Apply protocols
Unit Apply protocols
Year level: 3-4 Topic: Collaboration and Protocols Time: 7-8 hours
Technology is an embedded part of our lives, and it is essential that students understand how to engage responsibly in online spaces. Using the school's ICT agreement as a focus, develop an agreed set of rules and discuss protocols for ICT use. It is important students understand what it means to behave safely online and have an opportunity to explore this in more detail. Discuss the use of personal information or images when communicating online. Empower students with the knowledge of how to act responsibly online and equip them with the tools to know how to deal with cyberbullying behaviour. Use a collaborative online project to apply protocols and manage a task.
These lessons can be integrated in conjunction with English with a focus on interacting with others and/or with Health and Physical Education with a focus on being healthy, safe and active.
Flow of Activities
Rules for ICT use
Develop an agreed set of rules and discuss protocols for ICT use.Being safe online
Use an interactive session to discuss ways to stay safe online.Cyberbullying
Explore cyberbullying and ways to deal with situations and act responsibly online.Collaborating online
Use a collaborative online project to apply protocols and manage a task.Activity Rules for ICT use
What rules should we follow when using ICT?
Australian Curriculum Alignment
- Collaborating and managing (ACTDIP013)
What's this about?
All schools have ICT agreements that students and parents sign in order to use the technology in their schools. It is important for students to be familiar with, and understand, these agreements before they use the technology.
A key understanding underpinning digital citizenship is the idea of responsible ICT use and engagement in online spaces. Technology is an embedded part of our lives, and it is essential that students understand how to engage responsibly in online spaces. This includes understanding what to do when they stumble upon an inappropriate website, and how to socialise or collaborate in an acceptable manner with their peers in an online setting.
Responsible ICT use also means that students have a good understanding of how to care for and respect the devices and hardware that they work with.
Learning tasks
- Brainstorm the dangers, problems and pitfalls in using ICT and online spaces. Organise and distil the main ideas and use these to form the areas to address for an ICT agreement. Use a collaborative approach to agree upon a set of protocols and rules for using technology, and develop processes and procedures to follow when using ICT.
Supporting Resources
Lesson Ideas
Assessment
Safely use and manage information systems for identified needs using agreed protocols and describe how information systems are used.
Suggested approaches may include
- completed ICT agreement written by the student.
Activity Being safe online
How do we stay safe online?
Australian Curriculum Alignment
- Collaborating and managing (ACTDIP013)
What's this about?
It is important students understand what it means to behave safely online and have an opportunity to explore this in more detail.
Being safe online includes being careful with your personal details. It is important not to reveal personal information that can be used to identify you. In an online setting, be aware that not everything people say online will be the truth. If someone is rude or offensive or makes you feel unsafe leave the site immediately. Never meet anyone in person from an online site that you haven't met before.
Learning tasks
- Discuss ways students protect themselves online and how to identify differences between sensible and risky online behaviours. Incorporate drama and give students the opportunity to role play some scenarios as how they might/should react.
- Discuss the use of personal information or images when communicating online, for example, using avatars and pseudonyms instead of real photos or your real name.
- Use a relevant video such as 'Cybersmart detectives' as a teacher-led activity viewed on a large screen or electronic whiteboard. Facilitate class discussion and support students to discuss online safety.
Lesson Ideas


Assessment
Safely use and manage information systems for identified needs using agreed protocols and describe how information systems are used.
Suggested approaches may include
- student engaging in discussion.
Activity Cyberbullying
How do we recognise and deal with cyberbullying?
Australian Curriculum Alignment
- Collaborating and managing (ACTDIP013)
What's this about?
Cyberbullying is the use of online technology, such as computers and mobile phones, to bully a person or group. Bullying is repeated behaviour by an individual or group with the intent to harm another person or group.
It is important to empower students with the knowledge of how to act responsibly and with resilience online, and equip them with the tools to know how to deal with cyberbullying behaviour. It is also crucial to demonstrate how others can be affected by their interactions online and what language and actions are considered appropriate in the online environment.
Learning tasks
- As a class, discuss some of the ways you can cope when you experience unfriendly behaviour online, such as being cyberbullied. After the discussion, have students identify personal ways they can put good self-care strategies in place.
- Develop a set of quiz questions that identify cyberbullying behaviours and ways we can respond to a cyberbullying situation. Potentially, these quiz questions could be added together to form the basis of a questionnaire that the students can work through before deciding whether or not they are being bullied in any instance.
- Both sessions could be run collaboratively with students in small groups using Padlet or similar tool to post their ideas and quiz questions and having other students comment or answer.
Supporting Resources
Lesson Ideas
Assessment
Safely use and manage information systems for identified needs using agreed protocols and describe how information systems are used.
Suggested approaches may include
- students’ ideas about self-care strategies and their quiz questions.
Activity Collaborating online
How can we work together online?
Australian Curriculum Alignment
- Collaborating and managing (ACTDIP013)
What's this about?
Discuss and ensure students understand protocols to use online; for example:
- ethical protocols may deal with copyright and fair use of others' content and images
- social protocols may deal with respectful online behaviour, ways of providing feedback.
Tools such as Google Docs enable students to collaborate on shared documents.
Schools may also use a platform that provides a closed online community for students to share their ideas (eg Weebly or Seesaw).
Learning tasks
- Set up a task where students work in small groups to produce a document, spreadsheet or slide presentation on a relevant topic. It may be a collaborative story, a report on an excursion or a science investigation.
- Alternatively, provide a question that will evoke some interest and passionate discussion and feeling, for example, should students in Year grade 3 be allowed to use social media?
- Use the online project to apply protocols and manage timelines around delivering on a task. Discuss how to assign roles within the group and strategies to achieve the desired result.
Supporting Resources



Assessment
Safely use and manage information systems for identified needs using agreed protocols and describe how information systems are used.
Suggested approaches may include
- peer assessment on how each member performed on the collaborative task.