Teaching Cryptography Activity in Taiwan's High Schools

• Authors: Long-Yuan Yan
• Venue: Proceedings of the 2007 conference on Supporting Learning Flow through Integrative Technologies
• Year: 2007

This article tries to experiment with a cryptography activity in Taiwan's high schools. In this activity it is unnecessary to use the computer; instead, the hand-on activity is used to teach the concepts of cryptography. We teach the “Can I do the cryptography as well?” and “Funny Code --The Dancing Men” in normal classrooms with activity-based course, and these concepts originally can only be taught in the university. The results of experiment show some positive facts. Before the learning activities, 60% students thought that cryptography was very difficult and 56% students thought that cryptography was not easy to understand. However, after the learning activities, 41% students like this new method; 44% students think that cryptography is simple; 24% students think that cryptography is easy to understand. These data show this pedagogy deserves further analysis and to be put into practice on a large scale.