Introducing the K-12 Cyber Incident Map
Today, I am pleased to introduce and launch the “K-12 Cyber Incident Map.” It is a visualization of cybersecurity-related incidents reported about U.S. K-12 public schools and districts from 2016 to the present. Painstakingly assembled from public reports, it was created to begin to build a data-based awareness of the scope and variety of digital security and privacy threats facing K-12 public schools and districts, as well as to shed a light on the need for uniform standards for disclosing cyber incidents affecting schools, students, and educators.
In the News: Educational Android Apps Improperly Track Children
Often with their parents’ encouragement and supervision, young children are increasingly relying on mobile apps—even services that may not have expressly been designed for them—for learning. While parents have an expectation of privacy for their children when they use these apps, a new study suggests that parents’ trust may be misplaced.
Of note, some of the brands engaged in tracking may be quite familiar to readers…
Podcast: Schools prove soft targets for hackers
Like big businesses, schools gather a lot of data. Unlike big businesses, they don’t have many IT and security resources to protect that information. Schools collect names and birth dates, social security numbers, discipline records and health records. With this data, thieves can create fake online identities, or sell the students’ information and identities.
2017 NAEP: Exploring the “Homework Gap” in Math Performance
Q: According to NAEP 2017, does home access to a computer (or tablet) and the internet make a difference on the math performance of 4th and 8th grade students?
A: Maybe not.
In the News: Schools Should Delete Facebook
According to recent research by EdTech Strategies, more than 25 percent of school district websites embed user tracking tools that report sensitive user data back to Facebook. In the wake of a high-profile data-privacy scandal involving the social media company, schools and education organizations are taking a closer look at how and why they engage with Facebook.
In the News: Potential K-12 Fallout From Facebook’s Crisis of Trust
Student data privacy advocates say the storm clouds around Facebook from the evolving Cambridge Analytica scandal are a reminder that schools, educators, and students should be asking tough questions about the third-party services on which they rely.
Introducing the CARE Framework for OER Stewardship
While OER typically reside in the public domain or have an alternative license that specifies how a resource may be reused, adapted, and shared, the use of an open license is in itself insufficient to addressing the broader sustainability and ethical questions facing the OER movement. It is for that reason that I and my co-authors (Lisa Petrides of ISKME and Eddie Watson of AAC&U) are pleased to introduce the CARE Framework for OER Stewardship.
In the News: How Educational Institutions Are Failing to Adequately Protect Student Data
Cyber criminals’ increased interest in attacking education systems imperils students’ financial futures and privacy, and gives parents a reason to question whether schools are up to the task of protecting their kids’ personal data.
In the News: On School Website Security, Privacy Practices
In the three weeks since “Tracking: EDU” officially launched, a growing number of news outlets, associations, and organizations have highlighted the findings and significance of the work. Yet, what matters most is that SEAs, LEAs, and schools take what steps they may need in order to improve their website security and privacy practices.
And, no matter your role or interest in school technology issues, we all have a stake in that outcome.
The Squeaky Wheel
The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers has responded to an 8th-grader’s complaints about the intellectual property provisions of their signature student awards program.
