Websites to check out

Webby Awards

The Webby Awards annually note websites with interesting design and elements to explore.  Here are some sites you might want to check out, in no particular order:

Future of Tech hosts a free & growing library of resources to get you up to speed on what’s new & next.

Poly is an online library where people can browse, share, and remix thousands of 3D models or scenes.

People Not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North 

Canvas is a Chrome/Google supported drawing app.

Applied Digital Skills reviews digital skills needed for the jobs of today and tomorrow with Google’s free video lessons.

Ted-Ed lessons

AFT’s Share My Lesson

 

 

REMC January newsletter, course details

REMC newsletter

See REMC’s latest newsletter HERE

Featuring free virtual courses with 10 free SCECHs each. The courses below start on January 4 and the registration deadline is January 1.

Five Jamboard templates for all subject areas

Jamboard

John Sowash offers five Jamboard templates work for all ages and subject areas! Check them out HERE.

Three of these Jamboard activities work well as whole-class assignments. Two more work best as individual or small-group activities.

These Jamboard lessons work with Chromebooks, tablets, phones, and laptops.

 

Check out these Education Tech Blogs

Ed Tech

Every so often we share news of EdTech websites to check out. Today we’re alerting you to three, each of which is chockablock with tips and musings to explore within the interface of pedagogy and tech.

  • Matt Miller’s Ditch That Textbook website has lots of resources and ideas to ponder.
  • Jake Miller is known for his animated gifs and the embedded lessons he puts in them. Check out one strand of his efforts to educate on Google Sheets HERE or all of his animated GIFS in a folder HERE
  • Laura Cahill’s EngagEDucate website offers lots of resources

In case you want to check out others’ recommendations for EdTech blogs, see BrainScape’s, Explain Everything’s or Kathy Schrock’s lists.

Elementary School Teachers – FYI, grading periods have been set in Canvas

Canvas Grading Periods

Earlier this week the district updated Canvas with the dates of the three grading periods for all of our elementary school year-long courses. Consequently, elementary school teachers are now able to filter their grade books, assignments’ list, and students’ grades pages by trimester instead of having to view all graded content from the school year.  Since implementation, STUDENTS only have VIEW-ONLY ACCESS to first trimester course content and are no longer able to submit work for assignments associated with the first trimester since it is not the current grading period AND TEACHERS similarly CAN NO LONGER ADJUST GRADES/FEEDBACK for first trimester submissions.

Please find quick overview directions and screenshots in this document for term filtering.

* High School Teachers – likely we will be setting grading periods for your semester-long and year -long courses too, so that you may filter by term as well.

Using Google Drawings to Create Infographics

Inforgraphics

One way students can show their knowledge of a topic is by creating an infographic. Infographics, by nature, require students to summarize their learning and choose important information to present visually and textually.

Google Drawings is a great tool to create infographics and it’s likely familiar to navigate. Google Drawings offers options for uploading images, drawing shapes, and adding color. Below is a short video tutorial for students on how to use Google Drawings.

For those who are familiar with Google Drawings and want some super neat tricks you may not know about, check out this video from Matt Miller.

For even more information on student-created infographics, check out this blog post by Matt Miller!

This post is actually a reposting of Dearborn Schools’ Tech Integrationist Amy Gwizdz (thanks Amy!) December post https://techcoaches.dearbornschools.org/2020/12/10/student-created-infographics-using-google-drawings/

 

 

New Rich Content Editor being pushed out over winter break

Post Updated: December 14, 2020

New Rich Content Editor-Canvas

Click Video below to learn about the new Rich Content Editor and notable feature changes

Canvas will be pushing out their updated Rich Content Editor (RCE) on January 16th, 2021 and henceforth it will no longer be optional to use their older editor. To make the transition easier for our staff we will be setting up as default the new Rich Content Editor over the winter break.  Below are some links to help staff better understand and navigate the new RCE.

If you would like to start using the new RCE now, you can. Simply click on ‘Settings’ in your course. On top of the screen click ‘Feature Options’, then click check mark next to RCE Enhancements

personal pronouns now enabled in Canvas

Students and staff can now designate their personal pronouns in Canvas if they would like to do so. Personal pronouns display after a user’s name in various areas in Canvas, including:

  • Comment Fields
  • Discussions
  • Inbox
  • People Page (Course and Groups)
  • User Navigation Menu
  • User Profile Page
  • User Settings Page
——————–
What it now looks like on the edit page for a user:
Screenshot 2020-12-09 at 2.09.50 PM.png

Beware ‘Zoom’ Phishing and Smishing Scams among others

Avoid Zoom scam

Our video conferencing platform Zoom has seen usage grow exponentially this year. Naturally, this has attracted the attention of hackers and scammers. With a huge user base to target, con artists are using old tricks in new scams to try to steal your information.

Please be aware that there is a phishing scam currently going around via email and similar-minded smishing scam (phishing via SMS text messaging) that pretends to come from Zoom. The scammer will use Zoom branding. The scam will urge you to click on a link with a claim such as “your Zoom account has been suspended, click here to reactivate”, OR “please activate your account”, OR “you missed a meeting, click here to see the details and reschedule”.

No matter what kind of phishing or smishing message you receive, scammers hope you will click on the link they’ve included in their email or text. These links can download malware onto your computer AND/OR lead you to a page where you are prompted to enter your login information.

If the latter, you’ll arrive at a realistic, but fake Zoom login page. That fake login page is designed to get you to enter your user name and password. Scammers will use this information to log in to other services and platforms as well.

Avoid getting Scammed

Don’t click on anything! (This includes links, photos, attachments, and/or files). If you feel that this might be real, type the Zoom.us URL yourself in the URL bar and confirm that you can log in with your district Google credentials.

Always remember to double-check the sender address. Look carefully at the sender address as we are seeing return email addresses that closely mirror real email addresses. Also, please remember that mobile phones are an even bigger attack vector and smishing is on the rise. Return email addresses are harder to see when viewed on mobile devices. Often users on cell phones may be more distracted and in a hurry and scammers are hoping they won’t be paying close attention.

These steps should be followed for all email and text messages. While we all may be used to just clicking on links, we have to be careful that our behavior doesn’t help bad actors take advantage of us. If you get an unsolicited email or text and you aren’t sure who it really came from, NEVER click on any links, files, or images it may contain.

Resolve issues directly. As with Zoom warnings, if you receive an email or text stating there is a problem with your account and you aren’t sure if it is legitimate, contact the company directly. Go to the official website by typing the name in your browser and find the “Contact Support” feature to get help.

For more information

Read more about common phishing scams and how to avoid them at BBB.org/PhishingScam and at BBB.org/AvoidScams.

If you’ve been targeted with a phishing scam, report it at BBB.org/ScamTracker. Your reports can help limit scammers’ success in the future.