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Net Neutrality Lesson plan

Goals and Objectives:

  1. Students experience the implications of net neutrality from the perspective of a key stakeholder.

Materials needed:

  1. Slides
  2. Classroom activity worksheet
  3. Activity roles handout
  4. Exit ticket

Procedure:

  1. Do Now: What do you know about net neutrality? Hear from a few students. (Many will probably have heard of it but not many will likely know many details about what it is.)
  2. Introduce net neutrality as a topic that is in the news a lot. Show headlines of current mention of net neutrality in the media. (Several screenshots of headlines are in the slides. Note: you will likely want to update these slides with more current headlines.) At this point do not go into any explanation as to what net neutrality actually is. The goal is to generate engagement with this controversial topic.
  3. Get students into groups of 3-5. You have TWO options. You can either (1) have each group represent one perspective, and therefore every student in the same group be thinking about net neutrality from the same perspective (recommended for younger students; this worked great for my 8th graders); OR (2) have each person in the same group represent a different perspective. Each option works for this activity. The following steps assume you have chosen option #1.
  4. Go over each role for this activity so that each group knows who they are representing but also so that all groups know what perspectives are present for the activity. The four roles are: Comcast, Netflix, Vidz4U (a startup video streaming app, and Consumer. Descriptions of each role can be found in the slides. You can also hand out roles quarter sheets so that students can go back and remind themselves of their role's priorities.
  5. Hand out and explain worksheet (one per group). Explain: We will go through three different scenarios. These scenarios get at the heart of what net neutrality is all about. You as a group will discuss how satisfied the person/entity you are representing would be with each scenario. You will rate your satisfaction level from 1 (least satisfied) to 5 (most satisfied). Note: you are not ranking each scenario against the other; you can rate your satisfaction level for each scenario as a 5, a 1, etc. (Directions are included in the slides.) Each person in the group can choose a different number, and once everyone has submitted their number, average the numbers of each group member in the final row of the table.
  6. Go through each scenario. Allow about four minutes for discussion of each scenario. The three scenarios include: Fast lanes, Blocking/filtering, and Throttling. A description of each scenario is included in the slides.
  7. Once you have gone through each scenario, have each group average the averages from the bottom row of the table. If this number is closer to 5 that means that the person/entity you are representing would be very happy WITHOUT net neutrality. If this number is closer to 1 that means that the person/entity you are representing really WANTS net neutrality to be the rule. Note: this might be tricky for some students. Take time to make sure that all students understand what their number means.
  8. Have students complete the exit ticket, still in the perspective of the role they are playing.
  9. Exit Activity Discussion: Class discussion of students' opinions/thoughts on net neutrality from their own perspective. Emphasize that this is a situation that we will need to keep our eye on because it is quickly changing.

Note: A helpful net neutrality explainer by the Mozilla Foundation can be found here.

Created By
MICHELLE CICCONE
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