ATLIS 2016 -- Atlanta, GA -- Day 2

After yesterday's good start, today I'm embarking on my first full day of the 2016 ATLIS National Conference in Atlanta.

The day began with the Opening Keynote: Making the K-12 College Connection.  The speakers were from the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

• Amit Jariwala -- Director of Design and Innovation
• Julie Linsey -- Associate Professor of CAD and Design

In addition to the professors, there were also two students who took part:

• Lauren Murphy
• Thomas Spencer

The main topic was the Invention Studio which is a space where all students are able to come and do maker-type projects with 3D printers, laser cutters, power tools, and much more.  I was impressed to learn that all students are welcome to use the facility.

After the keynote was a session titled:  The Worlds of Tech and Ed -- Bridging the Divide
Justin Culley was the presenter and his presentation was called "Relationship Building" -- an examination of the various issues and challenges of building effective and productive working relationships with the teachers one supports that will lead to greater integration of technology into their curricula.  A fairly significant amount of time was spent by table discussions where those of us at each table chatted about the importance of developing a level of trust between faculty members we support and ourselves.

The Evolution and Future of "SIS" -- Representatives of Veracross -- Presenters were Aaron Vogelsang and Rick Ellis
This was more of an overview of the ways in which an SIS system has evolved including the founding of Veracross and the movement to where now the main emphasis is web apps and cloud storage.

Demo of Veracross/Axiom -- Presenters were (again) Aaron Vogelsang and Rick Ellis.
This was a pretty much a sampler of how-to-use-Axiom with Aaron doing a series of demos; it was n't a hands-on practice session.  It was clear that Veracross CMS is a powerful tool and is capable of housing a great amount of data.  One point of Aaron's presentation was making the case that Veracross has a number of built-in tools that cover a wide range of data sorting and accessing tools for all the constituents of the school community.

Cyber Security: Now and Next -- Presenters were Jamie Britto and Daniel Hudkins
Jamie had an effective presentation about proactive steps that should be taken to help protect one's school from cyber attacks.  He put great emphasis on 2-step authentication (which he rolled out in a 30-month process that started with 9 administrators and then next level administrators and then the next level until he reached the "part time teachers and coaches".  He also sends out spoof phishing emails (maybe using a firm called SANS to do it) once a month.  Everyone is informed that this will happen but no one (not even Jamie) knows when one will arrive or what it will look like.

A point made by both Jamie and Daniel was the importance of examining the rentention policies of one's institution.  You can't lose data that you don't have.  They particularly encouraged careful thought about retention policies governing email and documents.

Daniel, from the Harker School, reported on their actual experience with a ransomware attack that took place at his school.  If nothing else, he put great emphasis on the importance of every school having a plan for when such an attack will happen.....not when.  Stats indicate to him that it's gonna happen to everyone someday.......  By the way, Mr. Hudkins at the Harker School notes that they've decided to pay for cyber insurance.  He doesn't necessarily recommend this move to everyone, but his school "went there".