The metaverse—Not a new frontier for crime.

Law enforcement co-ordination agencies have recently issued position/guidance documents relating to the potential for VR environments (the “Metaverse”) to become new environment for criminal activity, and calling for additional work to enhance investigative capability. By reviewing the historic development of VR and comparing it with the appearance of the WWW, the authors propose that the situation is not as dire as the issued documents may suggest, but represents an evolutionary rather than revolutionary step in online experiences. They conclude, therefore, that while ability to examine VR presentation/interaction devices may be useful, continued development of ability to examine online systems remains essential

Experiencias de enseñanza a estudiantes de informática con discapacidad en Universidades del Reino Unido

El cambio en el entorno legal, social y educativo en el Reino Unido ha resultado en un incremento del número de estudiantes con discapacidad que entran en la enseñanza universitaria. Algunas materias han ido experimentando esta expansión en el número de estudiantes con discapacidad antes que otras, y la ciencia de la computación (o la informática en general) es una de estas materias. Las universidades han respondido de diferentes maneras al cambio de naturaleza de los estudiantes en estos cursos, y la Universidad de Hull ha sido particularmente activa en el apoyo, formación y atracción de estudiantes con discapacidad. Este documento perfila el entorno en el Reino Unido para estudiantes discapacitados en la educación universitaria y las experiencias de un departamento y una materia en una universidad. El capítulo examina la tecnología de apoyo empleada y los cambios requeridos en el entorno y la enseñanza y aprendizaje. El capítulo concluye mirando hacia el futuro, hacia lo que se necesitará para superar las barreras tecnológicas y hacia las necesidades de nuevos cambios en el entorno y la enseñanza ante la continua expansión. The change in the legal, social and educational environments in the UK have resulted in increasing numbers of disabled students entering higher education. Some subjects have been experiencing this expansion in disabled student numbers earlier than others, and Computer Science (or Computing generally) is one of those subject areas. Universities have responded in various ways to the changing nature of the students’ on their courses, and the University of Hull has been particularly pro-active in supporting, nurturing and attracting disabled students. This paper outlines the environment in the UK for disabled students in Higher Education and the experiences of one department and one subject area at one university. The paper explores the assistive technology used, and the changes to the environment and the teaching and learning that were required. The paper concludes by looking towards the future and what new technological barriers will need to be overcome and what further changes to environment and teaching might be needed as the expansion continues

Ethical dilemmas in teaching computer and internet security

This paper could be subtitled "Are we teaching the next generation of computer criminals and internet terrorists"? This issue was raised by the Security Services as part of the collaborative network meeting in the area of IT Forensics and Data Analysis hosted by City University. These are valid concerns about the nature of material taught to computer science students in the area of security. The questions are also important ethical dilemmas for any professional working in the computer and internet security field. These are also applicable when discussing such security risks with the media, members of the public and even legislators. Information on vulnerabilities has to be presented so that it informs programmers and computer users about the areas of risk, but without providing recipes for them to use to conduct criminal activities or mischief themselves. The paper will look at several case studies from the curriculum at the University of Hull at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Some specific problem areas of email forgery, security of the Windows operating system and exploitation of buffer overflows, and deception in online auctions, will be explored

Ontology-based e-learning personalisation for disabled students in higher education

The number of students with disabilities in UK higher education institutions increases every year. Delivering education online is becoming increasingly challenging as institutions encounter some disabilities requiring adjustments of learning environments. The law requires that people with disabilities be given equivalent learning experiences to their non-disabled peers through "reasonable adjustments". Educational institutions have thus utilised assistive technologies to assist disabled students in their learning, but some of these technologies are incompatible with some learning environments, hence excluding some disabled students and resulting in a disability divide. To solve this problem, amongst other solutions, e-learning personalisation has been used and more recently, this is also achieved using Semantic Web technologies such as ontologies. Nevertheless, as ontologies are incorporated into learning environments little seems to be done to personalise learning for some disabled students. This study, in order to bridge the gap, proposes a personalisation approach based on a disability ontology containing information on various disabilities encountered in higher education, which can be used to present disabled students with learning resources relevant and suitable for their specific needs

Ontology‐driven disability‐aware e‐learning personalisation with ONTODAPS

Purpose- The purpose of this paper is to show how personalisation of learning resources and services can be achieved for students with and without disabilities, particularly responding to the needs of those with multiple disabilities in e-learning systems. The paper aims to introduce the ONTODAPS e-learning system which has the mechanism for such personalisation. Design/methodology/approach- This paper reviews current e-learning systems that provide personalisation for students, including their strengths and weaknesses. The paper presents personalisation and its techniques and then presents ONTODAPS which is an ontology-driven and disability-aware e-learning system which personalises learning resources and services to students. Three case studies are considered to show how personalisation is achieved using ONTODAPS. Findings- This paper shows that it is possible to use automated ontology-based agents intercommunicating to provide an effective personalisation for disabled students. The results reveal that ONTODAPS is flexible enough to provide enough control and freedom to drive their learning. The results also suggest that ONTODAPS has the ability to provide appropriate levels of learner control by allowing them to self-direct learning through personalising learning resources and then allowing them to choose which resources they wish to access. This thus gives them a sense of ownership and control. Research limitations/implications- This research reveals that it is possible for e-learning systems to personalise learning for users with multiple disabilities. Thus, by considering the needs of such users and consulting them in the design and development process, developers of e-learning systems can produce systems that are both accessible and usable to students with disabilities. Practical implications- The inclusion of multiple formats of learning resources and personalisation of their presentation to students means students will have increased access to such resources with the potential of consuming and assimilating the information. This also has the potential of improving understanding and hence and improvement in results. Originality/value- Although personalisation has been applied in e-commerce systems making them very successful, such personalisation is still a wish for e-learning systems which struggle to catch up. This research proposes a solution in the e-learning domain and its novelty is in its application to disabled students including those with multiple disabilities

Describing and assessing image descriptions for visually impaired web users with IDAT

People with visual impairments, particularly blind people face alot of difficulties browsing the web with assistive technologies such as screen readers, when websites do not conform to accessibility standards and are thus inaccessible. HTML is the basic language for website design but its ALT attribute on the IMG element does not adequately capture comprehensive image semantics and description in a way that can be accurately interpreted by screen readers, hence blind people do not usually get the complete description of the image. Most of the problems however arise from web designers and developers not including a description of an image or not comprehensively describing these images to people with visual impairments. In this paper, we propose the use of the Image Description Assessment Tool (IDAT), a Java-based tool containing some proposed heuristics for assessing how well an image description matches the real content of the image on the web. The tool also contains a speech interface which can enable a visually impaired individual to listen to the description of an image that has been uploaded unto the system