Internet Safety

There will be three topics covered throughout our unit on Internet Safety.

Safe Surfing: password safety, revealing too much personal information, predators, social networking, viruses and spam.

Cyberbullying: how to protect yourself from cyberbullies and how to handle broken friendships caused by bullying.

Computer ethics: copyright, plagiarism and piracy.

After completing our unit, students will be put into groups of three, based on their topic of choice. Each person in the group will have a chance to work with the Flip video camera.
•One person will be allowed to take the camera home for two days to conduct interviews.
•A second person will use the same questions to interview a student or teacher at school (those questions are listed at the end of the lesson). The purpose of the interviews is to allow students to compare answers in order to formulate their own opinions. This will build their knowledge when it is time to do their commercial.
•The third person in the group will be in charge of filming an actual commercial on the topic, with the students in their group.
Once the interviews have been completed, we will discuss them to eliminate any misconceptions students may have based on the information they were given in the interviews. The students will then work in their groups to write a script for a commercial, to teach other students how to stay safe on the net. One person in the group will record the commercial, and one will add music and credits once the commercial is completed. All three will collaborate on the editing process.

Interview questions are assigned. However, students are allowed (and encouraged) to generate one or two additional questions.

Safe Surfing-
1. How do you choose a password?
2. Do you use any personal information in your passwords?
3. If you belong to a social networking site, how do you keep your personal information private?
4. What are some ways you can prevent viruses from attacking your computer? What can you do to ensure you don’t pass viruses on to your friends?

Cyberbullying-
1. What is a cyberbully?
2. Have you ever been cyberbullied? If so, what happened and how did it make you feel?
3. Why do you think kids Cyberbully?

Computer Ethics-
1. What is the difference between plagiarism and piracy?
2. Being ethical means doing the right thing, even when nobody is looking. Can you give some examples of things that are unethical in relation to copyright laws, piracy and plagiarism?
3. Can you think of a time when you chose to do the right thing?