Teacher Tips: How to teach young people about cybersecurity?

James Robinson: Hello world and welcome to the podcast for educators passionate about computing and digital making. I'm James Robinson, Senior Learning Manager here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and this is the first of four episodes released to accompany the latest issue of Hello World Magazine. This issue explores online safety and security, asking what we mean by those terms and how we can better teach the skills that young people need to use computers effectively, safely and responsibly. In today's episode, we're talking to Victoria Berkowitz, a software developer turned high school computer science teacher based in the US. So over to my colleague Laura to introduce our guest.

Laura James: Hello, I'm Laura James, a Learning Manager at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. And today I'm joined by Victoria Berkowitz. Victoria, welcome to the Hello World Podcast.

Victoria Berkowitz: Thank you so much, Laura. I'm so excited to be on the podcast and talk with you.

Laura James: Fantastic. Before we get into the details of our discussion, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself?

Victoria Berkowitz: So, currently I'm a Computer Science and Cybersecurity Teacher at Mineola High School, so that's in Long Island, New York, and the United States. Before that, I actually was a software developer at Morgan Stanley. And so before I even got into teaching, I actually did my undergrad in Computer Science and Statistics, and I was a coder. I'm a mom of three, and I love to garden, and I love anything teaching related.

Laura James: Brilliant. How did your interest in cybersecurity start?

Victoria Berkowitz: So at my school, we teach AP Computer Science Principles and various other computer science courses. But a big component of that course was and is cybersecurity. As time has evolved, the importance and need for cybersecurity is so critical. And I think my administration saw that and they really wanted to bring cybersecurity to our school.

Laura James: It sounds like quite a lot of curriculum time is devoted to it over in the States. I know in the UK because I too used to teach, our kind of K-12, sort of, curriculum doesn't really actually have a lot of time for it. And cybersecurity is so important. So something that I think, you know, hopefully, in our curriculum reform, they will actually realize how important it is for students of all ages to understand it. All right. Thank you so much for that, Victoria. Let's get into it. So what is your first tip for teachers who are trying to engage their pupils with cybersecurity?

Victoria Berkowitz: I would say start small. I think cybersecurity can sound so intimidating. I mean, even for me, who got my undergrad in computer science, cybersecurity felt like, I don't know, but actually we're a lot more familiar with it than we realize. But I would say just start small with some other resource that someone else has tried and bring it into your class. I think my favorite thing is just using online resources that are like games or things that are gamified and bring it into the class in a fun, engaging way so that it makes kids feel like, oh, this is something I could do, and it piques their interests.

Laura James: That’s a really good tip, yes. I loved the ideas in your article that you wrote for Hello World. I loved your concept of moving away from the idea of blocking children from doing things because, you know, schools are scared of cyber security implications to a kind of collaboration mindset. It sounds like you have some really good ideas for getting students actually involved in the cybersecurity for their schools. Were you not ever worried, because you mentioned that, you sometimes got students to do penetration testing? Well, you never worried that they were going to like break something or break a law when they were doing that.

Victoria Berkowitz: Of course. Of course I'm worried. But, there is, you know, honest, transparent discussion about what we're learning, how impactful it is. And it's not like the first thing they come into the class are like, we're going to do this. You know, we do talk a lot about the morals and the ethics, and some case studies where things that seem not illegal actually are, but also it's not just a one way conversation with my students. It's also between admin and things like that. You know, we had a kid who found something, and it was an open, honest discussion between the kid and admin and me involved. And it was really helpful, actually. And it like, helped make us more secure. And so I always ask our kids, you know, when they see stuff, you know, cybersecurity is their responsibility too.

Laura James: It sounds like you've got a really good relationship with your IT team in your school. The fact that you've got them on board with some of the projects.

Victoria Berkowitz: Our admin is very like forward thinking with technology and that like our kids are like, you know, equal partners in their learning. And our IT is great because they'll work with us so much to help the kids learn what they're doing behind the scenes. And there are cases where I have kids in the school that are not my students, and, you know, they've tried to do bad things and there are negative repercussions. And I think they are also held accountable. But there's a definitely I've seen a difference between those kids and the kids who come into cybersecurity, where we have that open discussion and we talk about the consequences and like the impacts and things like that.

Laura James: Absolutely. Brilliant, okay, let's move on to the next question. How do you engage your pupils with the ethical landscape of cyber security? So you kind of mentioned about talking about morals and ethics. How how would you start that conversation?

Victoria Berkowitz: I just started with a lot of case studies where, you know, there is a moral dilemma in question, legal or non legal, that has to pertain to cybersecurity. So instead of us reading all these case studies, each pair got one and it was their job. Each kid got their own side. You know, was this side right? Or was this side right? Why? Should these repercussions happen? Did they have good intent? And I gave them like a job, like a cyber legal advisor. So they had to go up to the front of the class and they had to lawyer up, you know, try to represent their case the best they could and say, like, you know, this person should not get this punishment because their intent was blah, blah, blah. And then at the end of, you know, both sides being presented, the rest of the class is kind of like a jury and we're like, what do we think? And so it's helpful because we see real cases where you actually see the outcome of it. You get to dive deep into, you know, the moral implications, like, was this person just trying to be helpful? Or like, you know, was this person malicious? Who did it impact? How how much did it impact them? And so I think that's been a really great way to see them actually interested in the moral dilemmas of it.

Laura James: Brilliant. That sounds really good. It sounds like your lessons must be super engaging. Okay. Next question. I was interested in the piece in your article about encouraging pupils to see cyber security as a potential career. Could you expand on that?

Victoria Berkowitz: So I think the first thing I tried to tackle is that cyber security is and can be for anyone and everyone. I think going into, I mean, even me, when I like, you know, wanted to apply for my masters or wanted to start teaching. And I was like, you have imposter syndrome. I don't even imagine someone who does cybersecurity is like, looks like a hacker. And I don't, you know, like, what does that even look like? Do I look like that? You see all the pictures, all the pictures are of like, you know, white men with hoods on in darkened rooms being a hacker.

Laura James: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Hoods, dark room, huge keyboard.

Victoria Berkowitz: Which is hysterical because I asked my AI, ChatGPT. I was like, after, you know, my conversations with you, if you had to make an image of me, what would it be? And it actually, it actually made me look like that because I was asking a lot of cyber security questions. And it was funny because it took everything I had asked, and I turned into one of those people.

Laura James: Have you changed that to be your your profile photograph now?

Victoria Berkowitz: Oh, I sent it out to all my kids. I was like guys, if ChatGPT thinks I can look like this, you can look like this. But I think, you know, cyber security is for everyone and like encouraging kids and making them realize that you don't have to be a super coder. You don't have to be super technical. You know, soft skills are just as important. Communicating is critical, things like that. Because it's not just, you know, hacker. You know, someone who deals with data, someone who deals with the legalities of things. Someone who deals with the communication end. And so it's helpful because I have a lot of kids who have such various skills, but also like letting them know that they already engage in cybersecurity on an everyday basis, like multi-factor authentication. They log into their social media because they got a new phone, and they need to do their MFA. That's cyber security. When to delete or report, like, phishing email that looks like it's scamming them or telling their grandparents to. Right like they're doing such important work at home. Whatever I teach these kids or anyone who teaches them any cybersecurity or technical skills, they're going to go home and probably be the most skilled expert in that discipline in their house.

Laura James: You discussed about engaging with the wider school community. What did you mean by that?

Victoria Berkowitz: So at my school, there can be so many opportunities, and I think in every school, because cybersecurity is happening around these kids every day, like there's events taking place, you know, there are definitely threats happening against school and their data. But there's also opportunities where, you know, admin or IT are always improving our cybersecurity, right. And so I think working with your admin or your IT to see like, oh, what are you doing now? Or how can we help? Has been really helpful for me because I will give them an assignment to be honest and if they return that assignment to me, they don't care about it as much, you know, like, so what is Miss Berkowitz going to do with this? But if we're doing a physical security audit for the school, going around and checking the physical security of the building, and then we give a presentation of that to our school administrators so that they can better improve our school security. Oh, it's like they care about that so much more, which, I mean, I would too, right? This is going somewhere. This is having an impact on their everyday lives. And so they have they see a direct product of their work. And it also adds to that idea and responsibility that, you know, everyone's responsible for cyber security. And it's great because it's just like we have things that may not even need to be worked on right away, like business continuity plans, right, or disaster recovery plans. And so it's really great because then they have input and then, they don't just learn, but it's also, a way of understanding better. Like I think when we did our physical security audit, you know, our kids like they were they were harsh. They were like, we need this, this, this, this is this. Like they want it all the things. And then our admin was like, okay. But like, if our school looked like this, would you like that? Or would it feel like a prison? You know, like there's a good balance between things and understanding the decisions that are made at a higher level is really cool too.

Laura James: So, I mean, it sounds like a great project because once they've had the buy in, then they can see the relevance it is for their own data, their own surroundings. I particularly like the fact that you got them to present back to the the admin team their findings as well. And you get them to add that to their LinkedIn profile as well? Did I read that as well? The fact that they managed to do a security audit and present it?

Victoria Berkowitz: Yeah. So a lot of things I do, I try to make them projects that they can put on their LinkedIn. So, you know, if they do a physical security audit or they have a like a tangible presentation, they can put those things on their LinkedIn. I think I do with like my more advanced cyber kids is passion projects. So everyone is so different in cybersecurity, like I have such a wide range of kids who have different interests, and some of them are coding and some of them, you know, actually want to do like a communications major when they go to college. And so I let them pick a project that they are passionate about that has to relate to cybersecurity in some way, and it has to have an impact in some way. I think that's the biggest thing, is taking whatever they're passionate with and turning them into a leader so that they have those skills, regardless of what ... What I teach them might be outdated by the time they get a job. But those communication, those leadership skills that confidence and ability to just keep learning new stuff will always be useful in their careers.

Laura James: Yeah, that's a really good point. Often in computer science, you find that students want to just sit behind a computer and behind a screen on their laptops and not actually interact with people and take on those, like soft skills of presenting and, you know, leadership. So that's a that's a really good idea. Okay. The next section, we might have sort of covered it again, but what's your take on engaging younger age groups on this subject? Because it sounds like you, you teach mostly the older age groups. How would you engage a younger age group in cybersecurity?

Victoria Berkowitz: So I think definitely utilizing your older kids as leaders. So even if you're someone who doesn't teach older kids, reaching out to the higher level grades, those teachers or those clubs and you're like, hey, I'll give you volunteer hours if you have your kids come in and do this. That's always super helpful because I think it helps those kids see themselves more in the field. If they see someone that looks like them, or they see someone that know, or their brother or their sister. And they're so good at making it appropriate for the younger ages because they're just closer to it. And, you know, it's it's it's also it's a win win for both sides. I think you know, giving them things that can be fun, like puzzles. Because a lot of cybersecurity could be problem solving, you know, or even, like, simple activities like picking out strong passwords, picking out things that these younger kids are interacting with on a daily basis. Like, you know, when you go to a website, how do you know it's a good website? You get this email, how do you know it's even a good email? Are you sure it's from your teacher? Simple things like that. You know, when you make your password, is your password the same for everything, or do you switch it up? Is it stronger? Things like that. And I think that's helpful because it's a way that these kids can already start building on their, you know, digital literacy skills at that young age.

Laura James: Absolutely. Yeah. Some really good tips there. I often find that when I was teaching younger students about it, you know, you would ask 1 or 2 of them have has anyone experienced phishing emails and the amount of hands that would go up and little stories or like my grandma, you know, was hacked and you hear all these like fascinating, slightly sad stories, but everyone's got an aspect or have got a perspective on it. So, yeah, it's really good.

Victoria Berkowitz: Yeah. It's amazing how much like they can recognize it so easily and so fast. At such a young age.

Laura James: Yeah, it's obviously everywhere, isn't it? But. So which which begs the question, why isn’t it more important in schools? It should be mandatory education that they understand about what cyber security is. Okay. Thank you. Victoria, it's been fantastic to hear your perspective and thank you so much for writing the article in Hello World. You're clearly a really enthusiastic educator, so well done and thanks for all that you do.

Victoria Berkowitz: Thank you so much for having me here. I love Hello World and have gained so much from it as a teacher, so it feels great to give back a little bit.

Laura James: Oh thank you.

James Robinson: Thank you Laura. You can check out the full version of Victoria's article in the latest issue of our Hello World Magazine, which is out now. And whilst you're at it, if you haven't already, head to helloworld.cc to subscribe, explore our back issues and listen to more episodes. What are you waiting for? That's it for today, but Laura will be back in a few weeks to discuss practical tips on teaching online safety and security in the classroom. She'll be joined by Claire Walden, a Cyber Protect Officer with Thames Valley Police in the UK who's also an ex teacher, to discuss cyber security in schools. So stay tuned. Thank you for listening. Goodbye.