16th Data Protection Day in schools
Some students, e.g. from the Commune Primary School (Gminna Szkoła Podstawowa) in Oława, will set off on an expedition "In the search for digital traces". Others, e.g. senior pupils of MIKRON in Łódź, will learn to explain in English how to protect personal data on the phone or on social media during English classes, using typical data protection vocabulary in this language for this purpose.
Data Protection Day, 28 January. This year, we will celebrate this event for the sixteenth time, and the nationwide celebration of this special iday will be enriched with numerous local educational initiatives organized by schools participating in the 12th edition of the nationwide educational program "Your data – Your concern", to which the President of the Personal Data Protection Office has encouraged in an open letter addressed to teachers and students.
– On the occasion of the Data Protection Day in schools, network safety and personal data protection will be really hot topics in schools. We are pleased with the huge interest and involvement of schools in the celebration and the preparation of so many initiatives for students, teachers, parents and seniors – said Marta Mikołajczyk, coordinator of the educational program "Your data – Your concern".
The educational initiatives planned to be implemented in schools on the occasion of the Data Protection Day will include mainly chats on data protection and privacy during educational classes. There will also be thematic lessons, e.g. during Polish, IT English, and vocational subjects classes.
Schools have also planned displaying presentations and thematic films prepared by students. An example of such an action is the initiative of students of the Advertising Technical School (Technikum Reklamy) from the Service School Complex (Zespół Szkół Usługowych) in Ostrów Wielkopolski, who prepared multimedia presentations on cyber threats, digital traces, online reputation and cyberbullying, which will be presented by them to the entire school community as part of the Data Protection Day and made available to students from 7th and 8th grade of primary schools.
There will be exhibitions of posters, leaflets, competition works and comic books made with the use of new techniques and graphic tools. Games have also been prepared – even for preschoolers.
As the coding and encryption classes, as well as interactive quizzes, crosswords, puzzles, with the use of numerous applications/educational platforms, are very popular among students, many teachers made sure that educational initiatives on the occasion of the Data Protection Day will be carried out in this form. An equally engaging game-type activity for students, both computer and field-based, will also be used this year to popularize knowledge about the safe processing of personal data.
Some educational institutions intend to organize information campaigns at schools (like preparation of presentations and stickers, leaflets, posters, film presentations, information corners, newsletters, presentations of activities undertaken under the "Your data – Your concern" program).
Meetings will be held with experts, including police representatives or data protection officers. In addition, students will develop guides, e.g. for young Internet users, and codes of conduct on the Internet.
In order to promote the issues of personal data protection, materials prepared by the Data Protection Office will be used:
- tips from the "It's worth knowing..." series,
- a guide for seniors,
- webinars.
Teacher training institutions also prepared their own initiatives. For example, the Radom Teacher Training Center (Radomski Ośrodek Doskonalenia Nauczycieli) organizes a didactic game within its network with schools.
On the other hand, the Computer Assisted Education and Information Technology Centre in Warsaw (Ośrodek Edukacji Informatycznej i Zastosowań Komputerów w Warszawie), together with the Personal Data Protection Office, will conduct an online workshop for teachers on the use of ICT in activities supporting education on the protection of personal data on January 31, 2022.