Mixed Reality Based Interactive Cybersecurity Education for Middle School Students

世界各地的个人和组织正在转向信息和通信技术（ICT），以帮助管理生活和业务的各个方面。与此同时，ICT公司正在不断开发新的方法来提高在线安全性、保密性和隐私性。网络安全专业人员的短缺给国家和国土安全带来了风险。网络安全专业人员缺乏多样性加剧了这些风险。需要满足更多样化学生群体需求并易于教育工作者实施的网络安全教育计划。这些项目需要让学生从中学开始接触网络安全，那时他们开始巩固自己的学术和其他身份。通过增强网络安全知识和积极的动机，这些计划可能会导致未来对网络安全职业的潜在兴趣，从而为强大而多样化的网络安全劳动力创造一个渠道。该项目将制定，设计和原型化创新的混合现实（MR）学习内容，使网络安全概念具体化，并吸引中学生。这项工作将由来自特拉华州大学的跨学科学者团队指导，并与计算机科学教师协会特拉华州分会、当地学校和地区建立伙伴关系。该项目旨在通过设计、试点和实施工作，直接影响10名中学教师和大约350名学生，包括残疾学生。该项目有三个目标：（1）迭代设计一套具体和互动的MR活动，解决关键的网络安全概念（例如，在整个设计过程中，教师和学生都参与其中（包括隐写术、网络钓鱼和防火墙）;（2）增加学生对关键网络安全概念的了解，了解网络安全的重要性，以及对网络安全职业的兴趣;以及（3）为计算中的MR活动制定一套设计原则。MR活动将根据观察、教师访谈和学生调查反馈进行迭代改进。简短的预试验将测试材料的可用性，并为教师提供一个课堂环境，以评估成功。最后的试点将在中学教室进行，采用前/后测试设计，评估学生的网络安全学习和动机。基于对劳动力网络安全的广泛关注，这项工作将有助于为K-12网络安全教育创造新的模式，同时让学生接触新兴技术。研究工具、评估工具和这项工作的成果将通过讲习班、出版物、介绍和门户网站传播。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划资助，该计划支持建立对实践，计划元素，背景和过程的理解的项目，有助于增加学生对科学，技术，工程，信息和通信技术（ICT）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Individuals and organizations around the world are turning to information and communication technology (ICT) to help manage all aspects of life and businesses. ICT companies are at the same time continuously developing new approaches to advance online safety, security, and privacy. The shortage of cybersecurity professionals creates risks for both national and homeland security. These risks are exacerbated by the lack of diversity among cybersecurity professionals. Cybersecurity education programs that meet the needs of a more diverse group of students and can be easily implemented by educators are needed. These programs need to expose students to cybersecurity starting in the middle-school years when they begin to solidify their academic and other identities. By enhancing the knowledge of cybersecurity and positive motivation, such programs could lead to potential future interest in cybersecurity careers, thus creating a pipeline for a robust and diverse cybersecurity workforce. This project will formulate, design, and prototype innovative mixed-reality (MR) learning content to make cybersecurity concepts concrete and engaging for middle school students. The work will be guided by an interdisciplinary team of scholars from the University of Delaware and involves partnerships with the Delaware Chapter of the Computer Science Teachers Association, local schools and districts. The project is intended to directly impact 10 middle school teachers and approximately 350 students including students with disabilities through the design, pilot, and implementation efforts.The project is guided by three goals: (1) iteratively design a set of concrete and interactive MR activities addressing key cybersecurity concepts (e.g., steganography, phishing, and firewalls) with teacher and student input throughout the design process; (2) increase student knowledge of key cybersecurity concepts, understanding of the importance of cybersecurity, and interest in cybersecurity careers; and (3) produce a set of design principles for MR activities in computing. MR activities will be iteratively refined based on observations, teacher interviews, and student survey feedback. Short pre-pilots will test the usability of the materials and provide teachers a classroom context to evaluate success. A final pilot will be conducted in middle school classrooms utilizing a pre/posttest design with assessments of student cybersecurity learning and motivation. Based on the wide attention on cybersecurity in the workforce, this work will help create new models for K-12 cybersecurity education while exposing students to new and emerging technologies. The research instruments, assessment tools, and outcomes of this work will be disseminated through workshops, publications, presentations, and a web portal. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.