Activity 01
Role-Play: Ethical Scenarios
Present scenarios like cyberbullying or oversharing photos. Small groups assign roles for victim, perpetrator, and bystander, act them out, then discuss rights violated and ethical responses. Debrief as a class on key learnings.
Explain the concept of digital citizenship and its importance in modern society.
Facilitation TipDuring the Role-Play: Ethical Scenarios, give each group a card with a real-world dilemma and limited time to act it out to build spontaneity and empathy.
What to look forPose the question: 'Imagine a classmate posts an embarrassing photo of you online without permission. What are your digital rights in this situation, and what steps could you take?' Facilitate a class discussion on privacy, consent, and reporting mechanisms.
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Activity 02
Digital Footprint Audit
Students list their online accounts and imagine future employers viewing them. Individually note risky posts, then pair up to suggest privacy fixes and ethical guidelines. Share anonymized examples with the class.
Analyze the ethical implications of online behavior and digital footprints.
Facilitation TipFor the Digital Footprint Audit, provide students with a printed mock social media profile to annotate with sticky notes that show what stays visible to others.
What to look forPresent students with 3-4 short scenarios depicting online interactions (e.g., sharing a password, posting a rumour, accepting a friend request from a stranger). Ask students to quickly label each scenario as 'Safe and Ethical', 'Unsafe', or 'Unethical' and provide one brief reason for their choice.
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Activity 03
Guideline Creation Stations
Set up stations for safety rules, privacy tips, and ethics pledges. Groups rotate, adding ideas to posters with examples and Australian laws. Vote on class guidelines at the end.
Design guidelines for responsible and safe online interactions.
Facilitation TipAt Guideline Creation Stations, place large posters around the room with headers like ‘Respect’ and ‘Privacy’ so groups rotate and add one clear rule per station.
What to look forAsk students to write down two key responsibilities of a digital citizen and one way they can protect their personal privacy online. Collect these as students leave to gauge understanding of core concepts.
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Activity 04
Formal Debate: Online Dilemmas
Pose dilemmas like 'Should memes about friends be allowed?' Divide class into agree/disagree sides, prepare arguments on rights and ethics, then debate with teacher moderation.
Explain the concept of digital citizenship and its importance in modern society.
Facilitation TipIn the Debate: Online Dilemmas, assign roles such as ‘victim,’ ‘perpetrator,’ and ‘bystander’ to ensure every student contributes a perspective.
What to look forPose the question: 'Imagine a classmate posts an embarrassing photo of you online without permission. What are your digital rights in this situation, and what steps could you take?' Facilitate a class discussion on privacy, consent, and reporting mechanisms.
AnalyzeEvaluateCreateSelf-ManagementDecision-Making
Generate Complete Lesson→A few notes on teaching this unit
Teachers should model vulnerability by sharing their own digital mistakes and explain how they fixed them. Avoid lecturing on rules; instead, facilitate guided discovery through scenarios that mirror real online situations students face. Research shows that when students analyze consequences in safe spaces, they internalize ethical norms more deeply than from worksheets alone.
By the end of these activities, students will confidently identify ethical dilemmas, justify privacy decisions with evidence, and propose clear guidelines that peers can follow. They will connect individual actions to broader community impacts like inclusivity and trust online.
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
During Role-Play: Ethical Scenarios, watch for students assuming online anonymity means actions have no real consequences.
Use the role-play cards to show how peers respond to unethical choices and how adults intervene. After each skit, ask, ‘How might this play out if this were shared beyond our classroom?’ to shift focus from invisibility to accountability.
During Digital Footprint Audit, watch for students believing privacy settings fully protect personal information.
Have students compare their annotated mock profiles with a partner and circle any detail that could still be screenshotted or shared outside the app. Ask them to suggest one additional privacy step they could take.
During Role-Play: Ethical Scenarios, watch for students assuming sharing personal info with friends online is always safe.
Use the scenario cards that involve trusted friends and ask groups to map how that information could spread to third parties. Highlight consent language like ‘Would you share your friend’s secret with their permission?’ to reframe safety as a shared responsibility.
Methods used in this brief