Tag Archive for Student

| December 6, 2012
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iPad thefts from Cleveland Heights-University Heights middle school students prompt community soul searching

iPad thefts from Cleveland Heights-University Heights middle school students prompt community soul searchingCleveland.com reports that iPad thefts from middle school students in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district is causing an iPad re-think.

The school district gave 1,300 Apple (AAPL) iPad tablets to middle school students at the start of the school year. The report says students were permitted to take the iPads home as a continuing educational tool.

The experiment lasted less than three weeks because the students became targets for thieves. Between Sept. 26 and Oct. 13, a dozen middle school students had their iPads stolen while on their way to and from school, Cleveland Heights police chief Jeff Richardson said.

Since mid-October, the district has collected the tablets at the end of the school day and students no longer could take them home.

More than 130 people attended a meeting seeking answers about how to go ahead and whether crime will win out over education. The reporter writes that the meeting was meant as an information-gathering session. Police, principals, and other officials wanted to decide if the district could safely revive the “Take home iPad Plan” sometime in the near future.  The crowd reaction was mixed about how to proceed.

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Superintendent John Deasy’s $17.5M request for computer tablet funds nixed

Superintendent John Deasy's $17.5M request for computer tablet funds nixed

The Los Angles Daily News reports that the panel that oversees the spending of Los Angeles Unified’s bond revenue refused Superintendent John Deasy’s request for nearly $17.5 million to jump-start the purchase of computer tablets for every student. The Bond Oversight Committee voted 7-3 for the plan, but that was one vote short of the eight needed for passage, officials said.

The $17.5 million would have funded the first phase of his long-range technology program. The plan included the tablet pilot project at 14 secondary schools. Mr. Deasy said the tablets are needed for the district to start the new curriculum known as Common Core State Standards taking effect in 2014.

Ultimately, he wants to buy tablets for all 650,000 LAUSD students, a project estimated to cost upwards of $400 million.

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  • LAUSD Superintendent Warns Of Shorter School Year Due To Budget Crisis (losangeles.cbslocal.com)
IDC Figures Show Samsung and ASUS Challenging Apple’s Grip on the Tablet Computing Market

http://www.stripersonline.com/t/628984/check-out-what-im-doing-tonightMIT’s Technology Review pointed out new data from IDC suggest that Apple’s dominance of the global tablet computer market may be giving way. Competing tablet makers, led by Samsung (005930), gained substantial ground during the third quarter of 2012.

Apple‘s (AAPL) market share dropped from 65 percent in the second quarter to just over 50% in the third quarter. Meanwhile, Samsung’s share doubled to 18%, and Amazon (AMZN) and ASUS (2357) each saw their share rise from under five percent to around nine percent.

2012 3Q Worldwide tablet shipments

As is clear from the graph above, TR concludes that it’s too early to tell how quickly the market is diversifying. Apple’s lag was at least partly due to rumors about its plans to release the iPad Mini, which led some consumers to hold off on buying a new iPad, according to IDC. Now that the Mini is out, analysts expect Apple to have a strong fourth quarter.

The iPad Mini’s $329 starting price, however, is well above that of many Google (GOOG) Android tablets, which is why IDC’s analysts believe there is “plenty of room for Android vendors to build upon the success they achieved in the third quarter.”

Android-powered smartphones are already more popular than Apple’s iPhone in the U.S. as well as in other countries, like China

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Tablet Makers Pursue Public Schools

Tablet Makers Pursue Public SchoolsSchools are a large and growing market for Apple’s iPad. Teachers claim that tablets help students with lessons, improve memory and language skills, and cause them to act more independently. The excitement among tablet makers is almost as great. Tablet makers like Apple are pursuing public schools for more sales.

MIT’s Technology Review brings us data from IDC which says global shipments of tablets will reach 177 million this year, and 11 million of them were purchased by businesses or government of those, IDC analyst Tom Mainelli says, the “vast majority” were sold to schools.

Mr. Mainelli thinks that within a few years all U.S. students will have some access to a tablet at school. With 55 million students in the country’s schools, that’s a lot of potential sales. The article says it’s not just a one-time product push: beyond selling tablets to schools and districts, tablet makers see a chance to set up future sales by establishing brand loyalty with young users. “All these guys see huge opportunities here,” he says.

The most successful tablet maker in the education market is Apple (AAPL). In its July 2012 quarterly report, the company said it sold one million iPads to schools. TR notes that Apple hasn’t reported education numbers since then, but it did unveil a smaller, cheaper model that it expects will also appeal to students and educators: the $329 iPad Mini.

Amazon (AMZN) also highlighted its interest in the education market with the debut of Whispercast, a service to manage its Kindle e-readers en masse. Jay Marine, vice president of product management for the Kindle, the company sees the education market as “a meaningful business opportunity.”

Smaller companies are making tablets aimed specifically at the education market. Two firms are CurriculumLoft, which makes the Kuno tablet, and Brainchild, which sells the Kineo.

Brainchild CEO Jeff Cameron claims his company’s $299 tablet, which runs on Google‘s (GOOG) Android software is better than mass-market devices because it was built for educational use. TR says that, unlike most tablets, the Kineo has a replaceable battery, resulting in a longer lifespan. Its touch screen is meant to withstand spills, and it has more physical buttons than an iPad.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| September 20, 2012
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Students – Insider Threat At K12 Schools

Students - Insider Threat At K12 SchoolsI have spoken to several tech people outside of K-12 lately. When the topic of information security comes around, they talk about how much they are focusing on the “growing insider threat” their employers face. I always smile because those of us in K12 have always faced a hostile internal threat, students. Here are a couple of examples of how students can be an insider threat at school.

student hackers changed gradesAt Colorado’s Jefferson County K12 Schools KUSA reports that administrators are investigating reports that student hackers got into Golden High School’s computer system and changed grades. Investigators are looking into whether students inside the school hacked the campus portal system. A student said, “People started giving themselves A’s.”

Golden High School students told the media that the hackers changed the grades for themselves and others just before winter break and the end of the first semester.

Administrators do not even know how many grades were changed. It could be low as 15 students or as high as 200. The district will not say if any students were caught or how many are suspected of hacking into the system.

do not even know how many grades were changedJefferson County Schools Superintendent Cindy Stevenson told local TV her staff is working hard to find out how it happened. When they do, she says security will be improved.

Berkeley High School

Prestigious Berkeley High School in Berkeley CA succumbed to the student insider threats. The media reports nearly three dozen students were suspended and face expulsion for hacking into the K12 school’s attendance system, an act that could lead to criminal prosecution according to SFGate. At least four students used an administrator’s stolen password to clear tardies and unexcused absences from the permanent records of 50 students, offering the service or the password for a price, Principal Pasquale Scuderi said.

The hackers erased from the system hundreds of cut classes and tardies from October through December, and charged classmates $2 to $20 for the illicit help, Scuderi told the SFGate.

Orange County K12 schools

student insider threatThe student insider threat struck K12 schools in Orange County, California. Omar Khan a former student of Tesoro High School, pled guilty to charges of having installed spyware on his high school’s computers and having used the collected passwords to get access to the grading system and change his grades according to CSO Online.

Khan and another student, Tanvir Singh were arrested for breaking into the school’s assistant principal’s office at night. Khan’s goal was to destroy the evidence that he cheated on a statistics test by stealing it.

Khan had faced a maximum of 38 years in prison on the felony burglary and public-record tampering charges is expected to be sentenced to 30 days in jail, 500 hours of community service, and ordered to pay about $15,000 in restitution.

years in prison on the felony public-record tampering chargesThe article says Khan admitted he was guilty of breaking into school offices and installing spyware on computers and then using the passwords to change some of his grades and that of 12 other students.

He also acknowledged that he changed his transcript grades to appeal rejection letters from the University of Southern California, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Nevada salutation

PC World reports that in Pahrump, Nevada, K12 schools Tyler Coyner, Pahrump Valley High School’s 2010 salutation with a 4.54-grade point average, was arrested as the ringleader in a group of 13 students who have been charged with conspiracy, theft, and computer intrusion. The article states that Coyner somehow obtained a password to the school’s grade system and, over the course of two semesters, offered to change grades in return for cash payments.

salutation arrested as the ringleader in a group of students charged with conspiracy and computer intrusion.According to PC World, ten juveniles have also been arrested for having profited from Coyner’s offer to bump up their grades. It turns out that Coyner, somewhat foolishly – chose to make himself the one that profited most from his scheme. In fact, the 4.54-grade point average that made him the school’s salutation is the result of his own grade manipulation.

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Looks like Coyner is gotten a head start on his dream of becoming a Wall Street hedge fund trader by facing criminal charges as a student insider threat at school.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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