Safety, Privacy, and Digital Citizenship: Introductory Materials

Next Steps

We are releasing curricular modules in a series of small batches in order to best integrate and respond to collaborator and user feedback on content and design. (Please consult the Berkman Center’s Digital Literacy Resource Platform, online at http://dlrp.berkman.harvard.edu, for module availability. All modules will be posted there as they are released.) This document—and those to follow shortly—represents our first version. We understand curricular design to be an inherently iterative process, so we’d love to know what kinds of im-provements you’re making, as well as what your students liked and didn’t like. We expect to release updated versions going forward and would be delighted to incorporate your feedback. For questions or feedback, please contact Paulina Haduong at the Berkman Center at phaduong@cyber.law.harvard.edu.

Core Topics: Grades 9-10

Concepts and Competencies

• Balance: Maintaining a healthy balance between online and offline activities
• Ethical Use: Making ethical decisions, being considerate of others and understanding potential consequences of online behavior
• Privacy: Protecting personal information and that of others
• Relationships: Engaging in safe and healthy online connections
• Reputation: Building a positive and truthful online presence that will contribute to future success
• Online Security: Using good habits for securing hardware and software

Topics

• Awareness: Why does privacy matter?
• Protection: How can I protect myself?
• Data Collection and Boundaries: What are some of the legal and ethical boundaries of data collection?
• Sharing: How can I only share information with whom I want? How do I protect my reputation?

Workshop Modules¹

Note: These modules can be taught in any sequence, so feel free to mix and match!

• Intro to Privacy in the Digital Age [45 min]
• Passwords [30 min]
• Respect & Boundaries [15 min]
• Social Media and Sharing [30 min]
• Gaming and Online Privacy [35 min]
• Reputation [20 min]
• Mobile Location Security [20 min]
• Facial Recognition [25 min]
• Flirting & Sexting [15 min]
• Public Wifi [15 min]
• Data Collection & Terms of Service [35 min]
• Monitoring & Surveillance [30 min]
• Cyberbullying [20 min]
• Email [23 min]
• Anonymity & Online Identities [24 min]
• Cybersecurity, Phishing, & Spam [17 min]

General extension activities

• Students could create videos or other creative projects to teach others about privacy.
• Students could also create lesson plans and teach younger grades about privacy issues.

^{1. The following modules, including accompanying handouts, are based on the framework found in the Volunteer Privacy Educators Program Curriculum developed by the Center for Law and Information Policy at Fordham University: Intro to Privacy in the Digital Age, Changing Contexts of Privacy, Passwords, Social Media and Sharing, Gaming and Online Privacy, Reputation, Flirting & Sexting, Mobile Location Security, Facial Recognition, and Public Wifi. Specific excerpts or quotations from the Volunteer Privacy Educators Program Curriculum (“CLIP Curriculum”) appear in quotation marks and are cited in the modules and handouts where they appear. The CLIP Curriculum is available online in two parts (1) Lesson Plan Outlines, http://www.fordham.edu/downloads/file/4336/vpe_lesson_plan_outlines (“CLIP Curriculum Lesson”) and (2) Teacher Training Manual, http://www.fordham.edu/downloads/file/4333/vpe_teacher_training_manual (“CLIP Curriculum Teacher”).↩'}

Curricular Integration

There are exciting opportunities to teach this material every day in the classroom, even if you are not in a position to teach the entire curriculum. We have listed some ideas of potential teaching moments below and encourage educators to explore how they might integrate the issues and ideas presented in this curriculum into their existing lessons. Whenever you encourage or require students to go online when teaching this or other material, please keep in mind that you will want to make sure any online activity is consistent with any school, district, or other applicable policies, as well as any applicable privacy laws and regulations.

General

• Changing Context of Privacy: Whenever you use an external application (such as a class blog, social networking platform, or technology explicitly designed for education), it presents an opportunity to discuss what you share online and the role of privacy norms. You can also work in some of the consequences of sharing online from other modules (including “Reputation” and “Social Media & Sharing”).
• Passwords: Whenever you log into an external application in front of your students and/or ask your students to log in, you have a good opportunity to discuss how best to construct, share, and manage passwords. You use “Cybersecurity, Phishing, & Spam” to teach about the risks of being unsafe online.
• Reputation: When discussing future opportunities for students, whether jobs or college, it is important to emphasize how one’s online reputation can play an important role.
• Cyberbullying: Online harassment is a serious threat to young people. Whenever discussing safety or bullying, this module can be useful.
• Email: If you are using email for your class and you are not sure if all your students are familiar with it, this module can make sure everyone is on the same page. This module can also be a useful opportunity for students to help their parents or extended relatives with email.

STEM

• Social Media & Sharing: Whenever discussing networks and how things are spread through them (ideas, diseases, physical matter, etc.), social networks are useful prototypes. Topics discussed in this section can be used to help teach or reinforce the material.
• Flirting & Sexting: When teaching sexual education, this topic is useful to help educate young people about potential threats to their safety.
• Public Wifi: Wifi operates using physical signals, which could be elaborated on in a science class. Discussing waves or frequency is a good opportunity to discuss how wifi works.

Social Studies

• Monitoring & Surveillance: When teaching American history, you can tie in the lessons from this module to teach about the Fourth Amendment.
• Debate: Free Speech & Hate Speech: When teaching American history, you can tie in the lessons from this module to teach about the First Amendment.

Language

• Social Media & Sharing: Consider encouraging students to start a blog for short writing assignments. Students should consider how to share media online and its potential effects, both positive and negative.

Art

• Social Media & Sharing: Consider encouraging students to share their work via social media (i.e., YouTube, Soundcloud, Deviant Art, etc.).Students should consider how to share media online and its potential effects, both positive and negative.

An evaluation for students is included in the full document which is linked to at the bottom of this page.