Passwords Revisited: Keeping your keys safe

In the past four hours, the EdTech team has handled numerous phone calls and emails about students' accounts being "hacked" - one student lost ALL of this Google Drive files and another student had someone send inappropriate emails to teachers and other students. Though we were able to recover the lost files and track the inappropriate emails, these experiences teach us the importance of password security. No one - students nor teachers - should give out their password to anyone else (though there may be exceptions for spouses of teachers and parents of students, students should never have access to other peoples' passwords - there may be an exception for TK-1 classes that use a common class password, but this should not be shared outside of the classroom). Always think about and treat passwords like the keys to your house - would you hand off your keys to anyone or leave them laying around for anyone to pick up? Neither should we leave our password available and visible for anyone to see and use. Our previous post: Passwords: the key to your life or the bane of your existence? dealt with this issue.

If you are in need of trying to change your students' passwords or having the students change their own passwords, you can use the directions in the How-To from EdTech folder, under the Google Account Management folder. We currently have a number of trainings in this folder including Student's Resetting Their Own Password and Resetting a Student's Password/Locating Roster Groups.

Remember, you can ALWAYS ask your EdTech Learning Community Specialist to come in and train your students about these concepts and processes as well.

Bernal Learning Community: Steve Harmon
Davis Learning Community: Bruce Neff
Herman Learning Community: Sergio Rizzi

Making a Difference as an Instructional Coach

David Kimball from Linden Unified School District (located east of Stockton) wrote a Google+ post about making a difference in his district as a Technology Instructional Coach (similar to the EdTech Team in Oak Grove School District). Read it below (or use the link to read it on Google+).

Making a Difference - Google+ post

As an EdTech Instructional Coach, it is experiences like this that truly make my job worthwhile. If you know a fellow teacher who is technology reluctant, remember the EdTech team at Oak Grove School District - this is why our jobs exist!

Bernal Learning Community: Steve Harmon

Davis Learning Community: Bruce Neff

Herman Learning Community: Sergio Rizzi

Learning and Technology

Over the years I have always been an advocate of trying to incorporate using technology in classes, and recently the swing in education has been to bring technology in force to the classroom. While this is a good thing (in my opinion) there are many dangers that teachers must face when bringing technology into the classroom. One of the biggest does not have to do with web-filtering, inappropriate content, or students being off-task, it has to do with focus. Not focus of the students, either. It has to do with the focus of the teacher. Is the teacher focusing on the technology - the tool - or are they focusing on the student learning. Let's face it: student learning is why we went into (and stay in) teaching; it is what should drive everything we do in the classroom. Technology is merely a tool to help us achieve that lofty goal. To focus on technology would be similar to a carpenter focusing on the type of hammer she uses rather than focusing on the beautiful piece of furniture she created.

As technology within the classroom has been increasing, a number of researchers have developed different models to help teachers begin to understand how to place technology in their pedagogy. Models such as SAMR or TPACK have been shown to be rather successful in this process. But both models do have limitations, as expressed by a follow teacher's blog.

The SAMR model presents a continuum of a teacher's developing practice of using technology in lessons. The problem is that the SAMR model seems to separate the tool from teaching - the exact opposite of what we are trying to achieve. Though it may be a great model for determining how teachers are using the tool, the focus should not be too strong on the tool itself. By focusing on the tool, it appears to some people that without the tool you cannot do great teaching - which we all know is a huge fallacy as great teaching has been happening without technology for a very long time.

The TPACK model is a Venn diagram showing the types of knowledge necessary to incorporate technology into student learning. The place that great teaching occurs, it is argued by the model, is in the center. The issue with this model is that visually everything looks equal, but in reality it could be argued that Content Knowledge and Technological Knowledge are less important (but still somewhat important) than Pedagogical Knowledge. Think of the times that you had to teach content you knew nothing about (we've all been there!) - you were still able to put together a relatively successful lesson without knowing much about the content. Or when you started using technology in your classroom but had no depth of knowledge about how it was supposed to work. Again, you can be successful. The key is how is your pedagogy? What methods and practices of teaching are you using? This is what will make student learning actually happen! If I had to redraw the TPACK diagram above, I would make the PK circle multiple times bigger than the other two. (That being said, Technological and Content Knowledge will simply improve the lesson even more and increase the number of options the teacher has in teaching the lesson.)

So, why do we need technology in the classroom?!? If we can do great teaching without it, why not save the money and not purchase it? As with any tool, the purpose of a tool is to increase productivity, improve efficiency, and make the master's job easier to accomplish. Likewise, that is the purpose in education: tools allow students to practice skills more productively, teachers to implement lessons more efficiently, and teachers can check for understanding more easily. There are many skills that we want students to learn and benefit from, and good teaching can happen with or without the tools. But the tools make it easier to help students to learn.

New Laptop Preparation

By now, most of you have probably heard that we will be getting new laptops this Spring. Our three-year lease on the current Dell laptops expires in June, so we will begin the process of swapping out the machines very soon. In order to help this process, there are a number of tasks that you can take care of in order to ensure that you retain your files, bookmarks, etc. These tasks can also be found at on Google Drive on our Laptop Refresh Checklist.

1. Make sure you have your AC Power Adapter for the laptop. This needs to be turned in along with the laptop.
2. Remove any personal stickers, decals, Post-It notes, tape, etc. you have added to the device. Do your best to clean off the glue, but please do NOT use any liquid cleaners on the laptop.
3. Take a screenshot of the list of printers you have on your machine - this will help you to add your printers to your new laptop when you receive it. These cannot be transferred over to the new device, as they must be manually inputted.
4. Verify that the automated backup has copied all of your folders and files to the P: drive. This process will be started soon and everything should be up-to-date when we give you the new laptop, but it is always a great idea to make sure that the automated process has captured all of your files.
1. If there is anything that you are super-paranoid about, be sure to make a separate backup of it to ensure that you retain a copy of it somewhere.
2. If you have personal information on your laptop (i.e. photos, tax documents, bank statements), make sure that you delete those and empty the Recycle Bin.
3. This may also be the time to upload everything into Google Drive. Remember, we have unlimited storage in Google Drive so you won't have to worry about space limits. The Google Drive Sync app would be a great way to silently and easily backup your files to Drive.
5. Log into the Chrome browser in order to sync your bookmarks across all of your devices that you are signed into with your OakGroveSD.net account. This can also sync passwords you may have saved (or you will need to write them down somewhere until you get your new laptop).

The Checklist has a handful of videos that can walk you through the various steps if needed.

Once all of this has been done, you are ready to turn in your laptop. The IT and EdTech teams will be coming out to sites throughout the Spring in order to move you over to your new machines. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your EdTech Specialist:

• Bernal Learning Community - Steve Harmon
• Davis Learning Community - Bruce Neff
• Herman Learning Community - Sergio Rizzi

Creating a Self-Checking "Scavenger Hunt" Using Google Forms

I just finished reading about developing a Self-Checking "Scavenger Hunt" by a teacher named Stephanie Perretta, an 8th grade Algebra teacher in Cumberland Valley. This is a great twist on using stations for students to determine if they have mastered skills or if they need a refresher. Check out the blog post to see how she did it and replicate it in your classroom!

The SAMR Model

If you have been around technology in the classroom long enough, you will see an acronym showing up all over the place: SAMR. I wanted to explain a little about this so that you might be able to shift your mindset when thinking about bringing technology into your classroom.

SAMR was developed by Dr. Ruben R. Puentedura, who focuses on applying information technology to education in a transformative way. SAMR is an acronym for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. The first two - Substitution and Augmentation - are considered the Enhancement of learning, whereas Modification and Redefinition are considered the Transformation of learning.

Dr. Ruben R. Puentedura, Ph.D., http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/

• This video from Common Sense Media gives an introduction to the SAMR model:

• In Kathy Schrock's blog, she compares the SAMR model with Bloom's taxonomy - many of the graphics on this post will help to show the comparisons between these two significant ideas in education.

• Finally, here is an artistic explanation of the SAMR model in 120 seconds:
  

Where do you fall on the SAMR model ladder when it comes to incorporating technology into your classroom?

Where do you want to be by the end of the year?

What steps can you take to propel yourself up the ladder?

Always remember: growth does not come without action.

Passwords: the key to your life or the bane of your existence?

As technology becomes more and more prevalent in our lives as well as more personalized, passwords have become more and more important. This is a skill that does not come naturally, it is rather a learned skill, one that should be taught.

I have often used the analogy of house keys as passwords. No one would leave their keys sitting around in a public area, hang their keys outside their front door, or hand out their keys to everyone at their school site. Likewise, no one should do this with their passwords. Writing down passwords (even if supposedly hidden) can leave them open to being stolen. Though having your keys hanging outside your front door would certainly make it easier for you to get into your house, it also makes it easier for everyone else in the world to do so. Using a Fisher Price plastic key for your front door would not be very secure either, just like using a weak, standardized, or universal password is not very secure. Passwords that have been set up for new accounts are supposed to be temporary as everyone would know this password and thus would have access to your account.

Now that we understand that passwords need to be personalized and strong, the question becomes how to create a strong password. The more characters in a password, the stronger it will become and the more difficult for criminals to guess. Additionally, adding in numbers, symbols, and upper and lower case letters will make your password even more secure. Whenever I teach others about creating passwords, I tell them that I have two simple rules:

1. Make a password that is NOT easily guessable.
2. Make a password that you will remember.

Of course, the key is in implementing these rules.

Here is an example of how to do this: I wouldn't use something that others know about me, but is somewhat personal to me so that I will remember it: maybe my Aunt's dog's name, Roscoe. Unfortunately, names are not good passwords, so I would change it in some ways - maybe add in some capital letters, RosCoe. Some letters look like numbers, for example an i or l looks like a 1, or a p looks like a backwards 9 or upside-down 6 - so in my Aunt's dog's name I can replace the s with a 5 and the e with a 3, Ro5Co3. I'm also going to choose something else to add to this, so that it makes it a little more difficult. Since my aunt is on my father's side of the family, I will choose my mother's father's birth year, 1942. I'll only take the last two digits and will connect it to Roscoe with a symbol, Ro5Co3#42. This password will be extremely difficult for anyone to guess or even to hack using password-guessing software. Even if someone knew the information I used, my Aunt's dog's name and my Grandfather's birth year, it would be difficult for them to guess which letters I capitalized or changed into numbers and where I placed the symbol. But, because I know this information intimately, it should be easier for me to remember. Though I wouldn't want to write the exact password down, I could write a hint, i.e. Aunt's dog, Gpa year. Having that cryptic note next to my computer would allow me to not have my password out in the open but also provide a hint for me to remember what I used.

Sometimes sites require that you change your password on regular basis, or sometimes you want to use different passwords for different sites. This can be accomplished by creating a base for your password and then change a prefix or suffix depending on the time or site. For example, if I wanted to use the above password as a base, then I could make a site specific password for an Amazon.com account as follows: Ro5Co3#42amazon. Or if you needed to change your password monthly, you can add in the month and year: Dec15Ro5Co3#42. Then each month when you change your password you only have to change the month and year in the front as needed but keep the base the same.