cybersecurity threats for schools

The top 5 cybersecurity threats for schools

BY EARL D. LAING November 29th, 2017
https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/11/29/cybersecurity-threats-schools/

1. Link Security

From ransomware to phishing and other types of security breaches, direct contact is the number one way that you can create a vulnerability in your system. Those who commit these online crimes are finding smarter and sneakier ways to infiltrate your data every day. Sometimes the attack can even come as an email from a legitimate sender, or appear to be a perfectly normal message on social media. The goal is usually to get you to click on a link.

Solution: Make sure the security preferences for your email account(s) are set up to filter spamming, phishing and executable files that aren’t recognized.

2. Unknown Devices

Solution: Your IT system should include a solution that tracks all devices, including those not owned by your school, that enter the network.

3. Out of Date Technology

Contrary to popular misconception, user interaction isn’t always required for a cyber attack to be launched. The WannaCry attack targeted hundreds of computers all with the same security vulnerability on their Windows operating systems.

Solution: Again, an IT solution that tracks all devices is important, but one that can also check on software upgrades and block access to certain apps is ideal.

4. User Error

A data breach in Florida is just one example of the chaos user error can provoke. This issue didn’t begin with hackers at all. It began with carelessness that caused sensitive information to become public.

User error occurs regularly, and a common root of this is failing to restrict access to files or certain sites that may be compromised.

Solution: Restrict user access to sensitive documents only to those who absolutely need them, and make sure that your site architecture is set up to require a secure login for access. You may also want to create a white list of safe sites and applications and block the rest.

5. No Backup

As disheartening as it sounds, even when you take all the necessary precautions to protect your vital information, data breaches can still occur. When an attack happens, it’s often a major blow to productivity to try and get all the information back into a secure place. Worse, vital work can be lost for good.

Solution: Install a backup system on each school device that sends data to a remote server throughout the day (not just at night) to help make sure nothing is lost.

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more on cybersecurrity in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=cybersecurity

digital badging

Learning, Engaging, Enhancing with Digital Badging

Friday, September 29, 2017https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2017/9/learning-engaging-enhancing-with-digital-badging

The Integrated Advising and Planning for Student Success or ‘iPASS’ grant has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; it supports the transformation of advising and student services in higher ed through the redesign of structures, processes, and technologies. To date, this work is ongoing in 26 grantee institutions across the country.

created and delivered our Series on Excellence in Advising through iPASS as a semi self-paced online course to ensure the broadest access possible to all grantees.

 

Analytics Data Integration and Governance

Supporting Analytics through Data Integration and Governance

https://www.educause.edu/focus-areas-and-initiatives/enterprise-and-infrastructure/enterprise-it-program/supporting-analytics-through-data-integration-and-governance

Support analytics initiatives with data integration and governance. The changing landscape of enterprise IT is characterized by an expanding set of services, systems, and sourcing strategies. Data governance, cross-enterprise partnerships, and data integration are key ingredients in supporting higher education’s growing need for reliable information.

Enterprise IT Case Studies

In this set of EDUCAUSE Review case studies, see how Drake University, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Montana improved their analytics initiatives through data integrations and governance.

 

 

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more on analytics in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=analytics

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=data+governance

Twitter and ed leadership

Twitter chats can boost student voice, enhance digital citizenship

  Dec. 19, 2017

https://www.educationdive.com/news/twitter-chats-can-boost-student-voice-enhance-digital-citizenship/513340/

My note:
This is another example of blanket statements aimed to bank on buzzwords and fashionable tendencies. Indeed, use of social media is an imperative skill for any educational leader, since it provides a modern venue to communicate with the rest of the stakeholders in the educational process: parents, students etc.
However, the process of social media use in education is rather more complex as presented in this article. e.g.:

  • why Twitter? why is Twitter chosen by the author as the social media platform, considering that Snapchat is the social media app by choice of teenagers?
    https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2018/01/06/snapchat-leading-social-media-app/
  • why the hashtag use is the one and only altmetric consideration for deep data analysis? The author suggests taking “advantage of an analytic tool to measure effectiveness and participation,” but there is no specific recommendation and the choice of the analytical tool as well as the process of analysis is a science on its own
  • how educators, as suggested by the author, “want to guide students on comment intensity and type while keeping them on topic”? Indeed, an educator abiding by constructivism will facilitate and guide, yet there is a fine boundary between facilitating and dominating the conversation with “guidance.”

The most useless suggestion in the article:
“For administrators, Twitter chats also provide an opportunity to gain student and parent perspectives while giving them more voice in what’s going on within a school or district.”

Are administrators willing to yield that power to their constituency? What does the current research on educational leaders’s attitude reveal regarding their willingness to engage in such open (and difficult to control) discourse? How is such attitude to be changed: this is missing in this article.

What is your approach to the institutional use of social media at your school? 

 

immersive learning

VR and AR: Learners as Creators and World Builders of Our Immersive Future

Friday, December 15, 2017https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2017/12/vr-and-ar-learners-as-creators-and-world-builders-of-our-immersive-future

By creating engaging 360° tours, students are not only learning these new tools for themselves but are also helping local organizations see the possibility of VR for marketing and public relations.

some key takeaways from the projects that we have seen:

  • Let the students lead: In all of these projects, students are taking the initiative. The institutions are providing the technology, the space, organizational vision, and in some cases, academic credit. At NYU Tandon, students organized the entire conference, doing publicity, registration, catering, and scheduling (see figure 4). They brought in a diverse group of speakers from academic, tech, and startup backgrounds. The event included TED-style spotlights, talks, workshops, and demos.
  • Don’t compromise on space: Brown University’s Granoff Center for the Creative Arts is designed to encourage cross-discipline collaboration. The Tandon event used the main auditorium and the flagship NYU MakerSpace. Space influences behavior and is crucial in driving collaboration and active participation. In addition, to produce VR and AR/MR experiences students need access to high-end technology and, in some cases, motion-capture studios and 360° cameras.
  • Create opportunities for social impact: Many of these programs are open to the local community or have been designed to have an impact outside higher education. At Emporia State, students are using VR and 360° video to help local businesses. The Gaspee Affair VR experience at Brown University will become a resource for teaching middle and high school students.
  • Showcase student work: So often in education, the work students do in a course is only seen by others in the same class. Like the example at Texas A&M, all of these experiences have a connection with their campus or larger community. VR and AR engender a level of excitement that gets students engaged with each other and encourage peer learning. It’s worth it to seek out opportunities to bring this work to community events.

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more on VR in education in this IMS blog

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=virtual+reality+education

China’s Transformation of Higher Education

John Richard Schrock: China’s Transformation of Higher Education

John Richard Schrock is Professor of Biology Emeritus at Emporia State University in Kansas. He is currently in China. While China is growing its universities, the U.S. is retreating from its historic commitment to make higher education accessible to all qualified students.

the elderly administrators soon retired. There was no supply of experienced junior administrators due to a Cultural Revolution that had closed many universities for a decade. That left China’s Ministry of Education with an opportunity to completely re-build its university system nationwide.

So by 1998, the situation was different. Weak universities were closed or merged with strong institutions. China doubled its university capacity, then doubled it again in the early 2000s, and doubled it again by 2010. The cities of Xi’an and Guangzhou built “university cities” with 10 new universities each. Chongqing built their “university city” with 17 different universities totaling 300,000 faculty, students and staff. –An area equivalent to the size of Wichita! -But all just universities. This was the greatest expansion of higher education in human history.

Now, the majority of their students who passed the gao kao high school leaving exam could now attend college. But students would now pay full tuition. And that greatly improved the faculty salaries and living conditions. Classrooms and labs soon became state-of-the-art.

In 1995, China selected over a hundred universities for its “211 Project,” feeding federal money toward building modern universities.

And as of two months ago, China began its Double World-Class Project. Their Ministry selected 42 universities to move to world-class status by 2050. 36 are Category A and 6 are Category B with a focus on applied research. It also has over 400 “key disciplines” spread across these and another 50 provincial universities that will receive additional generous governmental support.

Their National Natural Science Foundation announced a dramatic increase in grant funding two years ago. With a decade of substantial cash incentives for publishing in high ranked English journals, Chinese researchers have rapidly risen in authorship of research papers in the top science journals Science and Nature, second only to the U.S. in authorships. If this trend continues, China will be the top producer of research in a few more years.

For nearly four decades, China has invested in roads, railways, and other infrastructure. But the most important of these investments was education. Roads and rails move people around. Education moves people ahead. And it has paid off in raising the productivity of China’s population beyond expectations. The affluence of their institutions and the majority of their students reflect that payback. China understands that education is not just for filling those jobs needed today.

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more on China in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=china

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2018/04/21/ai-china-education/

WhatsApp privacy France

French privacy watchdog raps WhatsApp over Facebook data sharing

 France’s data privacy watchdog may fine messaging app WhatsApp if it does not comply with an order to bring its sharing of user data with parent company Facebook into line with French privacy law.
Separately, Germany’s cartel office said on Tuesday it had found Facebook had abused its dominant market position, in a ruling that questioned the company’s model of monetizing the personal data of its users through targeted advertising.
My note: it seems the EU is gearing toward in increase scrutiny of social media giants regarding users’ privacy:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2018/01/05/tinder-dating-privacy/ 

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more on privacy in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=privacy

 

snapchat leading social media app

Snapchat is still the network of choice for U.S. teens — and Instagram is Facebook’s best shot at catching up

Good news, Snap investors. By

https://www.recode.net/2017/12/16/16783570/snapchat-instagram-teenagers-rbc-survey-favorite-app

  • Some 79 percent of U.S. 13- to 18-year-olds surveyed said they have a Snapchat account, more than any other type of social media. Of that age group, 73 percent have an Instagram account and just 57 percent say they are on Facebook.
  • Respondents had to choose only one social network they could keep if they were “trapped on a deserted island.” This time, 44 percent of teens picked Snapchat, ahead of Instagram (24 percent) and Facebook (14 percent). One year ago, for RBC’s same survey question, the percentage of teens who insisted on keeping Snapchat on a desert island led with 28 percent — suggesting the app is still growing in necessity/popularity among young people.

Snapchat features
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more on Snapchat for education in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=snapchat

students and etext

Student Engagement with E-Texts: What the Data Tell Us

by Serdar Abaci, Joshua Quick and Anastasia Morrone Monday, October 9, 2017

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/10/student-engagement-with-etexts-what-the-data-tell-us

  • This case study of Indiana University’s e-text initiative reports on students’ actual use of and engagement with digital textbooks.
  • In a typical semester, students read more in the first four weeks and less in later weeks except during major assessment times; in a typical week, most reading occurs between 5:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. from Monday to Thursday, indicating that students use e-texts mainly as a self-study resource.
  • Highlighting was the markup feature most used by students, whereas use of the other interactive markup features (shared notes, questions, and answers) was minimal, perhaps because of students’ lack of awareness of these features.
  • Research found that higher engagement with e-texts (reading and highlighting) correlated with higher course grades.

Although cost savings is often cited as a key advantage of electronic textbooks (aka, e-textbooks or simply e-texts), e-texts also provide powerful markup and interaction tools. For these tools to improve student learning, however, their adoption is critically important.
Indiana U etext initiative

The Indiana University e-texts program, which began in 2009, has four primary goals:

  1. Drive down the cost of materials for students
  2. Provide high-quality materials of choice
  3. Enable new tools for teaching and learning
  4. Shape the terms of sustainable models that work for students, faculty, and authors

To date, student savings on textbooks amount to $21,673,338. However, we recognize that many students do not pay the full list price for paper textbooks when they purchase online, buy used copies, or recoup some of their costs when they resell their texts after the semester is over.
herefore, we divide the calculated savings by two and report that total as a more accurate representation of student savings. Consequently, we claim that students have saved about $11 million since IU’s e-texts program started in spring 2012.

In addition to printing through the e-text platform, students can purchase a print-on-demand (PoD) copy of an e-text for an additional fee.

One downside of e-texts is that students lease their textbook for a limited time instead of owning it. This lease generally lasts a semester or six months, and students lose their access afterwards. However, with IU’s e-text model, students get access to the textbook before the first day of class and maintain their access until they graduate from Indiana University. That is, students can go back to the e-texts after their course to review or reference the content in the book. This could be especially important if the e-text course is a prerequisite for another course.

 

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more on etext and ebooks in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=ebook

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