With K–12 schools leveraging connected technologies to help improve student outcomes and boost classroom collaboration, effective cybersecurity is not optional. It’s essential to meet student expectations and to satisfy state regulations.

This requires a balancing act: How do educators leverage connected technology without putting student data and other critical information at risk?

With National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) in full swing, it’s the perfect time for schools to identify key risks and develop effective security solutions.

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The State of STEM Classrooms

Science, technology, engineering and math initiatives are helping students nationwide prepare for STEM-track careers, but they’re also gaining traction as fundamental aspects of the K–12 curriculum.

This creates a potential cybersecurity gap: Greater adoption of connected tools provides enhanced student opportunity but requires increased oversight of how data is stored, managed and utilized.

Consider the work of Aurora Public Schools, which serves more than 60 area schools and was recently recognized as a leader in education by nonprofit group Colorado Succeeds. According to Kevin Riebau, Director of Learning Resources for APS, the school district is leveraging several connected classroom initiatives to empower student outcomes and launch IT deployments, including:

• Google Classroom Tools: For Riebau, cloud-based solutions “help manage the day-to-day sharing of resources” among students and staff, creating “feedback loops” that let students develop their own digital footprints. 

  The challenge? Ensuring cloud services provide a secure environment for data storage and comply with current legislation.
   

• AR and VR Experiences: APS is now deploying both augmented reality and virtual reality experiences for K–12 students, including “expeditions” for elementary and middle school students and VR-based postsecondary tours for high school students. As noted by Riebau, “It’s not always practical to conduct college tours physically,” and VR lets schools bridge the gap. K–12 schools are also diversifying their device footprints, using everything from school-issued laptops to interactive touch panels. Here, accessibility matters. Who has access to this technology? For what purpose? How is use tracked, cataloged and stored for potential cybersecurity audits?
   
• The APS Digital Badge Program: The APS Digital Badge Program uses microcredentials to describe student success across five key areas: collaboration, critical thinking, information literacy, invention and self-direction. Riebau describes the program “as a way to recognize student assets and open doors of opportunity.” Once in high school, students can choose to move their badges from internal networks to public-facing social sites such as LinkedIn. But making this shift from private to public networking introduces risk. Both students and teachers need training on how to effectively handle credentials in-house and ensure the move to public networks doesn’t compromise local data storage.