Archive for the ‘Education and Technology’ Category

The University of California at Berkeley is taking the protection of their students’ personal data very seriously and have implemented data-masking techniques in an effort to thwart identity theft and security breaches. 

The school understands the importance of this after hackers broke into the health-services database earlier this year and gained access to the personal records of about 160,000 individuals.

The data-masking technology is incredibly interesting since it hides data in plain sight so that a students first and last name could be right there on the computer screen but, because the lettering has been moved around, it camouflages the true information.  The same technique is being used to conceal student identification numbers and other sensitive data.

Since a master copy of the real information is kept in a separate database it is still important for educational institutions to make sure that their network is properly protected with up-to-date security software.

Students can take the extra step of making sure that their personal computers are protected with products like Computrace LoJack for Laptops.

image: sxc.hu/svilen001

Steven Hopper, an Education Administration Master’s student at the Iowa State University, put together a 2-minute inspirational video about the need to meet the demands of a new age in education:

As Steven notes, embracing technology in the classroom is about educating our kids to meet the needs of an evolving society. We touch on topics of eLearning and technology in education from time to time on the blog, but we don’t often sit back to think about how important it is that these changes happen in education. I hope you enjoy the video!

Via dangerously irrelevant

Absolute Software will be hosting a webinar on May 20th at 11am PT / 2pm ET about navigating K-12 Computing in a time of shrinking budgets, high computer theft and drifting assets.

The webinar will include input from Eric Willard, Chief Technology Officer, Community Unit School District 300, and Carol Johnston, Senior Product Manager, Absolute Software.

Learn how one of Illinois’ largest districts proves accountability by:

• Tracking laptops at all times using minimal resources
• Minimizing the risk of loss and theft
• Monitoring hardware/software usage for effective budgeting
• Avoiding financial penalties by ensuring software license compliance

Learn more about the webinar here.

Edweek.org has released their newest annual report, Technology Counts 2009: Breaking Away from Tradition, which looks at e-education and opportunities for raising achievement at the K-12 level.

The report indicates that online education is not just being used for advanced students but for struggling students too. On another positive note, the report found that school districts and teachers previously who felt threatened by online education are now embracing the new technologies and ways to hybridize the learning process.

Referencing a report from Sloan-C about K-12 Online Learning, it was shown that the number of K-12 students engaged in online courses in 2007-2008 was up 47% to over 1 million students.

The edweek.org report looks at the changing education environment, key findings from the 2009 State Technology Reports, analyses state-by-state grades and other state data, including use of technology and data access. Read more here.

The Canadian government ran a video competition for youth called the 2008 My Privacy & Me National Video Competition. The seven finalists, and the winning entry, have been announced! Each video tries to teach youth how technology affects privacy in some way.

The first place video, made by the John F. Ross CVI school in Ontario, was entitled ‘A Lesson in Privacy’:

The video shows a little turtle signing up for Facebook, providing lots of private information that people shouldn’t share online. A little snail tries to teach the turtle a lesson in online privacy. The 7 finalists can all be viewed here.

If you’re an educator or parent, perhaps the videos would be a good tool to illustrate the topic of privacy. Or perhaps you can use it as inspiration to start your own video project! Also check out the My Privacy Quiz, to see how well you know your privacy rights in Canada, and the top 10 things you can do to protect your privacy.

Via privacy commissioner blog

Good news for U.S. K-12 schools and colleges. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Obama administration’s $819 billion stimulus package. The bill sets aside $142 billion for education.

Both the Senate and House versions of the stimulus package would supply about $20 billion for school infrastructure improvements, though the funding would be apportioned differently: K-12 schools would get $14 billion and colleges $6 billion in the House version, while the Senate version allocates $16 billion for K-12 schools and $3.5 billion for colleges. The House version also sets aside another $1 billion for educational technology, while the Senate version includes ed-tech funding as part of the infrastructure line item.

No matter how the education portion of the bill pans out in the Senate, Education still wins. And when passed, schools and colleges will be able to continue to give their students and teachers the technology that they need for the best learning environment.

Via eSchool News

On November 17th, the One Laptop Per Child initiative will come to Amazon. The mission of OLPC is to make sure kids in the developing worlds are able to learn effectively on their own personal laptops, to that “they, their families and their communities can openly learn and learn about learning.”

In addition to making sure kids in developed countries have laptops, the OLPC Association focuses on designing, manufacturing and distributing laptops into the hands of children in lesser-developed countries. Of course, in order that the laptops can be used, the association focuses on getting government support to create programs so that children can not only own, but use, laptops.

The ability to support OLPC was previously restricted to the OLPC site – however, on November 17th, news has it that Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk will be participating in the Give 1 Get 1 program. Under this program, people can buy one of the XO laptops for themselves and donate the other to a child in a developing country – the starter price to give 1 and get 1 is just $199.

You can support the program as an individual or business, but you can also help in creating open source software and learning resources (info here). For future news, you can follow the One Laptop per Child initiative on Twitter or read the independent OLPCNews blog.

Sean Aune has put up a very useful piece on Mashable entitled “35 Tools for Teachers, Tutors and Students.” Great timing for an article like this with school so close around the corner again. The list of tools encompass sites and services for everything from learning management to social networking.

Head to Mashable for full descriptions of each service, but here are some that pop out for me:

• Grading services like Engrade.com – a free gradebook & attendance chart that students, parents & administrators can also access. There are several services that do this, some free, and some with the ability for parents and teachers to message privately.
• Learning platforms like Blackboard.com – an online learning platform for virtual course delivery and classroom instruction. Many of these allow for personalized learning opportunities, student progress monitoring, and the opportunity for parents to get involved. Some, like Blackboard, offer professional development for teachers. Also check out HaikuLS.com
• Organization systems like Studeous.com – kind of like the learning platforms above, this helps teachers stay organized. Organize your classes, post homework, upload files, embed videos or podcasts, and more. You can create quizzes quickly, communicate easily with students with the chat feature, and even has events and club pages within the system.
• Educational social networking sites like Classroom20.com – a site for teachers to connect socially, but also to share best practices. HotChalk is another site that is meant to connect students, teachers and parents. It has a big user base and many free learning resources.

Do you have favorite tools you use as a student or a teacher? If so, drop a comment!

Tags: online tools, education, online learning, education online, teachers, teaching, education, education 2.0, education tools, social networking

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has released the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) 2nd edition. This 2008 edition is updated from one released in 2000 and sets the bar for integration of technology into education.

While the 1st edition focused on concepts, knowledge and skills, the change in the technological landscape in the last 8 years has meant many changes. As such, the 2008 standard provides a framework for taking education into the digital age.

Examples of information in the 2008 NETS standard include:

• engaging students with real-world issues using digital tools
• model collaborative knowledge
• use technology to enable students to pursue individual goals
• let students actively manage their own learning
• teach responsible social interactions with the use of technology
• participate in global learning communities

Check out the 2008 standards here.

Hat tip to sjbrooks-young Tags: iste, nets, technology, education, technology standards

SC Magazine has published an article about data security and higher education, written by Josh Shaul of Application Security. The article examines the importance of balancing the need for the free exchange of information with data security risks. As Josh Shaul points out, enterprise security systems are not set up for university data systems and needs, which makes for unique challenges.

Recommendations for data security in higher education include:

• Move towards a centralized IT policy - departmental IT policies make it impossible to be proactive with data security
• Understand the culture & its risks – the demands for access to information by students, professors, administrators and more with few control policies is a culture issue that increases risks to inside breaches
• Restrict access - given that so many people must have access to data, put all high-value data into a secure protected database – a centralized place with restricted access & tight controls. Monitor activity in real time.
• Identify flaws in the system - look at unpatched systems, weak passwords, excessive user access & monitoring. Audit regularly.
• Automate - use a system that automates security process and reports, freeing up IT time for more proactive security measures
• Add real-time detection - have an alert system to deliver intrusion detection warnings in real time (in addition to real-time monitoring of user activity)

Many of these suggestions hold true in any industry, but understanding the culture of higher education and current IT policies, it’s clear that data security requires a fundamental overhaul for many institutions.

To learn how Absolute Software can help improve data security for higher education institutions, read here.

Image: darnok @morguefile ; Tags: database security, education, education security, it security, higher education, data security