By Nadav Avni, CMO of Radix Technologies

Elevate your cybersecurity defenses with effective device management strategies for interactive touchscreens. Unleash the power of secure interactivity while safeguarding sensitive information.

The education sector’s digital transformation is helping students keep pace with modern technology. The internet has made it easier than ever for kids to access learning materials, submit assignments, and participate in group activities. In addition, schools now use interactive touchscreens instead of antiquated tools such as whiteboards, projectors, and video cassette players. All that’s remaining is to ensure school devices have the right device management support to keep them safe.

Like everything else, technology also has a dark side. For the education sector, cybersecurity breaches often mean great risks to student privacy. Awareness, best practices, and device management can help minimize the damages from cybersecurity breaches. After all, when school districts commit to a full and safe digital upgrade, students win.

Identifying Cybersecurity Challenges in Education

What’s the best medium of instruction for students who grew up immersed in the internet, usually via their parent’s smartphones and tablets? Interactive touchscreens, of course! Touchscreens provide a natural extension for kids who learned to type letters on phone screens and play videos with touch controls.

Unfortunately, school devices aren’t totally immune to cybersecurity issues. Many students and teachers alike fall for phishing scams, where they inadvertently share their user accounts and passwords with online thieves. These criminals will then access their private data to steal whatever they can.

Additionally, cyber gangs can also use brute-force hacking and SQL injections to gain access to restricted servers. In some cases, institutions fall victim to ransomware, where they’re forced to pay gangs to return access to critical data in exchange for money.

Negligence in cybersecurity measures

 is the major reason for online breaches. However, the use of obsolete technology is also a factor. A single device that has yet to update to the latest software version leaves the entire system vulnerable to attacks. Reminding users to practice online diligence is a good way to minimize attacks. However, school districts also need reliable device management software to protect and update devices.

Implementing Comprehensive Device Management Solutions

Comprehensive device management solutions enable school districts to enforce area-wide security protocols. A key feature of modern device management is remote ability. This allows IT administrators to remotely connect to one or all devices on demand.

What’s more, management can monitor each device to see if it runs the latest software versions and allows access only to authorized users. Remote management also allows IT teams to schedule automatic updates during device downtimes.

Another key feature of device management is assigning user access levels consistent with their duties. For example, students receive access to scheduled modules and their personal records.

Meanwhile, instructors get wider access to their student data and the course curriculum. School administrators and board members can collect user data to gather insights into school and individual performances. Finally, IT teams have access to system settings and administrative work.

Basically, each user only gets to work on their defined area of responsibility. Partitioning access reduces the risk of users overstepping their bounds and records any such attempts or incidences.

Monitoring, Patching, and Vulnerability Management

Touchscreen devices are some of the biggest expenditures schools can make as they embrace the digital classroom. Ensuring a great return on investment (ROI) for these devices means having them work optimally beyond their expected lifespan.

Providing expert care and maintenance on these machines will extend their operational years. Additionally, IT administrators should consistently apply the latest updates and fixes to system software, firmware, and applications. This ensures all school equipment uses the latest software versions. More importantly, malicious entities can’t exploit documented vulnerabilities in the software.

For this reason, remote management should remain a key feature of your device management platform. The ability to connect with one or more devices remotely lets administrators apply critical updates and patches immediately. It also enables admins to attend to devices reporting unauthorized access attempts.

With a single command prompt, admins can freeze, shut down, or disable devices to prevent any further action. If there are attempts to steal data or devices, admins can wipe all stored information or incapacitate devices. At the same time, geolocation services can identify the location of stolen or missing devices.

Educating Users: Promoting Cybersecurity Awareness and Best Practices

Embracing a totally digital educational system means being aware of the risks that come with it. Many of today’s students are digital natives, having grown up in a computerized environment. Sometimes, this familiarity leads students to boldly attempt to override school systems or hack local databases. While many will do so with malicious intent, some will do so just because they can.

A good start for school districts is to educate students about the need to protect their own data. This includes assuming the responsibility of securing and updating their passwords and encrypting or protecting their documents. Additionally, students should learn to always log out of shared devices after use.

However, awareness is just the beginning. School districts should also enlist the help of reliable device management software, which can take the pressure off individual users.

Having a platform that monitors, manages, and secures all school devices is a great deterrent against wanton online aggression. More importantly, a good device management platform has the tools to secure devices and counter any unauthorized access attempts.

Enjoy the Full Digital Experience With Reliable Device Management

Touchscreen devices and other digital school equipment are great tools students can use to learn proper cybersecurity. With their assigned accounts and devices, they can practice diligent password management and proper document storage. Instructors can also spend a few sessions teaching students about common cybercrimes such as phishing, malware, and ransomware.

In short, awareness combined with reliable device management practices can set up a great learning system in schools with digital equipment. Embracing technology means recognizing the possible dangers that go with it. Doing so is a win-win situation for both school districts and the students themselves.

By Roberta Haseleu, Practice Lead Green Technology at Reply, Fiorenza Oppici, Live Reply, and Lars Trebing, Vanilla Reply

Most people are unaware or underestimate the impact of the IT sector on the environment. According to the BBC: “If we were to rather crudely divide the 1.7 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions estimated to be produced in the manufacture and running of digital technologies between all internet users around the world, it would mean each of us is responsible for 414kg of carbon dioxide a year.” That’s equivalent to 4.7bn people charging their smartphone 50,000 times.

Every web page produces a carbon footprint that varies depending on its design and development. This must be more closely considered as building an energy efficient website also increases loading speeds which leads to better performance and user experience.

Following are six practical steps developers can take to reduce the environmental impact of their websites.

• Implement modularisation

With traditional websites that don’t rely on single page apps, each page and view of the site is saved in individual html files. The code only runs, and the data is only downloaded, for the page that the user is visiting, avoiding unnecessary requests. This reduces transmitted data volume and saves energy.

However, this principle is no longer the standard in modern web design which is dominated by single page apps which dynamically display all content to the user at runtime. This approach is easier and faster to code and more user-friendly but, without any precautions, it creates unnecessary overheads. In the worst case, accessing the homepage of a website may trigger the transmission of the entire code of the application, including parts that may not be needed.

Modularisation can help. By dividing the code of a website into different modules, i.e. coherent code sections, only the relevant code is referenced. Using modules offers distinct benefits: they keep the scope of the app clean and prevent ‘scope creeps’; they are loaded automatically after the page has been parsed but before the Document Object Model (DOM) is rendered; and, most importantly for green design, they facilitate ‘lazy loading’.

• Adopt lazy loading

The term lazy loading describes a strategy of only loading resources at the moment they are needed. This way, a large image at the bottom of the page will not be loaded unless the user scrolls down to that section.

If a website only consists of a routing module and an app module which contain all views, the site will become very heavy and slow at first load. Smart modularisation, breaking down the site into smaller parts, in combination with lazy loading can help to load only the relevant content when the user is viewing that part of the page.

However, this should not be exaggerated either as, in some instances, loading each resource only in the last moment while scrolling can annihilate performance gains and result in higher server and network loads. It’s important to find the right balance based on a good understanding of how the app will be used in real life (e.g. whether users will generally rather continue to the next page after a quick first glance, or scroll all the way down before moving on).

• Monitor build size

Slimming website builds is possible not only at runtime but also at a static level. Typically, a web app consists of a collection of different typescript files. To build a site and compile the code from typescript to JavaScript, a web pre-processor is used.

Pre-processors come with the possibility to prevent a build to complete if its files are bigger than a variable threshold. Limits can be set both for the main boot script as well as the single chunks of CSS to be no bigger than a specific byte size after compilation. Any build surpassing those thresholds fails with a warning.

If a build is suspiciously big, a web designer can inspect it and identify which module contributes the most, as well as all its interdependencies. This information allows the programmer to optimise the parts of the websites in question.

• Eliminate unused code

One potential reason for excessive build sizes can be dozens of configuration files and code meant for scenarios that are never needed. Despite never being executed, this code still takes up bandwidth, thereby consuming extra energy.

Unused parts can be found in own source code but also (and often to a greater extent) in external libraries used as dependencies. Luckily, a technique called ‘tree shaking’ can be used to analyse the code and mark which parts are not referenced by other portions of the code.

Modern pre-processors perform ‘tree shaking’ to identify unused code but also to exclude it automatically from the build. This allows them to package only those parts of the code that are needed at runtime – but only if the code is modularised.

• Choose external libraries wisely

One common approach to speed up the development process is by using external libraries. They provide ready-to-use utilities written and tested by other people. However, some of these libraries can be unexpectedly heavy and weigh your code down.

One popular example is Moment.js, a very versatile legacy library for handling international date formats and time zones. Unfortunately, it is also quite big in size. Most of all, it is neither very compatible with the typical TypeScript world nor is it modular. This way, also the best pre-processors cannot reduce the weight that it adds to the code by means of ‘tree shaking’.

• Optimise content

Designs can also be optimised by avoiding excessive use of images and video material. Massive use of animation gimmicks such as parallax scrolling also has a negative effect. Depending on the implementation, such animations can massively increase the CPU and GPU load on the client. To test this, consider running the website on a 5 to 10-year-old computer. If scrolling is not smooth and/or the fans jump to maximum speed, this is a very good indication of optimisation potential.

The amount of energy that a website consumes — and thus its carbon footprint — depends, among other factors, on the amount of data that needs to be transmitted to display the requested content to users. By leveraging the six outlined techniques above, web designers can ‘slim’ their websites and contribute to the creation of a more sustainable web whilst boosting performance and user experience in the process.

Ben Murphy, Client Partner, Great State

Digital education has been a long talked about topic, trialled across universities and schools for many years, alongside traditional classroom learning. It was when the Covid pandemic hit that higher education in particular faced scrutiny and backlash on how digital services were run – both in terms of academia and student wellbeing support – and how effective this method of teaching really was. This raised concerns from both students and parents about value for money in terms of the quality of the university experience delivered, causing a crisis confidence in these institutions.

With digital experiences weaved throughout our daily lives – from food shopping to checking the live bus schedule all by the touch of a button – this generation of students have high expectations of what universities can deliver digitally. Every university has ‘gone digital’ to varying degrees, but some universities are simply not set up to deliver the high-quality digital services and experiences at the pace required. Yet expectations of service delivery and the wider campus experience are becoming increasingly important factors in students’ eyes.

The consequence of this is an emerging digital experience gap between what students expect and what universities offer. Some HE institutions are already making the necessary changes to ensure digital experiences for students are slick, effective and useful – some still have a long way to go. A recent report by Jisc found more than a third of students rated support for online learning to be average or worse. Universities must act now to develop high-quality, inclusive digital experiences which will not just satisfy, but serve the TikTok generation of today.

Using digital to support academic learning and mental wellbeing

Students are looking for more than just learning support when it comes to using digital platforms at university. Previous experiences of digital may have been capped at submitting an assignment through an online portal or joining a society page on a university forum. Now, this has moved on to being able to reserve library computers easily, access lecture notes online, book university accommodation, and schedule video calls with university support staff. These all require well-designed, user experience informed interfaces to function well and actually be of value to the students using them.

Students expect the digital experience to support them not just academically, but also socially and mentally. With our research showing that 90% of students believe a good digital experience can help them perform better academically, create a greater feeling of belonging, and help maintain mental wellbeing – digital services need to incorporate every aspect of the student experience.

For those studying within a hybrid model or even fully remotely, digital can offer a way to feel connected with peers through a digital community. It’s these social connections which play an important part in the university onboarding process in place of, or enhancing, the physical experience.

And this doesn’t have to stop at graduation. Digital services offer the opportunity for graduates to feel connected to the university and their alumni far beyond learning and into their working lives.

Leveraging data for digital experiences

There is a big opportunity to leverage the data provided by students in more intelligent ways. Collecting data from digital services provides universities with an opportunity to learn more about students’ mindsets and behaviour, allowing them to tailor and drive the student experience towards positive outcomes. Data patterns can establish what makes each student tick, what learning style works best for them, and what their motivations are, to allow the university to provide better individual support in the best way possible.

Data can also provide an indication about the utilisation of services based upon segments of the student population within the university. Data implementation doesn’t need to be large, intimidating or have an organisation-wide impact – it can begin with delivering pockets of personalised content or communications, centralising some data and making small steps towards a single customer/student view.

Closing the digital gap

Given it takes two to three years to implement a digital strategy across a large organisation, complacent HE organisations may not act fast enough to close the gap as student patience runs out and expectations increase.

Universities that fail to act now may be left behind, creating an opportunity for challenger universities – such as former polytechnics and newer institutions – to close the gap or overtake ‘premier league’ institutions within the Russell Group, for example. Challenger universities have had to work hard to attract and retain students. Getting the digital experience right could provide the USP they’ve been searching for and put them ahead of the game. 

Universities must understand the specific needs of their student cohorts by identifying where student needs are not currently being met, and the areas of the experience they most value, as these might not be the ones they expect. Whilst most of the student population are digitally native, it should not be assumed that they all are. There are important differences in the way that students from differing socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds have access to and use digital, and universities must consider all of these demographics when designing digital solutions to serve all.

Embracing “customer-centred” design thinking and service design principles to make sure that services are designed around students – rather than what is perceived as best practice and to suit the traditions of the organisation – is crucial to closing the digital experience gap.