Feeling Pictures
Show students the first slide of the Course Presentation in the student chapter Feeling Pictures, or have them access it.
Ask:
How is the girl feeling? Try making the same face as her to see how it feels.
She’s scared or upset. You can tell from the look on her face and her arms are raised in surprise.
Ask: How else can we tell how someone is feeling?
Why does she feel that way?
The most likely answer is that she was scared by the monster she saw on the screen.
How could you help?
There are no right or wrong answers here – what’s important is to help students think about and articulate the ways they can help someone else who is upset.
Now show the second slide and ask the same questions.
This child’s emotion is not as clear, but we can tell he is angry, upset or sad.
We don’t know for sure why he is feeling that way, but it seems like it’s from something he saw on the screen.
Use this as a springboard to ask: What are some things that might make us sad, angry or upset when we’re using devices like computers, tablets, phones or game consoles?
Prompting questions:
Have you ever seen anything on a device that made you scared?
Has anything ever happened while using a device that made you upset?
Do things sometimes go wrong when you’re using a device?
Is it sometimes hard to stop playing a game or watching something?
Has anyone ever done anything while you were using a device that made you sad or angry?
How does it feel when you lose a game you’re playing?
Is it sometimes hard to share devices?
Next, have students suggest things that they could do if something happened that upset them.
Sentence starter: If I got upset, I could…
Make sure the following points come up:
Talking to a parent, a teacher or another trusted adult
Taking a break from what you’re doing
Talking to a friend about what happened
Now ask what you could do to help someone else who’s upset because of something that happened when using a screen device.
Sentence starter: To help someone, I could…
When students have provided a few examples, go on to the third slide and ask:
Does an app or a device have feelings?
Make sure students understand that devices and apps, even “AI”, do not have feelings, even if some of them are made to seem like they have feelings.
Do characters in apps sometimes act like they’re sad if you want to stop playing, or if you don’t buy something?
Why do you think they do that?
Explain that we naturally want to help someone who is sad, especially if it’s someone who feels like a friend. The people who make apps for kids sometimes have characters act like friends and act sad to make us play longer or want to buy things. That’s how they make money!
