Passwords are Passe

Passwords have been a thing of the past for about two or three years now.  Taking their place are pass phrases.  These are sets of words that make sense to you but probably not to anyone else.  The reason for this change is that there are far too many hackers gaining entrance to personal and confidential sites with users simple passwords.  To see just how easy your password is to hack, use this neat website.  It gives you an idea of how long it would take an average program to figure out your password.

How Secure is Your Password

Are you a Ted Talk Fan

I recently read an article that identified the top five Ted Talks by kids, yup, even kids do Ted Talks.  I thought I would reproduce them here.  To make sure that I am transparent with the article, here is a link to the original article.  A big thank-you to the person who created this article.

Jacob Barnett - Forget What You Know

Britany Wenger - Create a Neural Network in your Bedroom

Thomas Suarez - iPhone Application Developer

Jack Andraka - My 3 cents on Cancer

Lauren Hodge, Shree Bose, Naomi Shah - Google Science Fair Winners

Now This is Where I Want to Work

I came across this video in a search for something else and was quite mesmerized by it.  If this is what the future holds, then I want to be a BIG part of this future.

Just Why is Blogging a Good Thing

This video is several  years old now but I think it still rings true with all the concepts and skills learned by blogging.  Some of Seth's connections to readership are very amusing.

WOW are things getting smaller and smaller

This is something new for your smartphone or smart devise.  About the size of a quarter but with the price tag of $20, a pledge on Indiegogo will get you one just about Christmas time.

Movies Should Have Popcorn with Them

Nice little web app that allows you to upload a video and then play around with it to add  content from the web.  Maps, links, blog posts and feeds, pictures and even other videos can now all be added in with this simple app.  Here is a simple tutorial;

Mozilla Popcorn Maker Tutorial

Here is a talk about Popcornmaker By a Mozilla exec.

Try it out first to see the power.

Everyone Should Learn a Little Programming

About a year or two ago, two prominent executives of large Silicon Valley firms suggested a need for everyone in school to learn some programming.  Programming involves creative thinking, mathematical operations in a real time format, ability to collaborate (since very little programming is done alone these days), and a wider range of brain based research ideas.

While this brought angst to some teachers, there are several platforms out there that can help with this idea.  One thing to remember, this does not need to be an in class project or idea.  It also works well with afterschool clubs or activities.

Most of the examples below involve a game format as this is the one that students are most familiar with and one that usually really interests them.  There are other formats as well.

 Google Blockly 

Scratch

Gamestar Mechanic

For pure programming there is PHP (Pre-Hypertext Processor) which is a web programming language, JAVA (Use it within Eclipse Environment for ease) and a host of other languages.

New Site/App for All Teachers to use Rubrics

Check out this new site/app that helps teachers grade using rubrics.  You can add in your existing rubrics or use their system to create new ones.  Each of the sections of the rubric can have comments added to them.  Reporting is done through printouts or PDF and best of all, for teachers it is free.

For All Rubrics

There is a short video that demo's the system on their main page.

Just imagine the outcomes if everyone had access to these.

I was way to late in getting my application in for this year but the possibilities for this are amazing.  Just imagine a field trip with your students where everyone had a set of these.  Imagine new maps and tours (online) being created through the use of these.  If you are not familiar with these, then you will have to look them up and see for yourself.  The video is people actually using them.

Sign up to get information on future availability here.

New Google Web Designer - Check it out.

I started to just play around with the BETA version of Google Web Designer.  Have a try and see what you can do.

https://www.google.com/webdesigner/

Just imagine being able to create material for a variety of platforms all at the same time.  This is going to make the availability of data even more creative and inventive.

If only.......

To me, this is very powerful.   

October has been deemed "Connected Educator Month" by the U.S. Department of Education. In an effort to do my part, I wanted to share a thought about the current state of technology -- or maybe you could call it a dream. 

Futurists discuss the certainty of our students using only tablets for everything in school in the very near future. If every child had a tablet, think of the possibilities. 

Let me share the dream: 

The students arrive at homeroom and check in to school via their tablets. They then choose their lunch options and, via the tablet, the information for attendance and lunch count end up in the office. 

Math is the first subject on the schedule and every student is getting differentiated instruction via their tablet that is custom designed for their needs. At one point the teacher of the flipped classroom pauses the class and asks everyone to go to an app and watch a group video as the teacher narrates it for the class. An energized discussion follows. 

Next on the schedule is the students' special class. Some students go to Art where they are designing augmented reality creatures to be used in their technology class where they are creating physics-based video games. Music class has the students on a different app that lets them create waveforms and is explaining acoustics through the student's creation of different synthesized sounds. These students will have the opportunity to share their projects via video conferencing and other social media sites. 

Let's move on to Social Studies where the students are traveling to the birthplace of William Shakespeare, via Google Earth, and a few virtual field trips to England. They talk to an expert via Skype or Google hangout about the writings of Shakespeare. 

Language Arts is so exciting. Imagine a literature circle format. The students are having virtual book talks with a class in England via video conferencing. It is interesting to hear the different classes discuss Huck Finn. The students also have time to work on grammar, again differentiated through the various apps being used. 

Finally we have science where the students are working up a model on their tablet of a space ship to prove that their ship will fly based on realistic science rules. 

This is the type of day our students should be having. This is the type of day our students are expecting to experience in today's classrooms. These possibilities exist today and should be used now. It does not have to be a dream. The connected classroom can be a reality. 

As we know, budgets are tough in the field of public education and every penny must be used to its full benefit. We know that schools are making drastic changes to their use of money in order to keep that which they find critical and cut the extras. Here is a thought: What if we stopped purchasing pencils, pens, crayons, textbooks, paper, workbooks, calculators, note pads, highlighters... and the list goes on and on. I wonder how much money a single district could save if they did not purchase those items. I'm wondering how much money a district could save if only textbooks were not purchased from that long list. I'm going to guess our districts would save tens of thousands of dollars. Here is the bigger question. Would we save enough to buy every student a tablet? A single tablet for each student would keep the district from having to buy many of those materials stated above. It seems to me that if a district were to go to a 1:1 initiative, they would ultimately be saving money. 

There is no doubt that we are living in a technologically-driven society. A culture of technology has evolved and our students deserve to be a part of that culture in a connected classroom. 

Happy Connected Educator Month! 

Rob Furman 
Elementary Principal, Author, National Presenter 
The Huffington Post (huffingtonpost.com)

The Younger the Better

Just when does a student take over in their own learning.  Is it in Kindergarten - I remember reading a book once called "Everything I Learned About Life, I Learned in Kindergarten".  Have a look at this video and make a judgement on your own.

Things like this give me goosebumps.  I wish I could back to school at a school like this.  Keep making the change a real happening.

Taking Technology Just a Bit Too Far

Have a look at this video.  It tells the story all by itself.

I hope none of us ever have this problem or are a part of this problem.

What's in a name?

While traveling between conference in Seoul South Korea, I noticed a store called the chicgeek inc.  Thought about this for a while and then wondered how it would be a good blog.

Lots to come in this blog and it will be all over the map.

Have fun with this.