Curriculum: Understanding YouTube & Digital Citizenship
Overview
We have devised an interactive curriculum aimed to support teachers of secondary students (approximately ages 13-17). The curriculum helps educate students on topics like:
We hope that students and educators gain useful skills and a holistic understanding about responsible digital citizenship, not only on YouTube, but in all online activity.
Lessons
Below is a list of lessons, and the recommended flow for delivery. Lessons are designed to fit within 50 minute classes, but can be adapted to fit your schedule:
You can download the full Teacher’s Guide here.
Learn more
To learn more visit the Classroom videos page of the Google in Education website, where you can find links to information on:
Lesson 1: What makes YouTube unique
Time
40 minutes
Lesson objective
Understand the environment and scale of YouTube
Standards/competencies
xx
Materials/preparation
Videos loaded
Projector
Approach
Start by talking the students through the various lessons that they will be completing in the coming weeks. The focus of the Curriculum is to make students knowledgeable and confident when engaging online, whether on YouTube or on other platforms. Throughout the lessons, they will be obtain information and tools and will participate in group activities and discussions to help them understand the principles behind each of the lessons.
Starter- 7 minutes
Show YouTube clips from multiple of the following categories, which demonstrates the range of media that is available online.
Instructional
Inspirational
Social/political
Entertainment
Explain there is a range of content online. Ask students what different videos may be used for.
Instruction- 7 minutes
Explain that the net few days/weeks/hours you’ll be covering information on how to use YouTube to be engaged, inspired, and to learn & how to ensure you’re using it as a good digital citizen.
Today you’ll do two things:
Ask students to answer the following questions by a show of hands or through class discussion.
Before delving into the ‘serious’ stuff, we think it’s beneficial to develop an understanding of the scale and make-up of YouTube (and maybe a chance to look at some fun videos too!).
YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe.
Please check out the YouTube timeline video on page 3. This video was released in May 2012.
Activity- 8 minutes
Now, go to page 4. Read through the trivia questions and go to the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/t/press. The class can either answer the questions as a group or if IT resources allow, can break off into groups and write down their answers.
Answers
Additional information
Instruction- 3 minutes
Explain that while there are a world of resources on YouTube, there is also content that is not appropriate or is negative.
Now ask students the following:
Activity- 5 minutes
On page 5 there are a series of questions for students to answer. They should give themselves a point for every one they answer ‘yes’ to. Once they are finished, the teacher can read out the following results.
Scoring
Closing- 5 minutes
In the coming lessons we will ensure we all understand the ways to use YouTube responsibly, the many things it can help you do.
Let’s look at one more video now. You might agree this video fits multiple purposes we discussed in the beginning: entertaining, inspiring, & educating.
To end this session, look at the ‘YouTube Rewind 2011’ video together. Reminisce some of the YouTube memories of 2011.
Lesson 2 - Detecting Lies & Harmful Links
Time
35 minutes
Lesson objective
Develop skills of critical analysis when encountering online content
Standards/competencies
xx
Materials/preparation
Videos loaded
Projector
Internet access for the whole class to view a website together or on devices for students in small groups or individually
Starter- 5 minutes
Watch these videos which show lie detectors:
Instruction- 5 minutes
This section addresses how you can know what you can trust online, and what might be potentially harmful for you or your computer. Students can be bombarded with information online and it’s important that they begin to understand what information is reliable and what is not. Students should also learn to be wary when they get pop-up windows, quizzes asking for personal information or suspicious emails.
On page 6 watch the video titled ‘Steering Clear of Cyber Tricks’. (3 minutes). The main lessons they should learn from this video are;
Discussion- 5 minutes
Have a brief class discussion as a follow-up, asking the following questions:
Most legitimate businesses will never ask for personal information like your account number, password or social security number
Instruction- 3 minutes
Watch the video on page 7, titled ‘Detecting Lies and Staying True’. (2 minutes).
After watching this video, review top level domain extensions on the next slide. Highlight the fact that just because information shows up online it doesn’t mean it’s true. Note: A domain extension is the end of a domain. For example, in the domain [youtube.com], "com" is the extension.
Recap the main lessons they should take away are:
Ask students what are the top three sites that they trust for information and why?
Activity- 15 minutes
Ask the question: “Is there life on other planets?”. After taking initial ideas ask students to compare the three sources of information below. Reach a conclusion about what’s true/trustworthy. List the websites on the board for each group to review and report back or look at them together as a group.
Closing- 2 minutes
Follow the rule of three:
Lesson 3 - Safety Mode
Time
5 Minutes
Lesson objective
Become familiar with what safety mode is, why you should use it and how to enable it for you and your family.
Standards/competencies
xx
Materials/preparation
Videos loaded
Projector
Individual computers for each student or small groups of students
Instruction
Many people are not aware of YouTube Safety Mode. Safety Mode gives users the option to choose not to see mature content that they may find find offensive, even though it's not against our Community Guidelines. When you opt in to Safety Mode mode, videos with mature content or that have been age restricted will not show up in video search, related videos, playlists, shows and movies.
Review the information on slide 5 with the group.
Key points to highlight are;
Teacher note
At this point, you or a class volunteer should enable safety mode for the remainder of the lessons, if it is not yet enabled on your account. Remember, safety mode is browser-specific so if you switch browser, you may need to enable safety mode again.
Instruction
Watch the video tutorial on Safety Mode. Here is a script to accompany the video which the teacher may wish to read aloud to the class;
“Start by scrolling to the bottom of a YouTube page. The page in the video displays some search results. In the new YouTube interface, on the third line it should say ‘Safety: Off’, click on this to find the option to turn on Safety Mode. Once you select ‘on’, you must then hit ‘lock safety mode on this browser’, before you ‘save’.”
At the end of the page you can see a screen-shot that shows the current safety mode interface on YouTube. On the last line and far-right you can see the option for Safety Mode and whether it is ‘off’ or ‘on.’
Everyone should now be able to identify the YouTube Safety Mode setting. It might be a good idea to suggest that students tell their parents and siblings about Safety Mode so that they can explore YouTube together.
Lesson 4. Online Reputation and Cyber-bullying
Time
45 minutes
Lesson objective
Appreciate potential short-term and long-term consequences of irresponsible social networking. Understand what cyber-bullying is and its effects.
Standards/competencies
xx
Materials/preparation
Videos loaded
Projector
Starter- 8 minutes
Next, watch the video ‘Kate’s Reputation Problem’. (2 minutes).
Then read some of the scenarios on page 10. While it’s great to share things online with friends, we want students to think about some scenarios where content could be posted about them or where they may post content of themselves. Although it may initially seem like a good idea, in reality there could be a number of potential consequences.
Ask students to volunteer some additional scenarios that could arise.
Activity- 10 minutes
Give students a few minutes to list what they believe are potential short-term and long-term consequences of irresponsible online behaviour. Then write up the answers on the class board. Discuss the answers.
Short-term consequences -
Long-term consequences -
Instruction- 8 minutes
Introduce the concepts below:
Give age appropriate examples of the results of cyber bullying and the impact (e.g. some students have bullied so much that they have gone on to harm themselves).
Discussion- 7 minutes
On page 12, there is a video for the class to watch called ‘Cyberbullying: Solutions for Parents’ and some tips on what to do if you are being bullied or you see bullying taking place online.
Activity- 10 minutes
Following a class discussion using the points on page 11. Develop a Class Charter and select a name like ‘We are Model Netizens’. (10 minutes). Have students articulate what they expect of themselves and each other online.
Closing- 2 minutes
Have the students sign or initial charter. Depending on the age of the students, discuss how your class can revisit how they are doing against the charter.
Lesson 5. Policy - The Community Guidelines
Time
30 minutes
Lesson Objective
Understand the dos and don’ts of posting content on YouTube.
Standards/competencies
xx
Materials/preparation
Videos loaded
Projector
Students will need some large sheets of paper and markers/colours.
Starter – 2 minutes
Watch a video showing what happens when there are no rules or guidelines in a community. Set up the clip.
Instruction- 3 minutes
YouTube’s Community Guidelines are the ‘rules of the road’ for our users when posting content and engaging on the platform. They outline the level of responsibility, which is expected of all users. The Community Guidelines are linked to from the bottom of every YouTube page under ‘Terms’ and are written in clear, easy to understand, jargon-free language so that all users can be clear on what the YouTube rules are.
Activity- 20 minutes
In this exercise the students are put in power and have to answer the question - ‘If you were in charge of writing YouTube’s Community Guidelines, what would you include?’.
Students break into groups of 4-6 and each group should be given a large sheet of paper and marker so they can lay out their Community Guidelines in order of importance.
Ask each group present their results. Record the top 5 points to come from across the groups should be written on the class board. Then you can visit the link provided to the Community Guidelines on page 13 and talk through the points from page 7 in more detail. You can do this as a class group by projecting the Guidelines to the class and see how they compare to the students’ version. (10 minutes).
http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines
Finally, read, as a group, the ‘myths’ blog post. This outlines some common points of confusion among users. Ones to highlight to the class in particular are numbers 1, 2, 3, 6, 9. (5 minutes).
http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011/09/clearing-up-some-policy-myths.html
Activity – 5 minutes
On the next page you will see some screenshots of sample content. Each image has a tick/check or an ‘X’ to indicate whether or not it would be appropriate in light of our Community Guidelines. The class should discuss for each image why it might/might not be allowed.
Ask the question: What factors outside of the video itself, do you think we might consider when making a decision?
Here we are looking for the class to identify points such as uploader intention, overall context, newsworthiness, video title, video tags and description.
Notes for the teacher (In a clockwise direction from the XXX)
Closing
On page 15 you’ll find some basic additional information which students may find useful on account creation and uploading. Please review the information and links provided as a class. (5 minutes).
http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=16546
http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/static.py?hl=en&guide=1719823&page=guide.cs
Lesson 6. Reporting - Flagging
Time
20 minutes
Lesson objective
Understand the flagging process, when to flag content on YouTube and how YouTube enforces policy.
Standards/competencies
xx
Materials/preparation
Videos loaded
Projector
Instruction
In addition to having guidelines for the community (yesterday’s topic) there are also processes in place for reporting inappropriate content.
The next three lessons are specific to reporting content on YouTube. We realize that not everyone knows how to report content in the most effective way, so we want to review the reporting flows and hopefully answer some common questions along the way.
First up is flagging. Page 16 is designed to give an explanation of what flagging is and to give a visual representation of what it looks like when you try to flag a video on YouTube.
What is flagging?
If a user feels that a video contains inappropriate content and violates the Community Guidelines, they can ‘flag’ or report it and alert YouTube. Flagging empowers the YouTube community to bring potential violations of our Community Guidelines to our attention in the most efficient manner. Flagged videos are reviewed by the YouTube team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Demonstration
Explain to students how people can flag:
Activity – 3 minutes
We recommend that you ask a class volunteer to flag a video in front of the class. (Don’t worry if the video you flag has no obvious violation, it simply won’t come down when it is reviewed!).
Try flagging this one as an example, it is linked to directly in the blue Activity box under ‘video’- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbqzgDnfMsE
Page 17 features some definitions for our flagging categories. You can use these as a reference point to answer the four questions in the Activity box. It helps to explain what we mean by our flagging terms.
Activity – 7 minutes
Four questions for the class to answer on analyzing content online.
Remember to emphasize that this information can be relevant to many other online interactions. Among the class group, we want the students to think within the realm of video content about what context might mean and to try come up with some examples.
We also think it’s important for them to think about the difference between hate speech and harassment, as people can get confused about this from time to time.
Lastly, what do they think the term ‘graphic’ means?
Notes
Move on to the next page. Here, you will find a note about age-restricted content.
Begin by asking the class how many of them have ever seen the interstitial featured on the page?
An age-restriction can be applied where a video has been flagged by the Community and reviewed the the YouTube team and a decision has been made that even though the content does not violate our Community Guidelines, it may be inappropriate for younger users (under 18). As such, a restriction is placed on the video and only account holders over the age of 18 have access to watch it.
Page 19 shows two visual examples of the type of content that could fall within this category. Additionally the point on ‘context’ from the notes section on flagging is also relevant to consider here. Other examples of content that may be age-restricted are;
Lesson 7. Reporting - Safety and Abuse Tool
Time
40 minutes
Lesson Objective
To explain another way to report content on YouTube.
Standards/competencies
xx
Materials/preparation
Videos loaded
Projector
Instruction - 5 minutes
While flagging is the most popular and fastest way to report violations in videos on YouTube, it’s not the only way. In particular, YouTube realizes that for certain categories of content like hate speech, impersonation and harassment, users may wish to report content other than videos.
The Safety and Abuse Tool is designed especially to help users report;
While you may only flag one video at a time, using the Safety and Abuse tool, you can report multiple content. We suggest that users utilise this tool for issues like hate speech and harassment that can sometimes be more complex or nuanced than other community guidelines violations and require additional explanation to help the YouTube team make a full analysis.
Examples of content to report via the Safety and Abuse Tool
On page 21, you will see that the Safety and Abuse Tool is located in our Safety Centre. Our Safety Centre is accessible from the bottom of every YouTube page by clicking the ‘Safety’ link. The Safety Centre is YouTube’s centralised hub for multimedia resources, tips and external links on a host of online safety topics. It also includes specific materials dedicate to parents and educators. You can get to the Safety and Abuse Tool from selecting either ‘Hateful Content’ or ‘Harassment and Cyberbullying’ in the Safety Centre, as identified by the red arrows.
Demonstration & discussion – 7 minutes
As a class group you should navigate to the Safety and Abuse Tool and show students what it looks like and the reporting options which they can choose. If you have time, you can ask a class volunteer to walk through the reporting flow for the options listed - comments, videos, channels - in front of the class.
Here is a Channel URL, you can use as a demonstration.
www.youtube.com/user/SafetyCenterVideos
Take some time to look more deeply at page 21, which features a screenshot from our Safety Centre. Read through the various categories and the four points which describe some of the content on the Safety Centre.
Play the video featured called ‘Playing and Staying Safe Online’. This is just one of the videos that can be found among our Safety Centre resources.
Activity – 23 minutes
Using the following categories from the Safety Centre, break the class into groups with each group to take on a category. Draw a line down the middle of the paper vertically. On one side ask students to write why the category is important to them, and on the other side write tips or advice for how these can be avoided.
Each group presents to the class as a whole to develop collective learning on these topics.
Closing- 5 minutes
Before you continue on with the remainder of the lessons, it might be a good idea to do a recap of what has been covered up to this point.
Lesson 8 - Privacy
Time
50 Minutes
Lesson objective
Appreciate the meaning of privacy both conceptually and practically
Standards/competencies
xx
Materials/preparation
Videos loaded
Projector
Large sheets of paper
Markers/marker pens
Starter – 2 minutes
Watch video on online reputation XXX.
Instruction – 2 minutes
The next 3 pages discuss privacy issues. Before diving straight into the specifics of privacy on YouTube, ensure students to have a more holistic grasp on what the notion of privacy is and why it is important to value privacy whether online or offline. In line with the lesson on Online Reputation, students start developing some foresight as to how today’s behavior can impact them not only now, but into the future.
Activity – 15 minutes
Do a class brainstorm. Get students to come up with their definitions of privacy and put keywords on the class board.
After around 10 minutes of brainstorming, there should be a lot of words up on the board. Next, and in groups, students should be given some time to develop a Privacy wordcloud. In wordclouds, the most important words are generally written the biggest and so on until the slightly less important words are done in smaller font. All the words should try and fit together almost like a jigsaw puzzle and make one large collection of inspiring words. Have a few groups present their word clouds.
Discussion- 15 minutes
Now, continue to develop the discussion by asking the group, the questions that feature on page 23.
Instruction- xx minutes
Once this is done and students have learned to think for themselves on the importance of privacy as a general concept, it is time to move to page 24 where we will look at privacy on YouTube. These guidelines are in place for people who wish to make privacy complaints on YouTube in order to get content removed. (5 minutes).
The images on the right reflect what may/may not be a privacy violation.
Image 1 - Public figures/celebrities at an official event, consent.
Image 2 - Private individual in their home, not newsworthy.
Instruction – 2 minutes
You may wish to file a privacy complaint in the following scenarios:
The key message is: Don’t post personal information about another person on YouTube, without first obtaining their permission!
It is important to understand the Guidelines and to read them before you make a complaint. YouTube takes privacy seriously and if your privacy has been unfairly invaded, we have a process in place for you to ask for removal of the content.
YouTube’s privacy guidelines are available from the Safety Centre.
Activity – 15 minutes
On page 25, there is a group-based activity. The objective of this exercise is for students to become familiar with some useful privacy settings and tools on YouTube and to know where to locate them.
Before commencing, each group should pick their favorite YouTube video that will be played should their team win the challenge.
There are two alternatives to this game depending on IT resources available in class.
Please ensure that the starting point for all of the searches is the following page - http://support.google.com/youtube/?hl=en
The teacher should take note of the times logged on the class board.
Teacher’s discretion: Winners get to play a YouTube video of their choice (the teacher may wish to view/approve the video before playing.
Closing
All of these articles can be found in our Help Centre. Show some of these and encourage students to become aware of privacy tools no matter what site they are using.
Lesson 9 - Copyright
Time
40 minutes
Lesson objective
Understand what content is and is not copyrighted.
Understand that the best way to avoid copyright infringement online is only by posting 100% original content you create.
Review the key takeaways from all the lessons.
Standards/competencies
xx
Materials/preparation
Videos loaded
Projector
Starter- 10 minutes
Navigate to the YouTube Copyright Workshop linked to on page 26.
As a class, complete level one and level two + quiz. The teacher can use the notes below to explain ‘authorisation’ and ‘fair use’.
Instruction- 3 minutes
Review the following with the class:
Activity - 7 minutes
On the next page, students are asked to decide, in groups, whether each theme is copyrightable or not. They can either break into groups or the teacher can write up the guesses on the class board.
Answers
Copyrighted Protected:
Not Copyright Infringements:
Activity – 10 minutes
On page 28, you will end the lesson on copyright by watching the video ‘YouTube Copyright School’ and having the students answer some questions (true/false). When they are finished, the teacher can read out the correct answers.
Answers
Closing – 10 minutes
That completes all of the lessons in the YouTube Curriculum on Digital Citizenship. Ask students to think for two minutes about their top 3 takeaways. Write each takeaway on a post it note. Once you have written them have a few students collect the post it notes and put them into groups by theme. Ask the students who grouped the takeaways to explain the main themese to the class and to give some examples/
Extra Activities
Activity 1 : YouTube Quiz - True or False
Answers
Activity 2 - Theory in Practice
Once the class has read the scenario. In groups, get them to answer the following questions
Answers for the teacher -
Extra Activity 3 - YouTube WordSearch
l | s | t | d | p | w | b | s | s | d | n | e | r | t |
o | e | s | q | o | a | v | d | u | a | m | n | i | j |
r | a | t | a | l | x | f | f | b | o | n | n | c | f |
k | r | a | e | f | r | c | w | s | l | j | b | k | l |
k | o | s | w | r | e | g | h | a | p | r | d | r | a |
y | n | k | d | i | s | t | o | e | u | i | s | o | s |
r | l | r | a | d | e | u | y | r | i | v | w | l | h |
e | i | i | y | a | m | q | p | x | l | a | o | l | m |
s | n | u | y | y | p | r | i | v | a | c | y | o | o |
o | e | f | d | u | r | o | i | p | o | t | y | k | b |
r | e | m | l | y | i | r | e | s | o | u | r | c | e |
e | f | m | k | a | v | k | l | u | u | i | s | l | e |
d | i | o | o | t | g | k | j | l | f | s | v | l | s |
s | l | b | b | a | b | y | m | o | n | k | e | y | c |
1. Upload 5. Baby Monkey 9. Safety
2. Privacy 6. Flag 10. Resource
3. Subs 7. Trends 11. Flashmob
4. Friday 8. Online 12. Rick-roll
Extra Activity 4 - Bullying Solutions - Dramatisation
In groups, ask students to come up with a script to last about 5 minutes of a potential online bullying scenario.
Four issues must be addressed in the dramatisation