Your First Digital Footprint
A new student left tracks all over the internet. Use the clues to solve four locks and clean up the trail.
🎓 Assign in Google Classroom
Paste this link into a Classroom assignment or short-answer question. When students win, they get a completion code to turn in. Step-by-step guide · Check codes
The premise
Every time you go online, you leave marks. We call these marks a digital footprint. Read the clues, then open all four locks. Each lock has a reason that shows why the answer is right.
How this breakout builds CLEAR thinking
Every Critical Thinking Online Breakout runs on the CLEAR process — Claim, Lens, Evidence, Alternatives, Response (full framework). Here is where students practice each step in this activity:
- Claim — for each lock, decide what answer it is really asking for, and make it specific.
- Lens — notice what you already assume before you choose.
- Evidence — weigh the six clues; “Class Pet” is true but off-topic, so it is not evidence for any lock.
- Alternatives — the multiple-choice and multi-select locks force a comparison of competing options.
- Response — the reason revealed after each lock models the justified answer to act on.
Standards alignment
Aligned to Texas TEKS Technology Applications, Grade 3, §126.8, Digital Citizenship strand — subsections (c)(10), (c)(8), (c)(9). Skills are paraphrased; read the official standard at tea.texas.gov. This page shows the reasoning focus of each lock — not the answers.
| Lock | Reasoning focus | DigCit substrand |
|---|---|---|
| Lock 1 The Safe Choice |
Choosing safe links | (c)(10) Privacy, safety & security |
| Lock 2 Part of the Footprint |
Recognizing a digital footprint | (c)(10) Privacy, safety & security |
| Lock 3 Give Credit |
Giving credit for creative work | (c)(9) Ethics & laws |
| Lock 4 The Right Steps |
Responding to an unkind message | (c)(8) Social interactions |
In the classroom
- Warm up (5 min). Ask: “Be a Footprint Detective” — what does this mean online? Surface prior experience before the activity.
- Model one clue. Open a single clue together and think aloud: what does this tell us, and which lock might it help?
- Reason, don’t guess. Require students to say why before checking a lock. After each solve, read the revealed reason and compare it to their thinking.
- Spot the decoy. One clue is true but useless. Debrief which one and how they knew — a core evaluation skill.
- Language support. The 🌐 picker offers 7 languages; pair newcomers to discuss clues in their home language, then answer.
- Extend. Have students write a new clue, or a real-life example, for the focus skill they found hardest.