The digital teacher assistant and FERPA:
there are security issues.
Preliminary consideration of privacy issues in virtual worlds when DTA collect data traceable to individual students. This article is explicitly licensed Public Domain (CC0).
The Empty Classroom
Security here?
FERPA compliance
- Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
- FERPA (Wikipedia)
- Privacy of education records (search)
DTA and FERPA compliance
- The Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) for MUVES (virtual worlds): Summary
- A Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) in MUVE (virtual world): What would it do?
- DTA is creating and transmitting personally identifiable student records.
- DTA must make a reasonable effort to keep these records private.
- FERPA applies only in the US, but other nations may have similar laws.
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Suggested efforts to ensure privacy
Level 1: Secure environment
- The digital environment should be entirely under the control of the school.
- The school admits only students and its authorized personnel to classroom regions.
- Kitely offers themed "grids". Independent websites using Kitely tech but managed by an organization
Level 2: Secure transmission
- The viewers currently used in OpenSimulator grids do not use secure transmission.
- Transmission of student records can probably be secure (https) by design of the API.
- Whether a secure API is adequate security is a legal question.
- Level 2 security is only needed if data includes student records with personal identification.
Preliminary assessment of security for DTA
Web-worlds
- CybaLOUNGE
- 3DWebWorldz
- Summary article
- Webworlds are web sites. They can offer the same security as any other web site.
Installed virtual worlds
- I know only about OpenSimulator and Second Life
- I only know enough to cite generally recognized vulnerabilities.
- The Organization service of Kitely seems to meet Level 1 requirements.
- The terms of service of Second Life may conflict with the privacy of student products.
- Common viewers in OpenSimulator do not meet level 2 requirements.
- Schools could provide security by running their own grid and all communication under their own control, with end-to-end encryption.
- But that might be expensive.
- Schools could provide security by using inworld nicknames that do not identify the students.
- The matching the nicknames to student IDs would be handled by batch registration.
- Some modules of DTA collect no personal information and so have no privacy issue.
More about DTA
- Will the Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) need artificial intelligence?
- Digicoach can support homework in virtual worlds with JIT learning, immediate feedback
- A Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) in MUVE (virtual world): What would it do?
- A digital teaching assistant (DTA) in a virtual world. Can it be done?
- Digital coaching is needed for the DTA: Do we have the technology for that?
- Just-In-Time (JIT) learning in virtual schools, maybe with DTA coaching. Language as an example
- Digicoach for project-management in self-managed teams: (Note: skills to be learned in doing these tasks)
- Online education, sure. But why a virtual campus? Why in a virtual world (MUVE)?
- Suppose the real objective in school is to pass multiple-choice tests. Can a digital TA handle test-based learning?
Visit me on the web
- Drop by my web offices Weekdays: 12:-12:30 pm Central time (US)
- Cybalounge and 3DWebWorldz (Orientation room)
- I will be in both places, so you may need to speak to get my attention.
- Web-worlds, 3D virtual worlds running in a browser. Summary
- And we can visit the Writer's Workshop on the Web
- Don't register -- enter as guest.
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