New Australian Venture for Navigating Digital Dangers Looking to Global Audience
Social Cyber Group
CANBERRA/MELBOURNE: Australian business-woman, Lisa Materano, has recruited cyber specialists to deliver new knowledge packages globally to respond to increasing disinformation, cyber crime, child exploitation and exploding government regulation.
‘I am taking my experience of 20 years and my company, Blended Learning International, to make new interventions in the global education scene for a more secure cyberspace’, the Melbourne-based Materano said. ‘We have some talented allies for this venture’.
Professor Glenn Withers AO, a former President of the Academy for the Social Sciences in Australia and co-founder of the Social Cyber Group, is co-leading this venture. ‘We have good experience reaching professional audiences in Asia, Africa and Latin America for a similar education initiative through the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) established by the World Bank, Withers said. ‘We are excited to link up Australian professionals with each other, including isolated members of rural and remote communities, to their peers around the world for shared learning experiences in this new field.
One of Australia’s best published researchers on cyber policy and co-founder of the Social Cyber Group, Professor Greg Austin, has co-designed these offerings, along with Adam P. Henry, a Partner at the Social Cyber Group who is well-known across Australian cyber circles and international education forums.
Information on the new offerings can be found at https://www.socialcyber.co/academy and the BLI website, https://blendedlearning.systeme.io/5822f53c. They cover executive and formal offerings. BLI itself is a Registered Training Organisation in Australia, that grew out of the ANU. It will deliver an accredited Graduate Diploma in Strategic Leadership with a focus on cyber policy (BSB80320) for the first time in 2024/25.
About us:
The Social Cyber Group (SCG) and Blended Learning International (BLI) collaborate to deliver exciting international learning experiences with high business and policy relevance. Our dedicated partners in similar professional education activities in the past three years have included the Korea Development Institute and the Global Development Learning Network of the World Bank. The leaders of SCG and BLI rely on decades of experience in university-based and professional education in the US, the UK, Australia and Asia. Other clients of our Academy leaders in the field of education delivery in Australia have included: the Australian Department of Defence, Department of Home Affairs, Australian Public Service Commission, Australian Indigenous Leadership Council, Billabong Aboriginal Development Corporation, Australian Securities Exchange, Commonwealth Bank, QANTAS Engineering, Salvation Army, Sydney Ferries Corporation, ACT Government (transport services), Soldier On, and the Victorian Parliament. Internationally, our Academy leaders have partnered with the Distance Learning Centre (Sri Lanka), National Organisation of Science Teachers and Educators (Philippines), United International College (China), Tanri Abeng University (Indonesia), Tongji University (China), the Singapore Exchange, National Economic Action Council (Malaysia), University of Mauritius, and the Vietnam Cryptographic Agency.
Contact details:
Lisa Materano 0438134558 lmaterano@blendedlearning.edu.au
Glenn Withers 0416249350 glenn.withers@socialcyber.co
Greg Austin 0450190323 greg.austin@socialcyber.co
Adam Henry 0402778720 adam.p.henry@socialcyber.co