online – Page 5

The lack of women in cybersecurity leaves the online world at greater risk

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

TECHNOLOGY

The lack of women in cybersecurity leaves the online world at greater risk

Women are highly underrepresented in the field of cybersecurity. In 2017, women’s share in the U.S. cybersecurity field was 14%, compared to 48% in the general workforce. The problem is more acute outside the U.S. In 2018, women accounted for 10% of the cybersecurity workforce in the Asia-Pacific region, 9% in Africa, 8% in Latin America, 7% in Europe and 5% in the Middle East. Women are even less well represented in the upper echelons of security leadership. Only 1% of female internet security workers are in senior management positions. I study online crime and security issues facing consumers, organizations and nations. In my research, I have found that internet security requires strategies beyond technical solutions. Women’s representation is important because women tend to offer vie...

Social distancing is no reason to stop service learning – just do it online

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, Journalism

Social distancing is no reason to stop service learning – just do it online

At Troy University in Alabama, students went online to help a county with a high infant mortality rate in the state of Georgia to analyze health disparities and develop solutions. At Cornell University, where I teach, law students are providing legal services online to death-row inmates in Tanzania and children and young farmworkers in upstate New York. At five state universities in the U.S. heartland, students are helping Michigan towns create government websites. These are all examples of “e-service learning” – that is, service learning that takes place online. Service learning refers to a wide range of student experiences meant to help a community organization, local government or business. I am an education researcher and – along with my colleague Yue Li – I am investigating the b...

We’re measuring online conversation to track the social and mental health issues surfacing during the coronavirus pandemic

20Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA

We’re measuring online conversation to track the social and mental health issues surfacing during the coronavirus pandemic

The big idea Social media posts and news reports are rich sources of data about people’s attitudes and behaviors. Using artificial intelligence techniques, it’s possible to sift through billions of words to discern trends in a population’s well-being, or social quality. Performing this analysis during the COVID-19 pandemic is revealing the damage the pandemic is doing to the social and psychological well-being of the U.S. At the AI Institute of the University of South Carolina, my colleagues and I have processed more than 700 million social media posts since the beginning of March and more than 700,000 news articles about the COVID-19 pandemic. We are monitoring these information sources to capture the evolving human experience in the U.S. during the pandemic. We have found troubling indi...

6 ways to build motivation to do your schoolwork now that you’re forced to learn online at home

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SELF

6 ways to build motivation to do your schoolwork now that you’re forced to learn online at home

Even in normal circumstances, it can be hard to get motivated to do your schoolwork. But these are not normal circumstances. The switch to remote instruction caused by COVID-19 has been unsettling. Patterns have changed. Habits have been disrupted. Remote classes are simply different from classes that involve face-to-face instruction. As a researcher who looks at what it takes to get through college, I have a few tips that could maximize your motivation and productivity when you’re at home going to school online. 1. Guard your time You do not need large amounts of time to be productive. Instead, be intentional and focused in short blocks where you can work without interruption. Protect these open times by setting up your workspace to minimize distraction – including silencing notificatio...

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

VIDEO REELS

10 ways to spot online misinformation

Propagandists are already working to sow disinformation and social discord in the run-up to the November elections. Many of their efforts have focused on social media, where people’s limited attention spans push them to share items before even reading them – in part because people react emotionally, not logically, to information they come across. That’s especially true when the topic confirms what a person already believes. It’s tempting to blame bots and trolls for these problems. But really it’s our own fault for sharing so widely. Research has confirmed that lies spread faster than truth – mainly because lies are not bound to the same rules as truth. As a psychological scientist who studies propaganda, here is what I tell my friends, students and colleagues about what to watch out fo...

Online learning and the digital divide will make it even harder for some kids

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, Journalism, VIDEO REELS

Online learning and the digital divide will make it even harder for some kids

More than 10,600 of the nation’s public and private schools were closing at least temporarily by March 12 as communities scrambled to protect themselves from the COVID-19 viral disease pandemic. With little or no time to prepare for this disruption, families from Seattle to the New York City suburbs are suddenly having to figure out how to help their kids learn at home. This is an unprecedented effort that so far involves at least 7 million children. The total is rising fast with closures in entire states like Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, Oregon, New Mexico and Kentucky. Indiana University, where I teach, recently announced that we’ll stop offering in-person classes and move all instruction online after spring break ends on March 22. On top of setting up live-streaming channels for the 250 ...

What to expect as colleges and universities move classes online amid coronavirus fears: 4 questions answered

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

What to expect as colleges and universities move classes online amid coronavirus fears: 4 questions answered

Rising concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus have led a growing number of colleges and universities to cancel in-person classes and move them online. Vanessa Dennen, who studies teaching and learning on the web, discusses what going online will mean for college students and instructors. 1. How hard will it be? Moving classes online in the midst of an emergency isn’t unprecedented. It’s been done before with local disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes. But contending with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is a different situation. This is a global problem. A sudden shift to temporary or long-term online learning poses a challenge for brick-and-mortar universities to quickly scale up their online learning offerings under less than ideal conditions. It w...

12Feb

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA

Why do so many people fall for fake profiles online?

The first step in conducting online propaganda efforts and misinformation campaigns is almost always a fake social media profile. Phony profiles for nonexistent people worm their way into the social networks of real people, where they can spread their falsehoods. But neither social media companies nor technological innovations offer reliable ways to identify and remove social media profiles that don’t represent actual authentic people. It might sound positive that over six months in late 2017 and early 2018, Facebook detected and suspended some 1.3 billion fake accounts. But an estimated 3 to 4 percent of accounts that remain, or approximately 66 million to 88 million profiles, are also fake but haven’t yet been detected. Likewise, estimates are that 9 to 15 percent of Twitter’s 336 mil...

Is online education right for you? 5 questions answered

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION

Is online education right for you? 5 questions answered

Editor’s Note: When U.S. News & World Report released its best online education program rankings this year, many schools that fared well in the rankings were quick to call attention to their success. Here, Vanessa Dennen, a researcher of online learning and co-editor-in-chief of the journal The Internet and Higher Education, offers insights into what college students should consider before they enroll in an online degree program. 1. Is online education as easy and convenient as it seems? Online learning may give students a choice about when and where to study, but this flexibility should not be confused with being easy or fast. Learning is a process and it takes time. By studying online, you might be able to eliminate commute time and the dreaded hunt for parking on campus, but you sti...

2Aug

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

GAMING

Spend the extra to go online with ‘Mario Maker 2’

The original “Super Mario Maker” was praised as one of the best games on Nintendo’s previous console, the late Wii U. The game was so interesting, it almost made me want to buy a Wii U myself, but like most people who play games, I didn’t. At last, more than two years later, “Super Mario Maker 2″ is here, and the tens of millions of us who skipped the Wii U (the Switch has already more than doubled its predecessor’s lifetime sales) have our chance to make our own “Mario” levels. It’s great! It’s also a lot! Creating your own levels and sharing them with your friends (and the world) is the core appeal for “Mario Maker 2,” which expands on the first game’s many features. If you’re the kind of player who wants to spend from 10 minutes to 10 or more hours crafting a bespoke platformer experie...