week 3

1/16/2020 Week 3 - Instructor Guidance: GEN102: Digital Literacy for Life and the Workplace (GEN1951A)

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GEN 102: DIGITAL LITERACY FOR LIFE AND THE

WORKPLACE

WEEK 3: THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT

Instructor Guidance

Introduction

Congratulations! You have reached the halfway point of GEN102! During our third week together, we focus on communication. The way you communicate can show credibility and be used as a persuasive tool. The way you communicate also shows an understanding of certain concepts and professionalism. This is why it is important to know which types of communication methods you should use and when. Communicating with your professor will be much different from how you communicate with your friend. In

Resume

1/16/2020 Week 3 - Instructor Guidance: GEN102: Digital Literacy for Life and the Workplace (GEN1951A)

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Week 3, you will explore different forms of communication and determine which communication method is best to use for specific situations.

This week you will also learn about a darker side to the internet. While the internet is a great tool for knowledge and access to resources, you also leave digital footprints that have identifying information. It is important to understand the precautions you can take to help ensure you are not a victim of a cyber- crime and how you can minimize your risks when using the internet. This week you will learn how to protect your privacy, safety, and security when online.

Week 3 Learning Activities

Discussion: Current Events Forum

The growth of technology has impacted almost every area of our lives. It has impacted the way we communicate, work, shop, go to school and manage our day to day lives. However, along with the increased efficiency and convenience that technology facilitates, we end up sharing quite a bit of our personal information online. Because of this, it is important more than ever to understand the threats to online privacy and security. This current events forum is an opportunity to explore this issue with your peers.

1/16/2020 Week 3 - Instructor Guidance: GEN102: Digital Literacy for Life and the Workplace (GEN1951A)

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The topic for Week 3 is: “Online Privacy and Security”. Every day you hear numerous reports about data breaches, privacy invasions, the changing interpretations in the law, and the steps individuals, businesses, and governments are taking in relation to security and privacy online. For this forum, you will research current articles about online privacy and security and select one that appeals to you. Summarize the article and include the link, and then share your personal thoughts on what you’ve read. You are only required to respond to two classmates but the more responses you post, the more enriching the experience. Your instructor will not be present in the forum; however, he or she will review your post and assign a point value to your effort.

Discussion: Digital Trails

This discussion task asks you to reflect on the ways in which leaving a digital trail could both help and hurt you. As we go about our everyday lives, we create digital footprints through social media and technologies such as GPS systems, credit cards, and mobile devices. In a sense, we automatically sacrifice some privacy as we shop, communicate, conduct business, and surf online. An example of this is Liz in the video below. As she goes about her day, she leaves clues about her online behaviors and spending habits through her digital footprint.

Social, Smart, Secure. Tips for Staying Safe OnlineSocial, Smart, Secure. Tips for Staying Safe Online

1/16/2020 Week 3 - Instructor Guidance: GEN102: Digital Literacy for Life and the Workplace (GEN1951A)

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These digital trails can be advantageous. By using cookies to collect small pieces of information about our online activity, marketers can build demographic profiles and use them to enhance and personalize your shopping experience online. Credit card companies can monitor card usage to minimize instances of fraud. Manufacturers can track registered buyers to warn them about defective products and promote consumer safety. There are many more advantages to leaving digital trails, but can you think of how they affect our privacy, safety, or security?

For this discussion, you will describe two digital footprints you have left recently and analyze their level of risk. You will also share a situation in which you or someone you know was a victim of a privacy, safety, or security breach online and explain how the situation was eventually resolved.

This week, you will also put your name into several search engines and review your own digital trail. Be sure to describe what you found and identify three steps you can take to protect your privacy on the web. Remember to respond to at least two peers in this exercise.

Week 3 Quiz

This quiz will focus on the required readings and videos listed in the required resources section of the Week 3 overview as well as information contained in this guidance.

Hot on Your Trail: Privacy, Your Data, and Who Has Access Hot on Your Trail: Privacy, Your Data, and Who Has Access ……

1/16/2020 Week 3 - Instructor Guidance: GEN102: Digital Literacy for Life and the Workplace (GEN1951A)

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You may take the quiz up to two times. This quiz utilizes a test bank, so each attempt may contain different questions. Your highest score will be the grade recorded in the gradebook.

Week 3 Checklist

Use this checklist to help keep yourself on track! I recommend printing the checklist with corresponding due dates and keeping it near your computer.

✓ Week 3 Learning Activities Due Date

Review and Reflect on Instructor Guidance Tuesday – Day 1

Post Initial Response to Discussion 1- Current Events Forum Tuesday – Day 1

Read Assigned Readings and View Assigned Videos No later than Day

3

Post Initial Response to Discussion 2- Digital Trails Thursday-Day 3

Complete Week 3 Quiz Monday- Day 7

Post two responses to peers in Discussion 1 Monday- Day 7

Post two responses to peers in Discussion 2 Monday- Day 7

Key Terms

APA Style: Developed by the American Psychological Association, the rules and guidelines for writing used by Ashford University.

Browser Cookie: A computer file containing a small piece of data that is stored in a web browser while (and sometimes after) a user is browsing the website. It records information about the user and the user’s activity on the site. Also known as a tracking cookie.

Computer Virus: A software program that, when installed on a computer, creates copies of itself and often modifies other computer programs or files or performs harmful activities such as destroying data or damaging computer hardware. When such a program is installed, it is said to “infect” the computer.

Computer Worm: A type of malware that scans your computer for holes or openings in your security system. The worm enters through one of these holes and, on a computer network, can copy itself from machine to machine.

Cookie Profiling: The use of browser cookies to track personal information about a user who visits a website and to create a record of that user’s activity online; this record is commonly used by marketers,

1/16/2020 Week 3 - Instructor Guidance: GEN102: Digital Literacy for Life and the Workplace (GEN1951A)

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so they can market products and services to the user more effectively the next time he or she visits the website.

Data Aggregator: An individual or company that makes money by collecting and compiling data and information about people from the web and selling it to others.

Digital Footprint: The electronic trail of digital data about you and your computer that you leave on the web as you browse from one website to another.

Domain Name: A name assigned to a website and linked to the website’s IP address that has two parts: a web page name and a web extension. Also known as host.

Firewall: A network security software system that monitors incoming and outgoing information and protects the computer network from harmful information from other computers or other networks such as the Internet.

Host: See domain name.

IP Address: Internet protocol address; a series of numbers assigned to every digital device when it is manufactured and to every site on the World Wide Web. These numbers are recorded on the device and on the site when the two are connected. Thus, every website has a record of the devices that have visited, and every device has a record of every website it has visited.

Malware : Harmful software programs that are intended to interfere with other computer systems and disrupt their operations, gather sensitive information, or cause other types of damage to the system. Also known as spyware.

Paraphrase: The act of writing someone else’s ideas in one’s own words.

Pop-up ads: A form of online advertising on the World Wide Web designed to attract readers by displaying specific ads to them when they browse pages on the web.

Pornography: Printed or visual material that contains explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activity that is intended to create sexual excitement.

Scam: A dishonest plan, especially one to get money from other people by misleading or tricking them.

Spam: E-mails that are sent, usually to large numbers of people on the Internet, that are not requested and often not wanted.

Spyware: See malware.

Tracking Cookie: See browser cookie.

Trojan horse: A type of malware that disguises itself as one type of program but is actually a different type of program. The Trojan horse is usually spread when a computer user opens an e-mail attachment or downloads a file that contains the malware.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL): See web address.

1/16/2020 Week 3 - Instructor Guidance: GEN102: Digital Literacy for Life and the Workplace (GEN1951A)

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Web Address: A standardized address or path to locate documents and other resources on the World Wide Web. Also known as uniform resource locater (URL).

Web Extension: The part of the domain name that indicates the type of organization or institution the website represents or the country designation for that website.

Web Page Name: The name or title of any page on the World Wide Web that is given to it to make it easier to find than having to type in the web address/URL.

References

GEN102 Week Three: Express Yourself: What NOT to do in the Digital Environment.

(2016). [Interactive media]. Bridgepoint Education, San Diego, CA. My top ten quotes on communication (https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/my-top-10-quotes-

on-communication) . (n.d). Retrieved from https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/my-top- 10-quotes-on-communication (https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/my-top-10-quotes-on- communication)

Reveal. (2013, September 30). Hot on Your Trail: Privacy, Your Data, and Who Has Access to It [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqWuioPHhz0

Social Media. (2012, May 7). Social, Smart, Secure. Tips for Staying Safe Online [Video

file]. Retrieved from Social, Smart, Secure. Tips for Staying Safe Online (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCWBf7WKYyA)

Sole, K., & Jackson, K. L. (2016). Fundamentals of digital literacy (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/external_tools/retrieve? display=borderless&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcontent.ashford.edu%2Flti%3Fbookcode%3DSole.2605.1 6.2) [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/