Careers | Education Technologies

SpecTrust raises millions to fight cybercrime with its no-code platform | TechCrunch

The issue of CyberSecurity grows continually, and with it the opportunities for businesses and careers in the industry.

Risk defense startup SpecTrust is emerging from stealth today with a $4.3 million seed raise and a public launch.
Cyber Mentor Fund led the round, which also included participation from Rally Ventures, SignalFire, Dreamit Ventures and Legion Capital.
SpecTrust aims to “fix the economics of fighting fraud” with a no-code platform that it says cuts 90% of a business’ risk infrastructure spend that responds to threats in “minutes instead of months.”

Source: SpecTrust raises millions to fight cybercrime with its no-code platform | TechCrunch

Microsoft Certified Educator

It’s always nice to get new qualifications. Almost makes Monday mornings bearable.

New resources on the gender gap in computer science

A continuing disappointment in Computing is the large and accelerating gender disparity in its recruitment. Due in part, I think, to some muddled thinking that occasionally equates computing with the often sexist pastime of computer gaming attracting female students to Computer Science is hard and getting harder.

This resource helps to address the problem.

When it comes to computer science, we still have a lot of work to do to address gaps in education. That’s evident in our latest report with Gallup, Current Perspectives and Continuing Challenges in Computer Science Education in US K-12 Schools. This report is our most recent in a multiple-year series of Diversity in K12 CS education reports with Gallup in an effort to share new research with advocates, administrators, nonprofit partners and the tech industry to continue addressing gaps in computer science education.

Source: New resources on the gender gap in computer science

Tips from Google’s resilience expert on avoiding burnout

Helpful advice for these difficult times.

A college soccer player, Lauren Whitt was sidelined by two knee injuries that took her off the field during her sophomore and junior year. This was incredibly frustrating — she’d played soccer most of her life and had even won a Pan-American gold medal with the U.S. Youth National Soccer team. She realized she was going to need to find a way to cope.

“I began to study the idea of resilience more,” Lauren says. “How it changes your body and your life. It sort of became my personal mission.” A few years later, it became the subject for her doctoral dissertation — today, it’s the focus of her work.

Lauren is the head of global resilience at Google, a job that’s been crucial this last year. Even as vaccines become available, so many stressors remain: Searches for the term “pandemic fatigue” increased more than 300% during the past month in the U.S., and “job burnout quiz” was a breakout search over the past three months. These things are exactly what Lauren hopes to alleviate through her programs that help Googlers build resilience, deal with stress and develop skills to tackle new challenges.

But resilience isn’t only about helping people cope with the negative; it’s also about giving them more room to experience the positive. Lauren wants to help Googlers feel creative and productive so they can thrive at work. “I’m so passionate about this work because I think that while I’m not personally making something that launches us all into the future, I can help the people at Google who are doing that be their best.”

Source: Tips from Google’s resilience expert on avoiding burnout

Forget Coding: Writing Is Design’s “Unicorn Skill”

Students need to know more than basic coding skills.

These days many designers can code–an increasingly important skill for landing a job. But few are just as fluent in their own language as they are in Javascript. That presents a serious problem in terms of design. Users still depend on copy to interact with apps and other products. If designers don’t know how to write well, the final product–be it a physical or digital one–can suffer as a result.

In his “2017 Design in Tech Report,” John Maeda writes that “code is not the only unicorn skill.” According to Maeda, who is the head of computational design and inclusion at Automattic and former VP of design at VC firm Kleiner Perkins, words can be just as powerful as the graphics in which designers normally traffic. “A lot of times designers don’t know that words are important,” he said while presenting the report at SXSW this weekend. “I know a few designers like that–do you know these designers out there? You do know them, right?”

From FastCompany

Why girls are put off studying computer science

Despite the phenomenal rise in computing over the last 50 years, the birth of the internet, and our ever increasing reliance on technology, women are still not engaging with computer science at the same rate as men.

This has been outlined in a recent report from the University of Roehampton, which reveals that only 9% of girls schools offer computing at A-level, compared with 44% of boys schools, and 25% of mixed-sex sixth forms and colleges.

The report shows that in 2016 only a minority of schools (29%) entered pupils for GCSE computing – despite it being a foundation subject on the national curriculum. The figure is even lower at A-level, with only 24% of schools entering their students for the qualification.

Things don’t fair any better in further education either, with the Digest of Education statistics revealing the percentage of females who took an undergraduate degree in computer science in 1970-71 was 14%. This rose to 37% in 1983-84 but gradually declined to 18% in 2010-11.

Source: Why girls are put off studying computer science

Beyond the National Student Survey – Student Experience Company @SXManagement

Our White Paper, “Beyond the National Student Survey” outlines key principles for improving student experience. It:

Summarises the changes and discontinuities that are shaping student experience expectations.

Overviews the changes contained in the Government White Paper, “Success as a Knowledge Economy“.

Outlines ten significant problems of the National Student Survey.

Defines six key principles for defining and managing student experience.

Source: Beyond the National Student Survey – Student Experience Company

The National Student Survey should be abolished before it does any more harm | Higher Education Network | The Guardian

English: Title page from Sarah Trimmer’s The Guardian of Education, vol. I, 1802 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The annual ritual of the publication of the National Student Survey (NSS) results has triggered fevered data dissection at universities across the UK this week. But the analysis, and the subsequent press releases and poster campaigns, represent merely a stage in a continual cycle of NSS-driven activity.

Universities now run ongoing campaigns to solicit student feedback, review practice in line with student demands, publicise changes made, and promote completion of the survey itself, in order to rank highly for satisfaction in league tables. All this time and effort comes at some expense to institutions; just the cost of rewarding survey-completers with vouchers would cover a lecturer’s salary at many institutions.The time has come to review what students, and higher education more broadly, gains from this considerable investment.

Source: The National Student Survey should be abolished before it does any more harm | Higher Education Network | The Guardian

Forget New Year Resolutions – The 1st of February is the time to set your plans for the new year.

The first of January is always a bad time to start anything new. Everything conspires to ensure that resolutions are forgotten within weeks, or even days, of the bells being rung.

Why not, then use the first of February as the date to examine your goals for the coming year.

The new year always inspires us to make changes and set goals to better ourselves and be more productive. Bad habits built up over the years can make you sluggish on the job. In order to flip the switch and make this coming year your most productive yet, you need to change your environment, eliminate your temptations, and adjust your mindset to turn bad habits into good habits. It only takes about 30 days of a new activity to create a new habit, so get started with these tips and by February, you’ll be your

Source: Make 2017 Your Most Productive Year Yet – Microsoft Partner Network

Why girls are put off studying computer science from @ConversationUK

Despite the phenomenal rise in computing over the last 50 years, the birth of the internet, and our ever increasing reliance on technology, women are still not engaging with computer science at the same rate as men.

This has been outlined in a recent report from the University of Roehampton, which reveals that only 9% of girls schools offer computing at A-level, compared with 44% of boys schools, and 25% of mixed-sex sixth forms and colleges.

The report shows that in 2016 only a minority of schools (29%) entered pupils for GCSE computing – despite it being a foundation subject on the national curriculum. The figure is even lower at A-level, with only 24% of schools entering their students for the qualification.

Things don’t fair any better in further education either, with the Digest of Education statistics revealing the percentage of females who took an undergraduate degree in computer science in 1970-71 was 14%. This rose to 37% in 1983-84 but gradually declined to 18% in 2010-11.

In the current age, these statistics are depressing, especially as being a “computer scientist”, rather than “computer literate”, is becoming increasingly important. And as deep learning, machine learning, big data and artificial intelligence enter common usage, it is useful for all genders to have an appreciation and engagement with these technologies – not just the boys.

Source: Why girls are put off studying computer science