January 2016

The US Department of Education's most recent blueprint for how technology should be used in schools calls for improving teacher training and drawing attention to what it describes as a "digital-use divide" between active and passive uses of digital and online content and tools.

"We really see the plan as a vision for the country of what ed tech could be in our classrooms if it's implemented in the way we think is best," said Joseph South, the deputy director of the department's office of educational technology. Educators and observers hailed the fifth National Education Technology Plan as a compelling statement of what's possible. The new plan focuses on five areas: learning, teaching, leadership, assessment, and infrastructure.

Like its predecessors, the new document places a heavy emphasis on issues of equity. Now, though, the most pressing digital divide has to do with how technology is used in the classroom, the plan contends. The department hopes to see more "active" uses of ed tech, such as coding, creative media production, design, and collaboration with experts. The plan also calls for districts to shift away from buying print textbooks and instead make wider use of digital open educational resources, which are licensed to be free to use, revise, and share. And one of the plan's greatest areas of focus is on improving teacher training and professional development.

But attempts to institutionalize the vision it lays out will face big hurdles, according to ed-tech experts. Among the most significant: the newly reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The comprehensive federal education law, now known as the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, has left states and school districts to face tough choices in the coming years about whether to use federal dollars for technology or other pressing needs.

Hackers caused a power outage in Ukraine during holiday season, researchers say, signalling a potentially troubling new escalation in digital attacks. "This is the first incident we know of where an attack caused a blackout," said John Hultquist, head of iSIGHT Partner's cyberespionage intelligence practice. "It's always been the scenario we've been worried about for years because it has ramifications across broad sectors." Half of the homes in Ukraine's Ivano-Frankivsk region were left without power for several hours on December 23rd, according to a local report that attributed the blackout to a virus that disconnected electrical substations from the grid.

Researchers at iSight on Jan 4 said their analysis of malware found on the systems of at least three regional electrical operators confirmed that a "destructive" cyberattack led to the power outage. In this case, the attackers used a kind of malware that wiped files off computer systems, shutting them down and resulting in the blackout, Hultquist said. At least one of the power systems was also infected with a type of malware known as BlackEnergy. A similar combination was used against some Ukrainian media organizations during local elections in 2014, he said.

[Commentary] As we ring in 2016, we will see a significant acceleration within three key technologies as the public sector fundamentally transforms its services to meet the needs of 21st-century population:

1. The Use of Public Cloud Technology: Cloud technology will continue to evolve in 2016, as government entities seek to find more efficient, affordable and secure ways to make public services available to citizens.
2. Mobile Engagement: Whether it’s making public services and data available on multiple channels or communicating with citizens via online chat, text message or forums, the public sector knows that to put the needs of tax-paying citizens first, it must start making services and communication available via multiple devices and channels.
3. Apps and Services Architecture: A key way in which government entities can share software and applications and integrate services will be through developing microsite architecture, because this kind of architecture is scalable and can distribute and deliver software and applications via hybrid cloud and on-premise.

[David Brinkman is president and CEO of AssureSign, an electronic signature software provider for enterprises and small business]