Terms of Service

The terms of service pertain to the Out of Eden Learn website only. The website may include hyperlinks to websites or applications maintained or controlled by others. Harvard is not responsible for and does not routinely screen, approve, review or endorse the contents or use of any of the products or services that may be offered at these websites or applications. If you decide to access linked third-party websites or applications, you do so at your own risk.

For educators:

Before you sign up to have your students participate please be aware of the following:

Protecting Students’ Privacy

As an educator participating in this project, you must use your real name and institution for the purposes of this website. However, we do not collect or intend to have access to any personally identifiable information about students through the website. Specifically, you are to ensure that you and the students do not, when signing up to participate or at any other time while using this website, submit their or their classmates’ names, the names of any of their family members, their home address, email address or telephone number, any personal identifier such as a social security number, student ID number, or biometric record (such as a photograph or video of any student), any other indirect identifier, such as date of birth, place of birth, or any other information that alone or in combination with other information would permit the research team or any reasonable person to identify the students with reasonable certainty. While we ask the students to customize their avatar, the same guidelines to the creation of a username apply. In addition, please ensure that students do not upload a photo of themselves or any other person. If you contact us about any student, please do not identify them by name or using any identifier other than their username or unique avatar.

Maintaining a Respectful Environment

We expect students to show respect towards other community participants at all times. While we will not hold you responsible for everything that your students post, we are relying on you to monitor their activity on the website. We also expect you to talk with them about our Community Guidelines and the types of online posts that we consider inappropriate on Out of Eden Learn. We expect educators to have their students remove potentially offensive or inappropriate comments. Immediately alert the relevant teacher and/or Project Zero researchers if you see something inappropriate posted by another student using the report button on the website. Although we are not responsible to screen or review the content posted to our website, we do reserve the right at any time to remove content that does not comply with our guidelines. For further information, please see “Supporting Respectful Dialogue & Building Community in Out of Eden Learn: FAQs and Suggested Practices for Educators.”

Students' Work

Your students’ work, without their name or other identifiers, may be featured on the home page of the Out of Eden Learn website, which can be viewed by the whole world. We may include their work in blog posts, tweets, or other forms of online communication. We may include it in written publications. However, as noted above, we do not collect or have access to any personally identifiable information about students through the website, so student work that is featured or posted will not be associated with identifiable student information. If your students wish to modify their work or comments that appear on our website because they believe them to be inaccurate, or if they or their parents wish to delete any of the content they have posted, please contact us immediately with these requests (but do not identify the students except by their avatar). To submit a request, please send an email message to learn@outofedenwalk.com.

Our Research

You should know that Out of Eden Learn involves a research component. As researchers at Harvard University we are trying to find out how to develop the best online learning community that we can. We also want to find out what students are learning from it. You and your students will be asked questions about your experiences from time to time. You and/or some of your students may also be invited to talk with a researcher via Skype. However, we will not talk to students without obtaining consent from their parents. We will ask you to help us to obtain this parental permission and to organize the Skype interview(s). We may share data with collaborating researchers outside of Harvard University but all of our research is conducted in compliance with all applicable laws and in accordance with the requirements of Harvard’s Institutional Review Board (a form of research ethics committee).

How We Use Student Data

As noted above, we do not collect or have access to personally identifiable information about students, and we rely on you to ensure that students do not post identifiable information about themselves or others. In some cases, with prior parental consent, we may interview students via Skype for purposes of our research.

We use the student information that is submitted via our website, and student information that parents have provided their consent for us to use, only for scientific research purposes, and for no other purpose. We also make this student information available for the mutual educational benefit of other students and educators participating in Out of Eden Learn. We do not sell or license this information to others. We do not permit advertising on the Out of Eden Learn website or in our blog posts, tweets or other online communications.

Storage and Security

We store information we receive from you and from students on servers of companies we hire to provide services to us. Our third party service providers agree to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information we collect, receive, store or transmit. Nonetheless, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is completely secure. While our third party service providers endeavor to ensure the integrity and security of their network and systems, we cannot guarantee that these security measures will prevent “hackers” or other unauthorized persons from illegally accessing and obtaining information.

If we learn of a security breach involving your personal information, student information posted to our website and identified only by avatar, or identifiable information that the parent of a student has consented to provide to us, we may notify you by email and, if we do, you agree to provide written notification to the parents of any students whose identifiable information may have been improperly accessed. If you become aware of any security breach, please notify us immediately.

Institutional Support

It is important that you have institutional support to participate in this program. By agreeing to our terms of service you are saying that you have the permission of your school or program leader to have your students participate in Out of Eden Learn and that you have obtained all permissions from parents that might be needed for the students to participate. You may terminate your and your students’ participation in Out of Eden Learn at any time by providing notice to us at learn@outofedenwalk.com.

Support for Students

We have found that students quickly become invested in Paul Salopek’s Out of Eden Walk and start to feel close to him as a person. In the unlikely event that he should come to harm, it is important that your students be offered appropriate moral and psychological support.

Staying Informed and Communicating with Us and Other Educators in your Walking Party

We expect you to familiarize yourself with our platform and materials so that you understand how our online community works and what we are hoping to achieve with students. We expect you to respond to emails from Project Zero and to communicate with other teachers in your small learning community or “walking party”. During the confirmation process, we will ask for your consent for us to share your email address with the other educators in your walking party/parties to facilitate communication. However, we will not share your email address or other contact details with the wider Out of Eden Learn community.

Additional Terms and Consent For Educators in Certain non-U.S. Jurisdictions Regarding Handling of Personal Information:

The following applies to educators in countries outside the United States that have enacted a data protection law that applies to the processing of personal information by Harvard:

Harvard University is the controller of your personal information collected as part of Out of Eden Learn. We collect, store and otherwise process your contact information and other information you provide to us as an educator participating in the Out of Eden Learn project to meet our legitimate interests in administering the Out of Eden Learn project and conducting research. We also collect, store and otherwise process the information your students provide, shed of the students’ names and other ready identifiers. This type of data is known under some data protection laws as “pseudonymized data.”

Out of Eden Learn researchers may be based in countries other than your country, including the United States. Your information will therefore be transferred to the United States and potentially other countries for use by Out of Eden Learn personnel. The data protection laws of the United States may provide less protection than such laws in your country. Out of Eden Learn does require our third party service providers who process personal information to implement and maintain appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your information. You have the right to withdraw consent to the processing of your personal information at any time, but if you do so you will no longer be able to participate in Out of Eden Learn.

In certain cases, you may have the right, with respect to your personal information used in Out of Eden Learn processing activities to:

correct or update any of your personal information that is inaccurate;
restrict or limit the ways in which we collect and use your personal information under certain circumstances (for example, if you think the information is inaccurate);
object to the processing of your personal information;
request the deletion of your personal information if you are no longer participating in Out of Eden Learn, unless deletion would seriously impair our research or if your personal information is needed for us to comply with legal requirements;
obtain a copy of your personal information in an easily accessible format.

To submit a request, please send an email message to EEADataSubjectRequest@harvard.edu. Because we want to avoid taking action regarding your personal information at the direction of someone other than you, we will ask you for information verifying your identity. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe. If you have any complaints regarding our privacy practices, you may be able to file a complaint to your national data protection authority, supervisory authority, or other legal authority.

Your students located in non-U.S. jurisdictions that have enacted a data protection law that applies to the processing of personal information by Harvard also have these rights with respect to our processing of their personal information. Please let your students know that, if any of them wish to exercise one or more of these rights, he or she should contact you first. If you are contacted with such a request, you should immediately notify us (without disclosing the requesting student’s identity) so that we may respond to the request.

To comply with applicable data protection laws, we obtain active parental or guardian consent prior to any student in the European Economic Area (EEA) and in other countries that have enacted a data protection law participating in Out of Eden Learn’s online learning community. If you are an educator in the EEA or in a country that has enacted a data protection law,please download our parental consent form, distribute to parents/guardians of your students for their signatures, and collect the signed forms before students begin participating on the OOEL platform. *Important Note: Once you collect the signed consent forms, you do not need to send the consent forms back to us. However, you should collect and retain them yourself. Please contact the Out of Eden Learn team at learn.outofedenwalk.com with any questions or concerns.

For further information about how Harvard uses and shares information about individuals located in the EEA, please review our privacy disclosures at https://gdpr.harvard.edu/eeaprivacydisclosures

For students:

Before you sign up, please be aware of the following:

Your Privacy

You must not use your real name or other information that could be used to identify you when you sign up or at any other time on this website. Please make sure that your username does not include your real name or a nickname that you go by. You must not post pictures or videos that show you or your classmates. You must not share any personal contact details. This includes telephone numbers, addresses, emails, Facebook pages, etc. Please talk to your teacher before posting information to our website so that you understand what information you may and may not post about yourself or others.

Others' Privacy

You must not share other students’ work, photos, or comments with people outside the group without their permission.

Respecting Others

You are expected to follow our Community Guidelines. You must show respect toward other participants at all times. Remember that everything you post will be visible to teachers and researchers involved in the project. Do not post comments that tease others, even if they are other members of your class. We will not tolerate bullying. We will remove comments that express intolerance toward a particular group of people or community. If you see anything that seems inappropriate on the website, please report it immediately, using the button on the website.

Your Work

Your work may be featured on the home page of the Out of Eden Learn website, which can be viewed by the whole world. We may include your work in blog posts, tweets, or other forms of online communication. We may include it in written publications. However, your real name won’t be used given that we will never know your real identity. If you want to modify your work or comments that appear on our website because you believe they are inaccurate, or if you or your parents wish to delete any of the content you have posted, please discuss this with your parents and your teacher. Your teacher can then contact us to make these requests.

Our Research

Out of Eden Learn is a research project. Researchers at Harvard University are trying to find out how to develop the best online learning community that they can. They also want to find out what students are learning from it. You will be asked to answer survey questions about your experiences from time to time. A few of you will also be invited to talk with a researcher via Skype. You do not have to agree to do this. Also, we will not talk to you without getting permission from a parent or guardian. Your teachers will help us with the process of getting this permission.

Additional Information for Students in Certain non-U.S. Jurisdictions

The following applies to students in countries outside the United States that have enacted a data protection law that applies to the processing of personal information by Harvard:

Even though we do not know your name, you do have rights related to the information collected about you. Please talk over these rights with your parents. Your rights include: (1) the right to see and have a copy of the information collected about you, (2) the right to make sure that your information is correct, (3) the right to stop some uses of your information, (4) the right to request that your information be crossed out and deleted, if you are no longer participating in Out of Eden Learn, and (5) the right to file a complaint with a data protection office within the government. In some cases, these rights may be limited so that we can comply with certain laws. If you want more information about these rights, please talk to your teacher. Your teacher will be able to contact us for assistance.

For further information about how Harvard uses and shares information about individuals located in the European Economic Area, please review our privacy disclosures at https://gdpr.harvard.edu/eeaprivacydisclosures.