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!
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.
A task force that was charged to assess technologies for protecting children from unwanted online contact has put together a report. The report indicates that no single approach is a guarantee or foolproof system to protect kids. Therefore, they encourage that parents and teachers continue with vital oversight of Internet usage.
The Internet Safety Technical Task Force (ISTTF) out of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society was created in February 2008 by the Attorneys General Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking and MySpace. After a year of study, the final report was presented to the 52 Attorneys General in December of 2008. The task force was made up of a group of 29 Internet businesses, non-profits, academics and tech companies.
The report found that the risks minors face online are not significantly different than those they face offline – though they are complex and multifaceted. Part of this conclusion was drawn from a lack of data about sexual predators using social networking sites. As they age, the report found that minors were contributing to some of the problems they face online.
Interesting conclusions from the study:
Bullying and harassment – mostly by peers – are the most frequent threats both online and offline
Unwanted exposure to pornography does occur online, but mostly to those seeking it out
Social networking sites are not the most common space for solicitation and unwanted exposure to problematic content – though they are used by peer-to-peer cyberbullies
Minors most at-risk online are those who engage in risky behaviors and have difficulties in other areas of their lives – psychological makeup and family dynamics predict risk better than use of certain technologies
Almost all technologies present privacy and security issues
Social networking sites have been aggressively pursuing technologies that promote safety for minors – innovation is promising
The report concludes that there are promising developments in technologies to protect kids online but that such technologies are not enough:
“Technology can play a helpful role, but there is no one technological solution or specific combination of technological solutions to the problem of online safety for minors. Instead, a combination of technologies, in concert with parental oversight, education, social services, law enforcement, and sound policies by social network sites and service providers may assist in addressing specific problems that minors face online.”
The task force set out a series of suggestions for the Internet community, the Attorneys General, to parents and more. They point out that more resources should be allocated to all the many-faceted stakeholders working to protect minors online.
According to a new survey, schools all across the US are feeling the effects of the downturn in the economy. The study, released by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), is based on a survey of school superintendents from October of 2008. It finds that schools across the nation are cutting costs in response to shrinking budgets, which could “threaten gains in student achievement and progress in narrowing the achievement gap.”
The study is very in depth, looking to many areas of budgets and cost-custting, from thermostats to staff levels. Currently, 67% of those superintendents polled describe their districts as “inadequately funded.”
Highlights from the study:
36% of superintendents have increased class sizes
35% have reduced instructional material
30% are considering lay offs, while 48% have already reduced staff-level hiring
95% say unemployment has impacted the families of students in their districts
87% say the economy affects the schools’ capacity to maintain focus on student learning (similarly, most indicate the same inability to focus on instructional improvements, learning needs of all students, and meeting performance assessments)
There is no doubt that education is vital to a healthy economy, so a struggling education system could, according to AASA Executive Director Dan Domenech, “multiply the negative impact and prolong the economic downturn.”
Although the survey did not ask about IT budgets in any way, I would imagine that IT has been as impacted by tighter budgets in the education sector. It will put extra pressure on IT departments to find solutions that help automate tasks and increase efficiencies. Also, given that data breaches in the education market account for a significant portion of all breaches in 2008, reductions in security spending could increase the risk of data breach (which is a costly issue). Download the study here. [PDF]
Another extremely interesting article on the topic of education looks to Obama’s campaign and what lessons the education sector can learn from his embrace of technology during his campaign. Obama’s campaign made effective use of social media – Facebook, Twitter, blogging – to get in touch with young voters. A strategy that had more young voters out to the polls than any time in the last 34 years, and which teachers can take inspiration from in terms of getting their students involved. Continue reading about this here.
Learn more about Absolute Software’s initiatives in Education here.
On November 17th, the One Laptop Per Childinitiative 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.
The Broadband Data Improvement Act (S.1492) was recently signed into Federal law. The legislation that would improve the collection of data on broadband availability and fund greater access to high-speed Internet access. As part of the new legislation, schools receiving the e-Rate discounts on telecommunications services will soon be required to teach students about online safety.
Thee-Rate program provides discounts for schools of 20-90% for telecommunication services including Internet access. The proposed Broadband Data Improvement Act, introduced by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, has a provision that would require the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to establish a nationwide campaign to “increase public awareness and provide education regarding strategies to promote the safe use of the Internet by children.”
Originally, a separate bill entitled ‘Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act’, was proposed to congress. The Senate Commerce Committee merged the language of this bill into the Broadband Data Improvement Act, which has now become law. The new law recognizes that education must go hand-in-hand with technology to protect children from online predators.
The Online Safety and Technology Working Group was established, under the legislation, to evaluate online safety education efforts, parental control technologies, and much more. In addition, a section of the Act requires that schools create an Internet safety policy that educates minors “about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms and cyberbullying awareness and response.”
I think it is great that steps are being taken to increase the awareness of online safety issues for children.
The latest Absolute Software case study involves the education sector. In specific, how the Kent School District in Washington use Computrace to inventory computers and crack down on theft.
Kent School District began introducing notebook computers into its programs back in 1998 – schools with access to mobile technologies and new instructional strategies have performed very well in the district. With laptops spread across the district’s 40 buildings, there were a number of IT challenges in keeping track of those assets. After beta testing Computrace on 90 tablet PCs, Kent SD has now implemented the system across its entire 12,000+ notebook and desktop population.
Before Computrace, Kent SD would assign 10 people to do an inventory check – a process that took 3 months out of every year. Now, Kent SD can run a 5 minute report from Computrace and know where all of the 12,000+ computers are.
Computrace is more than just a theft deterrence product, but with a district of this size, theft was also a consideration in choosing the service from Absolute. After thieves broke into a school facility and stole 30 computers, Computrace was used to track the computers back to the thieves, who are now facing charges. In another theft situation, the remote data delete was used to ensure sensitive information would not breach.
To read more about Kent SD’s IT challenges, and their solutions, check out the full case study here.
For more case studies from Absolute Software, check out here.
On November 5, 2008 at 2pm ET / 11am PT, Absolute Software is sponsoring a webinar on laptop management and theft prevention.
The webinar will be hosted by eSchool News with speakers from two school districts discussing best practices for managing laptops and deterring theft. Paired with the recently published case study of Kent School District’s asset management program, Absolute is offering up some great resources right now for mobile security planning for the education sector.
To register for the 1 hour webinar, click here. And you can learn more about the webinar here.
CSO Online has published another article along these lines entitled “Six Essential Steps to Secure Academia“. This article was written in conjunction with Stan Gatewood, CISO for the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents, who says the largest challenge to computer networks in the academic world is identity management - properly identifying and classifying individuals. Mobile security is also a growing issue in the academic world, and Gatewood outlines his six-point plan for security that Georgia runs by:
Risk Management - create a formal plan, annually, starting with an inventory of machines & systems, considering risk levels to each, and countermeasures.
Policy and Compliance Management - formalized, including ramifications for non-compliance
Strategic Planning & Leadership – with leaders and goals
Community Awareness Training & Education – of contractors, staff, students & faculty
Proper Incident Response & Reporting – a standardized response plan for different risk levels
Contingency Planning
Read the full article here. The article continues after these steps with some feedback from several security officers in the academic world.
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Laptop Security Blog 
According to a new survey, schools all across the US are feeling the effects of the downturn in the economy. The study, released by the 
On November 17th, the 
and fund greater access to high-speed Internet access. As part of the new legislation, schools receiving the e-Rate discounts on telecommunications services will soon be required to teach students about online safety.
The latest Absolute Software 
This is a topic that this blog has covered before: