Securing the Next Generation Classroom
The world of Education is much more technically advanced than it was when I was at school, or even at university (which admittedly was a couple of decades ago). The Sinclair ZX Spectrums and BBC B Microcomputers which were only visible in the ‘computer room’ have been replaced in the next generation classroom with smartboards, laptops, ipads, tablets and even smartphones (when they’ve not been confiscated).
Securing schools in particular has become even more important Data protection laws have been improved (see I didn’t mention G***) and as the Prevent Duty and guidelines such as the Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE 2018) have been updated to meet the modern demands of Safeguarding and increasing reliance on technology, connectivity and the internet. However the annual EDUCAUSE conference shown the classroom is set to see even more evolution, with leading control systems vendor Crestron demonstrating how their solutions transform classrooms into dynamic learning environments that are interactive, collaborative, and easy to use.
“We know the modern classroom is highly collaborative, and often doesn’t even involve a physical room at all,” said Roger Takacs, Crestron’s Director of Education Programs. “Crestron solutions empower educators and students in every learning space by making it easy to present, share, collaborate, and distribute content using any device.”
What’s in the Next Generation Classroom?
Education solutions for the classroom are designed to be easily scalable across the entire campus, enabling educators to:
• Easily connect students and teachers so they can share content and ideas – both in-class and by distance learning
• Configure learning spaces and easily deploy them across the building or the entire campus
• Centrally monitor and manage technology health to maximize usage
• Collect real-time and historical device and room usage data to identify trends that drive strategic management decisions
At Educause, Crestron demonstrated that they are the only end-to-end AV platform that can integrate:
The Next Generation Classroom
• Lecture capture
• Digital streaming and distribution of HD content
• General room connectivity
• Breakout and collaboration sessions
• Remote viewing and distance learning
• Presentation from wireless devices
Taking control of the classroom
With all of the technology in the modern day classroom, there has been a necessary upgrade in requirements for safeguarding. Secure internet access and access control have never been more important with learning activities increasingly being carried out over the Internet.
Infosec Partners’ Teacher’s Portal applies the leading technologies of Crestron and Fortinet to empower teachers to take back control of their classroom. With a secure, easy-to-use application interface, the Teacher’s Portal enables teachers to directly take control of the internet usage and content access of their class. Allowing them to directly allow and revoke the internet access of students and groups in their classroom, the Teacher’s Portal also allows them to manage access to specific sites or those with certain types of content for the duration of the class.
With easy-to-use controls to manage lighting, audio and video sources, as well as what can be accessed by their class, the Teacher’s Portal helps teachers to confidently embrace the next generation classroom, protect students from dangerous online content and ensures their focus is on the subject at hand.
Did you know? Infosec Partners are the only full-spectrum security experts accredited to implement, manage and troubleshoot both leading business and home-automation vendors (Crestron & Control4), and the first ever to integrate these with security from leading security vendors including Fortinet which named Infosec Partners it’s first ever UK Partner of Excellence.
Fortinet have an extensive portfolio of IT security protective controls designed specifically for education, all controls are integrated into a single platform enabling schools and colleges to operate their IT protection and safeguarding system from a single pane-of-glass console. Having next generation firewall, wireless, network switching, sandboxing and endpoint control integrated into a single fabric is unique and offers far greater protection than legacy, piecemeal options. Fortinet have extended this single platform to other controls around web, mail, CCTV, nac and identity and incident monitoring, along with seamless integration with key fabric partners that offer complementary solutions.
Schools and colleges need instant visibility into their IT and physical security controls, long gone are the days when teachers are prepared to request changes and reports from IT and to wait for a response, teachers need to be able to control their classrooms in realtime without having to learn to use an IT system to do so. Infosec partners have extended the Fortinet security fabric of controls and integrated them into a teachers portal, teachers can use either a Crestron tablet that or an ipad / android device to directly control the lighting, projection and physical protection for a classroom and can also control safeguarding aspects around web filtering, device restrictions and user access through the Fortinet integration
Securing Education
From the most prestigious independent schools to the country’s top universities, Infosec Partners has helped education establishments to successfully develop robust security strategies and manage Safeguarding.
Listening to Heads and Bursars, Teachers, Students and Parents, we designed a portfolio of cybersecurity services specifically for schools. Infosec Partners helps schools understand the new threats facing them and teaches them how to take control of information and cybersecurity, staying compliant, managing budgets and risks.
Infosec Partners cyber security managed services, focuses on the protection, detection and response to cybersecurity threats, a Fortinet Security Fabric Expert partner, providing cyber security as a service, including breach remediation in the event of a serious incident
For your free consultation, contact us through www.InfosecPartners.com/contact-us or to speak with trusted advisor immediately call us on +44 (0)1256 893662.
