NYC Digital Safety

Help learners get better at identifying email and text spam messages

About This Module

This curriculum module is based on takeaways from series three of NYC Digital Safety training videos. You may use this module by:

• Including it in your pre-existing public workshops
• Combining it with other NYC Digital Safety modules to make a longer data-privacy focused workshop
• Sharing the handout with library users at various service points

Downloadable presentation slides, a facilitation guide, and a pair of handouts can be found below. Both handouts from this module have been translated into Chinese, Haitian-Creole, Russian, and Spanish.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this module, learners will be able to:

• Describe email and text spam 
• Name common aspects and traits of email and text spam 
• Identify examples of email and text spam

Lesson Plan

This lesson plan is also included in the downloadable facilitation guide below. You are welcome to use any and all of this, or adapt it as you see fit.

This module will take approximately 60 minutes to complete.

Introduction and welcome

Greet learners and review the plan for this module

Defining email and text spam

Provide a brief overview of email and text spam and see if anyone has anything else to add

Discussion

Have learners volunteer to share their experiences with email and text spam. You can kick off the conversation by sharing some examples of your own, if you are comfortable doing so

Types of spam

Provide a brief overview of common traits seen in different kinds of spam. See if anyone has questions or anything else to add

Activity Part 1 : Reviewing text and email spam examples

Divide your learners into small groups and have them visit the website listed on the handout. You can either have a pre-selected list for learners to explore or let them explore the site freely. Encourage your learners to make note of trends, themes, and identify key components of the examples they examine

Activity Part 2 : Personal examples

Have your learners remain in their small groups. For this next part, encourage your learners to pull up their own text messages and email (have them visit their junk folder) and look for further examples of spam. Have your learners identify trends, themes, and key components

Activity wrap up

Have your learners generate a list of the common trends and themes they noted in their spam examples. Have your learners share their lists with the entire group and share any final observations

Wrap up, final tips, and final questions

Review the closing thoughts and share the suggested resources. Give learners Handout 2. See if anyone has any final questions

Next Steps

Download the materials below for use in your workshop or at service points throughout your library.

If you plan to create a longer privacy-focused workshop using these materials, here is a link to Google slides. Feel free to make a copy if you’d like to add these slides to any other deck.

And please let us know how it went! Use this form to share your feedback on this module. We’d love to hear from you.