Tim King
Use Learning Commons
To Explore Cybersecurity T
he trend in recent years of libraries evolving into learning commons puts these once paper resource focused centres of learning into a unique position when exploring emerging digital fields of study. Many learning commons have adopted digital literacy as a primary function, though one area that still eludes the vast majority of educators in Canada is cybersecurity.
One reason I left teaching English for computer technology was that it is ever changing so I knew I’d never have to teach the same book or lesson year in and year out. I know I’m a bit of a unicorn when it comes to technology in education. Finding teachers qualified to teach technology is difficult, but education has come to depend on our digitally networked world as much as any other industry and we need to get a handle on best practices, or we put student learning at risk.
You’ve probably stopped reading because that word puts “the fear” into most educators. I’ve been presenting on cybersecurity in the classroom for the past three years and find most educators can’t disappear fast enough. Combining digital technologies which few people feel truly fluent in with a field of study that includes crime, warfare and propaganda, usually has most educators running for the hills, but I’m here to tell you that it isn’t nearly as scary as you might think.
How We Got Started In CyberTitan
I worked in information technology for almost 15 years before becoming a teacher. I now teach computer technology at Centre Wellington District High School in Fergus, Ont., but few schools provide deep-dive curriculum into cyber skills.
My time in IT was before cloud-based computing. So, many of the networks I built and maintained were old-school local area ones, but the world has moved on, as many educators are well aware. These days, a computer is functionally useless
28 Ontario School Library Association
In 2017, in my never-ending effort to keep up with my rapidly mutating subject matter, I convinced four of my seniors to sign up for the inaugural year of CyberTitan: the Canadian Student CyberSecurity Competition. This competition piggybacks on the U.S. Air Force Association’s CyberPatriot competition, which had been up and running for a decade at that point.
