Digital Citizenship

8-10 yrs old

11-13 yrs old

Digital Literacy

Define and demonstrate responsible digital citizenship within Minecraft and other digital environments.

Submitted By: Minecraft Education

August 6, 2021

Lesson Plan
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Skills

Character
Citizenship
Communication

External References

Minecraft World File

Minecraft world file to support lesson plan.

ISTE-S standards

Digital Citizen Video

Supporting Files

Downloadable PDF - Digital Citizenship Lesson Plan

Includes images and enhancement activities.

Example Social Contracts

Learning Objectives

Define what types of behaviors make up a responsible digital citizen including:
Demonstrate responsible digital citizenship within Minecraft and other digital environments.
Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.
Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.

Guiding Ideas

What makes a responsible digital citizen?

The teacher will introduce the lesson objectives as clear targets for the students:

Today you will learn:

What types of behaviors make up a responsible digital citizen?
How we can demonstrate responsible citizenship within Minecraft and other digital environments?

The teacher will introduce the term, “Responsible Digital Citizen” by allowing students to deconstruct the term.

The teacher will ask students, “What comes to mind when you envision a responsible citizen?”
Allow students to turn to a shoulder partner and discuss for one minute.
As the partners complete the discussion, allow a brief whole group consensus of behaviors of a “Responsible Citizen”.

The teacher will now explain that we will watch a video on how we can also be a Responsible Digital Citizen. It has many of the same ideas students shared, but also includes a few additional important behaviors to consider.

During the video students should be ready to take notes on any behaviors they feel make a Responsible Digital Citizen.
View the video as a whole class- ‘Digital Citizen’ video.
(This video is on YouTube. If your environment blocks this site, you will need to download prior to lesson.)
Pause the video at 1:38 and define, “Digital Footprint” for students.
Let students know this is very important because often our emotions and feelings change over time, but posts cannot be taken back, and this includes inappropriate images as well. A good rule would be to ask a trusted adult if it is a good idea to post the comment or picture if you are in doubt.

After the video allow students a few minutes to think about additional behaviors and responsibilities that are required of a responsible digital citizen.

The teacher will assign students to one of four groups. Students will work together to compose a list of Five Essential Behaviors a Responsible Digital Citizen must display.

Guided Practice During the Lesson: (groups will work inside of the Minecraft Digital Citizenship World)

The teacher will introduce the purpose for exploring the Minecraft Digital Citizenship World.

The purpose of this experience is to explore one of the behaviors Responsible Digital Citizens will need to possess to work successfully in collaborative digital environments with peers.
The Brazilian jungle will be the setting of the world where students will enter as a group and explore one of the digital citizenship behaviors required when using Minecraft or any other collaborative digital environment.

Student Activities

Each group will be assigned a different task when in game.

The teacher will assign each group names and numbers. Group names are in Portuguese and English.

i. Group 1: (Valente /Valiant)

ii. Group 2: (Engenhoso /Resourceful)

iii. Group 3: (Honra /Honor)

iv. Group 4: (Paz / Peace)

Launch the game from a teacher device and have students join the world by selecting Play from the main screen. On the following screen, they are to select the Friends tab.
The world the students should join will appear in the list as Digital Citizenship and the teacher’s name.
Each person from the four groups will join the world.
Once students are in the world have them pause.
Remind each group which number and name they will be exploring.
The teacher will explain that each group has a different digital citizenship topic to explore and the group will work together to learn more about each topic.

Group 1: (Valente /Valiant): Explores a disrespectful digital citizen.

Group 2: (Engenhoso /Resourceful): Explores stealing digitally.

Group 3: (Honra /Honor): Explores plagiarism.

Group 4: (Paz / Peace): Explores harassment/trolling.

Each group will experience something different with the Minecraft Digital Citizenship World.
Group 1: (Valente / Valiant): Tasked with building a small structure. Once they are complete, the Agent will destroy part of their building to simulate a “griefer” or a disrespectful digital citizen.
Group 2: (Engenhoso / Resourceful): Tasked with collecting resources for a “big task”. The agent will steal all their resources at some point during their session. This will simulate others stealing digitally.
Group 3: (Honra / Honor): Tasked with creating an artistic representation. The agent will copy their structure and take all the credit. This will simulate plagiarism.
Group 4: (Paz / Peace): Tasked with re-creating a scene within a book the students are reading. The agent will start to chat spam to mimic harassment/trolling.

*Groups 3 and 4 can have their assignments altered by the teacher if they would like to tailor the lesson more towards what they’re currently teaching. You can do this by simply editing what the NPC for groups 3 and 4 say.

When students first enter the world, they will encounter an NPC (Non-Playable Character) who will guide them. This NPC (Non-Playable Character) gives directions to players. Students will right select to see what the NPC has to say.
Each group is instructed to head to their group’s building zone which have been pre-assigned by the teacher.
The groups should be given about 30-40 minutes to complete the group task before heading back to the campfire in the Minecraft World for a discussion.
Each build plot includes a pressure plate (gold rectangle) a student can stand on to instantly teleport them back to the world starting point.

Performance Expectations

When students are finished with their task assignment in Minecraft, have the group leader type their group name (case sensitive) into the chat. For example, group 1 would type “Valente” (without quotes) into the chat to signal they are finished.

Students can open a chat window by using the “T” key.
The teacher will remind students of using accountable talk, respectful language, and staying on the topic of digital citizenship in the chat experience.
In the chat each group will discuss their experiences and how it impacted them emotionally and how their learning was impacted.
Allow 10-15 minutes for this discussion to take place.

Discussion Question Prompts (if needed):

How did that make you or your group feel?
How will you react when others demonstrate irresponsible behaviors online?
How can you be sure you are respectful of others online?
If we are going to use a collaborative tool such as Minecraft, why are these behaviors important?

Closing the Lesson:

At the completion of the Minecraft portion, have students come together by the fire in the Minecraft world to discuss their experiences.

Each group will take turns discussing their in-game experience with the rest of the class and their feelings and reactions to what occurred. Some questions for groups to consider.

1. What were your reactions when the Agent stole your creation?

2. Why is it important to credit yourself for the work you created?

3. How did the Agent taking your resources make you feel and why?

4. Why is it important to collaborate?

5. What was happening when the Agent was sending lots of messages in the chat? How did they make you feel?

6. How do these experiences relate to a responsible digital citizen?

To conclude the lesson, have students take time to reflect individually about their experience and share their thoughts through a document or a class blog.

The teacher will discuss each of the Social Contracts with the students and encourage them to sign and model the expectations of a Responsible Digital Citizenship.