Another week, two more incidents added to the K-12 Cyber Incident Map. One involved a
high school student who incapacitated his own school’s network (and was subsequently arrested by police) and the other involved a phishing attack against a school district resulting in the theft of $40,000. Be sure to follow @K-12CyberMap to keep apprised of updates to the map and related news.
On twitter, I also ponder the trend of tech-savvy teachers increasingly resembling NASCAR drivers, proudly wearing digital uniforms on social media full of sponsored messages as proof of expertise:
Why do some in K-12 define #edtech expertise by # of tech company certifications acquired? What does it mean to be an XYZ-certifed educator?
— Doug Levin (@douglevin) April 9, 2017
Otherwise, here’s what caught my eye this week – news, tools, and reports about education, public policy, technology, and innovation – including a little bit about why. No endorsements; no sponsored content; no apologies for my eclectic tastes.
NOTE: Next week’s “Thinking Person’s Guide to EdTech News” will be on vacation.
Strong opinions may be weakly held.
A Thinking Person’s Guide to EdTech News (2017 Week 14 Edition)
Teaching and Learning Get Personal With Change to Proficiency-Based Grading | Valley News →
Parent confusion has been growing this fall after the Woodstock Union middle and high schools began to roll out a proficiency-based grading system. Shades of the reactions to the outcomes-based education reforms of the mid-1990s.
Tagged on: April 9, 2017
Government's personal data collection drive a political dead horse | Stuff.co.nz →
In New Zealand, Social Development Minister Anne Tolley is pushing for the next stage in the Government's "investment approach" - the brainchild of Prime Minister Bill English. It would see funding for NGOs supporting vulnerable people hinge on them handing over their clients' details at an individualised level.
Tagged on: April 9, 2017
California lawmakers want to mandate internet for kids in juvy | CNN →
Internet access brings all sorts of benefits: Education, jobs, and connection to friends and family. But youth in the criminal justice and foster care systems often don't have access to it. That's why some lawmakers in California want to make it their right.
Tagged on: April 8, 2017
Teacher group says DPS privacy effort comes up short | The Herald-Sun →
The Durham Association of Educators recently applauded the Durham Public Schools’ effort to strengthen rules around sharing confidential student information with law enforcement organizations, but says policies about law enforcement access to school sites falls short.
Tagged on: April 8, 2017
Senators Markey & Hatch Reintroduce Bipartisan Legislation to Protect Student Privacy →
From the press release: "At a time when 95% of school districts send student records to companies that manage school services, only 7% sign contracts that directly prevent the companies from selling students’ data."
Tagged on: April 8, 2017
Data breach issues may force BISD employees to take vacation time | Temple Daily Telegram →
This is reprehensible: Belton Independent School District employees may have to use vacation time to deal with after effects of a January data breach, a spokesman said Friday. The breach was the fault of the district and they are penalizing employees for their own negligence. Would you want to work a school district (or any employer) that did this to you?
Tagged on: April 8, 2017
Fascinating and promising approach. It could theoretically enable privacy-first personalized learning without the need to share student data with cloud providers.
Tagged on: April 7, 2017
Cyber criminals are aggressively sharing credentials to .edu e-mail accounts - including stolen accounts, fake e-mails, and older e-mail accounts. The Digital Citizens Alliance saw evidence showing threat actors of all types – including hacktivists, scam artists, and terrorists – putting credentials (e-mails and passwords) up for sale, trade, or, in some cases, just given away.
Tagged on: April 7, 2017
Udacity Self-Driving Taxi Spin-Off Voyage Takes Aim at Uber | US News & World Report →
Do you understand the business your service providers are really in? Strange, but true.
Tagged on: April 7, 2017
AltSchool: "As the company gets ready to really scale the platform over the next two years figuring out pricing will be one of the most important things we can do."
Tagged on: April 7, 2017
The situation highlights how the debate on vaccinating children has turned away from whether vaccines are safe, to whether there is a right to transparency about who is immunized — and who isn't.
Tagged on: April 7, 2017
Debate rages over controversial copyright standard for the web | New Scientist →
It’s a fight for the future of the web. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an organization that sets standards for how the web works, has formally proposed a controversial new anti-piracy mechanism. The proposal has caused a rare rift in the web community, with critics arguing it poses a security risk to users and harms the idea of a free and open web.
Tagged on: April 6, 2017
New Malware Intentionally Bricks IoT Devices | Bleeping Computer →
That's one way to deal with insecure IoT devices.
Tagged on: April 6, 2017
IRS Data on Up to 100,000 Taxpayers Compromised in Breach of College Financial-Aid Tool | WSJ →
Agency head says 8,000 fraudulent refunds issued using data from college financial aid tool, costing about $30 million
Tagged on: April 6, 2017
Login Encryption Survey: March 2017 | Common Sense Media →
Follow-up survey on the state of edtech vendor encryption of student logins shows moderate improvements.
Tagged on: April 6, 2017
Phishing scam diverts more than $40,000 from Denver Public Schools | FOX31 Denver →
“We do what we can to educate our employees on phishing,” DPS spokesman Will Jones said. “We do our best to have firewalls in place.” But those precautions were not enough to dodge the district-wide attack this week. Added to the K-12 Cyber Incident Map.
Tagged on: April 6, 2017
State testing problems plaguing Kansas schools | KSNT.com →
Another year, more problems with computer-based state testing across Kansas schools.
Tagged on: April 6, 2017
Computer security is broken from top to bottom | The Economist →
Away from matters of great scale and grand strategy, most hacking is either show-off vandalism or simply criminal. It is also increasingly easy. The total cost of all this hacking is anyone’s guess (most small attacks, and many big ones, go unreported). But all agree it is likely to rise, because the scope for malice is about to expand remarkably.
Tagged on: April 6, 2017
Gov. Greitens moves to increase rural schools' internet access | News-Leader →
Gov. Eric Greitens on Monday announced an initiative to connect rural Missouri schools to the internet.
Tagged on: April 5, 2017
Audit finds explicit material on school-issued computers | News & Observer →
One has to wonder what the end game is here: "A review by the Mississippi auditor's office found pornography and other explicit material on computers that some public schools issued to middle school and high school students."
Tagged on: April 5, 2017
Police investigating alleged cyber attack against Chestnut Ridge | The Tribune-Democrat →
State police are investigating an alleged cyber attack against Chestnut Ridge High School in Bedford County. A student at the high school launched an attack against the school’s computer network from his home, state police in Bedford said in a press release. He was allegedly able to shut the network down for several hours. Added to the K-12 Cyber Incident Map.
Tagged on: April 5, 2017
A webcomic: We've been trying for decades to give people good security advice. But in retrospect lots of tips made things worse. Maybe we should try to give bad advice...
Tagged on: April 5, 2017
Personalization: Gateway to Dystopia | CustomerThink →
A polemic: "Surveillance enables personalization, and personalization brings customers personal moments. But those wonderful times won’t be free, and they won’t give people freedom. Being watched never does."
Tagged on: April 4, 2017
Oregon's Online Schools Offer Flexibility, But Graduation Rates Lag Behind | OPB →
Official graduation data from Oregon’s Department of Education suggest virtual schools there tend to struggle getting students to earn diplomas. Of course, this is not just an issue in Oregon as Education Week has extensively reported.
Tagged on: April 4, 2017
Audit: Privatizing student information system could cost millions | Deseret News →
A legislative audit released Monday recommends the Utah State Board of Education determine whether a student information system should be privatized given the price tag for eliminating it could reach $7 million the first year.
Tagged on: April 4, 2017
Board of Regents student reps push to separate UMN race data | The Minnesota Daily →
Students called on regents to disaggregate student race information to get a better look at the University’s population: “Disaggregated race data must be put to use to help attract and attain students of color.”
Tagged on: April 4, 2017
Tim Berners-Lee: 'Privacy is not a partisan thing' | The Guardian →
Tim Berners-Lee: 'It’s not the case that an ISP can just spy on people and monetize the data; if they do, they will get taken to court. Obviously the worry is the attitude and the direction. The attitude is really appalling. That bill was a disgusting bill, because when we use the web, we are so vulnerable."
Tagged on: April 4, 2017
Montana joins others in effort to bolster internet privacy | WRCBtv.com →
This is promising. States have started writing their own legislation to protect broadband privacy after Congress voted to repeal regulations that would have required internet providers to obtain their customers' consent before collecting their personal information.
Tagged on: April 4, 2017
Why 'A Domain of One's Own' Matters (For the Future of Knowledge) | Audrey Watters →
While I think Audrey's solution is directionally right (I'd go even further in advocating for open source tools, zero knowledge/privacy first systems, and distributed architectures), I think her diagnosis of the issue is spot on.
Tagged on: April 4, 2017
A Tweet to Kurt Eichenwald, a Strobe and a Seizure. Now, an Arrest. | New York Times →
When the journalist Kurt Eichenwald opened an animated image sent to him on Twitter in December, the message “You deserve a seizure for your posts” appeared in capital letters along with a blinding strobe light. Mr. Eichenwald, who has epilepsy, immediately suffered a seizure.
Tagged on: April 3, 2017
Report: Android overtakes Windows as the internet’s most used operating system | TechCrunch →
Mobile is today as important, if not more important, than desktops when it comes to the internet and apps. A clear reminder of that comes with news of a report claiming that Google’s Android has overtaken Windows as the internet’s most used operating system.
Tagged on: April 3, 2017
Hudson Valley school districts behind in applying for “smart schools” funding | MidHudsonNews.com →
Over 60 percent of the funds made available to Hudson Valley school districts through a $2 billion statewide “smart schools” bond issue two years ago have yet to be applied for.
Tagged on: April 3, 2017
My questions: What was the telecom industry stance on this initiative? Who paid for the legal analysis? Who lobbied for and against this? There is more to this story.
Tagged on: April 3, 2017
No phones, no computers: Heathwood Hall students to give up technology for a day | ColaDaily.com →
While others go without access.
Tagged on: April 3, 2017
How Uber Uses Psychological Tricks to Push Its Drivers’ Buttons | The New York Times →
The company has undertaken an extraordinary experiment in behavioral science (i.e., pervasive surveillance + ethically-questionable manipulation) to subtly entice an independent work force to maximize its growth.
Tagged on: April 3, 2017
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