Information Technology

Information, news and features for the education sector IT professionals


Illuminate Education Booted from Student Privacy Pledge, Referred for Potential FTC and State AG Action

The Future of Privacy Forum on Monday announced it has removed Illuminate Education from the nonprofit’s list of Student Privacy Pledge signatories — the first time a company has been de-listed from the voluntary data protection pledge — and said it sent its decision and supporting facts to federal and state authorities for potential legal action against the ed tech company.

How a Poor District in NY Leveled the Playing Field with Better Communications [and Lightened the Load for School Staff]

A district administrator explains how their new school-home communications platform gives them not just two-way communications with families, but also the ability to meet parents where they are — and how implementing the platform has solved numerous challenges for the district staff and teachers, for parents, and for students.

Nonprofit Groups Say ED Must Address Inequitable Harms of Student Online Activity Monitoring

In an open letter this week to U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon, 15 education, technology, and civil rights nonprofits called for the department to put schools and online activity monitoring providers on notice that such monitoring must not result in discrimination or violation of students’ civil rights and liberties.

Hear Ransomware Victims Describe the Response & Recovery Lessons Learned at Virtual Event for IT Practitioners

School cybersecurity nonprofit K12 Security Information Exchange is holding a free professional development webinar, “The Long Tail of K–12 Cyber Incident Response and Recovery,” for education sector IT practitioners on Aug. 16, featuring an extended case study of Northshore School District’s response and recovery work following a crippling ransomware attack targeting the Washington district in 2019.

How To Start Using Google Add-Ons: Step By Step

To start using Google add-ons, district admins will need to set up add-ons and can then enable access for educators; admins need to have the Google Workspace for Education Plus edition or Teaching & Learning Upgrade assigned to each educator that they want to have access to add-ons, Google wrote on its blog announcing the launch. Here are step-by-step instructions for getting started with Google add-ons.

Google Classroom Add-Ons Officially Launches, Enabling Integrations with 18 Ed Tech Tools

Google today announced that the Classroom Add-Ons feature, in beta since last summer, is rolling out to all Teaching & Learning subscribers and Education Plus subscribers in time for fall semester, enabling access to 18 popular ed tech tools from within Classroom.

PowerSchool Launches Connected Intelligence, First Fully Managed Data-as-a-Service Platform for K–12 Schools

K–12 cloud-based software provider PowerSchool today launched a new Data-as-a-Service platform called Connected Intelligence that aims to unify, integrate, protect, and analyze school districts’ data from all sources as well as external data that impacts educators' decision-making such as labor market information, according to a news release.

IT Survey Shows Managing Third-Party Risks Remains a Growing and Unmet Challenge

A recent survey of IT professionals by critical access management provider SecureLink found that managing and monitoring third-party vendors with access to public schools’ networks and data remains a top challenge for education IT practitioners.

Incident IQ Releases Integration With Identity Automation's RapidIdentity SSO

K–12 workflow management provider Incident IQ has released an API-based integration for Identity Automation's RapidIdentity SSO solution used by hundreds of districts nationwide, according to a news release.

Tyler Technologies Partners with Infinite Campus for Student Information Solutions

ERP technology provider Tyler Technologies today announced that through a new partnership with Infinite Campus, schools using Tyler’s student information solution will be transitioned to Infinite Campus’ SIS platform, and Infinite Campus clients will have access to Tyler’s ERP and student transportation solutions, according to a news release.

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