The Consequences of Being Too Plugged In-- Part 2 of Unplug: The Digital Diet Plan
A Learning Activity is a strategy a teacher chooses to actively
engage students in learning a concept or skill using a digital tool/resource.
Phase:
During/Explore/Explain
Activity:
Introduce students to the digital tool, "Five Consequences of a Poor Diet," by projecting the website or printing the information for students.
The teacher will introduce the jigsaw research method to students (see Advanced Preparation section for additional explanation):
Divide students into groups of five. This will be the students' home group.
Each student in the home group will be assigned a different topic to research from the five consequences presented in the digital tool: addictions, broken relationships, health issues, emotional stressors, and clinical disorders.
After the teacher assigns each student in the home group a research topic, the students who are researching the same topic will meet in expert groups. These are students across the home groups who are assigned to research the same topic.
After students are placed with their expert groups, they will work collaboratively to research their assigned topic focusing on the following essential questions:
How do digital devices/technology lead to this consequence?
How might this negative consequence affect people's physical, mental, emotional, and social health?
Do they have any personal experience or connection to this consequence?
After students complete their research with their expert groups, students will return to their original home groups. Each student will share their research with their home group. As students discuss their findings, students should take notes on their classmates' research findings. Be sure students know they will be responsible for creating a presentation with information on all five topics. Students can use the previous essential questions to direct their collaborative conversations and notetaking.
Students will work in their home group to create a presentation that provides information about the five consequences of a poor digital diet. This presentation could be in the form of a research paper, poster, or slideshow presentation (e.g. Google Slides or PowerPoint). The teacher could require all students to complete one type of presentation, or students could be allowed to choose the format of their presentation from the options provided.
Students could present their final product to the whole class with their home group if desired, or the students can turn in the presentation for teacher review.
Assessment Strategies:
The teacher can formatively assess student mastery of standards by monitoring students during their research and collaborative discussions.
The teacher can formally assess students' final product using this "Research Project Rubric" from readwritethink.org. The rubric does include criteria for presentations, but this can be omitted if students are not presenting their final products to classmates.
Advanced Preparation:
This lesson will utilize the "Jigsaw" literacy strategy, in which students will become members of a home group and an expert group as they research and discuss their assigned topic. The following websites will provide additional background information regarding this research-based literacy strategy: "Using the Jigsaw Cooperative Learning Technique" from readwritethink.org and "Jigsaw" from adlit.org.
This graphic organizer can be copied for students to record their research findings if desired.
This "Research Project Rubric" from readwritethink.org can be used to assess students' final product. The rubric can be copied and given to students prior to beginning their work on the presentation.
Variation Tips (optional):
There are videos included in the digital tool that can be shown to students.
This activity also correlates to the following Career Tech Standards:
Foundations of Business Leadership
4. Identify barriers to and methods for improving the communication process in the corporate world.
STEM Technologies I
6. Identify positive and negative ways the use of technology affects humans.
21. Engage in positive, safe, legal, and ethical behaviors when using technology, including during social interactions online and when using networked devices.
Business Skills Development
14. Identify the potential hazards that misusing social media and other technology may have on one’s future plans.
Keywords and Search Tags:
communicate, communication, digital device, personal health, research, technology, unplugged