Monthly Archives: May 2021

Preparing Students for the Future Means Radically Changing Education

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“Technology is neither the problem nor the solution, it’s just a tool. In the end, these are all human problems that need human-focused solutions.“ 

– Dr. Vivienne Ming

In March 2018, Vivienne Ming gave a speech at the SingularityU Czech Summit about the future of education and how to robot-proof kids. Fast-forward three years and her words are just as prophetic, if not more so, given the huge shift to virtual and hybrid learning we’ve experienced due to the pandemic.

Resolving Inequities

One of the reasons Lumen™ Touch talks so often about inequity in education is that it really does have an impact on the success of the student. When we can resolve inequities, such as access to the internet, access to a computer, and easy access to libraries, the gap is reduced. Ming explains that there is no bigger impact on children’s minds than their experiences within the home, so the other thing we must tackle to give our students a better future is to address economic barriers at home: access to jobs, transportation, mental health, and medical care. This allows parents to provide the kind of role modeling that students need to start with a stronger foundation.

The Connection Between Education, Workforce, Health, and Inclusion

Ming’s research discovered that people who came from a higher socioeconomic status were 10 times more likely to have patents attributed to them as kids who performed similarly but came from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds. When we consider what that means in terms of, as Ming describes it, the massive economic, cultural, and innovative potential that is being squandered, we can clearly see the need to address inequities in education, to take advantage of that potential.

How do we do that?

We level the playing field by providing access to edtech, AI, and other technologies, so that each student has the opportunity to develop, achieve, and contribute.

“In the future 10-15 years from now, there’s only going to be one job description: adaptive, creative problem solver.”

– Dr. Vivienne Ming

Window of Opportunity: Radically Changing Education Can Happen Now

Between the ages of five and eight, a child’s brain is most impacted by things like childhood household stress and childhood isolation. The trauma of those stresses decreases a child’s ability to develop working memory. Using literacy and numeracy, working memory can also be improved. Ming also discovered, through the course of her work, that grades don’t predict success. She goes further, however, insisting that education should be about helping each individual have a happy, healthy, productive life – not just philosophically but in an objective and measurable way.

How Can Radically Changing Education Help All Students?

According to Ming, we must recognize the trap of assuming that who a student is during one parent-teacher conference is not who that student will always be. So, if we learn to give students what they need in the moment, we can maximize their long-term outcomes. And this approach works whether a student is in elementary school or high school or college. It’s about putting emotional intelligence into education.

“If we keep building them for a world that’s not existing 10 years from now, then we will end up with a society in which a tiny sliver of people will be ready to compete.”

– Dr. Vivienne Ming

Watch her presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y5dhBdg48M

What to Expect in the Next School Year

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The school year is winding up, and while there will be celebrations and goodbyes and acknowledgements of completing another academic year, most school administrators and IT directors have already turned their attentions to next year. Budgets are being planned, and for the most part, we are all expecting to have most instruction occur in-person.

COVID-19 Has Forever Changed Education

We are seeing signs of permanent changes in education as a result of the experiences we’ve all had during the pandemic. Technology is not going away. In fact, the success of edtech has been so profound that some school districts are recognizing the value that remote learning provides in other circumstances. For example, the New York City public school system has cancelled snow days for the 2021-2022 school year, citing the benefit of remote learning.

Learning Analytics Will Be More Effectively Leveraged

Being able to deliver instruction, manage testing, and analyze data has been strengthened in the past year, and reliance on that data will be used to improve the delivery of education to all students. Because educators will continue to use edtech solutions and learning platforms to deliver some in-class instruction, they’ll be able to swiftly adjust to the needs of the students in their classrooms, using the more immediate feedback from the data.

Health Monitoring and Vaccine Tracking Will Remain Essential

Already, governors are announcing that a COVID-19 vaccine will be a requirement to return to school, placing pressure on schools to be able to track and monitor student health more carefully. In addition, because there will continue to be outbreaks of COVID-19, particularly in those areas that have not yet achieved herd immunity, the ability to conduct health checks and contact tracing will remain essential.

Student Data Security Will Take a Front Seat

Speaking of student data, student data security will be priority number one for school administrators and school IT leaders. From the incorporation of blockchain technology to the use of a private, secure platform through which edtech solutions are obtained, such as Bright PASSPORT, there will be a much more formal effort to ensure that whatever edtech is used by schools is properly vetted, securely obtained, and approved for use.

If you’re interested in learning more about how Lumen™ Touch can help you meet the rapidly changing needs of your district, get in touch.

Student Data Security and Bright PASSPORT

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Cybersecurity is a conversation we normally hear about in the business world, but cybersecurity is just as important for schools, as student data is a goldmine of information for cyber criminals. Schools are required, under a variety of governance regulations, to protect the information they collect about students. 

Unfortunately, threats to student data security are continuing to grow at an alarming rate. Last month, the FBI issued a warning about the uptick in ransomware attacks on schools. A week later, Park Hill School District in Kansas City, MO were targeted. Just prior to that, schools in Buffalo were shut down by a cyberattack.  And schools in Florida are being held for millions in ransom. As schools and districts struggle to fend off these attacks, enhancing protection must be a priority.

Protecting Access to Student Data – It’s the Law

Even if there were not federal regulations to guide schools, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), protecting student data is a matter of safety. Schools that have multiple edtech solutions often must provide each vendor with roster information and more. Unfortunately, the schools often have no control over the level of security each individual edtech vendor applies to the information they collect. This places a huge burden on district IT teams.  

Managing Access to Student Data, Simplified

When everyone is finally back in the classroom, technology and edtech solutions will still be employed to aid with learning. Because of the enormous risk involved in sharing roster and other personal student data with multiple edtech vendors, schools must consider a different way forward that allows them to not only remain in compliance but to ensure that the vendors with whom they share the data are also using strenuous measures to protect that information. To make that easier for everyone, Lumen Touch is introducing Bright PASSPORT – a centralized, secure method of sharing student data.

What Is Bright PASSPORT?

Bright PASSPORT governs how schools share personally identifiable information (PII), such as student roster data. Rather than allow teachers or school districts to implement apps for their classrooms, Bright PASSPORT provides for districts a library of approved apps that have been properly vetted to meet the required security standards required.

Bright PASSPORT communicates with third party applications, providing secure and federated access credentials for all end-users within their Lumen Touch portal.

Student Data Security with Bright PASSPORT

Schools mitigate risk through the use of Bright PASSPORT, because information sharing becomes centralized and secure. Approved applications are provisioned to each individual user, allowing parents, students, teachers, administrators and staff access to their applications without ever leaving their Lumen Touch Portal. Vetted apps can be accessed directly through the Lumen Touch AppStore.

To learn more about how to adopt this solution for your school and secure your student data, get in touch.