TERI / Layer 2 — Curriculum & Instruction / 2.3
Checkpoint 2.3

2.3 — Student Agency Over Tech Use (K-12 Progression)Frontier

What this is

A K-12 strategy for cultivating student agency over their personal technology and media use — not a single curriculum unit but a developmental progression: in K-2, protecting attention and time outdoors; in 3-5, naming algorithmic dynamics; in 6-8, confronting persuasive design directly; in 9-12, equipping students with the analytical tools to audit their own use. Curriculum (Common Sense Education for K-12; Center for Humane Technology Youth Toolkit for grades 8–12) is one tool inside the strategy; the outcome is graduates who can name and navigate the attention economy's pull on their behavior.

Why it matters

Students benefit from explicit, sustained development of agency over their personal tech use across grade bands. A single screen-time rule or one digital-citizenship unit doesn't build the cognitive muscle needed to navigate persuasive design, algorithmic dynamics, and attention economics. A K-12 progression does.

Connects to

The Framework: Condition #11 (Cognitive Counterweights). ISTE Standard 1.2 (Digital Citizen & AI Literacy). Links to Layer 4 environmental conditions that scaffold the agency curriculum: 4.2 (Device Practice & Classroom Setup), 4.3 (Intentional Screen Time Norms), 4.4 (Analog & Cognitive Counterweight Practices).

Maturity levels

Not Started
No district strategy for cultivating tech-use agency. Where addressed, treated as a screen-time quantity issue or a single digital-citizenship unit. Algorithmic dynamics, persuasive design, and the attention economy are not named in the curriculum or in classroom practice.
Emerging
Some attention to media balance in health class or during digital citizenship week. No K-12 progression or developmental sequencing. Focus is on quantity of screen use rather than quality of judgment. Few tools given to students for analyzing their own consumption patterns.
Established
Articulated K-12 strategy for cultivating agency over tech use — grade-band differentiated and developmentally sequenced. Addresses attention, persuasive design, algorithmic feeds, the attention economy, and self-regulation. Integrated across health, ELA, and social studies. Curriculum and reference resources (Common Sense Education for K-12 classroom curriculum; Center for Humane Technology Youth Toolkit for grades 8–12; Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children's Hospital for research briefs and family-facing guides) are deployed where they serve the strategy, not as the strategy itself.
Expanding
Strategy is research-informed (cognitive implications, platform reward design, engagement mechanics) and continuously refined. Students apply critique to their own use through reflection and data collection. Connected to social-emotional programming, mental health programming (3.7), and family partnership materials. Graduates can name and navigate the attention economy's pull on their own behavior — agency is the audited outcome, not just exposure to a curriculum.

Go deeper with

Example resource
Common Sense Digital Literacy & Well-Being Curriculum
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