Digital Security

Video Transcription

Hello, everyone. I hope you're having a fabulous day. Today, we're going to be looking at the concept of digital security. For today's tutorial, I've chosen a quote by Benjamin Franklin where he states that "distrust and caution are the parents of security." And while it might sound a little sad to be teaching students to distrust, it's really important that we ensure that students enter our digital world with a certain element of caution to help make sure that our students are staying safe and secure online.

By the end of today's lesson, you should be able to summarize the nine major elements of digital citizenship. You'll be able to define specifically the element of digital security. You'll be able to discuss why knowledge of digital security is so important and identify what digital security elements your students should be learning.

Now when we look at digital citizenship, we see that there are nine major elements to help make up digital citizenship. The first of which is digital access. Digital access has to do with the access that students in your classroom have or don't have to these technological devices and the way in which you as a teacher have to adapt in order to help your students of all access means become a digital citizen.

The second major element of digital citizenship is digital commerce. This looks at the way in which we buy and sell things using new technology as a medium and what we as teachers need to communicate with our students concerning buying and purchasing online. The third major element of digital citizenship is digital literacy. This looks at how fluent we are, both we as teachers and our students, in the use of new technology. This looks at fluency both in and out of the classroom.

The fourth major element is digital etiquette, focusing in on some of the norms our society has established for how we interact online and how we use these new technologies. The fifth element of digital citizenship is digital law. This takes the elements of digital etiquette one step further and focuses on the law pertaining to our interactions on the internet.

The sixth and seventh elements of digital citizenship are our digital rights and digital responsibilities. These elements focus in on the rights that we as teachers and our students have as we interact online and the responsibilities that come with those rights. The eighth element of digital citizenship is digital health, which looks at the way we are protecting our health and well-being given our new modes of communicating and interacting with the internet. This looks at how we are affected both physically and emotionally. And the final element of digital citizenship is digital security, focusing in on what are the elements that are put in place to help protect us as we interact online and become fully-fledged digital citizens.

So let's take a look at the specific element of digital security. most specifically looking at what self-protection we can take in order to stay safe in our digital world. So what is digital security? Well, just as people protect themselves in real life, it's making sure that you are taking electronic precautions, such as virus protection and other major elements in order to protect ourselves, as well as our digital identity online. We need to remember that when we put things out there on the internet they're not always safe and secure. And teaching our students how to protect themselves and take these precautions can help prevent pitfalls in the long run.

So why is it important to know about digital security? Well, first and foremost, just as there is real world crime, there is also very serious cyber crime. This kind of crime that can be both illegal, as well as even just unethical behaviors, such as stealing other people's intellectual property and work online, defacing other people's specific creations online, as well as their names and their personalities, or causing general disruptions to the online world and community. It's also important to know that just as we put real world locks on our doors to help protect our homes, we also need to be putting digital locks in place in order to protect our digital homes, specifically looking at ways that we can secure ourselves online and lock up our identity and the information specific to us.

So what should you be teaching your students about possible digital security? First and foremost, you need to be teaching your students to protect their identity. It's really important to hammer home to students that just because they are your friend or a classmate doesn't mean you should be giving out personal information online. Additionally, when creating these passwords, it's really important that they create strong ones, ones that are going to stand up to the average hacker so that they can put as much distance between their personal information and the outside world.

Finally, it's important to teach students about the internal harms of the digital world, such as ways in which they can protect their devices from various viruses, as well as teaching them about the external harms, making sure that when they're working on a tool that they're paying attention to the various power sources that they have, as well as being sure to back up their data so that if something does go wrong, such as a power outage or a system failure, that as much of the information and work that they've done can be saved. Now that we are done with this lesson, you should be able to summarize the nine elements of digital citizenship. You should be able to define digital security specifically, discuss why knowledge of digital security is so important to you and your students, and, finally, to identify what major elements of digital security you are going to be ensuring that your students learn.

Now I would like to take just a moment for reflection. As you think back on all that you've learned about digital security, what do you think will be the first step in implementing digital security and the real world issues into your classroom? As you reflect on how this new information can be applied, you might want to explore the additional resources section that accompanies this video presentation. This is where you'll find links to resources chosen to really help you deepen your learning and explore ways to apply your newly acquired skill set. That's all we have for right now. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.