Tag Archives: radio rookies

NSA Surveillance Revelations are a Teachable Moment (Updated)

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As educators, mentors and citizens who care about digital literacy, you likely have some opinions on the recent National Security Agency (NSA) PRISM surveillance program revelations. We bet you have some resources to share too.

Mozilla has taken action, along with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others, to launch a campaign called Stop Watching Us http://stopwatching.us, which calls for an investigation into the US government’s use of surveillance tactics, particularly at the National Security Agency (NSA).

Alex Fowler, Mozilla Lead on Privacy and Public Policy, explains in this blog post:

Mozilla believes in an Internet where we do not have to fear that everything we do is being tracked, monitored and logged by either companies or governments. And we believe in a government whose actions are visible, transparent and accountable.

He talks about the various levels of exposure we face when we share information online, from using services that log activities (interactions with friends, purchases, games), to geolocative personalization, to personal over-sharing, to governments and other officials gaining access to our private data. This last level presents a problem, in that companies who may or may not share our data can be forced to, without our knowledge, based on a court order.

He continues:

There are a number of problems with this kind of electronic surveillance. First, the Internet is making it much easier to use these powers. There’s a lot more data to be had. The legal authority to conduct electronic surveillance has grown over the past few years, because the laws are written broadly. And, as users, we don’t have good ways of knowing whether the current system is being abused, because it’s all happening behind closed doors.

On Sunday night my colleague Dan Sinker tweeted this in light of the news: “When I go to the Washington Post to learn about gov data tracking, I’m hit by *fifty* commercial data trackers.”

The Washington Post subsequently wrote an article based on his Tweet to educate readers about the difference between government and commercial data tracking.

The story of commercial trackers and the details of the NSA leak are not fully analogous. But what the tool giving Dan this knowledge is providing is a way to visualize and make sense of how the web, data, tracking, your privacy and the intentions of others interact on the internet. Install Collusion on your Firefox browser and forget about it for a few weeks. When you look at it after a stretch of average web use, you will have quite few strands to follow as *you* have traveled through the tubes. These are the kind of digital “a-ha’s” that will ensure more informed digital citizens.

Mitchell Baker, Chair of Mozilla Foundation, posed the following questions in a blog post yesterday:

Now  is the moment to ask — do we care?  Do we care how much our government  watches us, tracks us without our knowing it? Do we care how the U.S.  government treats the citizens of friendly, allied states? Do we care if  other governments emulate the U.S. and gather this data? How do  businesses, organizations and individuals approach the US knowing the  scope of online activities that are being monitored? How much do other  governments do this — either to citizens or to foreign nationals? How do  we balance between civil rights and national security?

You may have already explored issues like privacy, personal data, censorship and digital citizenship with learners, and/or have created resources to help teach others about their digital footprint, Fair Use and related topics. We need them, learners need them, society needs them.

We’d love to help surface some of that thinking, to compile assets that explain or let people engage with these broad concepts so they can make more informed decisions or opinions related to these issues.

Here’s a start:

  • Hive NYC member Maurya Couvares from ScriptEd at TEDxNYED talks about teaching coding in schools, based on a model of training lawyers to mentor high school mock trial teams.
  • See where your data packets go in North America with IXmaps – this map site shows the physical locations of data centers and buildings where surveillance is presumed to happen
  • In NYC? We’re looking for mentors to work with youth for Young Rewired State NYC, a two-day design challenge where young coders will become more civically engaged as they build prototypes to solve real issues using NYC Open Data. We’re co-hosting with Museum of the Moving Image June 29-30.

YRSpic

Have one to add? Please add to this list we are compiling.

Or use Mozilla’s Thimble to create your own using our Hackable Activity Kit.

To have your voice heard and take action, join the Stop Watching Us campaign by:

  • Visiting stopwatching.us and signing a petition that calls on legislators to provide a full accounting of the extent to which we’re being monitored.
  1. We don’t want an Internet where everything we do is secretly tracked by companies or governments. Join: StopWatching.Us #teachtheweb 
  2. Join Mozilla in calling on Congress to disclose how we’re being monitored. StopWatching.Us #teachtheweb
  3. Like ObamaIsCheckingYourEmail.Tumblr.com? You’ll love StopWatching.Us, a campaign to protect user data w/ @Mozilla, @EFF, @Reddit & 80+ other orgs

Radio Rookies DIY: Educator’s Guide to Teaching Interviewing Skills

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Cross-posted from WNYC Radio Rookies blog:

Rookies DIY: How to do vox pop

The first in a series of videos we’re creating in partnership with the Hive NYC Learning Network, teaches people to produce their own stories using digital media. This animated short, along with the accompanying resources, will help educators teach interviewing skills to students of all ages.

One of the first skills Radio Rookies learn in our workshops is how to conduct interviews with people on the street, aka: “Vox Pop”, short for vox populi, a Latin phrase meaning “voice of the people.”

Approaching total strangers can be very scary, but in this do-it-yourself (DIY) video Radio Rookies graduates give tips and interviewing techniques that will help you be successful at getting people to answer your questions.

Educators can use this video to teach a interviewing skills — you don’t even need recording equipment!

The most important thing to emphasize is that an interview is really a CONVERSATION between two people. 

Here are some suggested activities based on what tools and technology you have access to:

Paper and Pencils:

+ Have students brainstorm a list of questions they’d want to ask each other
+ Role play mock interviews for the class and have students popcorn out praise and suggestions

  • Give your students these tips and tricks for getting a good interview:
  • Be open to possibilities, but prepare questions before you begin.
  • Stay in control of the situation.
  • Introduce yourself and get the interviewee’s name, age (and contact info, if you can).
  • Don’t be afraid to ask someone to repeat something.
  • Ask open-ended questions.  Avoid Yes-or-No questions — they lead to boring answers.
  • Ask for explanations/ follow-up questions.
  • Don’t talk over your interviewee.  Let them finish completely before you jump in with the next question.Don’t be afraid of silence.
  • Try to ask a question several different ways if you’re not getting a good answer.
  • At the end of an interview always ask: “Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you’d like to say?” “Do you have any questions for me?”

Continue reading →

Digital Literacy and Citizenship Workshop

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This is re-posted from the WNYC Radio Rookies blog with additional thoughts from educators/Hive members associated with the workshop.

Radio Rookies and Common Sense Media came together to hold a one week Digital Literacy & Citizenship Workshop with teens from the McBurney YMCA Y Scholars from Aug. 6-13th. The teens learned how to use digital media responsibly and were given the chance to produce a video/audio/multimedia piece. Their stories will be used to inform their peers as well as to help give educators tools to teach young people across the nation about digital literacy and citizenship.

Common Sense Media asked us to pilot their Digital Literacy and Citizenship modules about issues such as online reputation, innovation, remixing and over-sharing online or TMI (too much information).

“I learned that over-sharing can become a problem that effects people who want to apply for a job or go to college,” one participant said. “I learned many ways to show myself in a positive light online.”

Here is an example of a module activity card:

“I will say it was very challenging, because I had to do stuff that I have never done before — like learning how to introduce myself when I’m interviewing someone,” another teen said.

Each group hit the streets to ask people what kind of digital citizens they are. Do they download music illegally? How honest are they on Facebook? How much information do they share about themselves online?

“It was very fun and taught me skills that I can use in life. It also taught me how to communicate in the streets of NYC.”

Check out what they came up with!

Innovation (Allegra, Chayenne, Neisha, & Selena):

Allegra’s Interview

Online Reputation (Danielle, Demaris, Naomi, & Zaire):

“(The topic of online reputation) is relevant to our lives because, well, it’s something that affects us because we all use the internet for social networking.  I think about not just how it affects me now but how it affects me in the future going to college or getting a job, or how others might view me.”

Oversharing (Bree, Larry, & Callah):

One teen said, “I enjoyed interviewing (for the Oversharing project). It was really fun. It made me think about how different people are, even though people like to bunch people into groups. It was interesting to see different people’s perspectives and learn their opinions.”

Remixing (Anasha, Jennifer, & Jessica):

“This was a cool project and I learned a lot of stuff that I didn’t know and that Facebook doesn’t teach you. I learned that having an online life, you have to be aware and make responsible choices. And I learned how it feels to be a reporter in the field — I really like it — this was the most fun going out, asking people questions, and meeting people from different places in the world and getting different opinions.”

Courtney Stein, Associate Producer for WNYC Radio Rookies, said, “This workshop was a real testament to the benefit of the Hive network. At Rookies, we typically spend weeks recruiting the young people we work with but because of our partnership with the McBurney YMCA, we were able to work with 16 amazing teenagers from one of their summer programs. We’re a small staff of three over here and often lack the time and know-how to go after the many ideas we have for growth. Working with Common Sense Media enabled us to teach the Digital Citizenship and literacy skills that we’ve often talked about incorporating into our work but didn’t have the expertise to carry out.”

“We were thrilled with the young people’s excitement about learning more about the world of remixing and giving and getting creative credit, as well as the development of one’s online reputation, and the positive and not so positive potential consequences of oversharing,” said Tali Horowitz, Education Program Manager for Common Sense Media.