This article explores the multifaceted role of education in strengthening crisis communication strategies, particularly using the 2023 Kahramanmaras Earthquake as a primary case study. It delves into the crisis communication techniques employed during the earthquake, highlighting challenges in coordination, communication gaps, and the inadequate…

Ensuring the safety and well-being of students and staff is paramount. This Spotlight explores approaches to enhancing school safety and emergency response, emphasizing both proactive prevention and effective crisis management. From state-level initiatives focused on violence prevention and the implementation of surprise safety inspections, these…

This book addresses issues related to implementing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for upgrading the educational framework. It pays special attention to the utilization of technological tools and means in the formation of a qualitatively upgraded teaching and learning environment, as well as in dealing with crisis phenomena, as…

Over the past two decades, suicide rates have been increasing steadily in the United States (Hedeggaard, et al. 2018), which has led to many higher education institutions exploring ways to prevent, intervene, and respond to student suicides. While prevention and intervention are vital components to addressing suicides on college campuses,…

After nearly 2 decades of advances in information and communications technologies (ICT) including social media, mobile, analytics, and cloud computing, disaster response agencies in the United States have not been able to improve alignment between ICT-based information and disaster response actions. This grounded theory study explored emergency…

One means of sustaining school operations when a disaster makes school buildings inaccessible or inoperable for an extended period of time is to use online and other communication technology to temporarily provide online schooling, also known as emergency online schools. However, the current literature on emergency online schools suggests that…

On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, causing catastrophic damages that resulted in at least 300,000 dead, 300,000 serious injuries, and 1.8 million homeless. The destruction was so complete that roads were no longer visible. While buildings, roads, power, and other infrastructure have taken years to restore, mobile phone…

Emergency response agencies, which operate as command-and-control organizations, push information to members of the public with too few mechanisms to support communication flowing back. Recently, information communication technologies (ICTs) such as social media have challenged this one-way model by allowing the public to participate in emergency…

The use of a second screen can enhance information processing and the execution of search tasks within a given period. In this study, we examined the learner's attentional shift (AS) between two screens and controlled secondary tasks (STs) in the media multitasking setting and its effect on the learning process. In particular, we analyzed how…

In 2013, compliance issues march, unceasingly, through every aspect of higher education. Yet the intricacies of privacy, information security, data governance, and IT policy as compliance and risk areas within the IT organization can reverberate and impact every other department within the higher education institution. The primary focus is always…

This dissertation identifies what may be done to overcome barriers to information sharing among federal, tribal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and emergency responders. Social, technical, and policy factors related to information sharing and collaboration in the law enforcement and emergency response communities are examined. This…

School business administrators have long recognized the need for a workable data recovery plan regardless of cause. Yet many have not reassessed their current data backup and recovery capabilities, perhaps because they have not experienced a catastrophic failure. There are three reasons school business administrators may not realize or recognize…

In the past year, adding new security has "become like a religion." The business of electronic notification hadn't really gained much attention until the terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon in 2001, killing more than 3,000 people. Critical attention on alerts got a huge boost after the Virginia Tech…

In this article, the author discusses the important relationship between robust technical and human systems when face with emergency. It offers several strategies as essential to reacting effectively to a crisis. When a crisis occurs, it is critical that the administration provide the appropriate information as fast as possible to the people who…

As influenza activity throughout the United States continues its gradual rise, H1N1 in particular has been the risk-management topic of the season for most colleges and universities. Among the questions being asked: Can one continue operations in the event of a campus closure? What if a faculty member is too sick to teach? What if students refuse…