By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Roughly 20 high school and middle school educators from all over Beaufort County gathered for a two-week cybersecurity program designed to train them on the concepts and practices of the foundations of cybersecurity so that they can then return to their classrooms and teach their students.
The program, called GenCyber Camp 2023, allowed the teachers to familiarize themselves with cybersecurity technologies and fundamentals so that they could then turn around and help their students become familiar with the basics of cybersecurity and the career pathways available within the field.
“We are teaching them basics of cybersecurity that they can put into any core content in their school,” said Dee Appleby, program director for the BCSD GenCyber team.
According to a press release from Beaufort County School District (BCSD), the district was awarded a $150,000 GenCyber grant, funded by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
After completing this professional development opportunity, teachers were provided with lesson plans, resources and other tools that can be shared with their students and used to help them to introduce their students to the world of cybersecurity.
During the training program, the teachers were educated on the ethics of cybersecurity, examining the ways in which our values shape society and discussing ethical questions surrounding the use of technology and the privacy versus security trade-off.
“Computers permeate everything that we do in society these days,” said Ron Erdei, an assistant professor in computer science at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. “Cybersecurity is all about understanding that and understanding the vulnerabilities.”
Erdei continued to say that though we have locks on our windows and doors of our homes, it is important to understand just how vulnerable we can allow ourselves to be without proper cybersecurity.
According to the program overview on the BCSD website, teachers taking the course also studied the impacts of cybersecurity on a personal, economic and national security level so that they can return to their schools and guide students to become interested in pursuing a career in cybersecurity and provide them with a wealth of knowledge of career choices related to cybersecurity as majors in colleges and universities.
“The kids are interested in computing; they know about hacking and all that stuff. They like video games,” said Tyece Brown, an educator for Whale Branch Middle School. “So, they are more in tune with it and the know how to work a computer better than most adults.”
Brown said that it is good for students to learn that there are career paths that allow them to follow their interest in computers.
Delayna Earley lives in Beaufort with her husband, two children and Jack Russell. She formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She joined The Island News in 2022. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
