From virtual and augmented reality to personalized learning to tablets and laptops in classrooms, digital learning is revolutionizing today’s classrooms. Constant innovation in the edtech space is resulting in new products and solutions that enable teachers to enhance and diversify the learning experience, and provide enriching learning experiences for students.
As technology expands opportunities in the classroom, it also brings with it additional risks. More and more data and personal information is being stored online and the classroom is becoming a new target for cyber threats. For example, in a survey by Symantec partner Common Sense Media, of more than 1,000 educational technology products, they found that only 52 percent of the productsrequire encryption of login and personal information, one of the most basic ways a website can protect user data.
Promoting safety both inside and outside schools has always been a priority of educators; however, the definition of safety is expanding. While the increased use of technology by children at home is undisputed, it can often be overlooked in the classroom. It also takes time, resources and budget for schools to effectively protect against cyber threats and therefore education has traditionally weaker defense systems in place than other industries.
What can schools and educators do? Do what they do best, educate.
As the global leader in cyber security, we believe it is our corporate responsibility to educate our customers and communities about cyber risks. In FY16, Symantec awarded 26 grants totaling $2,585,900 to fight cybercrime and support online safety. Many of these include efforts to offer cyber safety educational tools to address new and emerging risks to children's online safety.
For example, since 2010, Symantec has partnered with Common Sense Media, a leading online safety non-profit, to empower our employees, educators and parents to become ambassadors for online safety using Common Sense Media’s K–12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum, which teaches students how to make safe, smart, and ethical decisions in the digital world. The core digital citizenship curriculum includes over 65 lesson plans tailored to each grade level and is based on the research of Dr. Howard Gardner and the GoodPlay Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Since the launch of Common Sense Media's Digital Literacy and Citizenship Program eight years ago, the accessibility to technology and therefore its everyday use has changed significantly. For example, with the adoption of Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, among many others, social media use has exploded and the use of technology by teachers and students both inside and outside the classroom has grown significantly.
To reflect these changes, in the coming year, Symantec will support the refresh and redesign of Common Sense Media’s K-12 Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum offerings to meet the growing 21st century needs of schools, educators, and students. The curriculum will address increasingly important issues such as cyber security, data privacy including geolocation, computer science and coding. This will include approximately 20 new student videos, which will result in the update of at least 30 percent of Common Sense Media’s K-12 curriculum lessons.
Additionally, the partnership will help Common Sense Media continue to reach new educators and schools, and nurture their existing user base of educators and schools through marketing and outreach efforts, professional development and certification programs.
Teaching girls around the globe to Surf Smart
Additionally, in 2012 WAGGGS collaborated with Symantec to create Surf Smart, a non-formal education curriculum for the Girl Guides and Girl Scouts designed to inform young people about how to connect positively online, protect themselves from online threats and respect their rights and reputation on the Internet. Surf Smart breaks down lessons by age and includes three sections – connecting positively online, protecting yourself from online threats and respecting your rights and reputation online - to encourage users to learn about and take action to protect themselves online.
To date, 281,000 Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in over 44 countries have completed Surf Smart[1]. The program has been delivered to girls, boys and young adults in three European countries, 12 countries in Africa, and 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and India. Moving forward Symantec will support the expansion of Surf Smart to the Philippines, Australia and Singapore based on the needs of these regions, and promote the program online to all WAGGS members in the Asia Pacific region, reaching three million Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and 26 member organizations.
In a survey of 200 leaders and participants in 2015-16, 96.8 per cent said they would be more able to identify online dangers as a result of completing Surf Smart, 91 per cent said that the program was either 'a lot of fun' or 'fun' and 94.7 per cent reported that the program helped with addressing online safety issues.
In the same way that we educate our children about other risks, it is imperative that we educate them about avoiding online dangers. The increasingly connected classroom is therefore becoming a central and critical place to educate both the teacher and student about the growing importance of digital literacy and citizenship.