Is your school ready for the security ramifications of Education 3.0?

May 19, 2016
Ensuring a successful transition requires continual review of policy standards about proper conduct on connected devices

Remember when “technology-enabled education” meant a weekly class trip to the computer lab? Those days are long gone.

Today, students and educators employ a wealth of technology-driven educational resources. In K-12 schools, the hallways are filled with tablet and laptop carts traveling between classrooms. In colleges and universities, lecture halls are teeming with screens of every type.

Clearly, we are rocketing toward a new age in education, referred to as “Education 3.0”— an all-encompassing term for how new technologies such as cloud computing, online video, and mobile are changing the way educators teach and students learn. It is a dynamic time when teachers have access to the best educational content and resources at their fingertips, and when students can immerse themselves in customized learning, inside and outside the classroom. 

Education 3.0, like other technology-driven changes from e-commerce to social networking, has powerful benefits. But, it also brings new concerns. It has a great capacity to engage and inspire students but many educators and parents are concerned about the cyber-security risks associated with the interconnectivity of Education 3.0, which are, unfortunately, quite real and require a pro-active approach to protect students, schools and universities.  

Why Education 3.0?

While the excitement over Education 3.0 may take some time to become a reality, there are three major benefits that are quickly becoming entrenched. We refer to these as the three “C’s” of Education 3.0 – Content, Customization, and Collaboration.

Content -- Education 3.0 is dramatically enhancing the content that students and educators engage in three important ways. First, is the ability to deliver richer resources at substantially lower cost and effort for both students and teachers. Students once had to trek to the school or public library to watch a video of the first lunar landing or the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington. Additionally, the onus was on institutions to license or purchase videos of these events. Now, such powerful content is just a free click away on YouTube. Movies, real-time video streaming, and other visual and interactive online content can be instructive for the classroom, giving student’s insight into historical events or scientific discoveries as they are happening. Second, Education 3.0 resources are a useful tool for supplemental help and instruction for students. Third, Internet connectivity can help ensure students are interacting with the most up-to-date and relevant materials. Rather than waiting for schools to order the latest textbooks, online versions of those same texts can be available immediately. Online journals and periodicals can likewise provide students immediate access to the latest discoveries.

Customization -- It is an overused, but nonetheless true adage that every student learns a little differently. In the past, students who did not thrive in a traditional classroom environment had few alternatives and struggled academically. By that same token, students who excelled often failed to be challenged. Education 3.0 provides tools for lesson customization down to the most granular level. Tech-enabled worksheets and educational dashboards can analyze student errors and identify trouble spots, thereby allowing teachers help struggling students by remediating learning gaps. Interested and gifted students can delve deeper into the material or interact virtually with other educators who specialize in their area of interest. Emerging education innovations are also useful for addressing learning disruptions. Students who experience prolonged periods of absence from school due to illness can keep up with their schoolwork through online portals and virtual lessons, rather than fall behind their peers.

Collaboration -- Education 3.0 has the ability to dramatically reduce the costs and friction associated with collaborative learning. Students can use the web, not just to email their classmates about homework, but to engage with peers on the other side of the globe. Online applications like Google Hangouts enable international study groups and peer-to-peer learning. A Boston middle-schooler can easily interact with her counterpart in Beijing with just a click of her mouse. Education 3.0 also has the ability to inspire students by connecting them to real world mentors in the fields that pique their interest. And for career planning, students no longer have to wait for career day to talk to professionals: LinkedIn is being used by pre-professionals to begin making connections before they even enter the workforce.

Risks of Education 3.0

The cyber-security risks of Education 3.0 are similar to those in other areas, with two important differences.  First, the stakes are higher given that the victims of a breach are children, who may be more susceptible to criminal techniques that would not work with adults. Second, the perpetrators of cyber-crime focused at schools and universities extend past criminals seeking financial gain to adults or other children seeking to do harm.   

  • Bad Content: Though Internet access can deliver educational videos and fascinating articles, it also unlocks a Pandora’s Box of illicit media like pornography, as well as simply false information like uncited or biased Wikipedia articles. Therefore, schools and administrators need to implement the proper web filtering controls, including exceeding CIPA's requirements and monitors in order to ensure that technological resources are being employed for educational purposes and certain sites can be blocked without impeding access to valuable education content.
  • Bad Actors: As students increasingly use email and the Internet to interact with teachers and their peers, they also risk interacting with criminals. The Journal of Adolescent Health reported 65% of online sex offenders used social networking to gain home and school information about the victim. These individuals are motivation by a deep-rooted addiction and will use all available methods to act out.  Students and educators must, therefore, take precautions when using Internet-connected devices to facilitate peer-to-peer learning.
  • Bad Applications: Malware is another potential risk to educators and students. According to CNN, nearly 1 million new malware threats are released every day. This malicious software may enter a network as an email attachment and subsequently scrape the personal information of minors – putting them at risk. Computer viruses go beyond simply disrupting device and application functionality; they have spawned a whole new industry of cybercrime, where the economic rewards from a successful hack make it an enticing prospect and minors an easy target.

It’s clear that the most connected education becomes, the more schools need to start thinking about cybersecurity.

The Time for Education 3.0 is Upon Us

Education 3.0 will offer new ways of teaching and learning that has and will continue to transform our educational systems.  However, a successful transition to Education 3.0 requires the continual review of policy standards about proper conduct on connected devices, as well as the creation of proper cybersecurity infrastructure to safeguard information, block offensive material and stop bad actors.  Keeping our students safe in today's learning environment is our most important task.

About the Author: John Mutch is Chief Executive Officer of iSheriff. In this role, he is responsible for the future direction of the organization and leading the company’s overall operations, with direct oversight of sales, marketing, professional services, research and development, and corporate strategy.