Tag: lists

phishing

Tech Tip #107: 6 Tips to Avoid Email Phishing

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each week, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q:  I got an email that looks legitimate, but I’m not sure. How do I check?

A: You’re right to take a step back. ‘Phishing’ is an attempt to steal your personal information by posing as a trusted source (a friend, your bank–like that). Kaspersky reports that while spam is declining, accounting for only 66% of email last year, phishing attacks have tripled. Why? Because it works. People think it won’t happen to them, until it does. To clean up after a successful email box invasion can take months, cost thousands of dollars, and give you many sleepless nights.

As a educator, you’ll want to teach students how to protect themselves as soon as they start using open email networks. Here are six suggestions:

(more…)

history

50 Economics Websites

coinsAs a passionate Economics major in college (which grew into an MBA), I find Econ at the root of much of the world around us. It starts with counting coins in first grade and grows up to a peek into NASDAQ and other adult subjects in middle school.

These websites cover kindergarten (counting money) through elementary (economics for youngers) through Middle School:

Coins and Counting Money

  1. Brain Pop Learn about Money
  2. Cash Out
  3. Coin Counting
  4. Coin games—from US Mint
  5. Count Money
  6. Counting Money
  7. Face on money
  8. Face on money–from Lunapic; lots of options
  9. Make change
  10. Money—counting
  11. Moneyville
  12. Money Flashcards–APlus Math
  13. Mr. Bouncy’s Money collection–lots of websites
  14. Piggy Bank
  15. US Mint virtual tour (a slideshow)

(more…)

Want to Code on an IPad? Here are 3 Great Apps

codingCoding has become the poster child for a tech-infused classroom. Over 15 million kids participated in Hour of Code this past December. So many teachers took students to Code.org’s curriculum offerings, the website crashed.

So what is ‘coding’? According to the Urban Dictionary, it’s another word for ‘programming’ which means:

The art of turning caffeine into Error Messages

Let’s go to Webster’s definition instead:

The act or job of creating computer programs

Not much better. To techies, ‘programming’ or ‘coding’ is

a series of symbols, used synonymously as text and grouped to imply or prompt the multimedia in the games and programs that happen on computers, websites, and mobile apps.

programming

This complicated definition is why–historically–programming, IT, and Computer Science have been of interest only to the geekiest of kids. But there are good reasons why kids should like this activity. According to Computer Science Education Week:

(more…)

10 Space Websites That Will Launch Your Class Study

Space units are always exciting. Part of it’s the history, but a lot is that space is our final frontier, a wild  untamed land that man knows so little about. I have a list of over 20 websites I use to support this theme for K-8. Here are 10 of my favorites:

100,000 Stars

100,000 Stars is an interactive visualization of the stellar neighborhood showing the real location of over 100,000 nearby stars. You can zoom in on 87 major named stars including our Sun. There’s a brief introduction and a longer tour students can take to get acquainted with the program. From there, it’s intuitive to use with many of the same browsing tools students are used to from other programs.

100,000 Stars is programmed by space enthusiasts at Google. The introductory music is mesmerizing. Put your headphones on and fly.

(more…)

chromebook

Chromebooks in the Classrooms–Friend or Foe?

chromebooks in classAATT contributor, Krista Albrecht, has a balanced evaluation of Chromebooks in the classroom I think you’ll find useful. Krista is a NY State certified Instructional Technology Specialist working in public education on Long Island, NY.  She has over 15 years experience in the field ranging from classroom teacher to tech teacher, to Professional Developer, to 1:1 integration specialist.

Chromebooks in the Classrooms… Friend or Foe?

Chromebooks…those little computers that everyone is talking about.  Everywhere you look in education people are talking about Chromebooks, Google Apps for Education, Chrome Apps, etc.  So what’s the big deal with these things? Are they really useful in the classroom to help your students achieve greater understanding?  In my opinion, yes, but like any other piece of technology they do have their own list of pros and cons. So here’s one Instructional Technology Specialist’s (this girl, right here) attempt at laying out what I see to be the pros and cons of Chromebooks in the classroom.  Hopefully, after reading this article, you will have a better idea of how these devices fit in your educational setting.

What is this Chromebook you speak of?

(more…)

28 Unique Ideas for Publishing Student Work

GAFEAfter you’ve looked at these 28 sites, there’s no reason to print student work and stick it on a wall. You have too many options:

  1. Book Cover creator
  2. Create a magazine cover
  3. Flipboard—organize ideas into mag
  4. Glogster—posters
  5. Go animate
  6. Issuu (http://issuu.com/)
  7. Newspaper—create a newspaper
  8. Newspaper—create a newspaper clipping
  9. Newspapers around the world
  10. PhotoPeach–online slideshows
  11. Poster maker—like an eye chart
  12. Posters—8×10 at a time–simple
  13. PowerPoint games for kids
  14. PowerPoint stuff
  15. PowerPoint Templates
  16. Prezi
  17. Print Large Posters in 8×10 bits
  18. Print Posters One Page at a Time
  19. Publish the magazines 
  20. Scoop-it—organize webpages
  21. Screen Capture—full webpage
  22. Screencast-o-matic
  23. ScreenLeap—screen share for free
  24. Slideboom—upload PowerPoints; share
  25. Tackk—create online fliers
  26. Turn short stories into books
  27. Wideo–create videos online
  28. Youblisher to make your pdf documents flappable

(more…)