The students will gain a better understanding about their rights to privacy and freedom of speech via the Internet by learning about their 1st and 4th Amendment rights. Studying various source materials will help the students do this. Lessons are designed to capture student interest through relevant issues facing society today. Lessons begin with thought-provoking questions and include hands-on activities.
It will be necessary for teachers and students to keep up with current issues through web sites, newspaper reports and magazine articles, just to name a few. Classroom discussion will definitely capture and entertain student interest. Teachers should try to keep the students focused on only the 1st and 4th Amendment issues. There are many other constitutional issues, but try to keep students from digressions.
Lesson plan 1 discusses computer crimes. This will open the door to a great amount of discussion. Have students come up with a list of crimes they can think of off the top of their heads. Teachers should add to the list if it is not complete. Next, discuss with students laws which they believe should be made to protect their privacy. Ask students how these laws might affect their 1st and 4th Amendment rights. Ask students to list the positive and negative aspects each law might have on citizens. Ask students who in particular benefits from the laws they have listed. Is it the private citizen or big business? Ask students what they think will be the monetary effect if such laws are created? Ask students if certain laws are made to protect their privacy, should citizens be concerned about the monetary effect it might have on their pocketbooks? The lesson activity has students doing hands on research at the Department of Justice Cybercrime web sites.
Lesson plan 2 brings out the issue of anonymous speech. The case of Aquacool_2000 v. Yahoo will be read. I believe students will be interested in anonymous speech, and a real and current court case will spark their interest. Students will benefit because they can learn about anonymous speech and see our legal system at work.
Lesson plan 3 gives students hands-on Internet research. Students will learn about privacy issues first hand from Internet users and privacy advocate groups. I believe this will open up to students additional issues which they might not have thought of themselves.
In lesson plans four and five, students are asked to write letters to their congressperson. Teachers should write their congressperson ahead of time and request that a reply is sent to students. This will add meaning to the lesson and show students that their representative is listening to them.