UNG trains teachers in cybersecurity

The University of North Georgia hosted its third annual Advancing GenCyber Education for North Georgia Teachers Initiative from June 5-9 to help 25 middle and high school teachers and administrators learn how to teach cybersecurity to students. They will also have the chance to gain further training through the rest of the year.

Five UNG faculty and staff in the Mike Cottrell College of Business and College of Education and three teachers who have previously completed the AGENT program served as instructors in the academy held at the Cottrell Center for Business, Technology & Innovation at UNG’s Dahlonega Campus. A National Security Agency (NSA) grant of more than $144,000 funded the Initiative.

Some teachers were more experienced in cybersecurity education, while others were grateful for a new challenge. Lavon Sampson, who teaches algebra at Dekalb Early College Academy, said the “jam-packed” AGENT schedule put numerous resources in his toolkit as his school does not have computer science classes yet.

“I want to pioneer the program at our school,” Sampson said. “I have a lot of students who are tech-savvy, but we don’t have a tech program. It’s going to be an amazing opportunity.”

The AGENT Initiative is a professional development program designed for teachers and administrators who are interested in cybersecurity and improving computer science instructional practices. This is an important area as more than 663,000 cyber jobs are open nationally, including more than 20,000 in Georgia, according to CyberSeek.

Teachers who completed the AGENT initiative can reach thousands of students with the knowledge they gained.

“There’s such a tremendous need for cyber expertise out there,” Dr. Lindsay Linsky, UNG professor of middle grades education and AGENT Initiative teaching lead, said. “We can’t train students fast enough, so sometimes it’s more effective to train the teachers.”

Thanks to the NSA grant, teachers received more than 30 hours of cyber and computer science professional development at no cost to the participants. Additionally, due to the new computer science endorsement offered through UNG’s College of Education and a collaboration with the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing, 15 participants will earn a computer science endorsement added to their license at the Georgia Professional Standards Commission through the AGENT program for free.

Debra Addison, who teaches computer science on the middle and high school levels and sixth-grade mathematics at Forsyth Virtual Academy, was grateful for the professional development aspect of AGENT Initiative and the chance to earn the computer science endorsement. She just finished her first year of teaching computer science after her training was in math.

“I want to be confident in what I’m teaching and be able to explain it to the kids. Everybody has been so supportive and helpful and encouraging and patient at the AGENT Initiative,” Addison said. “I’m going to be 64 this month. I’m here to prove that you can teach old dogs new tricks.”

AGENT came on Jay Hunter’s radar because 81 of his students participated in CyberStart America, which UNG helps lead in Georgia, during the 2022-23 academic year. Hunter, who teaches computer science at Woodstock High School, began his teaching career two years ago after retiring from the Army and going back to school five years ago.

“They’re showing me a lot of different tools that now I can go home this summer and practice with and bring into my curriculum and enhance the cyber portion of what I teach,” Hunter said. “It’s like drinking from a fire hose, but it’s awesome because there’s so much I will be able to incorporate into my classes.”

In addition to training and credentialing teachers in cyber, UNG offers bachelor’s degrees in computer science, cybersecurity and information systems and will launch its Master of Science in computer science this fall.

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