Verifying social media posts is quickly becoming a necessary endeavor in everyday life, let alone in the world of education. Social media has moved beyond a digital world which connects with friends and family and has become a quick and easy way to access news, information, and human interest stories from around the world. As this state of media has become the "new normal," especially for our younger generations, we, educators, find ourselves charged with a new task of teaching our students how to interact with and safely consume digital information.The following three modules are designed to be used as stand-alone activities or combined as one unit, in which the lessons can be taught in any order. "Who Said What?!" is a module focusing on author verification. "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words'' is a module devoted to image verification. "Getting the Facts Straight" is a module designed to dive into information verification. Lastly, there are assessment suggestions to be utilized after completing all three modules.

In this lesson, students will define their dominant roles online, explain the benefits of each type of online role and discuss the responsibilities and risks inherent in each type of online interaction. This lesson is part of a media unit curated at our Digital Citizenship website entitled "Who Am I Online?"

This lesson introduces students to their digital footprint and the importance of being a good digital citizen.

We all know how easy it is to spend hours watching videos on YouTube. Why do we go down that rabbit hole? Mostly because of a combination of computer programming and marketing know-how called ALGORITHMS.

Like footprints in the sand, everything you do on the web leaves a trace.

Every time you open up your web browser or app, every search you make, every purchase you make, meal you order, every friend you have, everything you like, everyone you follow, every website you visit, app you download - basically, every time you browse the web - you leave a trace, a footprint. This data is then gathered by actors on the web who then combine it all to set up a profile of you, which is then sold to advertisers who can then target you with very specific ads of things you might want to purchase.

This resource uses the ad-model of the web as a backdrop to explain how the web works. Search results, recommendations, cookies, dark patterns... the web will hold no secrets to your students!

It will help them understand why and how data on their activity is gathered. This will help them make more informed choices in what websites and apps they decide to use.

A final section will focus on digital detox, steps students can take to reduce their digital footprint and screen time.

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This resource is part of the information science collection.