Canada’s privacy authorities issued a number of activity sheets today to assist in teaching students about various privacy issues by presenting them in a visually appealing, easy-to-understand format.
These activity sheets follow a series of lesson plans the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta, along with federal, provincial and territorial counterparts, issued previously.
As Commissioner Jill Clayton has said to several education associations in Alberta, “Privacy education is a topic where everyone seems to be on the same page. Students require knowledge about privacy principles and privacy rights to help them safely navigate their digital world.”
The following activity sheets are meant for students in Grades 1 to 3:
- Privacy Snakes and Ladders is a twist on the classic children’s game that helps players learn how to make smart privacy choices by climbing up a ladder when they make a good decision or sliding down a snake because they have shared a password with a friend, for example.
- Connect the Dots has kids complete the picture of a family with a checklist of rules they can use at home to practice good online privacy.
- Learning About Passwords / Colour the Tablet challenges kids to create their own strong, eight-character password by filling in the blanks. It also asks them to draw a lock on a tablet, representing how password protects an electronic device.
- Word Search introduces children to privacy vocabulary by having them comb through a puzzle to find words such as “post,” “click” and “footprint.”
The following lesson plans are meant for students in Grades 6 to 12:
- Kids’ Privacy Sweep Lesson Plan allows students to gain an appreciation of what personal information is in the context of privacy laws, become aware of how and why websites and apps collect personal information, and better understand privacy policies to make informed choices about the websites they visit and the apps they use.
- Know the Deal: The Value of Privacy introduces students to the concept of pseudonymity, the right of privacy as a fundamental human right, and how online activities leave traces which can contain personal information.
- Getting the Toothpaste Back into the Tube: A Lesson on Online Information is for students to learn key principles relating to online privacy in the context of digital literacy and related subject areas.
- Privacy Rights of Children and Teens is to teach students about legal and consumer rights with regards to personal information, for students to evaluate how well the online platforms and services they use live up to those rights, and for students to learn how to exercise privacy rights.
Three of the lesson plans were developed in partnership with MediaSmarts, Canada’s centre for digital and media literacy.