Report: Social Media a Top Cybersecurity Challenge in the Workplace

By Rhea Kelly, THE Journal

Safe social media use is the top cybersecurity challenge for employees, according to the latest report from Wombat Security Technologies on security awareness issues in enterprise organizations. The 2016 Beyond the Phish Report evaluated two years of assessment data from Wombat’s Security Education Platform and surveyed hundreds of security professionals to find out how well end users are able to identify and manage security threats. The data came from a variety of sectors, including finance, technology, healthcare and education. Overall, 31 percent of end users missed assessment questions related to using social media safely in the workplace.After social media, the least understood cybersecurity topics across all industries were protecting and disposing of data securely (30 percent of questions missed); identifying phishing threats (28 percent of questions missed); protecting confidential information (27 percent of questions missed); and working safely outside the office (26 percent of questions missed).

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/09/01/social-media-a-top-cybersecurity-challenge-in-the-workplace.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17901

How technology can make student onboarding faster and safer

By Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

EdTech Magazine offers a view into the benefits of automatic digital onboarding, the process of establishing email and single-sign on access for students, faculty and staff that can make IT development faster, easier and more secure for campus stakeholders. Programs like OneLogin are examples of how schools create and manage digital identities for student and academic access points, helping schools like Texas A&M University and Brown University save time in data processing. Cloud-based technology is a major deterrent in protecting institutional information from hacking, as a recent survey revealed higher education is among the most vulnerable industries to illegal system access.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/how-technology-can-make-student-onboarding-faster-and-safer/425581/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17886

Former superintendent details district’s blended learning transformation

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

Cindy Elsberry, former superintendent of Horry County Schools in South Carolina, sees blended learning as a way to increase teacher capacity and impact by providing data to better understand student learning needs and the tools for individualized instruction. Elsberry writes for District Administration that there are six models at teachers’ disposal, including a classroom rotation model, where students get a mix of instruction types at various stations, and the face-to-face driver model, where online learning is supplemental and delivered in a traditional classroom. There is also the flex model, in which teachers provide in-person support for a primarily online curriculum; online labs, where students work from computer labs to take online courses; a la carte, which offers online courses to students as a supplement to other courses; and online driver, in which students take their classes remotely but come to a school building for extracurricular activities.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/former-superintendent-details-districts-blended-learning-transformation/425496/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17871

edX universities say ‘NO’ to mediocre online learning

by eCampus News

With online courses now part of the mainstream, colleges and universities are collecting terabytes of data on how students interact with their systems and content. But most schools gather this data according to their own specs, which makes comparisons difficult for researchers trying to identify broader trends. However, this may all change in the wake of a conference hosted by Harvard and MIT this August that saw a dozen schools implement a standardized data structure for MOOCS and other online courses using the Open edX platform. The goal: Create a better understanding of how students learn online and improve instructional approaches accordingly.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/featured/featured-on-ecampus-news/edx-online-learning/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17861

Canvas Network Reveals Series of Open Courses Focusing on Engaging Girls in STEM Fields

by Canvas

Canvas Network, an open online educational platform from Instructure, has announced that it will be hosting courses focusing on engaging girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) initiatives. This free online course series issues a call to action for educators, students and parents to prioritize STEM education for girls in elementary, middle and high school grades, as well as higher education. The massive online open courses (MOOCs) included in the series aim to provide a community for both girls and boys throughout the world to engage in STEM-related courses. Engaging girls in STEM is crucial at a time when more than half a million jobs in information technology are unfilled across all sectors of the economy, and projections from the White House estimate that in just two years there will be 2.4 million unfilled STEM positions.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/canvas-network-reveals-series-of-open-courses-focusing-on-engaging-girls-in-stem-fields-300319318.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17826

The Changing Role of the CTO

By Michael Hart, THE Journal

As technology has changed K–12 education, so has it changed the role of the chief technology officer, a job title that just barely existed 15 years ago. Today’s CTO is not your grandfather’s infrastructure manager! Technology is ubiquitous in today’s classroom, so we sometimes forget it was just a short while ago that not even teachers had their own computers, let alone their students, who now sometimes come to school with two or three electronic devices. THE Journal contributing writer Michael Hart spoke recently with four veteran chief technology officers who were present at almost the very introduction of technology to K–12 education and asked them how their jobs have changed over the last 15 to 20 years.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/08/25/the-changing-role-of-the-cto.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17811

3 Key Steps for Digital Transformation Initiatives

By Leila Meyer, Campus Technology

Digital transformation has the potential to revolutionize citizen services, but efforts to bring about that change are “often hindered by top-down hierarchies, cultural legacies and the lack of a compelling vision,” according to information from Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company. Gartner spoke with numerous public sector CIOs who have lead successful digital transformation initiatives. Based on those conversations, Gartner identified three key steps to effective organizational change. The first step is to promote a compelling new vision for the organization as a whole, including the role of IT in that transformation.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/08/29/3-key-steps-for-digital-transformation-initiatives.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17796