Pre-lesson preparation

For better comprehension of the lesson, students should have ideally had experiences or have read about issues that have demonstrated how computing can be misused. This does not require assigned reading or review (just encourage them to watch the news and notice what is happening in the world), but you could have them bring in a current event article and summary of the event for homework as additional preparation.

Summary

Students will read about and discuss the issues that arise from the misuse of technology. Over the two sessions, students will assess their current uses of computers for communication.  In the second session, they will narrow their focus to address as a class social media, online retail and banking, cloud data storage, and government surveillance.

Outcomes

 

• Students will understand the consequences of Internet usage on personal privacy and security.

• Students will become aware of technologies designed to track their Internet usage.

• Students will understand the benefits and drawbacks of street cameras and facial recognition software.

• Students will understand both sides of the argument about government surveillance of electronic communications.

 

Overview

Session 1

 

• Getting Started (5 min) – Journal about current uses of online communication.

• Activity (40 min) – Working in pairs students review a list of 10 Commandments of Computer Ethics and develop a revised version.

• Wrap up (5 min) – Combine partners into groups of four and assign to each group one of the following topics to be researched tomorrow.

• Social media (+ connecting at a distance, - cyberbullying)

• Online retail, banking, and businesses (+ convenience, - identity theft)

• Cloud data storage (+ information sharing, - loss of privacy)

• Government surveillance (+ find terrorist threats, - loss of privacy)

• Begin researching  the assigned topic.

 

 

Session 2

 

• Getting Started (5 min) - Journal on assigned topic

• Activity (10 min) -Research groups

• Activity (30 min) - Regroup and share information gathered

• Wrap up (5 min) - Select one topic to explore further

 

 

• What are some potential beneficial and harmful effects of computing?
• How do economic, social, and cultural contexts influence innovation and the use of computing?

These materials may be useful if you want to spend some time with the entire group discussing a few key topics.

• Video: "Your Facebook life in 62 Seconds" http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/04/tech/social-media/facebook-look-back-video/ 
• Article on Facebook about privacy:  https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/ .  
• Article: Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments_of_Computer_Ethics

Session 1

Getting Started (5 min) - Journal

The purpose of this session is to make students think about the different ways in which they as individuals use computers and the Internet to communicate.

Guided Activity (40 min)

For this activity, teachers will use partners.  If an odd number of students then a group of three may be used.

 

• Students work in pairs to examine Wikipedia article, “Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments_of_Computer_Ethics) and identify and share the two commandments they think are the most commonly violated.

• Students read commandments and individually identify the two they think are most frequently violated.

• Students share the two commandments they identified with partners and discuss why they choose the commandments they did.

• Pairs select two they think are the most significantly violated.  Collect the responses from the class.

 

As a class suggest revision to the 10 Commandments of Computer Ethics.

 

• Divide the class into four groups. Each topic group will work together to explore resources and prepare to share with the other groups tomorrow.

• Groups use the worksheet (ExploringInnovationsWorksheet.docx) to identify and record

• potential impacts of the technology,

• whether they primarily affect individuals or society as a whole, whether they are positive or negative,

• evidence of that impact

• the source they used to find the information.  

 

(Each student in the group should make their own copy of the worksheet, so they can bring them back to their original jigsaw groups.)

After completing the worksheet, students should complete the Venn diagram (ExploringInnovationVenn.docx) to summarize key impacts of an innovation.

The topics (and examples of positive (+) and negative (-) impacts) include:

 

• Social media (+ connecting at a distance, - cyberbullying)

• Online retail, banking, and businesses (+ convenience, - identity theft)

• Cloud data storage (+ information sharing, - loss of privacy)

• Government surveillance (+ find terrorist threats, - loss of privacy)

 

For each of the above topics, there is a resource sheet in the lesson folder that can be provided to student groups. (Optionally, you may want to create additional resource sheets, or let students select other topics and find their own resources.)

Wrap Up (5 min)

Each group should discuss its progress this far in researching their topic.  Students will have 10 minutes tomorrow to prepare to make a presentation to the resto of the class.

Session 2

Getting Started (5 min)

Students should take a few minutes to journal about the following prompt:

 

• Think about your typical day. How often do you think that your image has been captured by a surveillance camera? List all of the places where your image may have been captured.  Also, consider what you have done in the past week. What data might have been collected about you somewhere over the past week?

 

Guided Activity (10 min)

Topic Groups: Have students briefly assemble into topic groups to compare notes.

Guided Activity (30 min)

 

• Jigsaw Groups: Have students assemble into their original jigsaw groups. Each member will present the information on the topic that was researched. All notes need to be shared within these groups.

• You may regroup and discuss the topics as a class if time permits.

Wrap Up (5 min)

Each student should select a topic that they would like to explore further and write the topic in their journal. It might be a narrow subtopic from the broader topics that were explored within this lesson. They might also want to write down a few interesting innovations connected to a topic. They will refer back to this during the practice performance lesson later in the unit.