Lesson 7 Arts · ICT · Cultural Identity

Digital Identity as Survival

How do people show who they are online? Explore how layout, symbols, colour and text turn a profile into a voice, build your own Digital Identity Board, then investigate in research teams how ICT protects, promotes, or endangers who we really are.

🕐 ~45 min total
📋 11 activities
🛡️ 3 research groups
🏅 DigComp badge
✦ Start Task 1 ↓ See all tasks
The Mystery
"Can the internet be a place where people 'survive' by expressing themselves?" This question drives the entire lesson.
5
Phases
11
Activities
~45m
Duration
3
Research Groups
DigComp competences
1.1 - Browsing and filtering 1.2 - Evaluating digital content 2.1 - Sharing digital content Badge: Digital Identity & ICT Ethics L1
Lesson overview
Students explore how digital tools express identity, values, culture and personal experience. Through analysis of real digital examples - profiles, websites, digital posters - they learn how layout, symbols, images, colour and text communicate meaning online, then design their own Digital Identity Board without relying on long written explanations.

You'll meet three digital "artifacts" through the Digital Mirror, then split into three research roles - the Protectors (how ICT shields identity), the ICT Critic (whether those tools actually help or harm), and the Creator (engineering a real prototype) - before reconvening to discover the one thing technology can never capture about a human being.

The lesson ends with your own "I Am Not a Data Point" manifesto, a class Survival Gallery, a collective Wonder Map, and a closing summative test.
Your learning journey - 11 tasks across 5 phases
🖥️
Phase 1
Anticipation - Who am I online?
1 task
🖥️
Task 1 · Phase 1
Who Am I Online?
Explore three examples of digital identity expression, discuss what message each one sends, then vote and journal your first thought.
⏱ 7 min 🗳️ Poll
▶ Start here
🔍
Phase 2
Encounter - First contact with the ICT
2 tasks
🖼️
Task 2 · Phase 2
Do You Communicate Without ICT?
Silently observe a digital profile mock-up, then analyse it with the DEAR-ICT method: Describe, Explain, Analyse, Respond.
⏱ 8 min 🖼️ Analysis
🔒 Locked
🪞
Task 3 · Phase 2
The Digital Mirror
Match three digital artifacts - a glitched avatar, an endangered-language post, a Do Not Disturb screen - to the Wonder concept each one expresses.
⏱ 2 min 🪞 Matching
🔒 Locked
🔬
Phase 3
Investigation - The Digital Identity Lab
3 tasks
🛡️
Task 4 · Phase 3
Group A - The Protectors
Research pseudonyms, encryption and a real digital blackout, then write your Security Protocol - 3 ways to stay "Mystery-ous" online.
⏱ 10 min 🛡️ Research
🔒 Locked
⚖️
Task 5 · Phase 3
Group B - The ICT Critic
Stress-test the Protectors' tools with a Double-Edged Sword audit and an Ethics Jury debate on anonymity.
⏱ 10 min ⚖️ Critique
🔒 Locked
🛠️
Task 6 · Phase 3
Group C - Engineer of Expression
Prototype one of four identity-protecting designs - an Identity Shield, a Focus-First app, a Time Capsule, or Subversive Beauty glitch art.
⏱ 10 min 🛠️ Workshop
🔒 Locked
💡
Phase 4
Discovery - The Lightbulb Moment
2 tasks
💡
Task 7 · Phase 4
Lightbulb Moment
Visit three Discovery Stations - Beauty vs. Algorithm, Mystery vs. Visibility, Motivation vs. Noise - to find what tech can never capture.
⏱ 5 min 💡 Discovery
🔒 Locked
✍️
Task 8 · Phase 4
I Am Not a Data Point
Complete your one-sentence Identity Manifesto, then commit to one real digital habit you'll try tomorrow.
⏱ 3 min ✍️ Reflection
🔒 Locked
📡
Phase 5
Propagation - Survival skills
3 tasks
📡
Task 9 · Phase 5
The Survival Gallery
Visit the Protectors, Critics and Creators panels, react with emojis, and save the finished gallery as a class artefact.
⏱ 5 min 📡 Gallery
🔒 Locked
🗺️
Task 10 · Phase 5
Class Wonder Map
Add your own card to the class map - "How do we stay opaque?" or "How do we build trust?" - and see what classmates added.
⏱ 2 min 🗺️ Board
🔒 Locked
🏁
Task 11 · Phase 5
Summative Test - What Have You Learned?
A 5-question closing check on digital elements, identity, DEAR-ICT analysis and digital ethics, then your DigComp badge.
⏱ 8 min 🏁 Test
🔒 Locked

Ready to protect, critique and create your digital self?

Start Task 1 and work through the journey at your own pace. Each task unlocks the next - from your first digital footprint to a protected identity you design yourself.

🏅 Complete all 11 tasks to earn the Digital Identity & ICT Ethics - Level 1 DigComp badge

🛡️ Start the journey