The Four-Wheeled Wagon
Run the Four-Wheeled Wagon MicroSim Fullscreen
You can include this MicroSim on your website using the following iframe:
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Description
This MicroSim uses a friendly wagon metaphor to help students remember the four habits of a digital citizen. Each wheel of the wagon stands for one habit:
- Etiquette (river-blue) — being kind and polite online
- Ethics (soft green) — doing the right thing, even when no one is watching
- Law (warm gold) — following the rules that keep people safe
- Safety (coral) — protecting yourself and others from online harm
All four wheels are the same size, because all four habits matter equally. A wagon with only three wheels cannot roll smoothly — and a digital citizen who only practices three of these four habits is missing something important.
How to use it:
- Click any wheel to see what that habit means and a short example.
- A golden ring shows which wheel is selected.
- Click another wheel to switch, or click outside the wagon to explore.
Learning Objective
Students will be able to explain the four habits of a digital citizen (Etiquette, Ethics, Law, and Safety) and describe why all four are needed together.
- Bloom Level: Understand (L2)
- Bloom Verb: Explain
- Library: p5.js
Lesson Plan
Time: 10–15 minutes
Before the MicroSim (2 minutes)
Ask the class: "What do you think it means to be a citizen of the internet? If being a citizen of a country means you have rights and responsibilities, what rights and responsibilities might a digital citizen have?"
During the MicroSim (5–8 minutes)
Have students work in pairs or individually:
- Click each of the four wheels and read what it means.
- In your notebook, draw four wheels and write one example of each habit from your own life online.
- Think of a time when someone you know (or you) was missing one of these four wheels. What happened?
After the MicroSim (3–5 minutes)
Class discussion:
- Why do you think the MicroSim uses a wagon with all four wheels the same size? What would happen if one wheel was smaller than the others?
- Which habit do you think is hardest to remember when you are online?
- Can you think of a fifth habit that could be a wheel? Why or why not?
Accommodations
- For ELL students: Pre-teach the four habit words (Etiquette, Ethics, Law, Safety) with simple definitions before students open the MicroSim.
- For students who finish early: Ask them to design their own metaphor. If the four habits were not wheels on a wagon, what else could they be? Branches on a tree? Legs on a table? Strings on a guitar?
Related Resources
References
- Common Sense Education. Digital Citizenship Curriculum, Grade 5. https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/curriculum
- ISTE Standards for Students (2016). Standard 2: Digital Citizen.