Lesson 7: Project - Internet Dilemmas Part 1

Project

Overview

Students begin working on a two-day project exploring a dilemma at the intersection of the Internet and society.

Purpose

In this project, students explore a relevant Internet dilemma: Net Neutrality, Internet Censorship, or the Digital Divide. Students apply their knowledge of how the Internet works to address the core question related to their chosen dilemma. This project addresses the "so what" question - why is it important to learn about how the Internet works?

Agenda

Lesson Modifications

Warm Up (5 mins)

Activity (35 mins)

Wrap Up (5 mins)

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Objectives

Students will be able to:

  • Identify how an internet dilemma has the potential to benefit and harm different stakeholders
  • Identify the ways the technical structure and design of the Internet contributes to a social dilemma

Preparation

  • Review the poster from Lesson 1 and pick a few sticky notes to talk about it in the Warm Up.
  • Preview the articles in order to answer student questions.
  • KEY - Internet Dilemmas

Links

Heads Up! Please make a copy of any documents you plan to share with students.

For the Teachers

For the Students

Teaching Guide

Lesson Modifications

Attention, teachers! If you are teaching virtually or in a socially-distanced classroom, please read the full lesson plan below, then click here to access the modifications.

Warm Up (5 mins)

Remarks

We started this unit by writing down our thoughts on the Internet and how it works. Let's review a few of your questions on these sticky notes, and see if we know the answers now.

Teaching Tip

Keep track of time! Students need the majority of class to work on their projects. The goal here isn't for every outstanding question to be answered, but instead to remind students how much they have learned and point out how they can continue learning.

Discuss: Select a few sticky notes and read them to the class. Address any misconceptions.

Remarks

Look how much we've learned! We may still have a few unanswered questions, and that's ok. It's good to always want to know more - and thankfully we have the Internet available to help us answer those questions!

Or at least, that's what we might think, but access to the Internet is not always guaranteed. Today we are going to start a project where you will consider a dilemma related to Internet access.

Activity (35 mins)

Teaching Tip

Role of the Assessment: In this lesson, students begin a two day project where they will demonstrate their understanding of key issues surrounding the Internet. This project is designed to be used in tandem with the Unit 2 Assessment to evaluate student progress in Unit 2 content.

Remarks

Today, you are going to pretend that you are the Chief Technology Advisor for a candidate running for elected office. Your candidate is relying on you to help inform her about important technological dilemmas and come up with good policy ideas to address them. For this project you’ll investigate a social dilemma related to the Internet and prepare a report summarizing your findings and making a policy recommendation for your candidate.

Let's take a look at three of the different dilemmas: Net Neutrality, Internet Censorship, and the Digital Divide.

Distribute: Give students copies of Internet Dilemmas - Project Guide

Do This: Read out loud the Background & Core Question for each dilemma.

Step 1 - Choose (3 mins): Students read over the first page of the Project Guide and pick their Dilemma. At the end of this time, take a quick poll on who is doing what dilemma. You will want to ensure that the dilemmas are evenly covered by the class.

Step 2 - Review the One-Pager and Rubric (5 mins): Students review the one pager template and rubric to make sure they understand what they'll be responsible for creating for this project and how it’ll be evaluated.

Step 3 - Review the Concept Bank (3 mins): This concept bank includes the key terms and concepts covered in this unit. Students should quickly review them before reading their articles so that they’ll be ready to identify them in their articles. They can also refer to these as they complete their one-pager.

Step 4 - Review Your Sources (20 mins): Students review the three sources provided or additional ones they find online. For each source they take notes on instances when their impacted groups are mentioned or technical details that are explained.

Wrap Up (5 mins)

Remarks

Next time you'll have most of the class to work on your one-pagers and we'll take time at the end to share what you've learned.

Teaching Tip

Why is Digital Divide the only vocabulary word? Digital Divide is a term covered in the AP CSP Conceptual Framework. We want to make sure all students - even those who don't choose it as a Digital Dilemma understand the meaning of the phrase.

Journal: Students add to their journal the definition for digital divide.

  • Check Your Understanding
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Student Instructions

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Student Instructions

In 50 words or less, describe the concept of a number system.

Why are rules required for a number system to be useful?

Standards Alignment

View full course alignment

CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)

IC - Impacts of Computing
  • 3A-IC-24 - Evaluate the ways computing impacts personal, ethical, social, economic, and cultural practices.
  • 3A-IC-28 - Explain the beneficial and harmful effects that intellectual property laws can have on innovation.
  • 3A-IC-30 - Evaluate the social and economic implications of privacy in the context of safety, law, or ethics.
  • 3B-IC-26 - Evaluate the impact of equity, access, and influence on the distribution of computing resources in a global society.
  • 3B-IC-28 - Debate laws and regulations that impact the development and use of software.

CSP2021

IOC-1 - While computing innovations are typically designed to achieve a specific purpose, they may have unintended consequences
IOC-1.C - Describe issues that contribute to the digital divide.
  • IOC-1.C.1 - Internet access varies between socioeconomic, geographic, and demographic characteristics, as well as between countries.
  • IOC-1.C.2 - The “digital divide” refers to differing access to computing devices and the Internet, based on socioeconomic, geographic, or demographic characteristics.
  • IOC-1.C.3 - The digital divide can affect both groups and individuals.
  • IOC-1.C.4 - The digital divide raises issues of equity, access, and influence, both globally and locally.
  • IOC-1.C.5 - The digital divide is affected by the actions of individuals, organizations, and governments.
IOC-1.F - Explain how the use of computing could raise legal and ethical concerns.
  • IOC-1.F.10 - The digital divide raises ethical concerns around computing.