How was it for you? A cross-disciplinary study of ‘troublesome knowledge’ as identified by undergraduate students and lecturers in Geography, Medical Science and Psychology

We carried out a small scale pilot study to determine whether participants would spontaneously identify Threshold Concepts (TC’s) and/or troublesome knowledge during open questioning on the characteristics of their disciplines. Students and lecturers reflected upon both easy and difficult aspects of their studies or teaching practice in either group discussions or one-to-one interviews. We compared students and staff observations both within and between the disciplines we examined (Geography, Medical Sciences and Psychology undergraduate degrees). Our intention was to provide specific examples of TC’s within our three disciplines to inform further discussion of embedding the enhancement theme both in our practice and in the learning experiences of our students. Our working hypothesis was that if TC’s exerted an influence on the teaching and learning experience either negatively or otherwise, then we would find ample evidence supplied in our interviews. What we found was that overwhelmingly our interviewees focussed on generic skills-based aspects of teaching and learning. Only three potential content-specific TC’s were offered spontaneously by students and these were all from the discipline of geography

Teaching Information Security with Workflow Technology – A Case Study Approach

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the demand from professionals in different areas for improving the curricula regarding information security. The use of authentic case studies in teaching information security offers the potential to effectively engage students in active learning. In this paper, the authors introduce the approach of using workflow technology to compose case studies to enhance information security education. This approach allows students from different disciplines to collaborate in a distributed computing environment in order to learn important information security principles. Two case studies simulating real-life scenarios, including one for an online banking system and one for an online grading system, are recreated within a laboratory setting using workflow technology and are then presented in information security classes. Our educational practice shows that the benefits of using workflow technology in information security education have been well received by students

Teaching Psychological Principles to Cybersecurity Students

This paper will discuss our observations gained from teaching psychological principles and methods to undergraduate and postgraduate cybersecurity students. We will draw on and extend our previous work encouraging the teaching of psychology in computing and cybersecurity education. We pay special attention to the consideration of characteristics of cybersecurity students in terms of teaching psychology in a way that will be accessible and engaging. We then discuss the development and use of an online training tool which draws on psychology to help educators and companies to raise awareness of cybersecurity risks in students and employees. Finally, we offer some practical suggestions to incorporate psychology into the cybersecurity curriculum

Ethical hacking assessment as a vehicle for undergraduate cyber-security education.

The need for cyber security professionals in the UK is growing, motivating the need to introduce cybersecurity at an earlier stage of an undergraduate's education. However, despite on-going interest in cybersecurity pedagogy, there has been comparatively little work exploring the role of assessment in educating future cybersecurity practitioners. This paper presents a case study on the re-design and critical evaluation of an undergraduate ethical hacking coursework assignment. The study describes how recent work in ethical hacking pedagogy informed an assignment re-design, and the revised assignment was critically analysed based on constructive alignment, student engagement, and plagiarism

A comparative evaluation on silent and read-aloud revisions of written drafts

This study aimed to explore the effect of silent and read-aloud revision methods on revising the written drafts of students. In the study, 50 fourth-grade university students took part as the participants of the research. The participant students were asked to write two different drafts with 250-300 words each during data collection process. Consequently, they were asked to revise the first text silently and the second one aloud. The drafts written were copied and reviewed by two different experts, and deviations to be corrected or improved were marked on the papers and annotations were added where necessary. Marks and annotations provided by the two experts were recorded on the “form for identifying and classifying the deviations in written texts” previously developed by the researchers. The participants’ self-evaluations of their own texts were recorded on the same form. The data noted on the form were transferred to the statistical program to analyze. Frequency, percentage, mean scores, paired samples t-test were utilized in the data analysis, and p≤.05 was set to be the significance level in the interpretation of the results. The result of the data analysis illustrated that the participants had moderate revision skills; their read-aloud revision as a surface evaluation and their silent revision as a semantic evaluation were found more functional

Ethical Hacking Pedagogy: An Analysis and Overview of Teaching Students to Hack

An area that is being scrutinized as a more effective method of educating and preparing security professionals is that of ethical hacking. The purpose of this research is to examine a more proactive approach to adequately prepare future information security professionals. Future careers in security may require that professionals be equipped with the necessary skill sets to combat an ever-growing presence of unwanted activity throughout the Internet. Many argue that future information security professionals need to have the same skill sets as attackers in order to adequately recognize and defend networks from intrusion. This research defines ethical hacking and examines the pros and cons of ethical hacking pedagogy as a viable approach for teaching network security to future professionals. The analysis includes the concept of ethical hacking education with an emphasis on ethical and legal concerns associated with ethical hacking pedagogy. The research concludes with an overview of existing best practices in ethical hacking education highlighting a hands-on approach as well as the inclusion of soft skills needed to complement the technical hard skills for future information security professionals

Ethics in Translator and Interpreter Training: from Intention to Freedom in the Digital Era

This article attempts to present an alternative perspective to ethical approaches in translator and interpreter training by applying the principles of the 'Hacker Ethic' (Himanen 2001) to the activities undertaken by translators and interpreters in humanitarian-related events. The paper will begin by a discussion on Ethics in interpreter training, a topic which has long been addressed as a vertical transmission of a list of solutions to specific problems within the exercise of the profession (Pöchhacker, 2004: 164), without a conscious effort to accept that professional practice is influenced by the translator’s ideology, not to mention the speaker’s, or the interpreting lecturer’s (Hatim and Mason, 1990; Baker, 2006, among others). In this regard, a modern ethical challenge for a trainer could be to introduce a wider range of discourses in the interpreting lab, thus avoiding the exposure of trainees solely to traditional speeches and contexts where ideological stakes may arguably be downplayed. To raise the students' awareness to a second level, trainers and lecturers may also choose to introduce them to the values of the Hacker Ethic, an alternative ethos for the information age considered to be closely related to the 'virtue ethics' of the writings of Plato or Aristotle, which differs from prescriptive deontological ethics and advocates open access to information and education, decentralisation of authority and the improvement of quality of life and work in the digital era (Levy, 1984; Stallman, 1999; Castells, 2001). I shall define the concepts of ‘volunteer interpreting for development’, and briefly explore the definitions of 'virtue theory', 'deontological ethics', 'ethos' and 'morality' from a critical perspective, as a prelude to defining the ethical values of the Open Learning Model (OLM), the didactic counterpart of the Hacker (work) Ethic. We will argue that these values are relevant to various occupations within our field, such as 'interpreter training as an activity', 'interpreting as a profession', or 'academia as the professional environment for translator and interpreter training', each providing countless examples of real-life ethical dilemmas  that can be used in training. From the perspective of the actors or beneficiaries of the educational process, the main aim of this critical exercise is to explore existing frameworks, widely accepted in other professions, and to apply a novel Learning Model which could help democratise interpreter training and empower students to address ethical dilemmas from non-prescriptive viewpoints. The paper will conclude by exploring not only the possibilities, but also the limits of the OLM in the training of “interpreters for society”. In the words of Lévy (1997:91), the computer revolution and its offshoots, such as cyberspace, have the potential to democratise knowledge. But bridging the digital gap is still a requirement before more people are given the freedom to learn

Renewing Our Shared Purpose: Considering Ernest L. Boyer’s General Education Vision for Christian Colleges and Universities

This article considers the significance of Boyer\u27s work on general education for Christian colleges and universities. After beginning with a synthesis and analysis of Boyer\u27s vast body of work on general education, this article then identifies the challenges facing those concerned with renewing the general education program in Christian colleges and universities. This piece concludes by illustrating how Boyer\u27s ideals for general education relate to the educational aims of Christian colleges and universities and also provides concrete examples of how Boyer\u27s ideals are evident in Christian higher education today. This article argues that Boyer\u27s vision for general education is fully consistent with and necessary to advancing the aims of the educational program in Christian colleges and universities because it infuses commitment to coherence of purpose, connection, integration, and application of learning