07-31-2022 EDU - Flipbook - Page 5
The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, July 31, 2022 5
Technology and learning
Expanded use of technology in classrooms
Towson University opens their new Cyber4All Center this fall in effort to teach cybersecurity across all departments and at all levels.
By E. Rose Scarff, Contributing Writer
C
lassrooms are being transformed
at the University of Maryland,
Baltimore County (UMBC) campus
in their college of engineering and
information technology (COEIT) so
that students can attend class in person, virtually
or a hybrid of the two. “We're always trying to
deliver the best educational experience for our
students,” says Keith Bowman, Ph.D., dean of
college of engineering and information technology and professor of mechanical engineering.
“We already had some classrooms on the campus
that were designed for this purpose, but now we
are building more.”
All mechanical engineering students take
a capstone senior design course. The projects
include external partners and engineering professionals from the area, who, in the past would
have to come to the campus, park and spend
time for the presentations and for interactions
with the students. “One of the things we learned
during the pandemic was that because of these
classrooms we could include those external partners virtually,” says Bowman. They could watch
each of the student team presentation and interact and ask questions. So could students who
were unable to be in person that day.
“I just see what happened during the pandemic as an acceleration of our process to
improve the classroom experience so that we
could be much more flexible,” says Bowman.”
Just as we have to update the content, we do
have an obligation to update how we deliver the
content in the class.”
This is not without its challenges. All students need to have their cameras on so that the
instructor can see their faces and their reactions.
Teaching is a give and take experience with students, which is a little more difficult to replicate
virtually. Another challenge is hands-on classes
such as materials classes in mechanical engineering. Although some activities can be replicated
virtually, it is not the same as holding materials
in your hands or being shown a better way to do
something.
Also included in these building updates are
areas where student teams can work on projects
and presentations together, whether in person or
virtually. Learning to work together in teams is
important for the students not only from a learning perspective but also as a skill they will need
in their careers.
Towson University opens their new
Cyber4All Center this fall in effort to teach
cybersecurity across all departments and at all
levels, especially including the education department and K-12 teachers. The center has three
floors of facilities focused on cybersecurity,
including a cyber exercise room large enough to
hold 60 or more students.
“That cyber exercise room will be used, not
just for Towson University classes,” says Sidd
Kaza, Ph.D., director of Cyber4All Center, “but
we'll invite other schools in the region.” Schools
participate in several different cybersecurity
competitions, and they will be able to host their
competitions in this state-of-the-art room.
Towson also has a National Security
Foundation (NSA) CyberCorps Scholarship and
NSA designations in cybersecurity as well. “One
of the requirements for designations and the
scholarship is community service by the students
who are the recipients of scholarship,” says Kaza.
“We would like our students to engage with high
school and middle school students at these competitions and volunteer their time and expertise
to help the schools run these competitions.”
Towson already has a stellar reputation in
both teaching educators and in teaching and
research in cybersecurity. They have also been
working to improve a cybersecurity mindset
throughout the university. “We will be hosting
our intro to cyber class in the new building,” says
Blair Taylor, Ph.D., associate professor in the
department of computer information sciences.
That class will be open to other majors to bring
more diversity to the discipline to solve problems. “The interdisciplinary focus makes this
center very different from other cyber centers in
the country,” says Taylor.
Kaza and Taylor have created a non-profit
called SecurEd, which consists of a large range
of free cybersecurity curriculum offered to educators to build skills in the next generation of
students and educators. The new center will
encourage more entrepreneurial projects like this
for both public and private sectors.
“One of the goals of the center is outreach to
the K-12 regional and national community with
the focus on cyber,” says Kaza. This summer the
Cyber4All Center will be hosting K-12 camps
in cybersecurity primarily for educators so they
can teach fundamental cyber principles to their
students.
A career path that is not new but is rarely
heard of outside the medical profession is nursing informatics. The University of Maryland
School of Nursing (UMSON) started the first
master’s in nursing informatics in the country 1988. “Nursing informaticians look at data
that's being captured for accuracy, check to see
if patient outcomes could be improved, or how
to improve the clinical care of the patient,” says
Cheryl A. Fisher, Ed.D., M.S.N., R.N., associate
professor, nursing informatics and interim specialty director of nursing informatics at UMSON.
Besides keeping their eye on a patient’s medical records and compiling that data to better
serve the patient, some nursing informaticians
work in the growing field of educating patients
in the use of telehealth appointments. They also
help doctors access a patient’s medical records,
interact with the pharmacy, set up appointments,
contact the billing department, and work at getting all these systems to work smoothly for best
patient care. “The informatician can look at all
the different perspectives, not only of the care
provider,” says Fisher, “but also of the patient and
institution.”
Many also work outside the medical field
for vendors who develop the programs used by
doctors and hospitals. They work in research and
development to advance what is being offered
in telehealth, for example, or in medical record
keeping or billing.
“We need a lot of innovation in health care,”
says Fisher, “new ways to do things using technology and more efficient ways of doing things.”
During the pandemic the use of telehealth
became more widespread but there are many
patients who don’t have access to computers or
cell phones or don’t feel comfortable using them.
“The world of informatics is very much focused
on things that have to do with equity, diversity
and inclusion,” says Fisher.
All aspects of this career are taught to nurses from all over the world completely online.
Because of UMSON’s contacts, even the practicum requirement can be completed in a hospital near where the student lives, whether it is
Baltimore, Germany or South Africa. This gives
them real world experience on their resume
when they graduate.