Activity Sheet: Chat (Discussion Channel)
🎯 Objectives
- Learn how a chat system (discussion channel) works.
- Understand the risks of trusting people and identity spoofing when you communicate through a chat.
⏳ Activity Duration
1 hour 30 minutes
👥 Number of Participants
- Minimum: 2 participants with 2 computers.
- Depends on available computers (participants can work in pairs on a single computer).
🏫 Recommended Age
- Participants must be able to read, write and count (approximately 7 years and older).
🖥️ Required Materials
- One computer per participant.
- The explanatory sheet for the Scratch program under redevelopment in opensource format*.
- The scratch with custom mqtt extension you must build scratch from https://github.com/Beetix/ (thank you for you contribution) repositories using this Makefile
🏗️ Activity Flow
1️⃣ Energizer: Icebreaker Introduction
- Participants face each other in pairs.
- Each participant introduces themselves (first name, age, etc.).
- Each participant creates a name tag with their name displayed for others to see.
2️⃣ Fabrication: Setting Up the Chat System
- The facilitator launches the chat server (MQTT).
- Participants build the chat window program.
- Each participant enters their first name (same as on their name tag) in the username field.
- They start the program and begin chatting with each other.
💬 Trust Building Phase
- The facilitator allows the participants to chat freely to build trust and familiarity.
- After some time, the facilitator impersonates some participants by sending messages using their names.
- These messages should contain information that triggers strong reactions.
- The goal is to create confusion until participants realize they did not send those messages.
🛑 Facilitator’s Role in Deception
- The facilitator reinforces trust in the system by saying things like:
- 🖥️ “The message appears on everyone’s screen, so it must have come from you. The computer cannot lie!”
- After a while, the facilitator stops the experiment and reveals the deception.
3️⃣ Discussion: Can We Trust Online Messages?
The facilitator leads a group discussion on digital trust:
- Can we trust messages displayed on a computer?
- How can we create digital trust?
- 🔑 Using a shared secret exchanged via another method.
- 🛑 Verifying a person’s digital identity through authentication.
4️⃣ Debriefing
Participants reflect on:
- How easily trust can be manipulated online.
- How to verify the authenticity of a sender.
- The importance of digital security and identity verification.
🔎 Summary
- Participants build a chat system and interact.
- The facilitator manipulates chat messages to show identity deception.
- Participants discuss online trust and authentication methods.
- The session ends with a debrief on cybersecurity best practices.
This activity teaches the importance of verifying online identities and understanding digital trust! 🔐
🎯 Get Involved!
🔗 GitHub Repository → github.com/wocsa/ludigeeks
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