C5. How to survive in a digital jungle
1. Description of the LTT Mobility – Short-term exchanges of groups of pupils
The LTT session in Turkey was structured in a 5 days program dedicated to the training of the participating teachers involved in the mobility. The program was focused on the art of ensuring integrity, since, nowadays, groups are able to collect and use massive amounts of data, by which they begin to amass power and influence. These groups could become so powerful that they operate as though they are separate powers, creating separate cybersecurity domains. Companies such as Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn, could be considered to be data domains in our cyber world.
Extending the analogy, the people who work at these digital companies could be considered cybersecurity experts. Therefore, educators must be the first category of recipients of this specific information in order to transmit to their students’ basic concepts and ideas regarding the cybersecurity world. In order to be able to create a successful awareness campaign among students, teachers of different specialties, ICT included and member of staff attended this program. Training sessions were organized during the mobility and included the following topics:
Day 1- The art of ensuring integrity (types of data integrity controls, digital signatures, certificates, database integrity enforcement) – presentations and practical details
Day 2- Workshop on the types of data integrity controls, digital signatures, certificates, database integrity enforcement
Day 3- Cyber-bullying: social media and ways of protecting young users. Talks with the psychologist of the school or other relevant figures from the area/ NGO’s etcetera.
Day 4- The future in cybersecurity (opportunities and best practices)
Day 5- Meetings with Cybersecurity specialists to present best practices from their companies or universities.
The participating staff was made aware of the importance of the existence of a special procedure while working with students on the online platforms and different websites during and after the lessons inside the school. They got acquainted with several social media and ways to protect students and teachers who use them, sharing some personal experiences and good practices that can improve similar situations in their school. The outcomes of the meeting were: 1 presentation about the social media, 1 handbook on the basic concepts of data integrity, 1 guidelines about the ways of protecting young users on social media and best practices, 1 draft of the interactive cybersecurity and GDPR essentials dictionary dedicated to students. The training session was integrated within the school’s normal activities by involving students from the school during the workshops and frontal discussions and presentations, providing with personal situations regarding cybersecurity and the social media they have encountered in the past.. In spite of the pandemics, we managed to organize the mobility therefore the activity was carried out physically in March 2022.
2. Benefits of the meeting
The staff attended a comprehensive program covering a large scale of ensuring integrity (types of data integrity controls, digital signatures, certificates, database integrity enforcement) from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The participants had the opportunity to exchange ideas and best practices and to discuss with specialists in data integrity and related domains. A strong emphasis was put on the practical aspects, the trainings were also dedicated to simulating threats in a learning environment, because practice is essentials for efficient cyber-defense and protective skills and practices were exercised in order to become habits. By participating in this mobility, we not only recognize the importance of a safe environment for the development of our children and the dangers of the cyber-bullying when using social media, but we also demonstrate the strong belief that children must be taught both in order to not have a bullying behavior with their peers and in order to behave appropriately when confronted with bullying. The bullying often goes under-reported because is wrongly considered as a minor problem and because the victims are afraid to report due to the potential shame from the colleagues. Successfully tackling bullying involves a long-term effort from the teachers, school psychologist, parents, and children. The fact that participating teachers and members of staff shared experiences regarding best practices to deal with bullying, success stories, and interdisciplinary approaches added value to the meeting and to the entire project. All participants demonstrated to be in possession of required knowledge and the skills to improve the cybersecurity teaching process and to make their school a safer environment for children.
Participants:
Outcomes:
- 1 presentation about the social media: Social Media – Introduction (PDF)
- 1 handbook on the basic concepts of data integrity: Data Integrity. Its Types, Aspects and Threats to It (PDF)
- 1 guidelines about the ways of protecting young users on social media and best practices: Social Media: Are You Playing It Safe? (PDF)
- 1 draft of the interactive cybersecurity and GDPR essentials dictionary dedicated to students: Cybersecurity & Data Protection (GDPR) Essentials Dictionary – Draft (PDF)
Extra outcomes:
- Kontrol bende (presentation in Turkish language) / ”I Am in Control” (PDF)
