CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP AND SOCIAL MEDIA:

RELEVANT CURRICULUM FOR EARLY MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

A graduate project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

For the degree of Master of Science in Counseling,

School Counseling

By Lynn Gilmour

May 2019

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The graduate project of Lynn Gilmour is approved: _______________________________________ _____________________ Pete G. Goldschmidt, Ph.D. Date: _______________________________________ _____________________ James P. Geary, M.S. Date: _______________________________________ _____________________ Shyrea J. Minton, Ed.D., Chair. Date:

California State University, Northridge

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FOREWORD:

I have selected this particular topic because of the ever increasing “epidemic” of

dependence on social media. I see this particularly in the students transitioning into middle

school. It has been found that middle schoolers are at an age where they are wondering about

who they are and what their identity is to themselves and to the people that surround them. I

currently work with middle schoolers who continually put themselves into situations on social

media that end up impacting their self-esteem and their safety. For example, students will rate

themselves via the sliding emoji bar on Instagram and ask their followers, “How much do you

think I like you?” or “How much do you like me?”, ultimately causing a direct impact on how

they ascribe value to themselves. On top of that, many of the students I know accept stranger’s

requests to follow them on their platforms, resulting in an unwanted Direct Message. I took it

upon myself to search for curriculum that could teach truly relevant information to students that

does not sound outdated. The hope of this project is that through Digital Citizenship, Social

Media can be used in an appropriate and fun way.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

First, I would like to thank my parents for not only housing me throughout my Master’s

degree, but for loving me as I rode my emotional rollercoaster. You two have been my rocks

throughout this whole experience and I couldn’t have don’t it without you encouraging me and

giving me the educational foundation that led me to this program and career choice.

Matthew and Lauren, I am so grateful for the closeness we have developed. You two are

my biggest cheerleaders and I feel the same towards the two of you! You are world changers, as

you have already changed mine.

To my friends, especially Meghan, Kirstin, Katie and the rest of my gals! There is

absolutely no way I could’ve gone through graduate school without your listening ears and

confidence in me, even when I don't feel it for myself. That you to each friend these past two

years that has made an effort in our friendship when I felt overwhelmed or too lazy to reach out,

it truly means the world to me. Here’s to more adventures post-graduate school.

Fellowship Church and most specifically, Fellowship YOUTH, I would be the house built

on the sand if it was not for Fellowship maintaining my foundation in the Lord. Samuel Kemp,

you have taught me so much in what it means to lead Middle Schoolers and how to love on

people intentionally. It was an honor to be your intern. Joshua Tien, thank you for continually

being a sense of peace and home in my life. You teach me patience, joy and miscellaneous facts

about sports. To the leaders that surround me, wow. Tuesday nights are a breath of fresh air in a

time of chaos. Thank you for continually pointing my compass to a “True North”, for speaking

truths into my life and those around me.

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To my cohort and Professors: I am stronger because of you, both mentally and

emotionally. Thank you for sharing resources, experiences and being vulnerable with me, you

will each be amazing at whatever you set your mind to. Dr. Minton, I cannot thank you enough

for your patience with me, giving me opportunities to assist and for challenging me in this field.

Professor Geary, thank you for reminding us that School Counseling is fun!

To my supervisors at my field sites and the staff that assists me along the way. Thank you

for taking chances on me, consulting and molding me into the school counselor that I am.

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DEDICATION:

To my students, both present and future. You are the reason I am in this program, the

reason this paper has been written. Thank you. You bring so much laughter into my life. I am

humbled daily to work with youth like you. Specifically, my 8th grade girls at YOUTH, you

inspire me daily to be the best counselor I can be. To the students at Woodland Hills Academy,

you have taught me so much about what it means to be a middle school counselor. Thank you for

sharing your stories, heartache, jokes and your goals, it has been a privilege to get to know you

this year. To my caseload at Crescenta Valley High School, you inspire me, and I am so grateful

to have been a small part of your High School experience.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS: Signature Page…………………………………………………………………………………….ii

Foreword………………………………………………………………………………………….iii

Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………….iv

Dedication………………………………………………………………………………………...vi

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………...ix

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………1

Statement of the Problem………………………………………………………………….2

Purpose of the Problem……………………………………………………………………4

Terminology……………………………………………………………………………….5

Summary…………………………………………………………………………………..7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………………….8

Evolution of the Internet and History……………………………………………………..8

Video Game and Technology Addiction………………………………………………...10

Digital Citizenship, an Introduction…………………………………………….………..11

Current Law Regarding Digital Law and Digital Citizenship…………………….……..13

Risk in Relation to Social Media and Parental Concern…………………………………15

Middle School Development…………………………………………………………….19

Middle Schooler’s and Effective Curriculum……………………………………………21

Social Media and Middle Schoolers……………………………………………………..22

Social Media in the Classroom…………………………………………………………..24

Summary…………………………………………………………………………………26

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CHAPTER 3: PROJECT AUDIENCE AND IMPLEMENTATION FACTORS………………28

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………28

Development of the Project…………………………………………………………..….28

Intended Audience…………………………………………………………………...…..30

Personal Qualifications…………………………………………………………………..31

Environment and Equipment…………………………………………………………….31

Formative Evaluation…………………………………………………………………….32

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………..34

Summary of Project……………………………………………………………………...34

Summary of Evaluation Results………………………………………………………….34

Recommendations………………………………………………………………………..36

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….37

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………..38

APPENDIX A: Guide Table of Contents………….…………………………………………….43

APPENDIX B: Facilitators Guide……………………………………………………………….44

APPENDIX C: Project Materials………………………………………………………………...47

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ABSTRACT

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP AND SOCIAL MEDIA:

RELEVANT CURRICULUM FOR EARLY MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

By Lynn Gilmour

Master of Science, Counseling

School Counseling

This project covers the necessity of Social Media Awareness in the middle school classroom via

Digital Citizenship. The main goal of Digital Citizenship is to teach respect, educate about

technology and its platforms and protect the students using the media. Although there are risks in

being a part of social media that Digital Citizenship helps prevent, there are also positives that

Digital Citizenship can contribute to Social Media continuing to be a safe space for students.

Though, what has become clear in some of the current curriculum is that often it is outdated as

social media changes at least from month to month, which calls for updated, relevant and

engaging curriculum. This will be done by engaging students, staff and parents in a Digital

Citizenship week. Digital Citizenship week will have a student assembly and includes a Digital

Citizenship group. There will also be a Digital Citizenship pledge that students will sign for

accountability, self-control and respect. The packet also includes daily announcements and

posters to advertise respectful civic engagement online. Utilizing peer interactions through a

school-wide event and then also having teachers select students present the message of Social

Media caution to their peers, will further solidify the subject

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Digital Citizenship is one of education’s newest, hot-button subjects (Digital Citizenship

Consulting, n.d.). It involves the student’s social, personal and academic lives and not to mention

their mental health lives, all of which have an impact on how a student may approach technology

in a classroom. Parents, teachers and administrators alike feel lost on where the “line” is in the

digital or social media spheres of their student’s lives (What’s Your Digital Identity, n.d.), this is

where Digital Citizenship can be taught and applied. Digital Citizenship (DC) intersects with the

student’s knowledge and use of technology and combines it with the rules and regulations that

educators and parents want to enforce on technology. According to the Digital Citizenship

Institute (Digital Citizenship Consulting, n.d.), DC is defined as, “the norms of appropriate,

responsible technology use.” The age of everyday technological advancements continues to

grow, and DC educators are trying to keep up. Leaders in the education field and the Digital

Citizenship Institute have created curriculum for DC software within education, but there has not

been much curriculum on social media and what students go through at home and at school via

their own personal devices (Digital Citizenship Consulting, n.d.). Students should not only

understand how to work Google and Microsoft Suites, but also, they need to be able to chat

respectfully and appropriately in a Direct Message (DM) on Instagram and know not to send

inappropriate pictures on SnapChat. Instead of teaching Digital Citizenship and Social Media

Awareness as a protective and preventative topic as it should be taught, instead it is being taught

after a student has made a mistake as an intervention. Not to mention, these subjects can be

convicting for students yet, these lessons can also seem repetitive. The students hear this on

media, in commercials, their parent’s own personal warning, even on the social media itself, but

why can’t students hear it again and in the setting that they spend the second most amount of

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time in? The hope is that by becoming a digital citizen, students will know and understand the

norms and proper “netiquette” in how to behave online, thus preventing risky behaviors online.

Technology itself has dramatically changed throughout the past couple of decades, let

alone in the past year or two. Gen Alphas (our current generation) are being exposed to new

technologies every day, Gen Z citizens can barely remember a time without the iPhone, whereas

millennials were introduced to screens and have not left them since (Karr, 2017). The parents of

millennials and the grandparents of millennials could have never predicted such a drastic shift in

their technological lives in such a short amount of time. Not only has this impacted our day to

day lives but, researchers are going through and looking at how this has impacted the schools

and how technology and new sites are being used, indicating a need for a framework of

boundaries aside from parental blocking. This especially important in the realm of Digital

Citizenship as Digital Literacy for all, not just students but parents, grandparents, neighbors all

need to be able have the advantage of understanding technology and media (Digital Citizenship

Consulting, n.d.).

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Extreme usage of technology has led Tőrők-Ágoston (2017) to see how students and

people with online lives can now differentiate between the two, the “real” life and the “virtual”

life, otherwise identified as Digital Identity, the information that one uses to describe one’s self

online. Digital Identity also includes some of one’s real life and can be a threat if used

incorrectly, according to LifeLock (What’s Your Digital Identity, n.d.), an Identity Theft

Protection system specializing in online security and safety. Putting one’s vital information

online like banking and routing numbers, passwords, social security numbers and one’s

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addresses, can attribute to unwanted victimization of online theft and identity theft (Digital

Identity, n.d.).

Digital Identity was thought of to be personal identification information but now, Digital

Identity includes one’s digital footprint that contains an array of social media accounts and

content that one puts out to portray their image, or digital identity (Kajee, 2018). What scares

parents, teachers and adults alike, is the inability to prevent children from seeing all the content.

The example used in this article provides insight to this fear that adults have, saying that the

reality that students can go from seeing a video of a school shooting or international war clips to

seeing an advertisement portraying someone in a sensual manner to an advertisement about

scooters shows the contrast in today’s multi-media content and how advertisers are targeting

their audiences. There is a variety of emotions in those subjects allow and the fear that many

have is that we are becoming numb to the terrible things occurring in our world. Tőrők-Ágoston

(2017) suggests beginning to educate on media in primary and high schools. This idea is

conducive with Gottfredson’s Theory of Circumscription and Compromise (Curry and Milson,

p.187), which calls to consider one’s own self-concept and what they personally deem is

acceptable as a career or where to attend college, which trickles into exploration in imagining of

what one’s self may look like in the future. Tőrők-Ágoston (2017) and Gottfredson’s (Curry and

Milson, p.187) ideas are similar in their thought as both theories further indicate the importance

of teaching technological rules at a young age to set the stage for the future of their real and

online lives.

Teachers, administrators, and other school leaders are wondering how to best handle

technology in the classroom, as it seems that more schools are reaching a 1:1 technology ratio for

their students, whether that’s a student’s own device or the district’s (Digital Citizenship

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Consulting, n.d.). According to Mossberger et al. (2008), Digital Citizenship was initially

referred to as increasing the number of students or youth online to have access (Mossberger et

al., 2008) but since, the definition has swayed to safe and responsible behavior online and some

have even defined it by including concepts like responsibility, rights and security of the online

world (Ribble and Bailey, 2011). This occurred because researchers began to realize that Digital

Citizenship meant more than just a narrow focus on internet safety but rather a broad lens to

responsibility, safety and education to the online world.

Not only are school leaders interested in knowing how to go about technology during

class time, but they wonder about how to best handle social media and technology that occurs

outside of class time. It is considered that it can interfere with a student’s educational experience,

mental health and social life. Often, Deans, Assistant Principals and other administrators in

charge of handling discipline run into this problem when cyberbullying becomes an issue for a

student’s safety. Just this past week a student at a middle school was called in for breaking her

anti-bullying contract by simply posting a Snapchat story declaring that she was going to fight

another student, providing the indication that what happens outside the classroom still effects the

student’s well-being. Technology was supposed to make everything easier and less complicated.

In turn, it’s made being a school counselor, teacher, parent, student or just a human in general, a

little more complex than it already was.

PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT

This project’s goal is to be able to effectively communicate social media boundaries and

safety for students. The hope is to catch students as they are middle schooler or pre-middle

school as they are solidifying their personalities and who they want to be and how they portray

themselves. It has come to the foreground that technology makes any post semi-permanent, so if

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students are wanting to create a great online presence that is positive, then they need to be taught

and made aware earlier. There are many tactics to teaching this. The “scared-straight tactic”

(Hale, 2018) has been a common use for many controversial subjects. This involves informing

students how others before them have made mistakes but rather telling about the extreme of what

could happen if someone makes the same mistakes. In regard to Social Media, this way of

teaching is often needed in some way as a reminder of the dangers of the technological realm but

it should not be the goal to scare the students, as Social Media can also be used for good.

The goal of this project would be to ensure that students know how to take ownership and

responsibility of the content that they post. They cannot control what others can do on their

Social Media but they can control what they personally share. Digital Citizenship and Social

Media Awareness for both the student, parent and teacher can be a preventative measure against

cyberbullying, sexual risks online and invasion of privacy, to name a few. Digital Citizenship

teaches what students themselves can control online and gives a sense of responsibility. Risky

online behavior can be prevented and teaching Digital Citizenship awareness is one way to

prevent.

TERMINOLOGY:

• Digital Citizenship: the quality of response to membership by the digital community, also

defined as teaching students how to use technology appropriately

• Digital Access: Full Electronic Participation in society (Nine Elements, n.d.)

• Digital Commerce: Electronic Buying and Selling of Goods (Nine Elements, n.d.)

• Digital Communication: Electronic Exchange of information (Nine Elements, n.d.)

• Digital Literacy: Process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of

technology (Nine Elements, n.d.)

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• Digital Etiquette/Netiquette: When students are using others there are some “unspoken rules”

that guide them on how to behave and communicate (Nine Elements, n.d.)

• Digital Law: Electronic responsibility for actions and deeds online (Nine Elements, n.d.)

• Digital Rights and Responsibilities: freedoms extended to everyone in the digital world

(Nine Elements, n.d.)

• Digital Health and Wellness: physical and psychological well-being in a digital

technology world (Nine Elements, n.d.)

• Digital Security (self-protection): electronic precautions to guarantee safety (Nine

Elements, n.d.)

• Digital Footprint: the trail of data that you create using the internet

• Digital Identity: Everything you share, do or own in the online world. (What’s Your

Digital Identity, n.d.)

• Sexting: the sending or receiving of sexually explicit or sexually suggestive images or

videos exchanged through mobile devices

• Cyberbullying: “Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell

phones, computers, and tablets. Cyberbullying can occur through SMS, Text, and apps, or

online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share

content. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or

mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information

about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation. Some cyberbullying crosses

the line into unlawful or criminal behavior.” - What is Cyberbullying (n.d.)

• Social Media Violence: violence through media: recording violence, posting acts of

violence or encouraging violence via social media platforms (Education, n.d.)

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SUMMARY:

This project will cover what it means to be a Digital Citizen and how to implement

relevant curriculum to middle school students. It will also go in depth with how teachers can be

digital citizens and how that impacts a student’s ability to be a Digital Citizen. Parents will also

be acknowledged as key protective factors in a student’s use of technology. Social Media will

also be touched upon as it is one of the biggest distractions that students face and especially the

challenges that come with making the right choices online.

The goal of this project is to generate relevant curriculum for students to be able to grasp

the big ideas of Digital Citizenship and link it back to how they use technology at school, home

and when they are by themselves. The literature that will be covered will prove and critique why

Digital Citizenship is relevant and how Social Media impacts students.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

EVOLUTION OF THE INTERNET AND HISTORY:

As technology has gripped the modern world, it has changed and formatted the way

teachers educate students, the way parents parent their children and the way that children interact

with one another. This shift began with the addition of the radio which gave students an

opportunity for on-air lessons to be available for any student. Next came the classroom overhead

projector, enabling students to see what their teachers were working on more clearly and quicker

than a chalkboard. From there photocopiers were installed and video tapes with lessons on them

came in classrooms everywhere. The quick production of teaching material was now the

expectation. Though computers were what truly changed education and the way humans

interact. This did not start until the 80’s because of the creation of personal computers, even

though computers had been developed in the 30’s (“The Evolution of Technology in the

Classroom”, 2017). Soon enough in 2009, 97% of classrooms had one or more computers and

93% of those classrooms had internet access.

Then platforms like MySpace (2003), Facebook (2004) and Twitter (2007) started

appearing impacting social presence. Teachers had noticed the prevalence of these platforms in

their students’ lives and some began to address it through curriculum (“The Evolution of

Technology in the Classroom”, 2017). As internet and media continued to be used in and outside

of the classroom, there has been a movement to gain more digital access for all. It was found that

over 71% of children aged 3-18 have access to the internet, either at home, school, someone

else’s home or a local library (“Children’s Access to and Use of the Internet”, 2017). This access

varied across socio-economic and race identification but with minimal range in variety. The

biggest differences reported in 2015 was between children identifying as White, 66% and those

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identifying as American Indian/Alaskan Native at 49%. A correlation was found between parents

or caretakers who had received higher education and internet access, suggesting that if a person

receives higher education, they are more likely to have access to the internet, as it may be seen as

a higher priority and a means to access needed information. Since then, these numbers have risen

as public access increases, though this also comes at a disadvantage for students as homework

assigned can often include the use of technology that not everyone at the school has access to.

Although it allows for absent students to play catch up from home more easily, it is a

disadvantage for students who do not have home access.

Technology has already impacted the way teachers teach and the ways students learn,

they predict in the future that Augmented Reality (AR) Technology will merge into teaching and

help solidify lessons (“The Evolution of Technology in the Classroom”, 2017). Social Media in

particular has become a giant in the classroom as it varies from a distraction to a tool engage

students. There are now parent portals like SeeSaw, that teachers can upload posts about their

students into the site, then students and parents can comment on the activity like a forum. Parents

have also utilized Facebook to create classroom parent pages and even district parent pages to

form community. There are many benefits to technology and how it shapes learning there are

pieces to technology that requires all to wary and limit our use. The literature that will be

reviewed in the following pages contain the issues of what it is like to be a student in a growing

technological world as well as critique and praise on current Digital Citizenship curriculum.

Technology has changed how we learn and engage as humans from in-person to virtual or digital

(Kajee, 2017). Now, technology is a barrier that separates communication yet advances it at the

same time.

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VIDEO GAME AND TECHNOLOGY ADDICTION:

With how we relate to one another changing, we also must acknowledge that our mental

health takes a hit in both positive and negative ways. Social Media and other forms of

technology impact the way that individuals think about themselves and how others may perceive

them. Technology then changes the process in how we teach in the United States and all around

the world, making information more readily available at the touch of fingertips. Although more

information means that students can better expand their knowledge, they need to be wary of what

else websites have to offer. In recent years, Video Game Addiction and Internet Addiction have

gone up immensely, as Cheng (2012) reports that youth with a video game addiction tend to play

roughly 30-40 hours of video games a week and this is just the average range of those with

addictions. Conclusively about 8.5% of youth in the United States have a video game addiction

meaning that some part of their life is directly affected because they play so often (Cheng, 2012).

Consequently, student’s families are impacted. Not only video game addiction but social media

and technological changes alike create a difficulty in parenting and how students are raised. In

2007, a study was conducted in Taiwan with 3662 high school students that focused on the co-

morbidity of internet addiction and substance abuse as well as seeing if there was any family

dynamics that could be focused on (Yen et al., 2007). They assessed the students using the Chen

Internet Addiction Scale to see the intensity of the problem with the population. It was found that

among many factors internet addiction is the parent-adolescent conflict, and that both substance

use/abuse and technology addiction can stem from family related issues, thus making a family

intervention necessary. Although an intervention was not created from this study, the researchers

suggest that if there are already pre-existing family issues that there could be preventative

measures taken, for example, incorporating discipline to technology use and fostering better

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family behaviors, potentially pursuing family therapy. Tech impacts behaviors. These are all

crucial to today’s technological climate and as researcher's further discovery our tendencies, we

hope for improvement and strive for learning advancement.

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP, AN INRODUCTION:

Digital Citizenship is defined as, "The quality of a response to membership in a digital

community” (The Basics of Digital Citizenship, 2019). It has also been defined as, “a concept

which helps teachers, technology leaders and parents to understand what

students/children/technology users should know to use technology appropriately” (Digital

Citizenship Consulting, n.d.). Becoming a digital citizen helps prepare students in how to behave

online, i.e. in teaching norms and online etiquette. The goal of Digital Citizenship curriculum is

to teach students what is appropriate online. Another term, “Netiquette” is defined as the positive

standards that are set for online behavior and actions a key part to Digital Citizenship. We can

educate students about Netiquette in the same way that we might teach about manners or

expected behaviors, but online instead (Digital Citizenship Consulting, n.d.).

Digital Footprint is a term referring to “the portrait of yourself that you are painting”

online (Your Digital Footprint Matters, n.d.) or a simpler way to put it would be defining your

digital footprint as your online history. The Internet Society describes that each time we are

online or develop a new form of social media, we are providing others a glimpse as to who we

are online. Often people associate who we are online to who we are as working, studying or

social individuals in our everyday lives. This website gives insight into how we may be leaving

our “digital footprint” behind us on our trail of searches or social media creations. The footprint

can be as simple as a “like” or a “retweet” on social media to the “cookies” often found on online

shopping websites that try to help you create shopping decisions based on your history of online

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browsing. Now there are apps like SnapChat or Find My Friends that track where the user is,

otherwise known as location services. When location services are enabled it allows for the device

to continually track where that person is at all times, furthering the user’s digital footprint. The

main thing about the Digital Footprint is becoming educated on the subject because it is easy to

fall into the rhythms of clicking ‘Accept’ rather than ‘Dismiss’, or turning off location services.

Though, it does depend on what sort of Digital Footprint the person is looking to leave behind,

which is why we need to be self-aware on all digital media platforms.

According to Jones and Mitchell (2016), Digital Citizenship attempts to accomplish a

wide variety of goals within it. Within their paper they attempt to narrow the focus of Digital

Citizenship through focusing on behavior online and the engagement in the online community

that occurs as a result. They used these two items as a frame for their study which entailed 979

students within the age range from 11-17. It was found that as students got older their respect

score also raised, meaning there was a deeper understanding of the online world for the students

as well as knowing how to respect the internet, by using it correctly. It was reported that male

scores were lower than female scores across the different age groups. Jones and Mitchell's goal

was to create a focus on the online civic engagement and respectful behavior. They were

successful in discovering more about what quantifies online civic engagement and respectful

behavior. The alphas indicate the reliability and the measure for online respect had an alpha of

92 indicating its consistency. The survey was administered to 5 different middle schools and one

high school with grades ranging from 6th to 10th. The result concluded that Digital Citizenship

education cannot stop online harassment, but it can help. The suggestions they included in their

results and recommendations are as follows, Internet Safety education should be (1) well

defined, (2) incorporate effective strategies to education like active learning, (3) it should target

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specific educational goals and outcomes and lastly (4) the impact should be evaluated. They

suggest that if the goal of Internet Safety is to engage students in Respect and to discover

Support then it is necessary to include this in the curriculum by asking students what respect and

support mean to them and how they think that could relate to the internet and daily social media

use.

CURRENT LAW REGARDING SOCIAL MEDIA AND DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP:

As a result of the Digital Age, there has also been a call to multiple laws that help people

handle controversial Digital Cases. One of these laws is COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy

Protection Act (1998). This law covers children under the age of 13 online and was initiated by

the Federal Trade Commission, as they saw it necessary to enact a federal way to protect

younger minors online. Within the act it outlines the requirement of Parental Consent to be on

certain websites if one is 13 or under and it also ensures for websites to put in their personal

policies to have age requirements built into them (Rubin & Lenard, 2013). In order to ensure that

these children are abiding by the Act there are ways that can be built into each site like the use of

a parental credit card, a parent calling a toll-free phone number and an email from a parent

including a digital signature. Although this process can be lengthy it provides protection not only

for the children but for the website about legal issues. Initially there was a first edition of COPA,

but it was found unconstitutional later regarding the first and fifth amendments. The change was

initiated to assist in block children from viewing pornography, so COPPA is the effective new

version of COPA (Rubin & Lenard 2013) and is now seen as cons.

Within the Federal Communications Commission there was a move to create the

Children’s Internet Protection Act [CIPA] (2000) roughly around the same time that COPPA was

created. CIPA is an Act but also a program that is purchased to ensure school safety and public

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online safety (i.e., public library computers). This program blocks certain websites from popping

up that could be unsafe or inappropriate for children below the age of 13, even if the person is

older than 13. Not only does this program help ensure the internet safety but it also makes sure

that schools or libraries who are looking to get a discount on the system, have an Internet Safety

Policy. This helps keep the schools and other environments accountable for what happens on

their property in regard to what users search and use their technology for. The CIPA program

was also intentionally made affordable and was given E-rate funding so safety would be made

available to all (CIPA, 2019).

Both COPPA and CIPA were initiated due to the inappropriate nature of content on the

internet, especially regarding pornography, mature content and violence. Though aside from

these two laws as protective measures there are also Child Pornography Laws in place.

According to the United States Department of Justice, it is illegal to possess or produce any

visual depiction of explicit sexual content of anyone under the age of 18 (Citizen’s Guide to U.S.

Federal Laws on Child Pornography, 2017). This especially relates to our students in the realm

of sexting. As the students are minors at this age, any taking and sending of sexually explicit

content is child pornography. This includes the person who was in the photo and took the picture

(if that is the case), the person who received the photo (asked for that picture) and then if that

person who received the photo decided to send it to others or post the photo. The last option

would then be called child pornography distribution and revenge porn (the distributing of sexts

once a relationship has ended or without the consent of the person in the photo). Currently there

is no sexting law but Senate Bill No. 2536 (2016) initiates a cyber sexual bullying law to prevent

further occurrences of this nature. Although a sexting law is not currently in place, a revenge

porn law has been enacted. SB-255 entails, if a picture or any visual representation of sexually

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explicit content is exchanged between mutual parties to then cause emotional damage (revenge),

by distributing the content, then it is illegal if the person who gave the photo or content is not in

agreement.

In regard to cyber violence, there is a law being initiated by the Organization for Social

Media Safety called Jordan’s Law or AB 1542 (Education, n.d.). Jordan’s Law started because a

teen hit another teen who had not provoked him, all for social media glory. His friend had been

filming prior to the punch being thrown, indicating the punch was pre-meditated. Unfortunately,

the victim had permanent brain damage. The father of the victim, now the founder of the

Organization for Social Media Safety, Ed Peisner, realized was the person behind the camera

was also responsible for the fight and perpetuating social media violence. This will specifically

affect current middle school and high school students as there has been a continual problem with

fights and the promotion of them via social media, such as Instagram accounts with school fights

recorded and posted on the SNS site. As Jordan’s Law states, Social Media Violence has become

an issue something that could not have been predicted.

RISK IN RELATION TO SOCIAL MEDIA AND PARENTAL CONCERN:

The results from studying the impact of Social Media on students call for “the norms of

appropriate, responsible behavior with regards to technology use” otherwise known as Digital

Citizenship (Ribble, 2014). Ribble indicates the necessity of digital citizenship in the classroom.

In a study, 593 students were surveyed about their digital footprints, to best understand the

impact of Social Media on youth. Their results showed that about 17% of the students surveyed

had social media either at or before the age of 9 (Martin, Petty, Weichao & Wilkins, 2018). Most

of the middle schoolers who took the survey communicated that they had felt unsafe at some

point while using social media and the results also indicated that 40% of the students did not

16

have their parents monitoring their use online. Even though there were those fears for the

students, what keeps them to use social media is mainly the idea of connecting (Martin et al.,

2018). Martin et al. used a variety of items on their questionnaire to detect digital safety and they

concluded that there will be a need to continue to conduct research on topics like Digital

Citizenship, as social media and technology continue to be a relevant subject both in and out of

the classroom.

Some other important information that was mentioned within this study included the

mean age for starting to use social media is around 10, at least for middle school students in the

southeastern part of the United States. This may come as a shock to some, but this is the reality

that students live in and it shows the centrality of social media and technology to student’s lives.

It also asked questions to the participants about what they like about social media. The top

reason for students liking social media was that students can learn information about other’s lives

through these different apps, even if they are strangers.

There are differences within the data of demographics that Martin et al. (2018)

accumulated as well. They gathered that girls start using social media earlier than boys do

drawing attention to a new set of issues. This study continues to say that girls tend to accept

more stranger’s friend requests than boys do and how that then creates a higher statistic of

parents hovering or watching over their student’s social media. If we were to create a curriculum

that educated students on the various potential occurrences that can happen in social media, then

we would hope that these students would accept fewer stranger’s requests and it could prevent

more of the dangers of social media. There is a true necessity in helping students become digital

citizens.

17

Similarly, in a study done by Romo et al. (2016), they surveyed 13-21-year-old

individuals about the relationship between the use of Social Networking Sites (SNS) or Social

Media (SM), parental supervision and Sexual Risk. Questionnaires were used to gather data from

three different, urban clinics. Romo et al. discovered that frequent Social Media use without the

presence of parental supervision led an increase of the likelihood of sexual risk or sexual activity

of any kind. Though if parental supervision or even if parents discussed social media with their

children it showed a decrease in sexual risk as well as was found to be protective over their

child’s long-term online activity. It was also found that females had higher odds of parental

conversation but also higher sexual risk if the parental conversation had not happened. It was

also found that males were more likely to initiate online “sexting”, but once again if a parent had

a conversation the child would be less likely to initiate sexually risky behavior like sexting.

There is a call for parents to be involved in their students' online lives as it is a protective

measure for their online safety. Not only should parents be involved in educating or protecting

their children, but also as educators, there is a need for educating students to take responsibility

over their online persona (Martin et al., 2018). There is a need to become safe, digital citizens to

prevent the dangers of having social media.

According to Romo et al. (2016), Sexual Risk (SR) and Social Media (SM) are related in

the way that if a student or child between the ages of 13-21 is using social media, they are more

likely to engage in sexual behaviors. It has been an argument for parents to encourage their

children to avoid social media due to the sexual risk that it may imply for their students. Students

are subject to sexting and to engage in more sexual behaviors if they are using social networking

sites as they are exposed to strangers and content that their classmates may not be posting. The

researchers found that males have higher odds of sending a “sext”, otherwise defined as a

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“sexually explicit texts and photos”, just as Martin et al. (2018) discovered. Fifty-four percent of

participants reported that their parents or guardians had some sort of access to monitoring of

their social networking sites and it was shown that females had more parental involvement when

it came to talk about privacy settings and pre-cautions in taking part in social media. If a parent

had spoken to their child about privacy settings, then the child has greater odds of choosing a

private account and being more intentional with their safety in the SNS (Social Networking Site)

world and in turn have lower odds of receiving a sext and engaging in more sexually risky

behavior (Romo et al., 2016). In conclusion, the researchers discovered that the more someone is

to use SNS or SM (Social Media), there is a correlation to those behaviors that increase all other

sexual behaviors, ranging from sexting to kissing to the number of sexual partners that the child

has.

In a study conducted by Brandley and Covey (2018), in which they used a sample size of

1,220 International Social Media users to measure how the means of sharing and communicating

online affects the risks that people take online. Many of these risks are often related once again

to sexual risk, thus perpetuating the need for accurate Digital Citizenship.

All in all, the studies mentioned above have discovered a correlation between increase of

social media and an increase in a range of sexual behaviors. It also adds to the argument that

parents need to be able to have some sort of access or awareness of their child’s online activity

and online identity, as parental supervision appears to be a preventative and protective measure

against risky online behavior including sexual risk and exposure.

Fighting is something that has been prevalent in schools unfortunately and as it was

stated in Jordan’s Law AB 1540 (Education, n.d.), it is something that needs to be paid attention

to online as now Social Media Violence is emerging through the forms like filmed fights.

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Shetgiri, Lee, Tillitski, Wilson, and Flores (2015), speak in a study done about fighting and the

reasoning behind why students may fight, even when they know the consequences. Together, the

researchers had 12 focus groups and collectively containing 65 individuals ranging from ages 13-

17. The researchers gave the following options as motivations or reasons to fight; (1) self-

defense, (2) gain or maintain respect, or (3) anger. In this they found that anger seemed to be the

leading cause of fights as students that tended to get into fights had a tunnel-like vision in that

they did not seem to see alternative options to fighting. Shetgiri et al. (2015) saw that with mixed

messages from parents, peers and media may enhance the likelihood of fights. Although they did

find that having future and goals were preventative measures and protective measures in regard

to students not getting into fights. It is recommended to students to pursue gaining self-efficacy

as well as engaging parents in supporting consistent messages to their children about fighting.

Seeing how cyberbullying is a form of online violence, using the same protective and

preventative measures would be beneficial to students especially younger middle school students

developing their frontal cortex and decisions making abilities during this time.

MIDDLE SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT:

In the book, Career and College Readiness Counseling in P-12 Schools, Curry and

Milson speak to Middle School Development Transition (185). They recognize that there are

certain developmental tasks that a student must go through in order to transition appropriately for

their developmental stage. This includes the necessity of building a positive attitude towards

oneself (self-efficacy), creating interpersonal skills as in creating friends and beginning to

understand empathy as well as learning independence.

Physically, these students are undergoing the first stages of puberty. The development of

secondary sexual characteristics are emerging and can make students self-conscious and feeling

20

vulnerable. Nutrition at this time is imperative as students are growing and needing all they can

get to eat. Along with the outward appearance changing, the student’s brain is also changing.

This is caused by the influx of hormones that affects neural pathways and emotional responses.

During this time learning self-regulation of emotions and self-control is critical for continued

developmental success (186). Cognitively according to Jean Piaget, students are in the stage of

concrete operations in which students are learning how to develop empathy and move away from

egocentricism (166). They also begin to start the process of critical thinking through the concept

of decentering, meaning that students can start to envision projects or situations from different

perspectives. Perhaps the most important thing to take away from the concrete operational stage

is that children at this age develop self-awareness. Erik Erikson covers this in his eight stages of

psychosocial development (167). He then discusses how students during this time show a need

for structure and guidelines as all these changes start opening the world of independence in

which students wonder how they can be testing the boundaries of these guidelines. Re-

emphasizing the need for guidelines and Digital Etiquette online in relational to Digital

Citizenship.

As introduced first by Erik Erikson, the eight psychosocial stages of development add to

the concept that students during this age are questioning their identity, where they fit in and what

they are good at. Erikson has labeled this stage in his eight stages as industry vs. inferiority, as

middle schoolers figuring out their own competencies and socialization. In psychosocial

development, social acceptance for this age group is top priority, but for students to achieve

these tasks they need for the most successful development, it is encouraged that students find

genuine friendships that contain compassion and forgiveness as those are more abstract task to

accomplish (186).

21

As mentioned by Romo et al. (2016), there are differences in gender and the impact that

social media has across genders. Gottfredson generated a theory called the Theory of

Circumscription and Compromise that related career choice and gender, how stereotypes and

norms effect student’s choices (187). As students are in Stage 2: Orientation to Sex Roles, they

continue to understand the gendered and sexualization of the world. As Romo et al. stated, girls

on average are on social media sooner than boys, introducing them earlier to the

oversexualization of girls in media. This impacts a child’s self-awareness and identity as a

student may feel pressure to mold into a specific gender ideal (187).

MIDDLE SCHOOLERS AND EFFECTIVE CURRICULUM:

Regarding the middle schooler’s ever-changing mind and body, Van Ryzin and Joseth

(2018) also see this as a time that students are more vulnerable to be bullied and be victims to a

variety of situations. These two researchers took it upon themselves to seek out patterns in

bullying and identified that they wanted to understand the homophily amongst bullies, or why

similar types of students spent time together or why bullies would choose people who were not

like themselves to target. Secondly, they wanted to find a way for students that were lonely to be

able to create new friendships. Van Ryzin and Joseth hypothesized that with positive group

interactions based on classroom learning would bring students that would not normally associate

with one another to a new understanding and then lower the frequency of feeling alone and

bullying. Using a randomized trial of over 1,000 middle schoolers in the rural Pacific Northwest,

they were able to conclude that through positive, cooperative group learning, perceived bullying,

emotional stress and victimization were lower and enhanced relatedness for all students. Seeing

that this curriculum is low risk and high reward, incorporating this into any classroom

experiencing cliques, bullying or lack of understanding would be beneficial. Most programs can

22

be costly and can involve change in curriculum or can be perceived as more work than

necessary.

With a low risk, low monetary cost program with a potential for a high reward it seems

necessary to attempt the suggestion by implementing it into a classroom. This could be as simple

as creating a group empathy activity in talking about family trees or history, this way students

have an easy way of getting to know each other. A way to relate it back to the media would be to

create a paper version of a “Facebook Profile Page” or “Social Media Profile Page” of a

student’s choosing. This could include a picture a student brings in of themselves, listing

favorites (or “likes”) such as subjects, foods and places. Students could then have the option to

make a fake post of something they wish or want their classmates to know about them, then the

students in the classroom would have the option to add a comment to said post, as each classmate

would be able to comment 3 times. An activity like this can generate understanding, empathy

and can perhaps lend perspective of a classmate’s life. It may not be a huge change, but it can be

a step in the right direction for our students and can teach a lesson in what to comment or post as

the teacher or counselor would have the option to do a sample “good post” and a sample “bad

post” showing students a tangible example of what may be right to portray as your digital

identity versus what would be inappropriate and could leave a mark on your digital footprint.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND MIDDLE SCHOOLERS

Although it is often portrayed as the “bad guy” in student’s learning, Social Media can

also be used for good. News platforms and security outreach networks use SNS and SM to be

able to monitor the safety of people and the drastic effects on a natural disaster for example. The

researchers describe social media as a platform for those affected from crisis or trauma to

express their needs and that it can be a way for people to let others know what is their priority

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without leaving the people to guess what the constituents may need as crises require quick and

effective communication. Social Media also gives a platform for news to spread quickly (Martin

et al., 2018). This is can be achieved by everyone and their contribution to media but most of the

time people rely on credible sources and relevantly timed sources.

In 2018, Martin, Wang, Petty, Wang and Wilikins surveyed 593 middle school students

about their digital footprints and concerns about social media to assess whether or not Digital

Citizenship curriculum is necessary. Results showed that 17% of students started using social

media at age nine or younger, 40% accepted friend requests from people they did not know, and

40% reported that their parents did not monitor their social media use. Each of these concerns

calling for the needs of cyber-security and digital citizenship education. Middle School students

reported using social media most often to connect with their friends, share pictures, and find out

what others are doing. It was indicated that Instagram (27%), SnapChat (25%) and YouTube

(25%) were the most used social media sites or applications. In regard to their own personal

concerns about social media, they felt uncomfortable or nervous about these misuses of

technology; inappropriate postings, getting hacked, being offended, left out, lack of privacy,

inappropriate pictures, cyberbullying, negativity, and stalkers. This study informs teachers,

administrators, technology facilitators and parents on social media use by students. They also

found that girls are more likely to start a Social Media account sooner than boys. From the

results, researchers declared it essential to be teaching makes students aware of the decisions

they make on social media and the internet alike. Ultimately, Martin et al., determined that

Digital Citizenship education during this age is crucial and see the potential outcome of future

curriculum to be beneficial to students, staff and parents.

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Burke, Marlow and Lento (2010) conducted a study assessing the use of Social Media,

most specifically Facebook, about loneliness and to SNS (social networking sites) behavior.

Their findings proved current social media stereotypes incorrect. They found that instead if one

is likely to have a strong social circle and connections already outside of social media that social

media or SNS further those strong connections and enhance what is already taking place in those

people's lives. Although on the opposite end, if a student is insecure in their relationships in real

life it can add to “FOMO” or Fear of Missing Out. This in turn can spark feelings of loneliness.

These findings indicate the dissonance that is often found between the “digital identity” and

one’s actual identity (Digital Identity, n.d.).

Bulu, Numanoglu, & Keser (2016) conducted an Examination of the Attitudes of Middle

School Students towards Social Media through using demographic information distributed along

with a Social Media Attitudes Survey created by, Ferhat Suleyman Argin in 2013. The

researchers were able to use subjects from 3 different middle schools resulting in 367 subjects

available for descriptive data. Although they tested variables to see if there was any relationship

via ANOVA tests, t-tests and other statistical inferences, the main conclusion they reached

through their problem solving was the relationship between Amount of Use on Social Media and

Attitudes towards Social Media. This discovery showed the more one used Social Media the

more likely it was that one would have a positive attitude towards social media.

SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM

Some teachers have been intersecting digital citizenship and social media by way of

implementing cell phone policies and social media education within classrooms. For many

teachers this involves collecting phones at the beginning of class each period and then working

toward a more distraction free environment. Then some teachers send out emails to the parents of

25

their students for the parents and teachers to be on the same page so that way communication

about cellphone policies and technology issues within the classroom are universal and

understood by all.

In an Article entitled Teachers as Digital Citizens (Choi, Cristol and Gimbert, 2018) 348

in-service classroom teachers from a high-need and “hard to staff” U.S. School District,

completed an assessment to understand their levels of competency for digital citizenship, in the

measure of Internet Political Activism and Critical Perspective. This was measured by, the

individual’s thinking, skills, and behaviors regarding internet use. Confounding variables were

considered, including, teacher’s individual backgrounds (age, gender, years of work experience,

years of teaching experience, subject and teaching level), Internet Use (meaning knowledge and

understanding and application of internet in the classroom), Psychological Characteristics

(Internet Anxiety and Internet Self-Efficacy). Found that if teachers had strong Internet Self-

Efficacy and Digital Citizenship, meaning that if the teacher believed in their internet ability and

competency the higher the chance was that they would qualify as being a Digital Citizen. Not

only did those factors contribute to Digital Citizenship within teachers, but years of work

experience and use of SNS sites in the classroom for learning. These teachers are likely to

empower students to be digital citizens. Here, the research shows the necessity of having not just

parents or school counselors on board with Digital Citizenship but teachers and all school leaders

able to empower students.

Another article focused on how engaged teachers were in their own online learning

communities and if they were motivated to take advantage of the online learning opportunities

that were provided to them (Zhang & Liu, 2019). As referenced in the above article (Choi,

Cristol and Gimbert, 2018) known that if teachers are more equipped then the higher the

26

probability that students will be passed and often motivation. Zhang and Liu set out to discover

teacher’s motivational beliefs, motivational regulation and learning engagement or presence in

online learning communities. Five hundred and twenty teachers involved in the online learning

community training program to support professional development. In the assessment they

discovered teachers to be most motivated when the task at hand is relevant to them and the task

meets the specific need. It is also encouraged to the task bearers that these assignments that are

given are also designed to boost the teacher’s self-efficacy and to be applicable to the teacher’s

self-efficacy beliefs. This applies to student’s learning in technology as well as it has been

evidenced that self-efficacy also plays a key role in developing Digital Citizenship. If a teacher is

not confident in their own ability, it becomes much more difficult for their students to

understand. These findings call for professional development or other ways to build up teachers

by educating them and encouraging them in their growth as a teacher and advocate.

SUMMARY:

The literature here covers in depth what Digital Citizenship is and its impact that it has on

students, teachers and parents when communicated. Technology is seen to have an immense

impact on our society today and has grown rapidly throughout time, most specifically within the

last 30 years or so. With the internet on the rise and education meeting it in the middle, it

requires a curriculum that can effectively communicate the use of technology while approaching

students in a way that does not sound like a rules and regulations lecture, but rather boundaries,

providing guidelines and warnings. As seen in the literature, there are laws for technology

already in place or bills that are currently being lobbied in order to keep children safe. The

difference for Digital Citizenship is that it generates responsibility over obedience to rules.

27

In this next chapter it will be made known what materials will be needed in order for this

curriculum to be successful and how to implement it. Chapter 3 will also lend a perspective as to

how this curriculum came about as well as other curriculums and researchers that inspired this

project.

CHAPTER 3: PROJECT AUDIENCE AND IMPLEMENTATION FACTORS

INTRODUCTION:

This project’s goal is to be able to effectively communicate social media boundaries and safety

for middle school students. The hope is to catch students as they are middle schooler or pre-

middle school as they are solidifying their personalities and who they want to be and how they

would like to portray themselves. We have been made aware that technology makes any post

semi-permanent, so if students are wanting to create a great online presence that is positive, then

they need to be taught and made aware earlier. There are many tactics to this. The “scared-

straight tactic” (Hale, 2018) involves informing students how others before them have made

mistakes but rather telling about the extreme of what could happen if someone makes the same

mistakes. In regard to Social Media, the goal of this project would be to ensure that students

know how to take ownership and responsibility of the content that they post. They cannot control

what others can do on their Social Media but they can control what they personally share. Digital

Citizenship and Social Media Awareness for both the student, parent and teacher can be a

preventative measure against cyberbullying, sexual risks online and invasion of privacy, to name

a few. Digital Citizenship teaches what students themselves can control online and gives a sense

of responsibility. Risky online behavior can be prevented and teaching Digital Citizenship

awareness is one way.

DEVELOPMENT OF PROJECT:

Throughout primary and secondary school, there are event weeks, most notably Red

Ribbon Week (for drug awareness) and most recently the development of the Great Kindness

Challenge. These weeks appear to have a longer lasting effect on the school’s culture than an

29

assembly or Scared Straight tactics, Digital Citizenship Week was created this year by Common

Sense Media and some of the ideas and content is inspired by what they have done but the

content included in this version of Digital Citizenship Week includes more student involvement

and community based practices like accountability.

The pledge that will take place by putting down their “Digital Footprint” signature on a

poster for the whole school will send a message. Continuing the accountability, the

pledge/contract will be sent home for both the student and the parent to sign. The accountability

goes further with the opportunity to join a Digital Citizenship group for 6-weeks or doing the

Social Media cleanse for a week. This was inspired by the ideas of fasting that often comes

around during the Christian Lenten season. Typically, during this time, participants give up

something that distracts them from focusing on their faith. In this case, for many students, Social

Media is a distraction from school and even close in-person conversations. This cleanse from

social media could create an opportunity for students to reflect on what Social Media means to

them and the amount of time that it may take away from their other activities.

Ryzin and Joseth conducted an anti-bullying study in 2018, as referenced in Chapter 2.

They found that cooperative group work was highly beneficial for students in the classroom to

enhance relatedness. I believe that including Digital Citizenship into group work would make it

more hands-on and real for students. For example, including an activity about cyber-bullying and

then giving students real life scenarios of social media mistakes to go through together would be

beneficial in potentially putting a halt to cyberbullying and social media violence. This activity

will be made optional for teachers to incorporate into their lesson plans for the Digital

Citizenship Week.

30

Another way that I will be presenting my research and ideas to the students and staff, will

be through a presentation on the social media and the do’s and don'ts's. I hope to hit subjects like

inappropriate images, foul language, fake Instagram accounts, the permanence of social media

and different things that are available through the internet. This presentation will be a

collaboration with the students at my current field site. I want them to take ownership of what

social media means to them and assist in presenting relevant topics for their fellow peers. One of

the other topics that I know I will need to teach the students are the current laws that are

applicable to social media as the law changes according to the legal climate. For the students’

safety and for the parent’s personal knowledge to help their children, this is a crucial part of the

process.

Each of these activities will culminate into a Digital Citizenship Awareness Week. This

will include the parent presentation to be hosted before school ends, just in time for pick up.

Then there will be a school-wide assembly. The school-wide assembly would be hosted by a

school counselor and a group of students wanting to present in front of their peers, if there are no

volunteers, then teachers will nominate classroom leaders to collaborate with the school

counselor in order to build a relevant and applicable presentation.

INTENDED AUDIENCE:

This project is specifically directed at Early Middle School Students, a facilitator (most

likely a school counselor), school staff and also guardians of the students. It targets this audience

specifically as students at this level are going through emotional and physical changes that

impact them and their behaviors throughout life, making Social Media awareness and Digital

Citizenship curriculum critical at this age to prevent poor choices in the future.

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It will take place in a group setting for some of the Digital Citizenship week and

throughout 6-weeks for the Digital Citizenship Educational group. Next an auditorium for the

presentation will be needed for the students of the middle school so will be needed for the

students to present on Social Media Awareness and Digital Citizenship. Then another classroom

will be need for the parent seminar group to take place. This will be implementing parental

involvement in Social Media and online activity as it is a key in preventing risky online

behaviors in students (Romo et. Al, 2016).

PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS:

The person presenting the Digital Citizenship Week to the school and staff, as well as

hosting the groups should be qualified in the counseling field and be at least working towards a

P.P.S. (Pupil Personnel Services) Credential, as the credential requires group counseling training.

There is a possibility that a teacher could initiate this week in the school and take it on as their

own. The person conducting the curriculum should have knowledge of Digital Citizenship and

Social Media and should be able to hold honest conversations with students, staff members and

parents. This could potentially require the host or facilitator to speak from their own experiences.

ENVIRONMENT AND EQUIPMENT:

Digital Citizenship Group:

• A consistent classroom, with chairs that can arrange into a circle (number fluctuating

based on participation)

• Group Review Forms

o Pre-Test Copies

o Post-Test Copies

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Social Media Assembly:

• Auditorium or Large Space

• Chairs for students and staff (if not already in the auditorium or large group space)

• Projector (for the PowerPoint slides)

• Speakers

o Microphones (preferably 3)

• Computer

o HDMI Cable

Pledge Day:

• Parchment Paper (to be rolled out)

• Paint (variety of colors)

• Permanent Markers

Photobooth/End of Week Celebration:

• Photobooth Backdrop Materials

o Face Accessories

o Emojis

o Phrases

FORMATIVE EVALUATION:

Each of the following Evaluators were contacted via email and prior email to ensure that

they would be able to provide feedback. Nancy DeBoer is an Elementary School Counselor at La

Canada Elementary and has been a school counselor for over 20 years. She serves her elementary

33

school students by typically conducting classroom lessons and holds the title testing Coordinator.

As she is well-versed in the field, I know she will provide accurate and needed application

understanding that will provide me with a better perspective. I have also selected Emily Selsor, a

counselor at La Rosa Elementary School in Temple City Unified School District. Emily has had

experience in the La Canada District as a Part-Time School Counselor at the Elementary Level

and has worked as a School Counselor for roughly 3 years now. As a young professional in the

field, I know she will provide me with relevant research and honest feedback I need in order to

make this project successful. The last evaluator chosen was Georgia Weir of Woodland Hills

Academy Middle School in Los Angeles Unified School District. She has been a counselor for

over 20 years and has been at her current school site for around 10 years. I know that as she has

been my supervisor she will provide me with the critic I need in order to best evaluate my project

so I can best implement in the future.

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CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION

SUMMARY OF PROJECT:

This project’s goal is to be able to effectively communicate social media boundaries and

safety for middle school students. The hope is to catch students as they are middle schooler or

pre-middle school as they are solidifying their personalities and who they want to be and how

they would like to portray themselves. We have been made aware that technology makes any

post semi-permanent, so if students are wanting to create a great online presence that is positive,

then they need to be taught and made aware earlier. There are many tactics to this. The “scared-

straight tactic” (Hale, 2018) involves informing students how others before them have made

mistakes but rather telling about the extreme of what could happen if someone makes the same

mistakes. In regard to Social Media, the goal of this project would be to ensure that students

know how to take ownership and responsibility of the content that they post. They cannot control

what others can do on their Social Media but they can control what they personally share. Digital

Citizenship and Social Media Awareness for both the student, parent and teacher can be a

preventative measure against cyberbullying, sexual risks online and invasion of privacy, to name

a few. Digital Citizenship teaches what students themselves can control online and gives a sense

of responsibility. Risky online behavior can be prevented and teaching Digital Citizenship

awareness is one way.

SUMMARY OF EVALUATION RESULTS:

Each of the following Evaluators were contacted via email and prior email to ensure that

they would be able to provide feedback. Nancy DeBoer is an Elementary School Counselor at La

35

Canada Elementary and has been a school counselor for over 20 years. The following include her

evaluations and comments:

Nancy DeBoer: “ I love the idea of this program! The topic is so relevant to today’s teens

and pre-teens. Every school is different, but in order to create an interest or need in students for a

Digital Citizenship Week, there should be a lesson of some type in the classrooms that lay a

foundation for this week. I like the idea of a group for students, but some prior discussion

through classroom lessons may help students want to be part of the group. Teachers may not be

able to refer students to the group because they may not be aware of who could benefit. Self-

referrals would work really well at this age… better buy in! Overall, it’s a great idea and could

be a very effective counseling tool!”

Using the evaluation tool provided in the Appendix, she rated the program overall at a 3

on the scale. She felt that this program would be very helpful for middle school students (4). She

rated accessibility to all counselors and the organization of the program roughly at a 2.5 showing

room for improvement and finessing. She also then stated she would only recommend the

program after she had conducted it herself as to be fully certain that the program would be of use

to counselors. Overall, she agreed with the statements provided agreeing that she would use this

program at a school site and that it could be easily implemented at a school site.

Emily Selsor: “Lynn, you did a great job! This is extremely detailed and very well designed. It is

the kind of curriculum every counselor desires- one that you pull off the shelf and can be

implemented with little to no additional work. I am very impressed! I personally could not use

this curriculum because my students are K-3. However, a lot of your information is applicable

and can be taught in a different way to my students! These are lessons every child needs to

learn.”

36

Emily used the provided Evaluation Survey in the Appendix and rated everything at a 4

or a Strongly Agree other than “would you implement this program at your own school?”, which

she rated at 2 or disagree, as she counsels grades Kindergarten through 3rd Grade, the curriculum

would not be as appropriate and would need to be adapted for the age group.

Georgia Weir, a middle school counselor found that my project was very relevant for the

middle school population, it would be accessible to all counselors as well as recommending and

using this as a curriculum at a school site. The one thing she marked as a 3 was if the curriculum

would be easy to follow and well-outlined. She said some of it needed re-wording or in her

words, “Please be more clear in describing how the program is organized. I had difficulty

understanding what parts were school-wide and what the different groups were responsible for

doing.” All in all, the evaluators thought that it was a successful curriculum which requires some

adjusting and revising in order to make it the best it can be. Of course, as the program is

implemented there will be more reviews.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

It is recommended that this project tries to cover too much ground, as in referencing one

of the critiques of Digital Citizenship being too broad. If this project were to take a narrower

focus it could seem less overwhelming as a concept. As the project is broad it would help the

implementation itself as the topics could be more detailed if it tried to cover less ground. As

Jones and Mitchell(2016) state, Digital Citizenship itself is a broad topic and is one that experts

are attempting to narrow down as well.

It was also felt that there could be more activities involving the education of Digital

Citizenship specifically for teachers and partnering with them on teaching their students how to

37

be Digital Citizens as they can directly model that within their classrooms. An activity or a

teacher seminar specifically could be directed as a Professional Development opportunity.

Another evaluator had mentioned that as the school counselor implementing the Digital

Citizenship week, it would not only be important to clearly define the boundaries of the week but

also go from classroom to classroom teaching lessons if possible, just to make the class more

engaged and understanding of the topic.

As also recommended by one of the evaluators, I changed the group to be able to be self-

referred as well as teacher and parent referrals. It was noted that at this age, students are less

likely to want to engage if it not by their own choice. Students will often refuse their parent’s

ideas for them and see their way as being the best, as many middle schoolers often feel

misunderstood and could feel attacked if chosen for this group. As the facilitator it would be

necessary to pre-screen students for the group to see that they there would be genuine personal

interest or need for the group.

CONCLUSION:

In conclusion, this project will be able to define Digital Citizenship and Social Media as

the very least. At most this project will teach students, staff of schools and parents about the

dangers of technology and its effects but result in a change of action online and spread influence

on others within their greater community. This project has the potential to change a school’s

climate and to carry with it a new culture of understanding and behavior online.

38

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The Basics Of Digital Citizenship: 27 Power Verbs to Guide Children Online -. (2019, January

11). Retrieved May 2, 2019, from https://www.teachthought.com/technology/the-basics-

of-digital-citizenship-power-verbs-to-guide-children-online/

Bulu, Sanser, Numanoglu, Mustafa, & Keser, Hafize. (2016). Examination of the Attitudes of

Middle School Students towards Social Media. Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences,

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Burke, M., Marlow, C., and Lento, T. Social network activity and social well-being. In Proc.CHI

’10,ACM Press (2010), 1909–1912.

Cheng, K. (2012). Video game addiction. Neuropsychiatrie De L'Enfance Et De L'Adolescence,

60(5), S118.

Choi, M., Cristol, D., and Belinda Gimbert, (2018) Teachers as digital citizens: The influence of

individual backgrounds, internet use and psychological characteristics on teachers’ levels

of digital citizenship. Computers & Education, 121,143-161,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.03.005.

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Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). (2019, March 12). Retrieved from

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act

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Citizen's Guide To U.S. Federal Law On Child Pornography. (2017, December 12). Retrieved

from https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ceos/citizens-guide-us-federal-law-child-

pornography

CURRY, J. R., & Milsom, A. (2017). CAREER AND COLLEGE READINESS COUNSELING

IN P-12 SCHOOLS (2nd ed.). New York, NY: SPRINGER Publishing.

Digital Citizenship Consulting - Education, Technology Support. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2019,

from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/

Disorderly Conduct: invasion of privacy, SB-255, 466th Cong. (2016).

Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ofsms.org/education/

The Evolution of Technology in the Classroom. (2017, August 01). Retrieved from

https://online.purdue.edu/ldt/learning-design-technology/resources/evolution-technology-

classroom

Hale, J. (2018, July 08). Scared Straight? Not Really. Retrieved from

https://psychcentral.com/blog/scared-straight-not-really/

Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. W. (2018). Cyberbullying Glossary: Terms You Need To Know.

Cyberbullying Research Center. Retrieved [March 30, 2019], from

https://cyberbullying.org/cyberbullying_glossary.pdf

Jones, L. M., & Mitchell, K. J. (2016). Defining and measuring youth digital citizenship. New

Media & Society, 18(9), 2063–2079. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444815577797

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Kajee, L. (2018). Teacher education students engaging with digital identity narratives. South

African Journal of Education, 38(2), 1–9. https://doi-

org.libproxy.csun.edu/10.15700/saje.v38n2a1501

Karr, D. (2017, September 13). How Each Generation Has Adapted To and Utilizes Technology

» Martech Zone. Retrieved April 4, 2019, from https://martech.zone/generation-

technology/

Martin, Florence, Wang, Chuang, Petty, Teresa, Wang, Weichao, & Wilkins, Patti. (2018).

Middle School Students' Social Media Use. Educational Technology & Society, 21(1),

213-224.

Organization for Social Media Safety. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ofsms.org/

Pupil Discipline and Safety: cyber sexual bullying AB-2536, 419th Cong. (2016).

Ribble, M. (2014). Digital citizenship in school (3rd ed.). Eugene, OR: International Society for

Technology in Education.

Romo, Garnett, Younger, Soren, Stockwell, Catallozzi, & Neu. (2016). Understanding

Adolescent Social Media Use: Association With Sexual Risk and Parental Monitoring

Factors that can Influence Protection. Journal of Adolescent Health, 58(2), S16-S17.

Rubin, P. H., & Lenard, T. M. (2013). The FTC Then and Now: Privacy. The Regulatory

Revolution at the FTC,109-120. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199989287.003.0009

Tőrők-Ágoston, R. (2017). Education and Social Media. Journal of Media Research, 10(2), 166-

183.

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Van Ryzin, M. J., & Roseth, C. J. (2018). Cooperative learning in middle school: A means to

improve peer relations and reduce victimization, bullying, and related outcomes. Journal

of Educational Psychology, 110(8), 1192–1201. https://doi-

org.libproxy.csun.edu/10.1037/edu0000265

What Is Cyberbullying. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-

is-it/index.html

What's Your Digital Identity? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.lifelock.com/learn-identity-

theft-resources-whats-your-digital-identity.html

Shetgiri, Lee, Tillitski, Wilson, & Flores. (2015). Why Adolescents Fight: A Qualitative Study of

Youth Perspectives on Fighting and Its Prevention. Academic Pediatrics, 15(1), 103-110.

Survey on Digital Citizenship. (n.d.). Retrieved May 9, 2018, from

https://www.teachinctrl.org/resources/survey.php

Yen, Ju-Yu, Yen, Cheng-Fang, Chen, Cheng-Chung, Chen, Sue-Huei, & Ko, Chih-Hung. (2007).

Family factors of internet addiction and substance use experience in Taiwanese

adolescents. Cyberpsychology & Behavior: The Impact of the Internet, Multimedia and

Virtual Reality on Behavior and Society, 10(3), 323-329.

Your Digital Footprint Matters. (n.d.). Retrieved May 2, 2019, from

https://www.internetsociety.org/tutorials/your-digital-footprint-matters/

Zhang, & Liu. (2019). Investigating the relationships among teachers’ motivational beliefs,

motivational regulation, and their learning engagement in online professional learning

communities. Computers & Education, 134, 145-155.

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6th Grade Digital Citizenship. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2018, from

http://www.cusd.com/module/6th-grade-digital-citizenship/

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APPENDIX A

Table of Contents

APPENDIX B: Facilitator’s Guide………………………………………………………………44

APPENDIX C: Project Materials……………………………………………………………...…47

1.A. Be A Digital Citizen Poster…………………………………………………………47

1.B. Should you Post(er)?..................................................................................................48

1.C. Social Media Safety Tips…………………………………………………………...49

1.D. Digital Citizenship Week: Calendar of Activities…………………………………..50

2.A. Social Media Cleanse Guidelines………………………..…………………………51

2.B. Social Media Contract/Pledge………………………………………………………52

2.C. Digital Citizenship 6-Week Group Guidelines and Instructions……………………53

2.C.1. Pre-Test/Survey………………………………………...…………………56

2.C.2. Post-Test Survey………………………………………………………….57

3.A. Assembly PowerPoint Slides……………………………………………………….58

3.B. Pictures of Past Social Media Assemblies (2019)………….……………………….70

4. Teacher Resources…………………………………………………………………….72

4.A. Optional Lesson Plan……………………………………………………….72

4.B. Teacher Instructions………………………………………………...………74

4.C. Teacher Reflection Questions……………………………………….……..76

5. Evaluation Survey……………………………………………………………………..77

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APPENDIX B:

Facilitator’s Guide:

Follow accordingly for consistency and regulation.

Before implementing the School Wide Digital Citizenship Week at your middle school, the facilitator will need to arrange a meeting with a group of advocates comprised of teachers, staff, parents and counselors at the school site who would be an asset to the week or are available for extra hep or consultation.

First, advertising for the Digital Citizenship Group needs to happen about 7-weeks before Digital Citizenship week as the 4th week of the group will take place during Digital Citizenship week.

Next, roughly 8-10 students will sign up for the Social Media/ Digital Citizenship counseling group. This way each voice is able to be heard within the time allotted. If there are more students wanting to participate, there is always the option to lead another group after the first group ends. You can let those students know and pre-assign dates if there are enough students interested in the group again.

The group will begin after 2-Weeks of recruiting and vetting out members to make sure there will be no group conflict.

Once the group is started, follow the group instructions accordingly. It is important to understand this group is mainly for discussion and group learning. The questions suggested are solely suggested discussion questions. If you feel your group is going down an important discussion pathway, follow it! Though if your group is distracted, redirect your group’s attention and refocus. It may help to reframe a question.

Three weeks leading up to Digital Citizenship Week start to gather the materials and begin to advertise for the week in general. It is recommended to post the calendar of activities and the other posters provided as resources to start putting the topic on the school’s mind (as in teachers, students (these students can be students in the DC group or any student that is responsible and feels passionate to an extent about the topic) and other staff).

Two weeks leading up to Digital Citizenship Week gather a group of students recommended by teachers to start putting together the collaborative PowerPoint on Social Media. You as the facilitator will have to send an email to staff and teachers asking for recommendations of the students that you will use. Make the due date 2 days after you send the email, if needed add an extension, you will know your school culture best. Once you have gained enough recommendations, you will hold interviews with the students recommended. This is to gain an understanding of how interested they would be in the activity and how comfortable they may be presenting to their peers. Once the students have been selected, let them know the commitment of lunch meetings except for Wednesdays to work on the PowerPoint and presentation skills. You will work with these students until the Assembly on the Wednesday of DC week.

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Once everything is organized, use the week before DC week to prepare and get all of the Pledge and Contracts Printed out and counted according to each classroom. Get the optional lesson all set up for the teachers along with the reflection questions. Gather everything for the Photo Booth coming for the end of DC week.

Digital Citizenship Week!

*every morning for morning announcements, share one of the safety tips from the safety poster with the school over the Public Announcement System.

Monday:

Announce the Social Media Cleanse option in morning announcements

- Make sure students are aware that anyone can sign up and it does not matter how many people join.

Poster Signing at recess

• Have the stamp of a foot ready or the students can use their foot and paint but have towels and water nearby to clean off the student’s feet, or have DYE-CUTS of the feet available to glue on to the posters

• Permanent markers are needed to sign their names

Social Media Cleanse sign up available in the counseling office at lunch - go over rules and regulations

Meet with the group of students at lunch and start rehearsing the Assembly, have another adult supervise them as you will be needing to meet with the students participating with the cleanse

Contracts/Pledges go home

Tuesday:

Announce: encouragement for the Social Media Cleansers! And safety tip of the day!

Remind teachers to collect social media contract/pledges

• Optional to discuss with the homeroom class • Optional Digital Citizenship lesson/Social Media lesson

Last day to rehearse with the students for the Assembly - “Dress Rehearsal” in the Auditorium or where the Assembly will take place

• Check in with IT to make sure they are aware of the set up for tomorrow

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Wednesday:

Announce: encouragement for the Social Media Cleansers! And social media safety tip, remind that there will be a Social Media Presentation tomorrow, Thursday

Social Media Awareness Assembly during 1st period

• Prior check in with IT to make sure the microphones are all working

4th Week of DC Lunch Group - see group instructions as follows

Thursday:

Announce: encouragement for the Social Media Cleansers! And social media safety tip, Parent Seminar today! Social Media Awareness Photo Booth tomorrow

Reflection Questions given to Teachers

Friday:

Announce: encouragement for the Social Media Cleansers! Today is the last day! And social media safety tip, Social Media Awareness Photo Booth today!

Reflect with the Social Media Cleansers at Lunch time

The week after:

Continue running the Digital Citizenship Lunch Group until the 6-weeks are over

Listen to feedback from staff and students.

Reflect yourself. What can be improved? What worked?

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APPENDIX C:

1.A. Based on, Classroom Posters, 2019

*each poster was created on Canva

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1.B. Based on Classroom Posters, 2019

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1.C. Tips found on Education, n.d.

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1.D. Digital Citizenship Week: Calendar of Activities

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2.A. Social Media Cleanse

Social Media Cleanse

Rules and Regulations:

*Anyone and everyone can and should join! *Just be aware that you are making a commitment J

1. Starting 8:00AM on Monday morning, we will collectively delete our Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and other Social Media Applications on our phones.

a. Cleansing or Fasting has been used for decades to escape, gain peace of mind and to re-focus

b. Gather as a group on Day 1 to discuss own personal motivation for doing this cleanse and why they think it is important.

i. Discuss other things to do other than Social Media c. Each participant will be given a small journal to jot down different thoughts and

feelings they have throughout the week of giving up social media. 2. Any re-downloading or web-use of the sites will be self-reported on an honesty basis. 3. We will finish the cleanse on Friday at 2:00PM and gather before the end of the day to

participate in a circle/group to discuss how we spent our time otherwise and how successful we were.

a. Once all together on the last day of the cleanse, participants will all share their thoughts and feelings about the cleanse.

i. Do they feel it made a difference? ii. Did they like participating in this?

iii. Did it bring perspective? If so, what? iv. Would they do it again?

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2.B. Social Media Contract

DigitalCitizenshipWeekPledge

ModifiedfromDigitalCitizenshipInstituteFamilyContract

Checktheboxesbelowifyouagreetothefollowingstatements.

q I understand not all people have access to or utilize technology in the same way. q I will not treat others differently if they do not have the same things that I do. q I will tell my parents or other responsible adult right away if I come across any

information that makes me feel uncomfortable, or if I experience pain or discomfort while using technology.

q I understand that to have technology rights that I have to be responsible for my actions online whether on my phone or computer.

q Before creating any account, I will let my parent or guardian know. If I have already created the account, I will tell them and show them my current account.

q I will remember that I need to balance technology use with other activities. q I will not respond to any messages that are mean or in any way make me feel

uncomfortable. It is not my fault if I get a message that is not appropriate. o If I receive a message that makes me uncomfortable, I will tell a responsible adult

right away so that they can help. q I will talk with my parents about rules for making purchases online.

o We will decide upon if, when and where online purchases will be made. q I will treat others the way that I wish to be treated when using technology. q I will check with my parents before downloading or installing software or doing anything

that could negatively affect the computer and my family’s privacy. q I will also protect myself and my family by not sharing my passwords to any social media

account or any other platform with identification information.

I agree to be an Upstanding Digital Citizen.

Student Signature _________________________________________________________

I agree to help my child be an Upstanding Digital Citizen.

Parent or Guardian Signature _____________________________________________

Contract adapted from the brochure Child Safety on the Information Highway by Lawrence J. Magid.

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2.C. Digital Citizenship 6-Week Group

Digital Citizenship Group:

Purpose of the Group: (subject to change with different groups of participants)

To create a safe space to discuss Social Media, Technology and relevant concerns that happen in

our daily lives.

What is the Group?

A casual, discussion-based group held during lunch time. Students can be recommended by

teachers or parents to attend or they can come on their own. Students can also self-refer. This

group is also an environment where student’s voices can be heard and listened to.

Group Rules: (subject to change with different groups of participants)

• Respect what each member has to say

• Speak after someone else has finished speaking/Wait your turn

Week 1: Introduction

*Hand out Group Review Form – Pre-Test

Introduce yourself: Name, Grade, favorite technology or app you use/consume?

What do you feel are the current platforms that students are using?

Do you think Social Media is a Positive thing or a Negative thing? Why?

Are your parents aware of your social media use?

Group Leader introduce and define Digital Citizenship:

• Include 9 Elements and 3 Goals of Digital Citizenship

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Week 2: Respect (Jones & Mitchell, 2016)

Catch up - maybe re-introduce each other

Go over Digital Citizenship again

How can we use Social Media as a way to respect one another?

Week 3: Support (Jones & Mitchell, 2016)

Catch up

Ask: Can someone remind the group what Digital Citizenship is?

Who in your life can you go to if you feel lonely?

Is social media a “place” where you feel supported?

Yes? Or No? Why? Or Why Not?

Week 4: Cyberbullying Prevention and Safety Emphasis

This week will take place during Digital Citizenship Week

Ask: What have you been learning this week from your teachers, staff or counselors about

Digital Citizenship, Social Media or Technology?

Have you ever been cyberbullied? Do you know someone who has?

Have you seen anyone get cyberbullied?

Could you have stopped that cyberbullying situation?

What are some actions you can take to prevent Cyberbullying in the future?

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Week 5: Positives

This will be the week after Digital Citizenship Week

Ask: How was last week for everyone?

Now that we spoke about the negatives and some of the more harmful things online, what

are some positives?

How do you use social media for good?

Is it easy to use Social Media for good?

Week 6: Conclusion

Ask: What have we learned in this group?

What is one thing (or more) that you are going to apply to your life?

What is something you can easily teach others?

What do you think still needs to be addressed in regard to this topic?

*hand out group review form

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2.C.1.

Group Review Form – Pre-Group

1. Why do you want to join this group?

2. What do expect out of the group?

3. What do you think about Social Media?

I love it! / I this it isn’t good for me / It’s okay. / I don’t have Social Media

4. Do you know what Digital Citizenship is? Yes / No

5. Do your Parents supervise your digital use? Yes / Sometimes / No

6. Is Social Media and Technology a problem we need to address at our school? Yes / No

a. Explain:

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2.C.2.

Group Review Form – Post-Group

1. Why did you join this group?

2. What do expect out of the group?

3. What do you think about Social Media?

I love it! / I think it isn’t good for me / It’s okay. / I don’t have Social Media

4. Do you know what Digital Citizenship is? Yes / No

5. Do your Parents supervise your digital use? Yes / Sometimes / No

6. Is Social Media and Technology a problem we need to address at our school? Yes / No

b. Explain:

7. Was this group helpful for you? Yes / Kind of / No

8. Would you be a part of something like this again?

a. What kind of group would you like to be a part of?

9. How could your group leader improve? What did you like that they did?

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3.A. PowerPoint Collaboration with Students for Social Media Assembly

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3.B. Pictures from Assembly

Students and Facilitator – Social Media Assembly Presenters and Creators

Students introducing themselves to the audience

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Introduction to the Assembly, Setting the tone – incorporating “Classroom Management”

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Teacher Resources:

4.A. Optional Lesson Plan: Create a Fake Profile page/ Instagram Post

Username:

Bio:

Likes:

Dislikes:

Caption/Status or Post:

Comments:

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4.B. Teacher Instructions

Teacher’s Instructions:

An activity like this can generate understanding, empathy and can perhaps lend perspective of a classmate’s life. It may not be a huge change but it can be a step in the right direction for our students and can teach a lesson in what to comment or post as the teacher or counselor would have the option to do a sample “good post” and a sample “bad post” showing students a tangible example of what may be right to portray as your digital identity versus what would be inappropriate and could leave a mark on your digital footprint.

Preparation for First Activity:

- Create a Good Example and a Bad Example - The Good Example will be for you and your students to best understand but the Bad

Example will be used as a lesson later.

First Activity:

- Students should take the time to draw their picture or portrait, if they prefer not to draw and would like to bring in a picture (if given advanced notice) that is great too!

- Then they will fill out the sheet accordingly. - Bio: meaning things that are important to themselves or something they would

normally think to put in an introduction to themselves. - Likes and Dislikes: these will be used to build classroom likeness and

understanding amongst the fellow classmates. Showing that they are all each fairly alike.

- Status/Post: Here the student will write a statement about what they did over the weekend or how they may be feeling in the current moment.

- After everyone is done writing their statuses, papers will be collected to mix up the class.

- Then after the papers are randomly distributed, the students will then write a comment on 3 of their classmate’s papers.

- Then papers will be collected and passed back to the person. Then a debrief will happen.

o Ask students how it felt to receive the comments. o Ask how it felt to look at someone’s bio and fake Social Media Page. o How did it feel to comment? o How is this different than online? o Why might it be easier to respond poorly online than in person?

- Next, as the facilitator, you will have created a bad example and talk about example bad comments and mean cyberbullying behaviors.

o Depending on the age group, ask “Have you ever seen someone say this online?”

§ Talk about that experience.

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Preparation for Second Activity:

- As you did with the last activity, create a Good Example and a Bad Example of the lesson.

- Be aware that the news often has different articles on how social media has impacted celebrities. It can be a relevant way to connect the lesson to your students. Take a look at current events in order to prepare as well.

Second Activity:

- Similar to the First Activity, the student will have an opportunity to draw an Instagram photo that they want to post.

- After students complete their picture, the drawings will be collected and randomly distributed to other classmates for students to comment on.

- Once the students have finished commenting, the facilitator will open the class for a time of discussion.

Sample Reflection Questions:

- Do you use Social Media daily? Weekly? Every once in a while? - Have any of you ever felt uncomfortable on Social Media or using Technology? Why

and were you able to tell an adult? o Do you have an adult you trust to talk to about those situations?

- What have you learned in this lesson? - What is your favorite thing about technology?

o Your least favorite? - Do your parents use Social Media?

o What do they think about it? o Do they monitor your Social Media or Internet use?

§ What’s your perspective on letting parents monitor you? - Has any of this changed your perspective on Social Media or Technology?

o If so, what would you do differently?

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4.C. Teacher Reflection Questions:

For Thursday’s Homeroom Check-In on the week: optional and not every question has to be asked – just to gauge where the students are at with the week

1. How many of you use Social Media daily? Weekly? Every once in a while?

2. Have any of you ever felt uncomfortable on Social Media or using Technology? Why and

were you able to tell an adult?

a. Do you have an adult you trust to talk to about those situations?

3. What have you learned this week?

4. What is your favorite thing about technology?

a. Your least favorite?

5. Have you told your parents about what is going on this week?

a. What do they think?

b. Do they monitor your Social Media or Internet use?

i. What do you think of that?

6. Has any of this changed your perspective on Social Media or Technology?

a. If so, what would you do differently?

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5.

EVALUATIVE SURVEY APRIL 30, 2019

Dear Participant,

My name is Lynn Gilmour and I am a graduate student at California State University, Northridge. I am a candidate for the Master of Science degree in Counseling in the Educational Psychology and Counseling (EPC) Department. I am working on my graduate project under the direction of my graduate project chair, Dr. Shyrea Minton. The purpose of this project is to generate awareness of Technology and Media behavior in Early Middle School Students through a relevant curriculum centered on Digital Citizenship. This “Digital Citizenship Week” that I have created will be facilitated by middle school counselors and participants will range from small groups to largely the school as a whole.

I am inviting you to participate in the evaluation of my graduate project by completing the attached survey. Your feedback will be used to improve the project. If you have any further questions or concerns you may contact my graduate project chair at shyrea.minton@csun.edu or via telephone at (818) 677-4976. Thank you for your time and participation.

Sincerely,

Lynn Gilmour

(818)319-1669

lynn.gilmour.140@my.csun.edu

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Graduate Project Evaluation Survey: After you have reviewed the graduate project that I have created, please provide feedback by answering the questions below. The results for this survey will be used to improve the project going forward. Your participation is voluntary and your responses will be kept confidential. I appreciate your honest opinion about this graduate project, and ask that you do not include your name on this document so that your responses remain anonymous. Thank you in advance for your participation. Please use the scale below in providing your responses to the questions below.

Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree

4 3 2 1

1. Is this program helpful for middle school students? 4 3 2 1

2. Could this program be easily implemented at a school? 4 3 2 1

3. Is the length of the program (1 Week/6 Weeks for the group) appropriate? 4 3 2 1

4. Is a challenge week achievable or successful in a school setting? 4 3 2 1

5. Is the curriculum well-outlined and easy to follow? 4 3 2 1

6. Are the materials required accessible to all counselors? 4 3 2 1

7. Would you feel comfortable facilitating this program? 4 3 2 1

8. Would you use this program at your school site? 4 3 2 1

9. Would you recommend this program to other counselors? 4 3 2 1

Please provide additional comments or questions that could help me improve this program: