As a CTO I think this short article offers compelling logic for further investment in online education. By Tanya Roscorla at the Center for Digital Education…
SAN ANTONIO — The pressure is on for school districts to adopt online learning — and the pressure is coming from both parents and students.
By Dominic Vogel at TechRepublic.com…
The bane of many information security pros’ existence is the never-ending quest of attempting to enforce the principle of least privilege. At its core, this is a data security issue, limiting the number of people having access to more data than they should (for example, someone in marketing having access to payroll records). Generally, any attempts to rein in access levels tend to be met with disdain as they are perceived as “trust” issues. While we can’t strip away all their privileges (this would grind the business to a halt, you can’t be too liberal either. This leads to privilege abuse or people being too timid about their data security responsibilities.
via How to successfully implement the principle of least privilege | TechRepublic.
To help out I’ve been asked to teach a COBOL programming class in the fall. I have not committed to teaching the class yet but here is an interesting post by Scot Nielsen at MicroFocus.com…
What is the first thing which springs to mind when you think of COBOL? Did you know that 200 times more transactions are processed daily by COBOL business applications than there are Google and You Tube searches made? COBOL is not about to drop dead – it still dominates the business language world. Here are our top ten reasons for learning COBOL.
By Minda Zetlin at ComputerWorld.com…
Not long ago, IT consultant Mark A. Gilmore was called in to help an IT department that was struggling with project overload. “They’d gotten this kind of attitude — the executive vice president calls it ‘Burger King Syndrome,'” he recalls. “Their approach was, ‘You can have it your way.'”
The business executives believed IT could supply whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it. Salespeople had gotten into the habit of asking the development team to create applications within a week to fulfill promises they’d made to customers. As a result, IT employees were spending about 80% of their time reacting to crises or struggling to meet impossible deadlines rather than calmly planning their workloads, says Gilmore, president of Wired Integrations in San Jose.
Trying to build a Linux desktop that replaced Windows is something I tried 4 years ago with Ubuntu 9.04. For me it was the first time I ever became truly excited about Linux. The experience accelerated my adoption of the Mac. I enjoy articles such as this one.
By Falko Timme and Christian Schmalfeld at HowToForge.com…
This tutorial shows how you can set up an Ubuntu 13.04 desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge.
via The Perfect Desktop – Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) | HowtoForge – Linux Howtos and Tutorials.
By David F. Carr at InformationWeek.com…
The job of a higher-education CIO is changing, partly because of disruptive technologies for online learning, but that doesn’t mean the basic challenges go away. Perhaps now more than ever, a CIO’s job hinges as much on surviving a brutal schedule of meetings and the academic politics of the institution as it does on mastering bleeding-edge technologies.
via Higher Ed CIOs Can’t Ignore MOOCs Or Politics – Education –.
By Dominic Vogel at TechRepublic.com…
Takeaway: One of the most highly regarded security certifications is the CISSP. Dominic Vogel offers these nine tips for becoming certified based on his own experience.
via Running the gauntlet: Tips for achieving your CISSP | TechRepublic.
This is a good read. Don’t let the title kill your interest. Even though I do not serve as an elected chair, I serve at the will and pleasure of the President of Concord University, it has some great leadership and management tips.
By Greg Downey at his personal blog…
Today I’m attending a “Chair’s Chat” as part of an annual UW-Madison “Campus Showcase” of best practices. Current Department Chairs like me have been asked to “share one or two tips that they feel other chairs might find useful” as part of the discussion:
via Ten Things to Ponder after you are Elected Department Chair | Greg Downey.