Comparing Teacher and Creator Perspectives on the Design of Cybersecurity and Privacy Educational Resources

Various educational resources have been developed to teach children about cybersecurity and privacy. Our qualitative interview study with 15 middle school teachers and 8 creators of cybersecurity educational resources compares and analyzes the design considerations of cybersecurity resource creators with the resource selection strategies and classroom practices of teachers in their delivery of cybersecurity lessons to middle school students. Our thematic analysis showed that teachers predominately used free, low-tech, modular, and modifiable resources such as lesson plans, short educational videos, and segmented learning modules to fit their classroom teaching needs. The topics focus on helping students develop critical thinking skills rather than technical knowledge. Creators, on the other hand, focused their resource design considerations primarily on cybersecurity trends and students' media learning preferences, such as developing games and other types of interactive content to increase engagement. We highlight areas of misalignment between creators' design considerations compared to how teachers access and deliver cybersecurity and privacy lessons to students.