Online Ethics: Do violent games make violent players? Full Lesson and Resources

Online Ethics: Full Unit of 10 Lessons

Unit of Work: Online Ethics This is a brand new, relevant and engaging scheme of work for both KS3 and KS4 (approx. age 14) It was created in response to an increasing call for exploration into the declining standards of behaviour being demonstrated online. Though there are clear links with PSHE, it is a revolutionary unit, as nothing like this has been done before in the field of Philosophy of Ethics. Lessons include: 1. What is 'netiquette'/online ethics? 2. Is the internet an extension of society? 3. Is Situation Ethics a useful approach to online ethics? 4. Is Utilitarianism a useful approach to online ethics? 5. What are the dangers of online pornography? 6. What are the different attitudes to online pornography? (applying situationism and utilitarianism to issues of online pornography) 7. What are the different dilemmas of online gaming? 8. Do violent games make violent players? 9. What is being done to protect users online? (and is it enough?) 10. Is online vigilantism effective? Each lesson is intended as a double (roughly one and a half hours per lesson) however, due to time restrictions and the embedded support in the corresponding lesson sheets, could also be taught in a minimal one hour. This scheme of learning has been devised explicitly to support the Recovery Curriculum, interleave learning with previously-learned units (Philosophy and Ethics) and support cognition through interleaving techniques. Although part of a unit, this lesson can also be taught as a stand-alone lesson, e.g. for revision. The corresponding lesson sheets would also support a home-learned curriculum as the PowerPoints and Packs themselves include differentiation and scaffolding, where required. The interleaved schemed of work are specifically designed to promote the two skills desired for success at GCSE: AO1 (Knowledge and Understanding) AO2 (Analysis and Evaluation) The resources are specifically created to ensure students are aware of the skill they are demonstrating and how to improve further through modelling. These new units bring the relevance back to our topics, for example, through thought experiments and reference to current affairs. Students will experience greater engagement and enjoyment in a fair and balanced approach. Each lesson includes: * Homework Slide * Lesson overview * Starter activity, including interleaving * Key words (literacy focus) * Introduction of key information (AO1 - knowledge) and how this is used (AO1 - understanding) * Introduction of a contentious issue or debate (AO2 - analysis) and finalised judgement (AO2 - evaluation) * Plenary Lesson Sheets: If you would rather work in exercise books, the Work Pack/lesson sheets are designed so that you can print off relevant pages - it is a resource pack. This would be useful if you have appropriate curriculum time to cover the content of the course. Unfortunately, this is not the case across all schools, and therefore the Work Pack helps by providing time-saving activities, whilst still being able to cover the breadth and depth of the course. In addition, students who may be limited by literacy issues, e.g. slower writing paces, are not disadvantaged or capped in their progress. Therefore, some classes could use a mixed approach - part Work Pack, part exercise book - and all students will be able to progress through the same volume of content.