Selection 1: Words matter-- we are our words!

Big idea: Throughout this unit, you have been learning about fake news, viral videos, and possible news bias. In every case, we have had to be detectives searching out the truth. While being media literate means knowing how to best investigate what’s out there, it’s also critical that you protect what’s inside -- YOU! When you head out into the Internet environment, you are also leaving a trail of identity. That trail -- created by cookies websites put on your computer; or tracking of your clicks; or geotagging your photographs -- is only as secure as the passwords you use and the extent to which you protect your online identity. Your online identity has been probably been growing since before you were born - or developed soon after you were - with photographs and posts about you. Then, when you started using online resources, you metaphorically started leaving your “fingerprints “out there in cyberspace.

You have three ways to protect who “you” are and how you (and your information!) are protected:

1. Protect your equipment: learn about and use antivirus programs
2. Protect your passwords: protecting your privacy and equipment doesn’t mean much if you don’t know how to use secure passwords and make sure that they belong only to you.
3. Protect your privacy: know what not to post and how to limit who knows where you are and who you really are.

Assignment: Learn more about each of the elements above by doing the activities below. Equipment: Learn about antiviruses here Password: Learn about passwords here. Privacy: Learn about maintaining your privacy here. Look at these informational posters to help you with the questions below. Use the images and ideas to help you evaluate your online privacy and safety. Answer the following questions/complete the following tasks: Equipment: Define the following terms as they apply to malware: antivirus, virus, worm, trojan, spyware, unknown, zero-day virus, virus fingerprint. Take notes on the strategies for avoiding malware and the myths about it. Add anything else you learned to your notes. Password: What are the best ways to make sure that a password is safe? Then, choose a phrase or lyric you know and write 3 ways you could make it a good password. Post the phrase you used + the passwords you could construct from it. Privacy: Define: geotagging and explain what information was included. What steps should you take to keep information about yourself private?

Activities and questions from:

Johnson, Matthew. “Secure Comics.” USE, UNDERSTAND, & CREATE: A Digital Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools, mediasmarts.ca/teacher-resources/secure-comics.

Link to FCPS LIS Databases