may be as significant as its impacts in the psychological realm” (p. 134).
Kerr, S. T. (2004). Toward a sociology of educational technology. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (pp. 113-142).
“By closely examining whether the changes associated with "technological progress" are really changes in certain relationships after all, we can begin to ask political questions about their causes and especially their multitudinous effects. Whose idea of progress? Progress for what? And fundamentally, who benefits? These questions may seem rather weighty ones to be asking about schools and the curricular and teaching practices that now go on in them or are being proposed. Yet, we are in the midst of one of those many educational bandwagons that governments, industry, and others so like to ride".
Apple, M. (1991). The new technology: Is it part of the solution or part of the problem in education?. Computers in the Schools, 8(1/2/3), 59-81.
"Stephen Kerr (2004) proposes a number of points for the sociology of educational technology: “Is there any consensus on how technology affects the life of organizations, or the course of their development” (Kerr, 2004, p. 119)? “If the general conclusion of some sociologists that the organization effects of technology are best observed on the micro level of classrooms, offices, and interpersonal relations, rather than the macro level of districts and state organization, then we would be well advised to focus our attention on what happens in specific spheres of school organizational life” (p. 123). Kerr concludes that “there is a sociological dimension to the application of educational technology that may be as significant as its impacts in the psychological realm” (p. 134).
Kerr, S. T. (2004). Toward a sociology of educational technology. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (pp. 113-142).
“By closely examining whether the changes associated with "technological progress" are really changes in certain relationships after all, we can begin to ask political questions about their causes and especially their multitudinous effects. Whose idea of progress? Progress for what? And fundamentally, who benefits? These questions may seem rather weighty ones to be asking about schools and the curricular and teaching practices that now go on in them or are being proposed. Yet, we are in the midst of one of those many educational bandwagons that governments, industry, and others so like to ride".
Apple, M. (1991). The new technology: Is it part of the solution or part of the problem in education?. Computers in the Schools, 8(1/2/3), 59-81.
BIG IDEA #2
Technology is improving faster than societies ability to cope with those changes. How does this impact our students and their moral development?
Technology is improving faster than societies ability to cope with those changes. How does this impact our students and their moral development?
RESEARCH QUOTES TO CONSIDER FOR BIG IDEA #2
"In its simplest terms, "culture" is often defined as:"the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education."
(Merriam Webster, 2005)
"Popularized by sociologist William F. Ogburn, cultural lag refers to the time between the introduction of major innovations and cultural responses necessary to fully accommodate, comprehend, direct or regulate the innovations. In short, there is a lag between technology and culture."
William F. Ogburn, Social Change With Respect top Culture and Original Nature (New York, 1923), 201.
"There was a "real danger of too early and too naïve enthusiasm about the applications of cybernetics— about the gadgets— without concern with the philosophy…. The great tragedy and danger of our times is the ghastly gap between our technological sophistication and our socio-political-philosophical infantilism." Or again, "we have the skill and the know-how. We lack know-why and wisdom. Are you prepared to teach both the applications and implications of this technology?"
(Mary Alice Hilton(1963) as quoted in Petrina, S. (2008). On the origins of cyberculture. Unpublished manuscript.
(Merriam Webster, 2005)
"Popularized by sociologist William F. Ogburn, cultural lag refers to the time between the introduction of major innovations and cultural responses necessary to fully accommodate, comprehend, direct or regulate the innovations. In short, there is a lag between technology and culture."
William F. Ogburn, Social Change With Respect top Culture and Original Nature (New York, 1923), 201.
"There was a "real danger of too early and too naïve enthusiasm about the applications of cybernetics— about the gadgets— without concern with the philosophy…. The great tragedy and danger of our times is the ghastly gap between our technological sophistication and our socio-political-philosophical infantilism." Or again, "we have the skill and the know-how. We lack know-why and wisdom. Are you prepared to teach both the applications and implications of this technology?"
(Mary Alice Hilton(1963) as quoted in Petrina, S. (2008). On the origins of cyberculture. Unpublished manuscript.
BIG IDEA #3
Do we really expect students to understand the morals and values as they relate to the internet without guidance?
Do we really expect students to understand the morals and values as they relate to the internet without guidance?
RESEARCH QUOTES TO CONSIDER FOR BIG IDEA #3
"Can we expect students to merely adopt values on the basis of authority, peer pressure, propaganda or immersion in capitalist economics? When it comes time to choose from among a range of values in technology, or life in general, how can young people choose their own course of action? Dealing with values, whether directly or indirectly, requires that moral choices be made. Designing and teaching with a values consciousness require that we understand moral reasoning and the processes of ethics."
(ETEC 511, Course Notes, 2015)
"Can we expect students to merely adopt values on the basis of authority, peer pressure, propaganda or immersion in capitalist economics? When it comes time to choose from among a range of values in technology, or life in general, how can young people choose their own course of action? Dealing with values, whether directly or indirectly, requires that moral choices be made. Designing and teaching with a values consciousness require that we understand moral reasoning and the processes of ethics."
(ETEC 511, Course Notes, 2015)
BIG IDEA #4
" Do our students recognize that they are exploited by what they see, hear and post on the web? We must provide them with the education to not only be able to protect themselves but to understand how companies extend stereotypes and manipulate their users, especially those who do not know how to look critically at what is presented to them"
" Do our students recognize that they are exploited by what they see, hear and post on the web? We must provide them with the education to not only be able to protect themselves but to understand how companies extend stereotypes and manipulate their users, especially those who do not know how to look critically at what is presented to them"
RESEARCH QUOTES TO CONSIDER FOR BIG IDEA #4
“The world has become highly interconnected through mobile technologies. Almost 97% of people aged 15 years and over have access to mobile communication devices. Irrespective of socio-economic and cultural differences, people in basically all countries use mobile phones today. More than 1.5 billion use smartphones and in total about 5 billion enjoy the benefit of mobile networks. At the same time, this industry has become one of the largest exploiters of billions of people.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use
http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Smartphone-Users-Worldwide-Will-Total-175-Billion-2014/1010536)
“The world has become highly interconnected through mobile technologies. Almost 97% of people aged 15 years and over have access to mobile communication devices. Irrespective of socio-economic and cultural differences, people in basically all countries use mobile phones today. More than 1.5 billion use smartphones and in total about 5 billion enjoy the benefit of mobile networks. At the same time, this industry has become one of the largest exploiters of billions of people.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use
http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Smartphone-Users-Worldwide-Will-Total-175-Billion-2014/1010536)