Ask Me Anything with Center for Cyber Safety and Education’s Pat Craven

[Kaity]

In honor of Cyber Security Awareness Month and National Bullying Prevention Day, Pat Craven, the Director of the Center for Cyber Safety and Education, is joining us here on the Community for an Ask Me Anything (AMA).

Patrick has more than 30 years of experience working within the non-profit industry. He has held various C-Level executive leadership roles across the country at notable charitable organizations, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and the Boy Scouts of America. As Director for the Center for Cyber Safety and Education, Patrick brought in Garfield to be the official spokescat of the Safe and Secure Online program! Have questions about the Garfield lessons, getting involved in your local community, bringing education to your company … ask Pat!

We’re also going to be giving away an Educator’s kit to one participant today. The kit is a great way to introduce the program to a classroom, church group, scout group, library - or any other community gathering of children. Watch your inboxes and tell us why you'd like to receive the kit!

 

[leppikallio]

No questions, just admiring the work you are doing with the program for the children. With the children. Wonderful and extremely valuable. Just hope we could provide something like this locally one day. Perhaps the biggest barrier being the need for "localised" content, with native language etc. But, that'll happen if we make it happen.

But I really do admire the work you are doing.

[ptcraven]

Thanks for the kind words. We are very proud and very excited about what we are doing to make it a safer cyber world. It is definitely one of our goals is to put all of our programs (not just Garfield but our materials for Parents and Senior Citizens) in multiple languages. We are currently looking for help in doing just that if you or any other members can help translate. 

[James]

With the wonderful collaboration with Garfield and Jim Davis, what other collaborations would you enjoy having to help promote cyber safety to students of all ages?

[ptcraven]

The Garfield program targets Elementary students (grades 1-6). We know there is a need to develop new and innovative programs like Garfield for Middle and High School students as well. We are working on several ideas but it is no surprise we need to be creative and innovative to hold a child's attention these days. So just another PowerPoint is the not ultimate solution...but maybe a temporary one. 

We also see a need (and get requests) for going beyond just children, parents and seniors. What about us "adults" who now bank, shop and even date (not happily married me) online? What tips and educational tools can we provide them. There are also millions of nonprofits, schools and small businesses who don't have the resources, or believe they even need a cyber security expert like our members to keep them safe and secure. We want to provide them with training on some basic things they can do to protect their business, employees, customers and clients. 

[leppikallio]

Challenge heard and accepted although the time I can dedicate is limited. However locally the major hurdle is to get the project going, message and material delivered. At the moment we don't have chapter here in Finland and it may take some time & effort to get infosec folks involved... But perhaps I'll try to get word out and see if I could get some more willing persons involved in to this.

[ptcraven]

While the support of a Chapter is helpful we have countless examples of an individual member making a difference in small and large ways. Translation is one example but outreach and promotion is another. Let people know the program exists is simple way to build interest. Getting your company involved to provide the materials to local schools, community centers or even employees. We have a lot of members who have put on the Parent's Presentation for fellow employees. It all makes a difference. 

We also now have a version of the Garfield program (only in English right now) available in a digital format. It is an interactive cartoon that a child can watch online. It stops and ask them questions as they go through the cartoon and only continues when the child has answered correctly. At the end they can print out a certificate to hang on their wall. A one year subscription is just US$9.99 and gives them access to the first three lessons and future ones as they become available. You can find it at www.cybersafetykits.org. Group license are available at a discount for schools and companies. Another small way to help make it a safer cyber world. 

[fortean]

You wrote: "It is definitely one of our goals is to put all of our programs (not just Garfield but our materials for Parents and Senior Citizens) in multiple languages. We are currently looking for help in doing just that if you or any other members can help translate. "

Perhaps we can help, at least with a Dutch translation. Our Board has set a strategy, and education plays a key role in that strategy. One of the things we think would be great to do is to have our professionals visit schools to (help) teach our young about information security. Translation and adaptation of existing program materials might well be part of such an effort. Actually we already had some preliminary contact with Ciera Lovitt about this, and she responded favourable to our suggestion.  Ciera is (or at least she was this summer) the Education Program Specialist of the Center for Cyber Safety and Education.

We then organised a survey amongst our members and - amongst other things - asked them if they would be willing to do voluntary work for the Chapter (and for the community in general). Those that replied favourably will be invited on a "volunteers day", to be held in the next months, and we will suggest translating the program materials to our community.

We have quite good contacts with the BeLux Chapter and may well work with them on this, as Dutch is also spoken in large parts of Belgium. If the BeLux Chapter gets involved, perhaps they have some volunteers to do a French translation - as French is also spoken in large parts of Belgium.

Perhaps other Chapters can chime in too and translate the materials in their local language. It may be a good idea to crosspost this in the Chapters segment on this forum.

[ptcraven]

This is exciting to hear and exactly what we need! Ciera is the coordinator of the programs and translations so keep working with her. We already have the parents and seniors program in Portuguese and want to keep adding more and that can only happy with members like you helping lead the charge. Imagine if we Chapter can find some way to help advance the program in some small way the impact we could have on the world. Thank you for what you are doing. 

[Ravens23]

Is the Digital Subscription to Garfield's Cyber Safety Adventures cots ($9.99) intended to be per child or is this a subscription that you can use for multiple children or classroom setting?

[Kaity]

The subscription is more for a family or household. The educator kit includes more things that are geared toward group learning. 

[SLMoulden]

What is the best grade to start Garfield's Cyber Safety Adventures? I understand these are aimed at elementary school children, but if a community service organization was going to fund raise for a school in order to purchase the educator's kits, would it be better to target 5th graders before they hit middle school?

[James]

You can order the modules on line and have them delivered to your home.  You can reach out to Pat (pcraven (at) isc2.org and he will be able to provide details for you.  

Usually it's good to get the organization to pay for the materials, unless you want to do it as a donation to that organization.  I know I bought Module 1 and use it for promotional materials when I talk to schools etc.

[kimberdray]

Subscribed to the digital content and ran through the material to check it out. Good messages and content.

Do these three specific modules correlate or overlap with any of the Girl Scout Cyber Safety badge tiers or is there a totally different set of course curriculum? i.e. Would completing the digital subscription equate to the Daisy or Brownie badge?

https://www.cybersafetykits.org/collections/girl-scout-cyber-safety-patches

[ptcraven]

The Garfield program is best with children Grades 1-6 mainly because that is where Garfield is the most popular. The lessons are good at any age but older children might not connect with Garfield anymore.

IF you have to pick just one grade to do the currently available lessons (#1, #2, #3) I would suggest 3rd or 4th. These lessons deal with fundamental basics about what to share and not share, what to post and not post. The next lessons in production take on bigger topics like sexting, downloading and phishing which will fit well with older students. 

[cmlovitt]

Absolutely! The digital subscription is a great option to meet the requirements for Daisy, Brownie, Junior, and Cadette levels. You can see the individual program requirements on the Safe and Secure Online website here: https://safeandsecureonline.org/girlscouts/