The Oklahoma Educational Technology Trust (OETT) announced the 21 schools selected to receive grants for the 2024-2025 school year.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on June 6 voted to approve a $200 million pilot project that will take a three-year deep dive into studying the best cybersecurity services and equipment options for K-12 schools and libraries.

The Department of Commerce’s (DoC) Economic Development Administration (EDA) made public today the details of the 31 technology hubs’ proposals for the second phase of the new Tech Hubs program – revealing a collective request of $2 billion in funding for a total of 182 projects.

Security analysts in the education sector must contend with evolving cybersecurity threats despite limited resources. MeriTalk recently sat down with Helen Patton, cybersecurity executive advisor for education at Cisco, to discuss how an open, collaborative approach to threat detection and response can help streamline processes for overburdened security teams.

The U.S. Department of Education, in coordination with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), officially launched the Government Coordinating Council (GCC) for the Education Facilities Subsector on March 28 to better support K-12 cybersecurity efforts.

Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) has named David Horton vice president for information technology and chief information officer (CIO). The university said that Horton will start the new role on a part-time basis before going full time by June 1.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has approved 59 Smart Schools Investment Plans, which are focused on modernizing school technology and boosting school security.

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) announced the creation of a new college at the university focused on artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, computing, data science and related disciplines.

In a bid to address the statewide teacher shortage, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) has launched its Virginia Licensure Online system (VALO). VDOE, which launched the new system late last year, said its goal is to modernize the teacher licensure process and make the application and renewal experience more user-friendly for prospective and current teachers. 

Roughly half of all high school students are already using popular AI tools, despite schools and legislators still grappling with how best to regulate the use of AI in the classroom.