Seemingly overnight, the entire face of K-12 education completely shifted. Due to COVID-19, schools were forced to rethink how to deliver education in a new digital format. The majority of districts did not have a 1:1 program in place, meaning new devices had to be made available and issued to individual students without funding, training, or time for planning.

Sometimes complex problems require complex solutions. And sometimes those complex solutions cause even more complex problems. However, this cycle can be eliminated altogether by adhering to the one cardinal rule that we all learned in grade school: show your work!

2020 for K-12 districts was anything but standard— so how do we define the education model that occurred in this uncharted territory? 

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Jim Harold as Chief Executive Officer effective August 10, 2020. Jim has over twenty years of experience successfully building and growing businesses at organizations in the enterprise software and SaaS spaces, such as Accenture, PeopleSoft, Neustar, and Acxiom.

*Disclaimer: This article originally appeared on Forbes.

In recent years, mergers and acquisitions have seen a record number of transactions and continue to draw staggering figures. According to a recent IMAA report, 2018 saw about 49,000 global M&As with a combined enterprise value of $3.8 trillion. This year is projected to have similar or greater numbers.

According to a recent Gallup report regarding educational technology use in K-12, 65% of teachers say they use digital learning tools to teach every day. To provide their services, digital learning vendors require timely and up-to-date access to student, teacher, and class roster data. Unfortunately, schools haven’t changed their rostering processes to meet digital demands, i.e. they’re still manually compiling and uploading these rosters to third-party applications. 

At Identity Automation, we strive to be a trusted advisor to our customers during their Identity and Access Management (IAM) journey. The second an organization becomes our customer, it’s our practice to provide best-in-class service to implement and evolve their solution as time goes on.  

Ongoing innovations in pedagogy and learning strategies in the K-12 industry have spurred school districts to rapidly adopt digital tools for the classroom, while reducing their reliance on traditional print-based educational resources. To deliver their services, digital curriculum vendors require timely access to accurate and up-to-date student, teacher, and class roster data.

*Disclaimer: This article originally appeared on Forbes.

With COVID-19 forcing organizations of all sizes to shift employees to remote work, some may be concerned their company’s cybersecurity measures are inadequate. Though COVID-19 is the most drastic recent example of necessitating working from home, it certainly won’t be the last.

Recently, we discussed the importance of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) as a tool school districts should leverage to help prevent data breaches and protect against threat actors. MFA is a sure step towards securing access to district systems and applications; however, with at-home instruction being K-12 education’s new normal, schools need to take an even more comprehensive approach to securing their resources.