Your life online
In this interactive lesson, students profile each other based on the information they can find online. The class discussion focuses on the importance of online privacy.
Lesson goals
- Learning about the information available about us individually online
- Learning about the importance of online privacy
Activities
Students search for information on each other online and create a profile.
Aim: through experience, students gain an insight into what information on them is readily available online.
The pairs present their most interesting finds to the class.
Aim: building the grounds for the class discussion.
Discussion (15 minutes) - class
The teacher moderates a discussion on students’ findings.
Aim: the students reflect on their findings in the context of onlne privacy and the possible applications of their data.
Keywords
Pedagogical tips and recommendations
This activity is meant to be fun. You can also make it competitive by making students compete against each other based on how much crucial information about a person they find.
Exercise (15 minutes)
The investigation - 15 minutes
The students work in pairs and look each other up online using any search engine (Google, Microsoft, DuckDuckGo - they can even experiment and see what information comes up on which search engine). The students can also look up the information their partners shared through social media. The following list of information to look for can help them, and relevant information on top of that covered by the list is welcome:
- Full name
- Age
- Phone number
- Email address
- School
- Hobbies
- Social media handles
- Home address or area
- Schedule
- Interests
- Other
Exercise (15 minutes)
The presentations - 15 minutes
Each pair has 60 seconds to present their key findings to the class. They should comment on why they think the information they founds is important.
Discussion (15 minutes)
- Did you find more or less personal information on your partner than you expected? How do you feel about the information on you that is out in the public domain?
- Was the information you found though social media vidible to everyone (i.e. through an open profile) or just social media friends? Are you strict about accepting friend or follow requests you get on social media?
- How do you think the information you found can be used? (We are looking for answers ranging between use for targeted ads to criminal use).
- Can you recall any incidents where information readily available online was used or could have been used in a negative way? (Some notable examples include Kim Kardashian being robbed at gunpoint by robbers who located her through her real-time Instagram posts, or the Twitter profile tracking Elon Musk’s private jet location in real time).
- How about positive uses?
- Are you already taking or planning to take some steps to increase your privacly online or no? Why or why not?