Curriculum

Digital Citizenship: Grades 4-5

A Place to Advertise

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

Read a Letter to Educators about digital citizenship from CyberSmart!

Overview

Students consider that some Web sites are designed as advertising environments to entertain visitors while promoting advertisers' brands and products.

Objectives

Explain that some Web sites are designed as advertising environments
Analyze the features of an advertising environment site
Make inferences about the intent of the features in such sites

National Educational Technology Standards for Students © 2007

Source: International Society for Technology in Education

Research and Information Fluency
1. evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.

Home Connection

Download the Home Connection sheet related to this lesson.

Site Preview

The use of these sites is for educational illustration purposes only and does not constitute a recommendation or commercial endorsement. Before using these sites, please evaluate them in light of your school's guidelines about limiting students' exposure to consumer products and advertising. You may want to choose alternate sites to illustrate this lesson.

Materials

Activity sheet (1, two copies per student)
Online computer access

Introduce (offline)

Introduce the following scenario. Imagine visiting a shopping mall. Although it is 20 degrees below zero outside, it is warm and cozy inside. The mall is brightly lit and colorful, there are stores to explore, comfortable chairs to lounge on, and snack stands offering yummy treats. There are even jugglers and singers to entertain you.
Ask: Why did the owner of the mall go to such expense to make you feel comfortable? Students might say that the happier the visitors, the more frequently they will return, the longer they will want to stay, and the more purchases they will make from the mall's stores.

Teach 1 (offline)

Take students to www.becybersmart.org or www.cybersmartcurriculum.org, click on Student Links, and then click on the triangle. Find the title of this lesson, and open its links. Choose a site to explore with the class.
Explain that the purpose of such sites, similar to a shopping mall, is to build good feelings about the advertised brands and products and eventually get people to buy them. Such sites try to keep visitors as long as possible and make them want to return to the site again and again. Point out that such a site is called an advertising environment because its purpose is to display ads for items for sale.

Teach 2 (online)

Distribute the first copy of the activity sheet.
Have students complete the questions about the site they have just explored and share their answers. Guide students to understand that such sites are developed to encourage visitors to spend long periods of time exposed to ads for items for sale with the hope that they will eventually buy them.

Teach 3 (online)

Distribute the second copy of the activity sheet, directing students to select one of the other suggested site links for this lesson. Have students explore the site and complete the sheet.
Have the class compare and contrast their impressions of the two Web sites.

Assess (offline)

The following items assess student mastery of the lesson objectives.

Ask: How are the sites you visited like a fancy shopping mall? (They both offer entertainment to attract viewers/visitors and include ads/stores for things to buy.)
Ask: What kinds of activities are offered at such online advertising environments? (games, puzzles, clubs, E-greeting cards, newsletters, movies, cartoons, and sweepstakes)
Ask: Why do such sites offer these entertaining activities? (Enjoyable activities will encourage visitors to return frequently to the site, and stay for long periods of time viewing the ads.)

Extend (offline)

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

Have students imagine that they are in charge of creating an advertising environment site for a product of their choice. Have them work in teams to plan and present their proposals to the class.

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