Twenty-First Century Challenges: Grades 4-5

Cyberspace Country

Download Student Sheet(s) for printout in PDF format.

Read a Letter to Educators about twenty-first century challenges from CyberSmart!

Overview

Students contrast cyberspace with actual and fantasy places, learning that cyberspace is where real people connect using computers and real experiences take place. Then they visually express their understanding of the geography of cyberspace in the U.S.

Objectives

  • Differentiate cyberspace from actual places and fantasy places
  • Draw a map, visually representing their conception of cyberspace within the U.S.
  • Infer that communication through computers connected to the Internet is common to all cyberspace experiences

National Educational Technology Standards for Students © 2007

Source: International Society for Technology in Education
  1. Technology Operations and Concepts
    1. understand and use technology systems.

Home Connection

Download the Home Connection sheet related to this lesson.

Site Preview

No Internet site is used in this lesson.

Materials

  • Activity sheets (2)
  • U.S. map, showing names of major cities and states; colored pencils

Introduce

  • Have students brainstorm a list of actual places in the U.S. that they would like to visit (for example, Washington D.C. and the Grand Canyon). Then have them list fantasy places from literature (for example, Alice's Wonderland and C.S. Lewis' Narnia®) and from movies and video games (for example, the planets of Star Wars® and the island of Myst®).
  • Ask: What is the difference between the first list of places and the second? (The first list names real places that can be physically visited.)

Teach 1

  • Distribute Activity Sheet 1 to read with students.
  • Ask: Is cyberspace real like (an actual place they named) or imaginary like (a fantasy place they named)? Guide students to understand that although cyberspace is not an actual, physical place, it does have real people communicating with each other.

Teach 2

  • Distribute Activity Sheet 2.
  • Together, have students draw dots on their maps for places where friends and relatives live, where they have visited, and where they would like to visit.
  • Brainstorm how to symbolize the communications that take place between people all over the country, including E-mail, chat, messaging, and visiting their favorite Web sites. Encourage students to be creative, using varying lines (zigzags, dots, waves), colors, and shading (to create a cloud-like effect) to represent communications in cyberspace.

Teach 3

  • Have students write a paragraph explaining what their map shows about cyberspace and display the maps and descriptions together.

Assess

The following items assess student mastery of the lesson objectives.

  • Ask: What is real about cyberspace? (It involves real people and you can get into real trouble.)
  • Ask: What do your maps tell about cyberspace?
  • Ask: What is meant by "Cyberspace is all about connected communication"? (Any activity in cyberspace requires communication between computers and/or people.)

Extend

The following activity can be added for students who completed this lesson in a previous grade.

  • Have students go online and use children's search engines to investigate opportunities for communicating with other kids around the world.

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