Curriculum
Research and Information Fluency: Grades 6-8
Sticky Sites
Download Student Sheet(s) for printout in PDF format.
Read a Letter to Educators about Internet research and information fluency from CyberSmart!
Overview
Students explore why and how commercial Web sites attempt to attract and keep visitors.
Objectives
- Define commercial sites
- Explain what online advertisers mean by "stickiness"
- Explain that sticky features are intended to ensure that visitors are exposed to advertising messages frequently and for long periods of time
- Analyze commercial sites, identifying features that increase "stickiness"
National Educational Technology Standards for Students © 2007
Source: International Society for Technology in Education- Research and Information Fluency
- 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 sheets (2, two copies of the second sheet per student)
- Online computer access
Introduce (offline)
- Have students individually list all the places they are exposed to advertising. Then make a class list combining all their ideas. Guide them to consider television, radio, newspapers, magazines, Web sites, billboards, advertising mailers, the sides of trucks and buses, subway posters, handbills, sidewalk signs, storefronts, blimps, skywriting, T-shirts, coffee mugs, shopping bags, and so on.
- Explain that they will examine how some Web sites ensure that people are exposed to advertising messages.
Teach 1 (offline)
- Distribute Activity Sheet 1 and read and discuss the information with students.
- Point out that a Web site is considered "commercial" if it advertises, promotes, or sells something. NOTE: Typically, commercial Web sites have a URL ending with .com.
Teach 2 (online)
- Distribute the first copy of Activity Sheet 2.
- Take students to www.becybersmart.org or www.cybersmartcurriculum.org, click on Student Links, and then click on the diamond. Find the title of this lesson, and open its links. Choose a site toexplore with the class and, together, complete the activity sheet.
Teach 3 (online)
- Assign individuals or groups the remaining link(s) for this lesson.
- Distribute the second copy of Activity Sheet 2 and have students complete the questions and share their answers.
Assess (offline)
The following items assess student mastery of the lesson objectives.
- Ask: What is a commercial Web site? (a site that advertises, promotes, or sells something)
- Ask: What is meant by "stickiness?" (Stickiness refers to a site's ability to keep visitors there for long periods of time and to have them return frequently.)
- Ask: Why do commercial sites try to be sticky? (so that more people will recognize and feel good about the brands and eventually buy the advertised products)
- Ask: Which features have you seen that make a site sticky?
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 a commercial site to sell a product of their choice. Have them work in teams to plan features that will make the site sticky and present their plans to the class.
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