The godfather of ransomware returns: Locky is back and sneakier than ever

By Danny Palmer, ZD Net

The start of 2017 saw a sudden decline in the distribution of Locky, to such an extent that another form of ransomware — Cerber — has usurped Locky’s dominance. But after being all but written off, Locky is staging a comeback. Cybersecurity researchers at Cisco Talos have observed a surge in emails distributing Locky, with over 35 thousand emails sent in just a few hours. This surge in distribution is being attributed to the Necurs botnet, which until recently focused on spamming pump-and-dump stockmarket scams. This time, however, the Locky campaign is harnessing an infection technique associated with the Dridex botnet, in an effort to boost the chance of compromising targets.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-godfather-of-ransomware-returns-locky-is-back-and-sneakier-than-ever/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=26786

10 Apps to Help Students Develop Writing Skills

by Matthew Lynch, tech Edvocate

Communication skills are of vital importance in the world today. With an increasingly reliance on technology, teachers sometimes fear that students are losing the art of face-to-face and formal written communication. But instead of fearing technology’s impact on student communication, why can’t teachers leverage technology to help students hone their written communication skills? Whether students are still struggling with basic to complex grammatical concepts, or they need help elaborating their thoughts in thoughtful, sensical written pieces, teachers can rest assured: there’s an app for that! As a matter of fact, there are several apps for that.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/ten-apps-help-students-develop-writing-skills/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=26771

Libraries and the American dream

By Brenda Patterson, Ledger

Libraries are necessities for me. On Facebook, a friend mentioned she’d just completed a technical certification for her work. I rejoiced in her success. but I also wondered if she knew she could get certifications (technical, business, and other fields) through Polk County Library Cooperative (PCLC) libraries. Did I forget to mention that to her? In this column? You can get tech certifications and other work-related education coursework through libraries. For free! Your PCLC libraries provide access to databases (Gale Courses, Lynda and Treehouse), which offer learning tracks for certifications like:

• AMA Professional Certified Marketer in Digital Marketing

• CompTIA Security+ Certified Security Professional

• Various Microsoft 2013 specialties (Word, PowerPoint, Access, and Excel)

http://www.theledger.com/news/20170421/patterson-column-libraries-and-american-dream

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=26756

Udacity Connect Offers Face-to-Face Sessions

By Sri Ravipati, Campus Technology

Beginning May 9, UConnect students in Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco will have access to physical learning centers where they can network, interact and collaborate with others. UConnect students will meet once a week with a mentor and receive “face-to-face guidance with goal setting and hitting key milestones,” according to a news release. In a pilot program, Nanodegree students who combined their online education with in-person study sessions through UConnect saw a 30 percent increase in project submissions and were more likely to complete their Nanodegree program than the students learning only online.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/04/25/udacity-connect-offers-face-to-face-sessions.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15703

What Sebastian Thrun Has Learned at Udacity

By Betsy Corcoran, EdSurge

Sebastian Thrun: That first Stanford class was a pivotal moment. We all realized that there were great people out there, all around the world, who deserved a chance at places like Stanford. Ever since, our mission at Udacity has been to democratize education…. When we decided to partner not with a university but with a company [namely, AT&T and later others including Google] we made this clear that we were really thinking about not just getting people into college but getting them into jobs. One of the key outcomes of education is to give them leverage to find work, and to personally benefit, to earn income. College was being criticized for being really, really expensive. And then, after you paid all that money, it still took you more than a year to find a job. So we created a program that gives people back their tuition if they don’t find a job in six months. I think that’s something everyone should do.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-04-25-what-sebastian-thrun-has-learned-at-udacity

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15700

4 Ways Online Course Teaches You About Being Professional

By Anita V, University Herald

With many online courses offering various subjects, a California-based student does not have to fly to London to learn arts. Online learning has become prevalent and changed the way education does its course. It may be a completely different learning compared to attending a class in a room. However, students can get the benefits of learning in an online program that would help them succeed at work.

http://www.universityherald.com/articles/29372/20160426/4-ways-online-course-teaches-you-about-being-professional.htm

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15697

Key Strategies to Take Mobile Beyond 2015

By Toni Fuhrman, Campus Technology

In a recent webinar, Gartner research director Chris Silva discussed key strategies to take mobile into the future, including flexibility, general-purpose mobility and unified endpoint management. Ask the right questions. Phase in your mobile implementations. Keep your eye on a unified endpoint management goal. That’s Gartner’s advice to organizations – including colleges and universities – supporting mobile in the IT environment. In a recent public webinar, available as a recording, Gartner research director Chris Silva discussed these and other strategies for keeping up with mobile trends in the coming years.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/04/27/key-strategies-to-take-mobile-beyond-2015.aspx

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Turnitin Announces Availability of Turnitin Scoring Engine for Automated Writing Assessment

by University Business

To begin using Turnitin Scoring Engine, institutions provide their existing rubrics, along with a seed set of de-identified student essays and reliable existing scores. These texts are analyzed to build a custom scoring model for each new writing context. Turnitin Scoring Engine learns to value the same aspects of writing as the instructors at an institution. Turnitin Scoring Engine also automatically tests itself for reliability by comparing the scores it generates to the instructors’ original scores. When this test is passed, the program is easily embedded into existing institutional assessment environments, ready to score any number of new essays or writing submissions. Each student can receive automated scoring for any number of submissions per assignment or writing task.

http://www.universitybusiness.com/content/turnitin-announces-availability-turnitin-scoring-engine-automated-writing-assessment

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Wearable Teaching? College to Experiment With Apple Watch as Learning Tool

by Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The experiment will begin this summer, with eight Apple Watches the university purchased for the project. Penn State plans to expand the research to more students in the fall. We caught up with Kyle Bowen, director of education-technology services at Penn State, to hear more about the project, and his thoughts on the possible role of wearables in teaching and learning. Linked below is an edited version of the conversation.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/wearable-teaching-college-to-experiment-with-apple-watch-as-learning-tool/56459

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10 technology hallmarks for every campus

By Meris Stansbury, eCampus News

These campus musts may seem like no-brainers, but they’re critical for success. With so many technology options available today to help support and promote an institution’s campus culture, students and faculty, it’s not surprising that many IT and campus leaders feel overwhelmed with what they should invest in now and what they should implement later, especially with tight budgets. But from having a good social media strategy to planning for Big Data collection, there are at least 10 technology hallmarks every campus should plan for immediately, if not implement as soon as possible.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/technology-hallmarks-campus-099/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/Ts4Srq7TpSk/

TOOC vs. MOOC

by Introduction to Learning Technologies

ToqueThe prevailing model for most MOOCs these days involves the course being housed in a closed platform such as that used by Coursera. Participants must register to view the course content and materials cannot be used outside of that course. Participants usually only communicate with others in the course and sometimes not even then, and yet the first “O” in MOOC stands for “open”, something most are not. The open course from the GMCTE is what we consider to be a truly open online course or TOOC.

http://words.usask.ca/learning-tech/tooc-vs-mooc/

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