In Your I !

Level: Grades 10-12

Overview

This unit is designed to teach young people how networked technologies change their experience of privacy, so they can better manage their online social interactions and get the full benefit of the Internet. The unit uses a series of interactive media clips about a student who is accused of vandalizing a teacher’s car to demonstrate the differences between face-to-face communication and electronic communication, and to encourage students to think more deeply about the relationship between privacy, anonymity and identity in a networked world.

Learning Outcomes Students will demonstrate an understanding of:

the dynamics of social interaction (how people reveal different things to different people, depending on the social context)
how privacy allows us to play different social roles (student, friend, citizen)
how privacy allows people to decide when and what to reveal about themselves to others
how control over what one reveals can be lost in an online environment, because online communications are monitored and recorded
the potential consequences of revealing personal information online

Students will begin to explore:

the importance of privacy to their sense of autonomy and dignity
how privacy helps people builds relationships based on trust
the legal framework governing privacy

Preparation and Materials The lesson revolves around a series of short video clips, which can be found on the Scenarios page. Students can view the clips on individual computers in a computer lab, or as a class by connecting a computer to an LCD projector. If you do not have access to a computer in your classroom, photocopy the Scenario Script (pdf) and have students read it out loud in class instead of viewing the video clips.

Before beginning this lesson, read the Introduction (chapter 1) to the Techno-tonomy privacy textbook, and review the following student primers:

Photocopy the following student handouts:

Procedure

Please note: The lesson is designed for classroom use. In the alternative, students can complete the lesson on their own, by working through the online module individually or in small groups.

Preliminary Exercise (Optional) Ask students to raise their hands if they’ve ever forgotten to do their homework. Then ask them to imagine they wake up one morning and realize they haven’t finished an important assignment. They’re really worried because they’ll lose a lot of marks if they’re late.

When they come into the kitchen for breakfast, their mom asks them if they’ve done their homework. What would they say? Why? Would they ask to stay home or get a note excusing them?
On their way to school, they run into their best friend. What would they say to them about their homework? Why?
When they get to class, the teacher asks them why their assignment isn’t completed. What would they say? Why?

Note how each conversation is different. Point out that they use different words and express different emotions, depending on who they’re talking to. For example, they might be contrite with their mother, and complain about the teacher or the assignment to their friend, and make up an excuse to their teacher. Or they might ask for different things from different people – for eg., ask their mother if they can stay home and finish the assignment, or ask their friend if they’ll let them copy their assignment.

Class Discussion All of us play different roles. Identify to the class the various roles you play personally – as a teacher, a daughter/son, a spouse, a parent, etc. People act differently, depending on the role they are playing.

Ask students to name the various roles they play (eg. son/daughter, sibling, friend, employee, student, volunteer, cousin, sports team member, student council member, etc.) and record the list on the board.

One of the ways we manage all our different roles is to tell different people different things about ourselves. This is one of the definitions of privacy: the ability to control what you reveal about yourself to others.

Now ask the students to think of the last time they did something really embarrassing. Would they tell their boss, their coach, their teacher, their friend? Why or why not? Would they consider the information “private”? What do they mean by privacy?

Ask students:

How many of you ever talk to friends online using MSN or email?
How many of you have registered on an online game site? Provided your name and/or email address to enter an online contest?
How many of you have a page on a social networking site, like Facebook or MySpace?
What kind of information about themselves do people reveal when they’re on MSN or Facebook?
Do you consider these activities (MSN, email, online gaming, social networking) public or private?
Would you be happy if your parents or your teachers read your MSN, email, or Facebook page? Why or why not?

Researchers have found that a lot of kids say that they like online communication because it gives them a sense of privacy. For example, it’s harder to “overhear” an MSN conversation or an email message than it is to overhear a phone conversation, and most adults can’t understand the short forms kids use when they MSN or text-message each other.

But online communication isn’t the same thing as talking in the privacy of your own room. Whenever you go online, someone can watch you.

How many of you know MSN automatically logs your conversations? How many of you delete your MSN log each time you log out? Did you know that the server keeps a copy of the log even after you’ve deleted it? (MSN and other instant messaging programs automatically save a copy of the log of all conversations on the local hard drive. However, the central server also saves a copy of the log which the user cannot control or delete. These logs are often mined for information about the user’s preferences, so they can be targeted with advertising and other marketing material.)

What about web bugs? Do you know what a web bug is and how it works? (Web bugs are used in emails. They record things like how long the email message was open on your computer, and whether or not your email address is active. They can also search out other information in your hard drive, and install pop-ups on your computer. They send all this information back to the sender of the original email. Since web bugs are invisible single-pixel graphics, all this happens without the knowledge of the person receiving the email.)

Even though people use the Net to have private conversations or to explore their own personal interests, it is a public network. That means everything you do online can be monitored and recorded by others.

That doesn’t mean you should stop talking online. What it does mean is that we need to start thinking about privacy differently. We started by looking at how we say different things to different people. That’s because privacy is one of the ways we manage our social identities – the different roles we play, like student, son or daughter, friend, volunteer, employee.
Privacy is all tied up in our sense of identity and how we interact with other people. We negotiate our privacy by revealing different things to different people in different circumstances. But when we talk online, what we say can be taken out of context. And that has consequences.

Student Activity This lesson looks at what happens when Emma, a student at Elmvale High School, talks with her friends on MSN about their English teacher, Mr. Nickel. But before we get there, we’re going to watch a series of short video clips that show Emma talking to different people as she waits for her mom to pick her up from school for a doctor’s appointment. Your job is to take note of how Emma’s behaviour changes, depending on who she’s talking to.

As a class, review the student handout Just the Facts, Ma’am. Then hand out the Whodunit Investigation Sheet.

Watch the video clips on the Scenarios page, and have the students fill in the Whodunnit Investigation Sheet after each clip, to record:

What Emma tells each person about what happened after the soccer game
What’s bothering Emma
Whether she says Jason did or didn’t spray paint the car
Whether Emma cooperates with the person she’s talking to
If the person she’s talking to is a Friend or Foe

Take up their answers to the Whodunit Investigation Sheet as a class. Ask students:

Would Emma had said the same things to Asma, Mrs. Coutler and Jenna if they weren’t alone when they talked?
Which person is Emma the most honest with? Why?
How would you describe Emma’s relationship with each of the people she talks to?
Who finds out the most about what happened after the soccer game?

As you take up the Whodunit Investigation Sheet:

Compare Emma’s openness with Asma, Mrs. Coulter and the “Good Cop” with her unwillingness to share information with the Vice Principal and the “Bad Cop”.
Note how Emma’s relationship with Mrs. Coulter is based on trust and respect and this makes Emma more willing to share what happened.
Also note the differences in the approach of the two police officers.

Ask students:

How does the fact Emma had worked with the “Good Cop” previously on a community workshop change the way they interact? Why or why not?
How does the fact that Jenna reported a personal conversation between Emma and her friends to the Vice Principal effect the relationship between Emma and Jenna?
Is Jenna a “stoolie” or a “good citizen”?
How many students think Jason spray painted Mr. Nickel’s car?

Now, imagine all of these conversations had taken place online. How would Emma feel if everyone – her teachers, the Vice Principal, the police – was able to listen in to what she said in these private conversations? To test that, hand out the Instant Messaging Log and the What’s Up with That? Exercise Sheet.

Tell students:

After school yesterday, Emma was talking to Asma and some friends on MSN. As luck would have it, Asma stayed late after school to finish up some homework. So she was working in the school computer lab when she and the others were instant messaging. On a hunch, Vice Principal Gordon looked up the logs on the lab computer and printed out a copy of their conversation. Then she gave it to Mrs. Coulter, Mr. Lefebvre, and Constable Lefebvre.

Divide the class into 5 small groups and assign each group one of the following characters to role-play:

Ms. Gordon
Mrs. Coulter
Mr. Nickel
Constable Lefebvre (“Good Cop”)
Constable Lefebvre (“Bad Cop”)

Tell students to read the Log from the point of view of the character they’ve been assigned, and answer the questions on the exercise sheet.

Take up their answers to the What’s Up With That? Exercise Sheet as a class.

Emphasize:

The ways in which “overhearing” an MSN conversation can change the relationship between Emma and her teachers
The differences between what Emma says directly to her teachers and the police when she talks to them face-to-face, and what she says to her friends
How Emma’s various comments make sense in the context of the relationship she has with each person she talks to
The consequences to Emma when her conversation with her friends is “overheard”

(It took decades for the law to develop rules to protect the privacy of written letters. So far, the law has not protected online conversations to the same extent. Schools and Internet service providers can read logs and provide copies to the police on request. Logs are also stored on the user’s computer, so other people who have access to that computer can read the log.)

Whodunit?

Finally, tell the class that Jason did not spray paint the car. The evidence is clear that Jason had to be home by 10 o’clock. Emma, Jason and Asma left the game at 7:30 and Constable Lefebvre told Emma that the car wasn’t vandalized until 11:30. Jason had been home for more than an hour and a half at that point.

What Jason hadn’t told his friends was that his mother had just had a serious operation, and was very ill. He had to be home because he was taking the night shift to care for her, so his dad (who had been up for two straight nights) could get some sleep. The only other person who knew about Jason’s mom’s illness was Mrs. Coulter. After Mrs. Coulter talked to Emma, she tracked Jason down and asked him if something was bothering him. Jason told her about his mother’s illness at that point, because he trusted her.

Emma told Constable Lefebvre that she had never seen Mr. Nickel’s car. She was telling the truth. Jason was the only one who knew what Mr. Nickel’s car looked like. The other kids were talking about in on MSN just because they were trying to cheer Jason up. They actually like Mr. Nickels well enough, and were terribly upset when they found out that he read the mean things they said about him behind his back

It was Jenna who spray painted the car. She did it to get Jason into trouble. She got the idea when she continued to listen in on the other kids on MSN after she said goodbye to them and switched her status to “Out to Lunch”.

Evaluation

Completed exercise sheets.

Extension Exercises

Read the Techno-tonomy - What is Privacy? and the Law and Privacy student primers for background information. Write a short essay discussing whether or not the police should be able to get access to MSN logs without a warrant.
Online conversations can be “overheard” by web bugs and other mechanisms because Internet technology uses public cables to transmit private information. Read the Surfing or Surveillance? student primer for more information on online surveillance. Some shopping malls in Canada and England have put cameras in public bathrooms to catch shop lifters, and some hotels have put cameras in hotel rooms to catch employees who steal from people staying at the hotel. Is catching criminals more important than privacy in these places (i.e. bathrooms, hotel rooms and the Net)? Why or why not? Write a short essay explaining your answer.
There have been a number of incidents where school authorities and local police have used Facebook pages to find out who’s breaking the law. For example, students at some American universities have been fined for drinking after they posted photographs of a dorm party on Facebook. Read the Techno-tonomy - What is Privacy? and the Law and Privacy student primers for background information. Write a short essay answering the following questions: Are social networking sites like Facebook pages are private? Should the authorities be able to use them to see if someone has committed a crime? Why or why not? (For more information, see the Wikipedia entry on the use of social network websites in investigations.)