Last week, we welcomed over 130 educators from 26 states to our Cyber Education Discovery Forum (CEDF) 2022 in Washington, D.C. Teachers joined us for an action-packed week of K-12 cybersecurity education professional development, networking with key education and government stakeholders and a visit to Capitol Hill – all during National Cybersecurity Education Month. The forum included workshops on technical cybersecurity, K-12 cybersecurity basics, and our four Educator Award recipients’ master classes, which included valuable learnings and activities for educators to take back to their classrooms.
Key government leaders spearheading efforts to advance K-12 cybersecurity education had a strong presence at CEDF, with Karinda Washington, Executive Director of Social Impact and Campaigns for the Department of Homeland Security delivering the keynote address. The Federal Resources Panel highlighted the action being taken by key government agencies to expand cybersecurity education and improve access to free resources for educators to utilize in the classroom. Panelists included Ashley Greeley, K12 Projects Lead at the National Cryptological University, National Security Agency; Kristine Ishmael, Deputy Director at the Office of Education Technology in the U.S. Department of Education; and Li Yang, Program Director of the National Science Foundation. The discussion was moderated by Latasha McCord, Cybersecurity K-12 Education Program Lead at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
We also had the privilege of bringing eight distinguished K-12 educators from different states (Amy White (NV), Andrew Wheatley (OH), Andy King (MO), Cory Cooper (SC), Latasha Perreault (TX), Monika Moorman (FL), Neil Plotnick (MA) and Robin Perry (MD)) to Capitol Hill to meet with policymakers and share their successes in teaching K-12 cybersecurity education and deploying CYBER.ORG curriculum. We met with Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) as members of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO), Rob Portman (R-OH), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), and Rick Scott (R-FL) as members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee and Governmental Affairs Committee; and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Each educator discussed the importance of integrating cybersecurity into K-12 curriculum with their state’s policymaker, emphasizing that even students at the youngest elementary levels can learn cybersecurity curriculum. The educators underscored the critical role CYBER.ORG has played through the Cybersecurity Education and Training Assistance Program (CETAP) grant in empowering them to confidently teach cybersecurity in their classrooms. The educators also shared how they have personalized CYBER.ORG curriculum to increase cyber literacy among their students and help them explore various career paths into the cybersecurity field, from pursuing a career directly after graduation or earning an advanced degree.
Expanding K-12 cybersecurity education and ensuring that every student in the nation is cyber literate is only made possible by the dedication of our nation’s educators and the continued support of our federal and industry partners. Thank you to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for your continued support and leadership as we continue to train teachers nationwide to train the next generation cybersecurity workforce for tomorrow’s challenges.
Did you attend CEDF 2022? We’d love to see your photos and takeaways from the conference. Make sure to tag CYBER.ORG and include the hashtag #CEDF2022.
