Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/455140
E d Te c h S h o w D a i l y F r i d a y, F e b r u a r y 6 , 2 0 1 5 2 0 FIVE WAYS AUTOMATED ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT CAN SAVE TIME FOR IT DEPARTMENTS Eliminating Errors Often when accounts are created manual- ly, they contain several errors or missing information, since information is being passed through many people at an organ- ization. Pinellas County School District was one such school that dealt with this issue. The IT staff spent an inordinate amount of time correcting account prob- lems at the school. By automating its account management when an account is created in Active Directory, it automati- cally populates the parent portal, student information system and any other sys- tems as required, eliminating a tedious and potentially error prone manual process. Easily Editing Accounts Many times in schools, a student's account need to be edited to receive per- mission to access the internet or other applications. The IT staff then needs to be contacted and changes need to be made to the student's account. At North Hunterdon-Voorhees, students often needed their accounts updated or changed to allow them to access the internet. Before automating its account management, this process was managed manually by adding the children to the appropriate group which allowed internet access, taking several hours to complete. Now all the registrar has to do when he receives the permission slip is check a box in the child's profile and internet access is granted. Easily Disabling Accounts Not only is it time-consuming to create accounts, but as students leave or gradu- ate school, their accounts also need to be disabled. Fitchburg State College was a school that often had issues with this. When hundreds of students were gradu- ating each year, it was difficult to remove them, and they often deleted students who shouldn't be, such as students continuing to graduate school. By automating its account man- agement with UMRA, it can easily flag a student or employee and the account is disabled according to pre-defined rules. For instance, for students who graduate, a pre-defined rule can be set to allow them to use their account for three months after graduation, and then it is disabled. This makes the process quicker and more effi- cient. Clean System Many times, school databases can have accounts for employees and students which are not active anymore. Such was the case for Fitchburg State College. After several attempts to delete users based on inactivity and inadvertently deleting hundreds of active users, the school realized it needed help integrating Active Directory information and the stu- dent record system. By automating the process of account creation, UMRA queries Banner to look for new students, changes to existing records and records that exist in AD but not in the database. When a new record is pres- ent, the AD account is created along with a home directory, ini- tial password and group memberships and located in the appropriate OU. Easy Provisions Students often need accounts in several different systems such as Blackboard, email, Google Apps, etc. in order to do their work. At the beginning of each semester, it is time consuming to create new accounts for students in each of these systems and issue passwords. By automat- ing the account management process, accounts can quickly be created for hun- dreds or thousands of students very quick- ly. At Minnetonka Public Schools in Minnesota, by automating its account management, it was able to free up the time of several FTEs. Now the process is more efficient and only one employee has to handle account management. To learn more about Identity and Access Management solutions in education, visit www.tools4ever.com or call 888.770.4242. You can also stop by booth #2427. Educators are continuously seeking bet- ter ways for students to understand math and science (STEM). Aviation has a pro- found use of these subjects when build- ing flight plans. By creating a curriculum that embraces geometry, trigonometry, physics, meteorology, geography, topog- raphy and astronomy, students learn to solve complex problems using multiple math and science disciplines. edustation STEM Lab and edustation Flight Simulators deliver a unique STEM learn- ing platform that is engaging and fun for girls, boys and teachers. In addition to math and science skills, it incorporates researching aviators and writing a paper to support creative writing. The results are impressive. How? edustation K12 Manual. Starting a Flying Club in elementary, middle and high schools is a great way to introduce kids to the application of math and science. Incorporating its STEM Lab curriculum into the school's STEM pro- PROJECT BASED LEARNING: THE GOAL IS YOUR SUCCESS gram advances knowledge and embraces the Common Core and Next Gen Science Standards. The edustation K12 Manual comes with each simulator and is designed to teach the non- aviator teacher the basics of flying so there is no need for the teacher to have experience in aviation. The lessons are coupled with missions in the flight sim- ulator, so the skill development is progres- sive. The K12 manual contains lessons with teacher notes for topics to explore. The edustation STEM Lab curriculum is in BETA and with regular updates. The com- plete curriculum will include a video tutori- al for each lesson plan. Using video lesson plans trains the teachers so that the content is pre- sented in a uniform manner that is exciting for the students. The goal is to support the student's math and science curriculum with Project Based Learning. Looking for money? www.edustationEd.com now has a web link to provide schools with Grant Funding partners who are interested in supporting STEM teaching activities. For more information, contact Jay LeBoff at jleboff@gmail.com or 203.527.5747. SYMED FROM SYMANTEC COMBINES DATA PROTECTION WITH INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT SECURITY As the educational experience at all lev- els moves further online, schools and institutions must adapt their information security strategies accordingly. Where online reference material, assignments, lessons, collaboration and rich multime- dia content were once an exception, they are increasingly part of the teaching prac- tice. With many higher education institu- tions offering fully virtual learning envi- ronments, and with states mandating many K–12 schools to provide one or more online classes before graduation, no school can be without best-in-class pro- tections for students and administrators. To meet these demands, Symantec developed SymEd specifically to help academia protect information while man- aging and securing their infrastructure. SymEd combines the essential solutions needed to support the growing techno- logical demands of academia. While a complex and sprawling aca- demic institution demands superior tech- nological security and data protection throughout, the solution must be flexible enough to accommodate the unique char- acteristics of individual departments. Symantec's SymEd allows this cus- tomization while offering the means to secure and manage PC's, laptops, tablets and smartphones of both faculty and stu- dents, whether they are school issued or personal devices. Every school, district and institution is unique, yet all have similar security, privacy, systems management and avail- ability challenges. These challenges range from threat management and data protection to encryption, preserving con- fidentiality and systems management that embraces mobility capabilities. Symantec's SymEd offers several bundles, so as to meet each institution's particular needs. SymEd Secure is the foundation for all Symantec educational institutions larger than 250 FTEs. This solution's set helps address threat and mobile management, sys- tem imaging requirements and provides trusted online experiences. SymEd Secure Plus provides the same level of information protection and mobile management solutions as SymEd Secure, but with additional capa- bilities focused on reducing costs of deployments in an environment. SymEd Advanced builds on the SymEd Secure foundation while provid- ing additional system management capa- bilities, inventory automation, zero-touch imaging and application streaming. SymEd Total Management provides educational intuitions with powerful solutions to protect, manage and secure information regardless of the device or operating system. It also offers systems management for servers and encryption capabilities. While SymEd provides break- through coverage and a solution for every institution design, Symantec has done it with cost benefit elements that are wel- comed by clients large and small. These include a new licensing solution based on Full-Time Employee (FTE) count rather than per device; reduced licensing costs with application streaming for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) initiatives; access to solution experts with 24/7 phone support and upgrade protection; and reduced infrastructure and opera- tional costs with a compre- hensive centralized man- agement platform. While institutions can get SymEd's comprehensive coverage at a reasonable price, the program provides IT manage- ment and security at an even higher level. SymEd provides a secure e-Learning environment for physical, virtual and cloud platforms; and the program's cen- tralized standards allow institutions to automate the deployment, security and management of devices and central man- agement. Add in SymEd's accommodation of multiple operating systems and countless models of devices, including Samsung for Enterprise (SAFE) devices, and the program's critical data protection with advanced local backup and recovery for Windows desktops and laptops, and you can see that SymEd solves in one place the challenges that previously have required multiple products. For more information, visit go.symantec .com/education or stop by booth #224.