DIGITAL LITERACY MODULE

Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
o Familiarize themselves with the pervasiveness of the online media by learning
about facts and figures of global and national Internet access
o Consider the risks and benefits of assuming different personas online and think
critically about what it means to be genuine in an online context
o Understand the importance of taking control of their online identities
o Understand cyberbullying
o Learn how to deal with cyberbullies
o Present tips on how to conduct online research
o Underscore the value of being responsible netizens

DIGITAL LITERACY LESSON 1

Internet Access: Facts and Figures

Activity 1
Ask students to reflect on their Internet usage.

Processing Questions:
o How many hours in a day do you spend surfing the Web?
o What do you usually do (check social media, read articles, watch videos, research
for class, etc.)?
o In the number of hours you spend online, what activity takes most of your time?
o How many social media accounts do you maintain?
o Why did you sign up for social media accounts?

Activity 2
Divide the students into groups of (at most) four. Ask them to reflect on the advantages
and disadvantages of the online medium and its accessibility based on their personal
experiences.

Processing Questions:
o What are the benefits that you get from your use of online media?


o Based on your experience, what are some disadvantages of online media? What
are some negative experiences you have gotten out of your use of it?

Useful information Lesson 1

Source: WeAreSocial.com

o 3.77 billion global internet users, equaling 50% penetration (as of January 2017)
o 4.92 billion global mobile users, equaling 66% penetration (as of January 2017)
o 2.55 billion global mobile social media users, equaling 34% penetration (as of
January 2017)
o Internet users grew by 10% in 2016, up 354 million compared to 2015
o Active social media users increased by 21%, up 482 million versus 2015
o Unique mobile users grew by 5%, up 222 million in 2016
o Mobile social media users grew by 30%, up an impressive 581 million in 2016.
o Asia-Pacific now accounts for 51% of the world’s internet users, 54% of the
world’s social media users, and 56% of all mobile social media users. The said
region also accounted for 70% of total growth in global internet users, 62% of
the growth in social media users, and 64% of the growth in mobile social media
users.
o Out of Asia-Pacific’s population of 4.153 billion, 3.999 or 96% have mobile
subscriptions—the highest in the world.
o Fixed internet connection speed in the Philippines is among the slowest in Asia
Pacific, registering 4.2%, while mobile connections are among the fastest,
registering 13.9%. (Source: Akamai Report)
o Philippines holds the number one spot for most time spent online. The average
Filipino Internet user spends 9 hours online each day, with mobile access
accounting for more than three and a half of those hours. (Source:
GlobalWebIndex)
o The Philippines holds the top spot for most time spent on social media.
Filipinos spend an average of 4 hours and 17 minutes per day on social media
sites such as Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter.
o The Philippines registered a 48% social media penetration rate, higher than the
average of 47% in Southeast Asia.


DIGITAL LITERACY LESSON 2

Managing Online Identity

Key Questions:
o How do you present yourself to the world online and offline?
o What does your digital footprint tell about you?

Activity 1
Ask students to reflect on what they see on their digital footprint (names for e-mail and
social media accounts, favorite websites, people they follow, profile pictures, selfies,
about page section, interests and likes, retweeted/shared posts, etc.).

Processing Questions:
o How might others view you?
o Does your online identity match who you are in real life?
o What does it say about how you view yourself?
o Is this how you want people to perceive you?

Activity 2
Distribute to each group a screenshot of a Facebook profile and a sheet of paper
containing a name of person in the life of the FB user. Ask students to imagine looking at
the FB profile through the eyes of the person.

Processing Questions:
o Who do you think is the FB user?
o What assumptions can you make?
o What does s/he like? What does s/he dislike?
o What has s/he commented on?
o What are your perceptions of the FB user, based on your perspective?
o Do you present yourself differently on different websites? For example, on
Facebook, you might use your real name for everything, but do you use your real
name for everything you do on the Internet? What are websites where you don’t
always go by your real name? Do you ever use web sites/services anonymously?
Why?
o Do you present yourself differently online to different people?


o Do you think that the information you’ve shared online about yourself shows the
whole picture of who you are? Do you think your Facebook profile tells the whole
story? Do you want it to?
o How will different people view your personal information online?
o What about if people only have access to some of your information? For example,
can your parents see everything you do on Facebook? Do your parents know you
have a Twitter account? How many of you keep your Tweets private? Why?
o Do you ever un-tag yourself in Facebook photos? Why?
o Have you ever searched for yourself online? Why?
o Do you think you can control all of the online information that’s about you?
o What can you control? (Examples: What you share online, and with whom)
o Are there things you can’t control? (When friends post pictures of you)
o What can you do about that?

DIGITAL LITERACY LESSON 3

Cyberbullying

It is important to tackle cyberbullying because increased access to the online medium

also heightened the need to provide a safe communication space for all its users. It is
important to know how rampant and alarming cyberbullying is. It is also essential to
discuss how this affects the victims. Most importantly, we have to come up with and
eventually teach ways on how to deal with cyberbullying and how to effectively stop it.

Activity 1
This activity is inspired by the movie, “Mean Girls”. Ask the class to close their eyes.
Then, ask them to raise their hands if they were ever victims of cyberbullying. Then, ask
them to open their eyes and look around. Next, after asking them to close their eyes
again, tell them to raise their hands if they ever bullied someone online in whatever
manner. Then, ask them to open their eyes once more and look around.

Processing Questions:
o How many students were victims of cyberbullying? How many admitted that
they became bullies themselves?


Activity 2
For this activity, ask students to pair up. This encourages a more personal and truthful
conversation. It will also ensure that all the students will get to share their own
experiences. Ask them to share about their experiences with cyberbullying.

Processing Questions:
o For you, what is cyberbullying? What acts fall under “cyberbullying”?
o Have you ever been bullied online? Can you share you experience?
o How did you deal with this?
o How do you think has this affected you?
o In turn, have you ever been a cyberbully? If yes, how?
o How did the situation turn out?
o Why do you think people commit cyberbullying?

Activity 3
Ask each pair to come up with a list of ways on how to combat cyberbullying.

Processing Questions:
o How can the victims deal with cyberbullying?
o How can we stop cyberbullying?

Useful information for Lesson 3

According to the survey conducted by Cybersafe Asia in 2015
(http://www.cybersafe.asia/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Cybersafe-
Survey_LOWRES.pdf):

o 6 out of 10 children from ages 7-12 and 4 out of 10 children from ages 13-16
years old said no one has talked to them about the risks and dangers they might
face online.
o 3 out of 10 children from ages 7-12 years old and 4 out of 10 children from ages
13-16 years old know of other children who have been victims of cyberbullying
o 6 out of 10 children from ages 7-12 years old and 8 out of 10 children from ages
13 – 16 years old said cyberbullying happens through social media
o The children who participated in the survey said these are some ways of
cyberbullying: threats, photo editing, exposing one’s secret conversation,
humiliation, creation of poser account, and exclusion.


According to Stopbullying.gov, the following characteristics increase a child’s risk of

being cyber bullied:
o Children who are perceived physically different from their peers (i.e. being
overweight or underweight, wearing glasses or cultural symbols)
o Children who are physically weak (i.e. suffering from a disability and a chronic
disease like asthma or diabetes)
o Children who are depressed, anxious, or have low self-esteem.
o Children with few friends (antisocial)
o Children who do not get along well with others
o Children from poor income families
o LGBT children

According to NoBullying.com, one of the biggest anti bullying and online safety websites
in the world, people cyberbully because of the following reasons:
o They want to show dominance over others.
o For amusement
o To get back at another child
o Their friends are doing it.
o They want to look cool and fit in.
o They are rebelling against their parents.
o They want to act like adults.
o They are bullies by nature.
o They are seeking attention.
o They want to gain more popularity.

According to the US-based National Crime Prevention Council, these are the short and
long term effects of being cyberbullied:

Short-Term Effects
1. Kids that are bullied are more likely to skip school in an effort to avoid having to
encounter their tormentors. Their experiences of emotional, psychological and
physical trauma lead them to prefer staying at home than going out to pursue
their studies.
2. Bullied kids are more likely to get sick. Children who are being bullied are more
likely to report feeling sick with some common symptoms being sore throat,
cough, headache, stomach ache, and stuffy nose. These symptoms are not


psychologically manifested, but they are real repercussions produced

psychosomatically.
3. Bullied teens are more likely to use alcohol as a coping mechanism
4. A cyber bullying victim may be aggressive, defensive, reclusive, unwilling to
participate in enjoyable, daily experiences. As a result of extreme cyber bullying,
a teenager may resort to self-harm, self-mutilation, binge drinking, binge eating
and other destructive behaviors.

Long-Term Effects
1. People who were bullied as children are more likely to develop psychological
issues as adults. Children who were bullied from grades 6-9 are more likely to
become depressed by the time they reach the age of 23. Also, people who have
memories of being teased or picked on as children are more likely to experience
depression, social anxiety and suicidal tendencies in their adult years.
2. People who were bullied during their childhood years are more likely to be
bullied in the workplace. Nearly 60% of workplace bullying victims admit to
having been bullied in their childhood.
3. A cyber bullying victim may be aggressive, defensive, reclusive, unwilling to
participate in daily activities. As a result of extreme cyber bullying, a teenager
may resort to self-harm, self-mutilation, binge drinking, binge eating and other
behavioral and mental disorders.

DIGITAL LITERACY LESSON 4

Conducting Online Research

The Internet is an extremely rich source of information. This is why conducting research
online is being preferred by the younger generation over scouring through books at
libraries. Here are some ways to maximize and optimize online research:

Activity 1
Hand out two examples of news articles or sets of information obtained online. The
examples must be about the same topic. Ask the class to evaluate which of the two is the
more reliable source.


Processing Questions:
o What are the differences between the two examples (in terms of website source,
author/s, language used, photographs, etc.)?
o Which of the two is the more reliable source of information? Why?
o What makes a news article of online information reliable and accurate?

Activity 2
Review news media outlets that they follow on Facebook and Twitter and check how
they link, share and retweet. As students review, they will take note on the best
practices and identify which outlets make good candidates to link, share, and retweet.

Processing Questions:
o How can we ensure that we pass on trustworthy information?
o What are the characteristics of credible websites?
o What are the characteristics of trustworthy posts and tweets?

Ask about students’ access to different kinds of news and information sources online.
Then let them reflect on the following:
o How do you get your news?
o How do you know that you can trust these news sources?
o How do you assess their credibility?
o How do you know that something you learn is true?
o What happens when information is wrong or exaggerated?
o Do you think it is important to follow the news? Why or why not?
o How do you learn more as a news story develops?

Useful information for Lesson 4

According to Cornell University
(https://digitalliteracy.cornell.edu/tutorial/dpl3000.html):

o Start a topic search and see what is generally available

o Perform a standard Google search: Enter one or more carefully chosen keywords
in the search box on the Google main page
o Perform an advanced search: Search a particular Web site. If there's a particular
Web site that might cover your topic, you can use the Google Advanced Search
field to “search within a site or domain,” along with a particular keyword or
keywords appropriate to your topic, to search that site to the exclusion of


everything else on the Web. If you want to search only a particular class of Web
sites—for example, education sites—you can use Google Advanced Search to do
that, too. To search only sites ending in “.edu,” enter “.edu” in the “Search within
a site or domain” field.
o Try using Google Scholar or Google Books: Google Scholar searches a more
academic subset of the Web, while Google Books is a project that makes millions
of books available online, either in full text or in snippets.
o Evaluate sources: Identify if your sources are primary, secondary, etc.
o Finding and verifying citations: Cross-check information seen in different pages
and websites
o Cite sources of information