Khanh on Journal Selection – week 3

A (brief) description of the teaching journal you have chosen to read for the rest of the semester, and an analysis of why you have chosen this particular journal (500 words)

An extensive search on the Web revealed that no journals in cyber security specifically focused on teaching the subject exist. Most journals, in the intersection of education and cyber security, focus on the use of information technology in education or learning experience. That is a different emphasis from the development of teaching scholarships for the benefit of students pursuing the cyber security discipline that I wish to explore.

To be fair, cyber security is an emerging field, with more emphasis on research and application than teaching. However, it is recognized as a critical national priority and President Obama has declared that the “cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation” and that “America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity.” Subsequently, the White House, http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education, issued its Cyberspace Policy Review that put out a call for the nation to “initiate a K-12 cybersecurity education program for digital safety, ethics, and security; expand university curricula; and set the conditions to create a competent workforce for the digital age.” Shortly after that, the lawmakers began work pushing a sweeping cyber security bill that aims to, among other things, boost cyber security education and help students who pursue a cyber security curriculum.

Thus, I anticipate that because of its great importance, plus the security and ethical issues that can be used to good or bad purposes, a journal will at some point be created as a forum for exchanging ideas on cybersecurity education.
Lacking the existence of exactly what I would like, I will instead look for articles related to teaching coming from any one of the newly cyber security education initiatives, including:

• The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been enlisted to spearhead a new National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), which focuses on awareness, education, and workforce development

• The National Security Agency is working to advance academic education and promote professional training through NSA’s National Information Assurance Education and Training Program (NIETP), establishing and growing the Centers of Academic Excellence in IA Education Program, http://www.nsa.gov/iad/

• The National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Cyber Security Education Consortium (CSEC), http://www.cseconline.org/, is developing and disseminating information assurance and forensics curricula to two-year colleges, and offering professional development opportunities to instructors from two-year colleges and assisting them in building programs at their own institutions

• International Cyber Security Education Coalition, http://icsec.org/, is a partnership among several colleges and universities to provide information assurance education to members of the government, business and industrial organizations.

• Several states including California, Colorado, and Maryland, have channeled funds into comprehensive cyber-security education such as the creation of certificate programs for cyber-security at two-year and community colleges.

I will also propose articles chosen for this class from a number of journals published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE http://www.ieee.org), the world’s largest professional association for the advancement of technology. More than a hundred of journals and magazines are listed in http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/journmag/journals_magazines.html, including the IEEE Transactions on Education, which covers education research, methods, programs, and technology in electrical and computer engineering.

In the field of cybersecurity, I believe educators are still deciding what material to teach to which kinds of students, and not yet at the point where there is a volume of scholarship devoted to how to teach cybersecurity that requires a journal. The IEEE is likely to incorporate the latest articles in cybersecurity as they become available and some of those may relate to teaching the subject. Therefore, I will attempt to discover teaching topics by searching the entire IEEE digital library that includes all journals and magazines, conference publications, standards, digital subscriptions, books, and newsletters.