Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: The Underground Railroad: In the Ohio River Valley
Review of an online interactive learning game about the Underground Railroad. The game can be found at: https://sites.google.com/site/undergroundrailroadgame/.
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Common Sense Media: Education: Advertising Detectives
Learners learn to recognize five different kinds of online ads prevalent on children's sites. They learn how to distinguish advertising content from other content on a website. Free membership required.
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Common Sense Media: Education: Build Your Ideal Community: Grades 6 8
Students will consider the characteristics of positive online communities that promote responsibility and respect. Requires free membership.
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Common Sense Media: Education: Chart It: Grades 6 8
Students will learn to assess people's intentions and the impact of their words and actions, both positive and negative, in online environments. Requires free membership.
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Common Sense Media: Education: Collective Intelligence (Grades 9 12)
Students analyze the statement, "The whole is better than the sum of its parts," to understand the concepts of synergy and collective intelligence. They consider both the benefits and drawbacks of using collective intelligence in...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Copyrights and Wrongs: Grades 9 12
Students explore the legal and ethical dimensions of respecting creative work. Requires free membership.
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Common Sense Media: Education: Cracking the Gender Code: Grades 6 8
Young scholars explore "boy codes" and "girl codes," and discuss the extent to which they shape people's online identities and relationships. Requires free membership.
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Crawling the Web: Grades 6 8
Faced with a large and ever-changing array of options about how to find information they need, students learn to make informed choices about which search sites to use for different purposes. They also learn to use multiple search tools...
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Common Sense Media: Education: Digital Citizenship: Grades 3 5
Students will establish group norms to create a positive online community that promotes responsible and respectful digital behavior within their classroom. Requires free membership.
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Common Sense Media: Education: Gender Stereotypes Online: Grades 6 8
Students are introduced to the concept of gender stereotypes, in both an online and offline context. Students identify and discuss gender stereotypes in the "Dress Up Your Avatar" feature of a kids' virtual world. Free membership required.
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Common Sense Media: Education: Going Places Safely: K 2
Students learn that they can go to exciting places online, but they need to follow certain rules to remain safe. By taking a virtual field trip, students experience the power of the Internet to take them to places they might not be able...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Keep It Private (K 2nd Grade)
This lesson plan for young learners will teach them the basics of staying safe online. Students review what information is private and should not be shared without a trusted adult's permission. Learners then view sites that ask them to...
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Common Sense Media: Education: My Creative Work (K 2)
Students learn the basics - title, name, and date - for crediting creative work. They discuss the importance of citing work, as well as recognizing that they should give themselves proper credit so that others can attribute their work...
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Common Sense Media: Education: Privacy Rules: Grades 3 5
Students learn that children's websites must protect their private information. They learn to identify these secure sites by looking for their privacy policies and privacy seals of approval. They discuss a scenario in which their private...
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Common Sense Media: Education: Private and Personal Information (3 5)
As students visit sites that request information about their identity, they learn to adopt a critical inquiry process that empowers them to protect themselves and their families from identity theft. They learn the difference between...
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Common Sense Media: Education: Right Sites: Grades 3 5
Students explore the distinctions between the quality and appeal of a children's informational website. They use both types of criteria to rate and compare children's informational websites.
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Rings of Responsibility: Grades 3 5
Learners explore what it means to take on responsibilities in both their offline and online communities as a way to learn how to be good digital citizens. Students sit in circles, which depict the "Rings of Responsibility," in order to...
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media: Education: Scams and Schemes: Grades 6 8
Learners learn strategies for guarding against identity theft and scams that try to access their private information online. Students learn what identity theft is, what kinds of information identity thieves want, and what can be done...
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Common Sense Media: Education: Screen Out the Mean: K 2
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students learn that children sometimes can act like bullies when they are online. They explore what cyberbullying means and what they can do when they encounter it. Students recognize that it is...
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Common Sense Media: Education: Secret Sharer Grades 6 8
Students look beyond protecting their own privacy to respecting the privacy of others online. Students read and analyze case studies about students who have compromised the privacy of someone else online by tagging, copying, and...
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Common Sense Media: Education: Staying Safe Online (K 2)
Students understand that they should stay safe online by choosing websites that are good for them to visit, and avoiding sites that are not appropriate for them. They learn about the similarities of staying safe in the real world and...
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Common Sense Media: Education: Sticky Sites: Grades 6 8
Middle schoolers learn about some of the features that attract and retain visitors to websites. They also learn to recognize the commercial motives that sometimes lie behind these "sticky" sites. Free membership required.
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Common Sense Media: Education: Strategic Searching: Grades 6 8
Middle schoolers learn that to conduct effective and efficient online searches, they must use a variety of searching strategies rather than relying on a single source. Students learn a five-step method for planning and carrying out an...
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Common Sense Media: Education: Strong Passwords (3 5)
Students learn how to create secure passwords in order to protect their private information and accounts online. They learn tips for creating safe passwords. They explore scenarios in which two characters choose passwords, and they use...