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Author: Mark Salzer

Some of the latest enhancements included with our BrainPOP subscription

BrainPop enhancements

Take a peek at some of the latest enhancements included with our BrainPop renewal this year.

IMMERSIVE READER: Level the playing field with more support for students across all reading levels on BrainPOP Quizzes with Microsoft’s Immersive Reader.

Teachers and students using BrainPOP’s Quizzes now see the icon for Immersive Reader. Through features such as read aloud, line focus, translation and grammar markings, as well as the ability to adjust the size, style, and color of the font, learning becomes even more accessible to all students.

Microsoft Immersive reader in BrainPop Quizzes

MODIFICATION STRATEGIES: Get helpful ideas for adapting BrainPOP tools and features for a variety of contexts and learners.

This modification “chart” features strategies for modifying each BrainPOP tool and feature for varied context and learners.  This includes synchronous and asynchronous learning, offline instruction, diverse learners, and language development for ELLs.

The table is organized by a traditional learning arc. This will support teachers and students to use BrainPOP to build background knowledge, practice thinking skills, and assessment or reflection.  Download this useful reference for planning lessons and differentiating instruction.

NEW READY-To-GO STANDARDS ALIGNED LESSON PLANS: Looking for ideas about how to use BrainPOP with your students? Click HERE to find top-notch lesson plans from the BrainPOP Educator community. Explore our growing collection of lesson plans or submit your own!

Want to quickly find lesson plans for a specific BrainPOP topic or game? Click the “Lesson Ideas” button that appears on every topic or game page. You can also find a collection of lesson ideas for each topic in the BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr, GameUp, or, BrainPOP ELL directories that appear in the Lesson Plans menu.

COVER THE LATEST TOPICS: Timely content: Explore 40+ new and enhanced SEL and academic topics including—
COVID-19, Self-Esteem, Graphs, Voting Rights, and more.

Coming Early 2022: Movie Pause Points: Engage students with embedded questions to encourage active viewing and meet more standards.

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As a reminder, all district students, K-12 can access our paid subscription to BrainPop/BrainPop Jr via Clever at https://clever.com/in/pccs

REMC’s December Virtual Courses, earn 10 Free SCECHs

REMC December courses

2021 DECEMBER REMC COURSES

Stay warm and learn something new! Take advantage of next month’s courses to learn new skills and tools to enhance your classroom.

December is a great time to learn in an instructor-led virtual course setting. REMC courses offer 10 free SCECHs, and are open to all Michigan school personnel.

Registration deadline is Friday, November 26th. Through the support of REMC SAVE’s vendor partners, all courses are FREE and there are no SCECH fees. You won’t want to miss out on these virtual courses that are a great way for educators to learn, connect, collaborate and grow from the convenience of their home.

Register by Friday, November 26th – Classes Begin Monday, November 29th

If you have questions or need further assistance with your course registration, please contact Erin Rommeck, REMC Event Coordinator.

Keeping YouTube Safer for our students

REMINDER: Due to the nature of YouTube, and the easy availability of inappropriate content, the Tech Department has enabled severe restrictions on YouTube for elementary students and moderate restrictions for middle school students. However, it’s easy for staff to approve content on the fly when they need to. Please note the following steps to approve content, but please remember to approve only the content that you would want students to access. 

Visit YouTube. https://www.youtube.com 

  1. Click sign in on the top right if you are not already signed into a YouTube account. 
  2. Make sure that you are signed into your district YouTube account. Click on the icon in the top right to verify. Should say managed by pccsk12.com (see pic below) 

YouTube Sign in box

 

      3. When you go to any YouTube video you will find a blue bar stating the status of the video below it. This video can be approved for our organization — when someone is signed in to YouTube — so at this point, not applicable to elementary as is. See pic below. 

approval bar   

      4. If the video was already approved you will see the remove button. Anyone can click this to also remove the video from approval. 

      5. Some videos are allowed by YouTube automatically. It will say watchable

      6. You can also approve a whole channel. This will allow you to approve school channels or curriculum sites, for when and if we opt for restricted mode, but permit sign in where we can then allow all white-listed videos to be accessible. 

  1. Important note: By approving or removing videos from YouTube, you are a affecting the entire district, and therefore it is important to approve videos ONLY if they are appropriate for K-12. 
  2.  All creators are now required to tell if their content is made for kids in order to comply with the Children‘s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and/or other applicable laws.   As part of a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and NY Attorney General, YouTube is now requiring YouTube creators to set future and existing videos as made for kids OR not. Even creators who don’t make content for kids need to set their audience.  See this posting for more information https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9527654

 

REMC November newsletter

REMC newsletter

*REMC — See this month’s newsletter HERE. Some highlights are found below. Click on images to read more about it.

Conversation

Playdate

* The Regional Educational Media Center Association of Michigan promotes the transformative use of technology and provides Michigan schools with access to educational resources to help teachers increase student success.

Zoom’s Focus Mode feature

While we highlighted this feature before school began (see blog post here), we continue to get questions about how to use it so are providing more details below.

Focus mode is designed with the digital learning environment in mind, allowing students to stay attentive or work on their tasks while under supervision, without being distracted by others and their tasks. This feature gives the host and co-hosts view of all participants’ videos without other participants seeing each other. This extends into screen sharing, as the host and co-host can view and switch between each participant’s shared screen, while the participants can only view their own content. If the host finds a participant’s content should be shared with others, they can easily begin sharing the participant’s screen with others.

Besides the host, co-hosts, and participants spotlighted by the host, participants in focus mode can still see their own video but only see other participants’ names, their nonverbal feedback or reactions, and hear them when unmuted.

Prerequisites for focus mode

  • Start a meeting as the host
  • Zoom desktop client
    • Windows: version 5.7.3 or higher
    • macOS: version 5.7.3 or higher

User

To enable or disable Focus mode for your own use:

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation panel, click Settings.
  3. Click the Meeting tab.
  4. Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the Focus Mode toggle to enable or disable it.
  5. If a verification dialog displays, click Enable or Disable to verify the change.

How to engage focus mode as the host or co-host of a meeting:

  1. Start a meeting as the host or co-host.
  2. Click More  on the meeting toolbar.
  3. Click Start Focus Mode.
  4. Click Start to confirm, or select the Don’t ask me again check box to skip this confirmation going forward.
  5. When Focus mode begins, you and the participants are notified with a banner along the top of the video window. Additionally, the focus mode  icon is always visible in the top-left corner of the video window, next to the encryption icon, while focus mode is active.

Once Focus mode has been started, participants in focus mode will only see the video of the host, co-hosts, any participants spotlighted by the host, and their own video. They will only see other participants’ names, their nonverbal feedback or reactions, and hear them when unmuted.

Participants’ shared screens are only visible to the host and co-hosts, but the host can allow all other participants to view as well:

  1. Click the up arrow  to the right of Share Screen .
  2. In the Shared screens can be seen by section, click All participants.
  3. (Optional) To return to just host and co-hosts viewing shared content, select Host only.
    Note: These options are only available when in Focus mode.

How to end focus mode:

  1. Click More  on the meeting toolbar.
  2. Click Stop Focus Mode.

Focus mode examples

Below are examples of Focus mode in a meeting. First, what the host or co-hosts see during Focus mode, followed by what a participant would see.

Host view:

Participant view when one participant is spotlighted:

see this support article for more assistance https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360061113751-Focus-mode-

 

A handful of ed tech offerings

Ed tech tips

The 2021-22 edition of The Practical Ed Tech Handbook is a 75 page PDF that features Richard Byrne’s favorite tools, tips, and strategies for using a wide variety of educational technology tools in your classroom. It can be found at https://practicaledtech.com/free-handbook/ 


Tiny Tap is a free web service that lets you create web-based educational games or borrow from a gallery of teacher made educational and share them with students, including embedding them in Canvas if you want. Consider checking out Byrne’s post describing the service at https://www.freetech4teachers.com/2021/11/tinytap-create-your-own-educational.html


Josh Sowash’s October newsletter included

Safeguard your cell phone from hacks

hacked phone

Our cell phones are threatened by bad actors more than many of us may realize. Below are the most common and critical mobile security threats and a short synapse of examples and ways to safeguard against attack..

4 Different Types of Mobile Security Threats

Mobile security threats are commonly thought of as a single, all-encompassing threat. But the truth is, there are four different types of mobile security threats that we need to take steps to protect ourselves from:

  • Mobile Application Security Threats. Application-based threats happen when people download apps that look legitimate but actually skim data from their device. Examples are spyware and malware that steal personal and business information without people realizing it’s happening.
  • Web-Based Mobile Security Threats. Web-based threats are subtle and tend to go unnoticed. They happen when people visit affected sites that seem fine on the front-end but, in reality, automatically download malicious content onto devices.
  • Mobile Network Security Threats. Network-based threats are especially common and risky because cybercriminals can steal unencrypted data while people use public WiFi networks.
  • Mobile Device Security Threats. Physical threats to mobile devices most commonly refer to the loss or theft of a device. Because hackers have direct access to the hardware where private data is stored, this threat is especially dangerous.

Signs

Below are the most common examples of these threats, as well as steps to can take to protect ourselves from them.

1. Social Engineering

Social engineering attacks are when bad actors send fake emails (phishing attacks) or text messages (smishing attacks) in an effort to trick someone into handing over private information like their passwords or downloading malware onto their devices.

Reports by cybersecurity firm Lookout and Verizon show a 37% increase in enterprise mobile phishing attacks and that phishing attacks were the top cause of data breaches globally in 2020.

Phishing Attack Countermeasures

The best defense for phishing and other social engineering attacks is to teach youself how to spot phishing emails and SMS messages that look suspicious and avoid falling prey to them altogether.

2. Data Leakage via Malicious Apps

85% of mobile apps today are largely unsecured. Tom Tovar, CEO of Appdome, says, “Today, hackers can easily find an unprotected mobile app and use that unprotected app to design larger attacks or steal data, digital wallets, backend details, and other juicy bits directly from the app.”

For example, when someone visits Google Play or the App Store to download apps that look innocent enough, the apps ask for a list of permissions before people are allowed to download them. These permissions generally require some kind of access to files or folders on the mobile device, and most people just glance at the list of permissions and agree without reviewing them in great detail.

However, this lack of scrutiny can leave devices vulnerable. Even if the app works the way it’s supposed to, it still has the potential to mine corporate data and send it to a third party.

How to Protect Against Data Leakage

Review permissions carefully and typically avoid third-party apps.

3. Unsecured Public WiFi

Public WiFi networks are generally less secure than private networks because there’s no way to know who set the network up, how (or if) it’s secured with encryption, or who is currently accessing it or monitoring it.

For example, cybercriminals often set up WiFi networks that look authentic but are actually a front to capture data that passes through their system (a “man in the middle” attack).

If this seems far-fetched, it isn’t. Creating fake WiFi hotspots in public spaces with network names that look completely legit is incredibly simple, and people are very willing to connect, as shown by experiments run at the Democratic and Republican conventions in 2016 and by an experiment run by a researcher in 2019 from Magic.

How to Reduce Risks Posed By Unsecured Public WiFi

Avoid connecting to public networks as much as possible, confirm they are legit, and do not conduct any sensitive activity while on them.

4. Spyware

Spyware is used to survey or collect data and is most commonly installed on a mobile device when users click on a malicious advertisement (“malvertisement”) or through scams that trick users into downloading it unintentionally.

Whether you have an iOS or Android device, these devices are targets ripe for data mining with spyware—which could include your personal as well as our district data if that device is connected to our network.

How to Protect Against Spyware

Dedicated mobile security apps (like Google’s Play Protect) can help you detect and eliminate spyware that might be installed on your devices. Ensuring you keep your device operating systems (and applications) up to date also helps ensure that your devices and your data are protected against the latest spyware threats.

5. Poor Password Habits

2020 study by Balbix found that 99% of the people surveyed reused their passwords between work accounts or between work and personal accounts. Unfortunately, the passwords that employees are reusing are often weak as well.

How to Reduce or Eliminate Mobile Password Threats

The NIST Password Guidelines are widely regarded as the international standard for password best practices. Following these guidelines will help protect you against threats from weak or stolen passwords. Password managers can simplify the work required to follow these guidelines.

Using more than one authentication factor (multi-factor authentication or MFA) to access mobile applications will also help reduce the risk that a bad actor could gain access to your systems since they’d need to verify their identity with additional authentication factors in order to log in.

Finally, implementing passwordless authentication will help you eliminate password risks altogether. For example, in the event that a mobile device is stolen or accessed illegally, requiring a facial scan as a primary (or secondary) authentication factor could still prevent unauthorized access.

6. Lost or Stolen Mobile Devices

Lost and stolen devices remain a threat.

How to Protect Against Lost or Stolen Device Threats

First and foremost, you’ll want to know what steps to take if you lose your device. Since most devices come with remote access to delete or transfer information, that should include asking you to make sure those services are activated.

7. Out of Date Operating Systems

Like other data security initiatives, mobile security requires continuous work to find and patch vulnerabilities that bad actors use to gain unauthorized access to your systems and data.

However, these patches only protect if you keep your devices up to date at all times.

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See the pic below for common signs of a compromised phone and a recap of best practices to avoid falling prey.

Mobile hacks

Add a page break before paragraphs in Google Docs

Add page break

You can now mark a paragraph to always begin on a new page with the new “Add page break before” option in Google Docs. This is particularly useful if you want certain paragraph styles to always create a new page such as titles, subtitles, or headings. This also means that you can import and export Microsoft Word and other third-party documents that have “Page break before” applied to paragraphs and Docs will retain that formatting.

Add the new
Add the new “Add page break before” paragraph style in Docs

 

Classic Sites to new Google Sites migration reminder

Classic sites to close

Starting December 1, 2021: owners and collaborators of classic Google sites will no longer be able to edit any remaining classic Google Sites in our domain. Starting January 1, 2022: classic Google Sites will no longer be viewable unless they are converted to new Google Sites. If you own a classic Google site in our domain and wish to have your content remain viewable after January 1st, at some point before the new year browse to https://sites.google.com/classicsitesmanager and initiate the conversion process.

In some cases we note there are some teacher sites that receive hundreds of views a month even though they haven’t been edited in a year or more, so will suggest you review your site’s stats before possibly deciding to skip converting it. For those with lots of page views on dated sites, if you decide to convert to permit continued visitor access, you may want to at least edit your site by adding links for visitors to follow to also access content you are now more involved in curating on Canvas or elsewhere.