What Is Your Privacy Worth?

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This inquiry explores what it was like for older generations of teenagers to grow up in North Dakota through researching their diaries. It asks the question, “what is your privacy worth?” The importance of understanding both the lives of teenagers and privacy in this inquiry is twofold: (1) students should be able to understand what life was like for earlier teenagers and young adults and (2) students will benefit from understanding how historical research relies on what may or may not be comfortable sharing. While progressing through the inquiry, students will analyze the changes occurring in our society about how we choose to share our lives or not, and how do we control what we’re comfortable with.

This inquiry is expected to take two class periods; however, teachers are encouraged to adapt the inquiry to meet the needs and interests of their students and the amount of time they have available.

Inquiry Design Model (IDM) Blueprint™
Compelling Question
What is Your Privacy Worth?
Standards and Practices
ND.6_12.4.5 Evaluate the growth and struggles of the modernization of North Dakota and the role the state has played in modern America.
Staging the Question
What kind of information are you, your friends, and your family comfortable sharing in diaries, letters, photographs, and different social media platforms?
Supporting Question 1
Supporting Question 2
Supporting Question 3
Who was Mae Roberts?
Who was Dorry Shaw?
What stories do you have to tell?
Formative Performance Task
Formative Performance Task
Formative Performance Task
Read the featured source and do independent research to create a context of the world Mae Roberts lived in.
Read the featured source and do independent research to create a context of the world Dorry Shaw lived in..
Keep a diary for a month like Dorry Shaw did or analyze social media as a historian.
Featured Sources
Featured Sources
Featured Sources
  • Mae Robert’s Diary
  • Dorry Shaw’s Diary
  • Students’ own personal and family stories and observations through diary entries or social media.
Summative Performance Task
Argument
How does privacy affect your life? What are you comfortable sharing? How will environmental changes and new technologies continue to affect the development of agriculture and the North Dakota economy? Construct an argument that addresses the compelling question using specific claims and relevant evidence from historical sources while acknowledging competing views. Create a poster and present your argument to your class with evidence to support your claims.
Extension
Invite someone to speak to your class about marketing, web design, and social media management, or, invite a historian, archivist, or museum staff person to talk about how personal records donated to archives and museums allow historians to better understand the context of different historical time periods.
Taking Informed Action

Understand: How do concepts of privacy change over time? How much control do you think people should have over their own information? Are you willing to trade personal information in order to use social media platforms?

Assess: Determine the intended and unintended consequences of posting content to social media sites. How is this different, or not, from traditional diaries, letters, and journals?.

Act: Create an infographic or poster that highlights the risks of sharing information online, identifies some information that people might want to share, and provides some standards and best practices to keep in mind when sharing.