This session is designed to explain the importances of maintaining security and privacy on the Internet, and the dangers/obstacles for each.
Passwords
Here we explain to the students that computer users often have a special word or code that they
use to access information that only they should be seeing. Most often passwords are used for
e-mail. We should stress that passwords should not be easy to guess; for example, we should
not use the name of our pet cat. Passwords should never, under any circumstances, be given out to
anyone, not even a friend who has forgotten his/her own password; not even someone claiming to be
an operator of the ISP being used.
Hacking
We explain that sometimes people will try to figure out someone's passwords so that they can
see their personal computer information. This is called hacking. Sometimes they will only
look at the information; other times they will use the access to make a large bill or to do
damage to the system. Any type of hacking is wrong, but many people do it anyway. This is why
many companies spend a lot of money to protect their systems from hackers.
Viruses
We should tell the students that sometimes someone will put a program on a computer that is
designed to mess up the computer. Sometimes it will just flash something annoying on the screen;
other times it will ruin the entire computer. Programs like this are called viruses, since they
can attack the computer like a disease. Computer viruses are sometimes planted directly in a
system by hackers or sent with an e-mail, but sometimes a copy of software may have a virus hidden on it from a long time
ago and no one knows about it. There are programs which can search computers and disks for viruses,
and they get rid of them. This is called "disinfecting" the computer. Programs like these must
always be updated, because bad people out there are making new viruses all the time. We should stress
that virus protection is very important, but we must do our own part by not downloading any file
from someone we don't know.
Anonymity
Here we explain that anonymity means that when you're on the Internet, no one you meet really
knows who you are, what you look like, or where you are. It is very easy to claim we are
someone else, but it is also very wrong to mislead people this way. This type of privacy can
be useful, because you don't have to worry about people looking up your address or other
information. But we must be honest and not pretend to be someone we aren't. This leads the
discussion to the next topic, personal information.
Personal Information
As we said, the anonymity and privacy of the Internet can be nice, but there are many people
out there who abuse it, claiming to be someone they are not, trying to get information such as
name, address, password from people who might believe them. We
should stress that it is important never to pretend we're someone else, but it is equally important
not to give any personal information to someone, no matter how nice they may seem. State that
this is discussed further in the evening session, just in case any or all of the students have
not yet attended.
Anonymity Chat: To show the importance of honesty and carefulness while being on the Internet, have the students open the VPEN chat and initiate a conversation with another student in the classroom. Without giving name, have them tell information about themselves to each other. They should try to guess to whom they are talking based solely on descriptions. This activity demonstrates both how advantageous it is for someone not to know everything about you, but also how we must be careful when talking with someone because they COULD be trying to do exactly what we were doing ... trying to find out information.
Program Summary Discussion: Going in order through the sessions, initiate a discussion about the main topics and the important information from each session. "What did we learn on Day ___?" This serves to refresh the students as to what information was covered, and to allow for any clarification needed if any or all students are confused about a topic.
Program Evaluation: Hand out an evaluation form to each student. These should be designed to determine what students liked the most and the least, which subjects they would have liked to spent more time on, etc. Remember to use verbage appropriate for a fifth-grade class. Leave many of the questions open-ended; in other words, it would be best for a student to write a comment about his/her opinions instead of giving a one-word answer to a question that was too "closed". This form deals specifically with the daily sessions, but a student should be welcome to include opinions of the evening session if he/she has already attended. A separate form will be involved with the evening session itself.
Last updated 98/11/20
rainman@vt.edu