The Cyber School

How much of our lives should be governed by technology, and under what terms? Youth needs to “get techy” because technology is not neutral. Too many issues are being decided as “true” for people without their understanding and knowledge. My solution is Cyber School, a project-based learning lab for ages 10-12 in the form of collective games and individual projects. My formula is: truth seeking skills + cybersecurity knowledge, powered by chatbot conversational technology.

• Fast democratization. As students gain access to formal and informal knowledge provided online by simple Google searches, discussions on social media and occasional free online courses, they become more actively involved in their own learning, without, however, receiving any guidance along the way about how to use digital tools. Such guidance would mainly seek to address issues related to tracking, privacy and data analytics. 
• Asymmetry of information. Asymmetry of information affects different groups to a varying degree. For example, a homeless person using facebook to read about election may not know about target advertising and algorithms, which define what he or she sees on the facebook newsfeed. Similarly, a young teenager has only a vague idea about the monetization strategies of instagram “stars”, when he or she consumes information about topics such as fashion, diet, and health. 

I am serving Russian parents who themselves lack digital literacy skills, and they are worried about privacy of their children and how their children's lives, studies and free time are affected by technology. 

Four components: 1) Active learning by doing 2) Applied to real life situations/news 3) Cyber knowledge 4) Truth dilemmas, powered by chatbots. While coaching is available, the majority of assessments is done with chatbot graded scenario-based learning. 

I am really leaning towards a studio project-based approach empowered by technology for greater access. I was inspired by the studio model to the extent that students have: 

1. logs and blogposts of what they worked on and how, written by the students 
2. showcase of their work, that is documented by the students and by the coaches 
3. active modelling
4. work in the space between student’s actual and potential capabilities (engaging)

Performance: product and process evaluation 

Product assessment should include evaluation of student demonstrations and investigations, rubrics for the portfolios and mini self-assessment tests to check if the concepts are understood.  Process evaluation should include clinical interviews with an advisor, documented observations by the teacher, and student’s logs and journals. 

Product Assessment 

• Did the students manipulate the familiar parts to come up with a new whole? 

• Does the student make a project report explaining the goals of their work?

• Does the project demonstrate the principles behind the concept to address the dilemmas? 

• Does the student have a detailed journal with observation documenting the work that has been done? 

Process evaluation 

Was the student inspired by the variety of the sources for the project?

Did students come up with their own original ideas by analyzing the sources?

Does the process involve different disciplines?

Chatbot technology for assessment and situational learning. 

Students find value of cybersecurity knowledge as applied to their Internet and social media use, studying and reading about current world events, as per interviews conducted with youth upon demonstrations of mini-lessons that I designed. 

My goal is to reach 0.5 million of users within the first year of operation.

2 people, me and my partner, who deals with financing. 

I partnered with a chain of high schools in Spain who won the grant for cybersecurity education to test my solution with high schoolers. 

Scenario-based learning which I call truth dilemmas powered by tech-enhanced assessment, e.g. chatbots. 

I would like to find team members who understand the value cybersecurity knowledge provides for democracy, and why it should be added to math, language, and finance literacy skills of the youth. 

Community of likeminded people. 

Chatbot developers.

Women and LGBTQ community can be empowered by cybersecurity knowledge, especially in a more traditional society, such as Russia. With this grant, I will be able to fund scholarship for 20 women and LGBTQ community to gain cybersecurity and truth-seeking skills for free in my online project-based learning lab. 

Misinformation on facebook and on the news fuel discrimination and sometimes violence against refugee communities. My solution emphasizes cybersecurity knowledge for all people, as I believe technical foundations coupled with truth-seeking skills promote peace. My solution is powered by tech-enhanced assessments, such as conversational and situational learning with chatbot technology, which can be accessible all around the world. I am looking to partner with a service provider on the ground.

My solution fights disinformation by coupling technical knowledge with the focus on truth seeking. For example, while T1 companies own Internet submarine cables, we need to understand what happens at the traffic point of entry to be able to evaluate news, such as "Pakistan highjacks half of the Internet traffic". I would like to be considered for this price, as in my solution youth helps older generation to deal with immense technological leaps that their parents and grandparents have experienced.