Special Free PD from OTIS: Alice Keeler, Bryan Miller, & Michelle Blanchet

OTIS

Looking for some tech-related PD? Consider signing up for a free basic OTIS account to access their free course content . Their calendar to see what’s available when can be found here. OTIS is bringing some special guests for great back to school webinars! They’re covering everything from Google apps, to coding, to engaging educators in professional learning. Two of their many sessions are noted below. More free courses can be reviewed and signed up for here.

Back to School with Google Forms

Tuesday, 8/17, 3 PM – Alice Keeler

Google Forms is the greatest thing since sliced bread. You know the basics of creating a Google Form, but what else can you do to leverage the learning power and student engagement elements of Google Forms? Let’s go over how to reuse your Google Forms from last year. Why and how to use Branching Forms. Join Alice Keeler to start the school year off right by upping our Google Forms game!

Register ›

Teaching with Google Jamboard

Tuesday,8/24, 3:00 PM ET – Alice Keeler

Join Alice Keeler for this session, which is an intro for teachers on how to use Google Jamboard app in the classroom. It will cover everything from the basics of how to navigate to lessons/activities you can use today! Alice will also cover some important pedagogical considerations to help you know when and how to use Jamboard…

Register ›

 

Some upcoming changes to students’ online access and experience

Googel Zoom

We’d like to alert you to two online services we use (Zoom and Google) who are enforcing changes to the student experience in the coming school year.  In June we posted about Google’s upcoming age-based changes taking effect and have re-posted our information below with a bit more elaboration.

ZOOM meeting changes

This summer Zoom announced a policy change that will be going into effect in a few weeks that prohibits any student from having a Zoom account associated with a K-12 educational institution. This is being done in part to align their terms and conditions since people under the age of 16 aren’t otherwise permitted an account (up until now those under 16 had only been permitted under the “School Subscriber” terms within Zoom for Education accounts) and in part done to increase the security of meetings. Their new solution is called external authentication, which allows institutions to have an increased level of security without having students in their account.  Students will be able to join Zoom meetings safely and securely without the use of a Zoom account and will simply authenticate for meeting access using their district Google account. Some FAQs they have shared are posted below.

Will Breakout Rooms work if my students do not have Zoom accounts?
Yes, you can still use Breakout Rooms as usual. If you would like to pre-assign students to Breakout Rooms, you will need to upload a CSV file with the details .

Will my guest speakers or teacher be able to join a meeting?
Any external guests will not be able to join the meeting unless that specific party has an authorized account in your SSO Identity Provider.

How is this different from standard Zoom/SSO Authentication?
This is authenticating users upon joining a meeting and does not create a Zoom account.

Can I pull a report of the students and have accurate attendance information?
Yes, all student’s names will be documented accurately with their associated email address.

[We had a virtual meeting with our account representative last month to discuss these upcoming changes and among other questions asked about the ability for users to add their personal pronouns. While they said that it was possible, it would have to be mapped via a field in Google since Zoom accounts were no longer going to be associated with our students. At this point, we’re not in a position to set up that mapping, but are looking into other options.]

Safer learning with Google for Education

  • Google is launching a new, age-based setting to control their app experience for users that goes into effect next month. See this support page for more detail. [Since we don’t have a way to group students by their age in our admin console, these settings will apply to ALL of our students, from our youngest to any students at PCEP and Starkweather that might be 18 or older during their time in district.]
    • After September 1, 2021, students will see changes in their experience across Google products.  For example, after September 1, students in K-12 domains can view YouTube content assigned by teachers, but they won’t be able to post videos, comment or live stream using their school Google account. More specifically, our students’ district YouTube accounts won’t have access to or be able to…
      • Create channels, playlists, stories, shorts, or upload videos
      • Watch or create live stream events
      • See or post comments
      • Participate in live chat
      • Use apps, including YouTube Go, YouTube Music, YouTube Studio, YouTube TV, and YouTube VR
    • After September 1, 2021, students will see changes in their experience when signed into Chrome.  For example, after September 1, to ensure a safer web browsing experience for K-12 institutions, SafeSearch and SafeSites will be on by default, and Guest Mode and Incognito Mode will be off by default.

Two-Factor Authentication (for staff) to access MISTAR, goes into effect August 27, 2021

2FA Mistar

Due to enhanced cybersecurity insurance requirements in response to the dramatic rise in cyber-attacks, districts must ensure that staff pass two-factor authentication to gain access to personally identifiable data (PII), including student data within MISTAR. Districts, including ours, are required to enable two-factor authentication for staff accessible applications (Q and Student Scan) by August 27, 2021.

NOTE: The Student Connection and Parent Connection applications accessed by students and parents ARE NOT required to be enabled at this time.

  • Upon logging in, each staff user will be required to retrieve and enter a system generated six-digit number.
  • The number will be emailed to their email address and will come from each user’s own email address.
  • If logging into the mobile app and notifications for the app are activated on the device, the number may also be received via push notification.
  • Staff will need to authenticate only once per day (as opposed to each login throughout the day) using the same browser and same device. Each browser or device will require authentication each day access is attempted.

2FA for MISTAR

Some Updates Coming to Google Workspace for Education

Workspace changes

Google regularly updates/changes their Workspace apps. To follow their launched release changes, visit HERE. To check out details on planned release changes, visit HERE. In no particular order, some recently launched or expected release changes to note include:

File / Video Security Updates

  • Some shared files in your Google Drive will require using a URL that contains a resource key. This security update is being applied to some files in Google Drive to make sharing links more secure. This change will impact users who haven’t previously viewed a file that you’re sharing. As an end-user, this shouldn’t change anything for you other than the link that you initially share if you use the “anyone with the link” option to share a file. This change will be implemented beginning July 26th with full enforcement on and after September 13, 2021.
  • Videos in your YouTube account that were uploaded prior to January 1, 2017 and were marked as “unlisted” will be changed to “private” on July 23rd. You can revert them back to “unlisted” after the 23rd. Read more about this change here. This update doesn’t affect videos uploaded after January 1, 2017.
Google Forms
  • Twenty new font choices are being added to Google Forms.
  • The settings menu is going to be revamped to “simplify” the application of settings.
Google Docs
  • Improved revision history – To see who added or modified a portion of your document, simply highlight the text, right click and select “see editors.” This is so much quicker and easier than digging through revision history!  Show editors
  • Create interactive checklists in Google Docs. There’s a new checkbox option that you can add in place of bullet points in Google Docs. This is available now. See screenshot below for an example.  See this support page as well. Soon we will be able to assign checklist action items to other people and these action items will show up in their Google Tasks (as a reminder, browse to https://mail.google.com/tasks/canvas and login with your Google account. This is a full screen view of your Google Tasks.)
Google checklist
  • Google introduced the idea of a “smart chip” to demonstrate that Docs is more than just a page of text. Smart chips allow you to link to files, people, and events in your document. Just type the @ symbol and tag a person, file, or calendar event.
  • Coming soon…Pageless documents – Unless you are planning to print a document, there is no reason to limit yourself to 8.5×11. Google Docs now supports a “pageless” view that will automatically reflow text to fit the size of the screen you are using. If you do need to print, you can always switch back to the traditional view.

    Emoji reactions in Docs – Starting this fall you will be able to add emoji reactions to portions of a document, a quick way to provide feedback without the need to leave a full comment.

Safer learning with Google for Education

  • Google is launching a new, age-based setting to control their app experience for users. See this support page for more detail.
    • After September 1, 2021, students who are under 18 will see changes in their experience across Google products.  For example, after September 1, students designated as under 18 in K-12 domains can view YouTube content assigned by teachers, but they won’t be able to post videos, comment or live stream using their school Google account.
    • After September 1, 2021, students who are under 18 will see changes in their experience when signed into Chrome.  For example, after September 1, to ensure a safer web browsing experience for K-12 institutions, SafeSearch and SafeSites will be on by default, and Guest Mode and Incognito Mode will be off by default.

to ensure greater security, SMARTweb to require multi-factor authentication

SMART MFA

In an effort to make more secure the SMART web interface where staff go to view payroll information and perform business functions, the system will require multi-factor authentication starting July 1, 2021. The initial piece of information staff will be asked for is their email address, and after providing it, staff will need to retrieve an access code they are then emailed to continue to log into SMART. For more about this change, visit this explanation page.

 

SMART MFA details

2021 JULY REMC Free Virtual Courses with 10 free SCECHs // New Web series offering too

REMC courses

VIRTUAL COURSES, The REMC Virtual Courses offer an easy, convenient way for teachers to connect and collaborate during the summer from the convenience of their home. The Virtual Courses are free, offer free 10 SCECHs when completed, and are open to all Michigan school personnel. There are no registration or SCECH fees because REMC SAVE’s vendor partners provide support for all REMC professional learning opportunities.

Register by Friday July 2nd – Classes Begin July 5th

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

NEW WEB SERIES:

Each offering includes a robust toolkit of resources to support teacher planning and student learning. Participants may choose to attend one or more of the seven sessions. To earn SCECHs, participants must attend the live webinar and complete the assigned task following the webinar. Two (2) SCECHs per session.

Blended Learning Sessions:

Teaching Strategies for Virtual and Blended Learning Environments: Introduction

Session details and dates available:  https://bit.ly/3jDOBDO

 

Teaching Strategies for Virtual and Blended Learning: Help Students Demonstrate Mathematical Thinking K-2 

Session details and dates available: https://bit.ly/3zzgoh4

 

Teaching Strategies for Virtual and Blended Learning: Help Students Demonstrate Mathematical Thinking 3-6

Session details and dates available:  https://bit.ly/3pRD5bz

 

Teaching Strategies for Virtual and Blended Learning: Help Students Demonstrate Mathematical Thinking 7-12

Session details and dates available:  https://bit.ly/3vmZw9I

 

Teaching Strategies for Virtual and Blended Learning Language Arts: Growing Early Literacy Learners K-2

Session details and dates available: https://bit.ly/3xec3xy

 

Teaching Strategies for Virtual and Blended Learning Language Arts: Growing Literacy Learners 3-5

Session details and dates available:  https://bit.ly/3xx4suv

 

Teaching Strategies for Virtual and Blended Learning Language Arts: Growing Literacy Learners 6-12

Session details and dates available:  https://bit.ly/3gkyc7V

 

from this newsletter

iOS and GMail app

IOS Gmail update

For those that have an iPhone and use the Gmail app — IOS users must upgrade to the latest version for Gmail iOS app versions 6.0.210221 and 6.0.210222 before July 7, 2021 to avoid interruption. Google discovered an issue with two Google Gmail iOS app versions that could result in a disruption of functionality to users’ service. This is a proactive upgrade required to avoid the application from hanging, crashing, and going into unusual application states that may cause an interruption.

What do I need to do?

On July 7, 2021, IOS users will receive a prompt requiring them to upgrade to the latest version if they have the GMAIL app. If they don’t accept the latest version, they’ll experience an interruption in service until the upgrade is performed.

  • Download the latest version of the Gmail iOS app from the Apple App Store before July 7.

Network / MISTAR/ SMART outage July 2-4

Wayne RESA will be conducting disaster recovery systems testing during the Independence Day holiday break from Friday July 2nd (6 PM) through Sunday July 4th. This testing is critical to ensure that RESA will be able to continue to provide our districts with full services should a disaster-level event happen. Districts [including ours] should expect RESA service/system unavailability during this test. This includes SMART, MISTAR (and Parent Connection and Student Connection), Illuminate DnA and PolyPlot. Additionally, NO INTERNET service will be available within the district during this time period