Curriculum
Twenty-First Century Challenges: Grades 6-8
Debating the Future
Download Student Sheet(s) for printout in PDF format.
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Overview
Students analyze social issues related to the future use of the Internet, decide if they agree or disagree, and support their views in a debate.
Objectives
- Describe some social issues related to the future of the Internet
- Present arguments predicting how the Internet will affect how people live in the future
National Educational Technology Standards for Students © 2007
Source: International Society for Technology in Education- Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving & Decision-Making
- use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions.
- Technology Operations and Concepts
- 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)
Introduce
- Ask: What are some benefits you enjoy as the first Internet generation? Help students identify Internet-related activities such as E-mailing friends, playing online games, and researching information. Then ask them to consider how their parents might have had to achieve the same goals years ago without benefit of the Internet. Guide them to understand that with such a new and rapidly changing technology, adults have many concerns about the right ways to use it and in what ways it will actually be helpful and perhaps in some ways harmful to children.
- Explain that such questions about the ways people's lives are affected are called "social issues."
Teach 1
- Distribute Activity Sheet 1.
- Have students read and complete the page, pointing out that there are no right or wrong answers and that it is very difficult to predict future trends in technology.
- Invite volunteers to share their positions on each issue.
Teach 2
- Distribute Activity Sheet 2.
- Divide the class into four groups - one for each of the four questions on Activity Sheet 1. Then, divide each group into two teams - one team to support a "yes" response and the other team to support a "no" response.
- Allow each team to plan their presentation and complete the activity sheet.
Teach 3
- Conduct an abbreviated debate on the first question, allowing the opposing teams involved to make a three-minute presentation from their notes.
- Allow the remaining students to judge which team had the strongest arguments.
- Repeat the same debate procedure for the remaining three questions.
Assess
The following items assess student mastery of the lesson objectives.
- Ask: What are some social issues related to the future of the Internet?
- Ask: What is one way the Internet might affect how people live in the future?
Extend
The following activity can be added for students who completed this lesson in a previous grade.
- Have students choose one of the issues, develop arguments to support or refute, and then create public service audio announcements, videos, posters, or fliers to inform others about the issue.
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