Large-scale internet user behavior analysis of a nationwide K-12 education network based on DNS queries

Abstract

To the best of our knowledge, this paper presents the first Internet Domain Name System (DNS) queries data study from a national K-12 Education Service Provider. This provider, called Plan Ceibal, supports a one-to-one computing program in Uruguay. Additionally, it has deployed an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure in all of Uruguay’s public schools and high-schools, in addition to many public spaces. The main development is wireless connectivity, which allows all the students (whose ages range between 6 and 18 years old) to connect to different resources, including Internet access. In this article, we use 9,125,888,714 DNS-query records, collected from March to May 2019, to study Plan Ceibal user’s Internet behavior applying unsupervised machine learning techniques. Firstly, we conducted a statistical analysis aiming at depicting the distribution of the data. Then, to understand users’ Internet behavior, we performed principal component analysis (PCA) and clustering methods. The results show that Internet use behavior is influenced by age-group and time of the day. However, it is independent of the geographical location of the users. Internet use behavior analysis is of paramount importance for evidence-based decision making by any education network provider, not only from the network-operator perspective but also for providing crucial information for learning analytics purposes.