Internet Safety
09 Mar 2011 1 Comment
The internet is all around us and has become such a part of our lives. Many of us use the internet every single day. The district has us taking attendance using e-school, many of our checks are directly deposited into our bank accounts, so many of us are on Facebook and read e-mail more often than regular mail (now referred to as Snail Mail). What did we do before we had the internet at our fingertips? We can find any bit of information with the click of a mouse. It’s a little bit daunting and can be a little scary at times, especially considering the amount of personal information that is all over the internet. That being said, the internet is not going anywhere and if it is not already a large part of your life, it will be.
Our kids are even more involved in the internet than we are. Is there a way for kids to use the internet to its fullest potential and still remain safe? Definitely. Many of the strategies we can teach our kids to remain safe when on the internet are the same strategies we use when we teach our kids about strangers, plus a few more. In fact, exposing our kids to the internet is probably the best way to teach them about how to behave in an online environment. I like to equate the cyber world to the real world to understand its dynamics. For example, if we never taught our kids how to cross the street, what would they do if they came to a corner? They could be blindsided by a zooming car! The same is true for the internet. If we don’t teach our kids about what could be out there, they will never know what to do when they encounter danger.
Many of you may be thinking, “Hey, I’m not even up-to-speed with the internet, so how the heck am I supposed to watch out for danger or help my kids look out for it?” A good place to start is to just know the lingo. The following are some terms used to describe some not-so-nice internet practices:
Spam- unsolicited email or junk mail
Pharming- a technique used to redirect a legitimate website’s traffic to another illegitimate website in order to gain access to a users personal info
Malware- intentionally malicious software or code designed to damage your computer or collect information without your knowledge
Phishing- mail or instant message scams that are disguised to look like official communications from legitimate websites. They fool the users into providing sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, etc…
Trojan Horse- malware that appears to be benign or desirable and thus tricks the user into allowing the program access to their computers, usually through a download or email attachment
Hoax- Email chain letter that warns of impending viruses and tries to scare users into forwarding and continuing the hoax email
Clickjacking- a technique that tricks users into clicking on a malicious link by adding the link to a transparent layer over what appears to be a legitimate site
Mousetrapping- commonly used by pornography sites, this technique keeps visitors from leaving a website by locking them into a window, opening multiple windows on the desktop or relaunching their website into a window that can’t be closed.
Virus- self-replicating software program that is designed to infect a computer by rapidly spreading from one file to another sometimes causing great harm. It is spread by humans when they copy or add email attachments of infected files.
I never even heard of a few of these and was surprised at the maliciousness of some people, but then again, the world can be a scary place! With how many of these terms are you familiar?
Back to safeguarding our young…
What can you do to guide your students, or even your own children toward a healthy relationship with the internet? There are tons of internet resources out there to guide educators and caregivers on the importance of online safety and how to disseminate this information to youngsters. Here’s a video that provides information and might be a good way to start a conversation with your kids:
Here’s a direct link to onguardonline.gov It is a bank of free online safety resources.
I’ve also included a few links that contain lesson plans for online safety. Our kids are going to be online no matter what. It is their world and we need to educate them on how to live safely in that world.
Internet Safety Resources:
http://www.webwisekids.org/classroom_resources/teacher_resources/
http://cybersmartcurriculum.org/safetysecurity/lessons/
http://www.netsmartz.org/StreamingPresentations/InternetSafetyBasics
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/internetsafety
http://www.wcs.k12.va.us/users/honaker/9-12-Internet-Safety.html
Konquering Kurzweil
31 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
Yes, I know that I spelled ‘conquering’ incorrectly, but you were able to read it, right? Unfortunately we have a number of students at the high school and middle school level that wouldn’t be able to read ‘konquering’ or ‘conquering’, regardless of the spelling. These students are not conquering the reading of the English language. How can we help them to become Warriors and conquer their reading deficiencies?
I’m sure many, if not all, of you have experienced students who spend so much time trying to figure out what the text says that they completely miss the meaning of the content. In the elementary school setting most students are just learning the strategies of decoding and comprehension, so the content is written much more simply, and the concepts are conveyed using largely visual and auditory methods. It’s not that reading the text isn’t important, but the acquisition of the content does not rely on the student’s ability to read and comprehend successfully. On the middle and high school levels students are expected to already know how to read (decode) with fluency and comprehend what they are reading. The only obstacle left is the understanding of the concepts presented. If we really think about it, though, how equipped is an 11 or 12 year old to be able to do that? Now factor in the students who have learning disabilities. How equipped are they? Will these students who, for one reason or another, are lacking the fundamental skills of reading, have an adequate time keeping up with middle school content? I think many people will agree with me when I say that the NYS tests are primarily tests of reading, regardless of the subject they claim to be testing. Students are asked to read the question, understand what it is asking and then carry out the command based on knowledge of the subject. If you cannot read, all of parts II and III on the Math Assessment are a lost cause, as are many questions in part I. Is the Science Assessment checking to see what you know about Biology and Earth Science? If you can’t read the questions it doesn’t matter how much you know about the subject! Does this problem automatically go away when you reach high school? Of course not. It probably just gets worse.
That brings me to the topic of this month’s Warrior Tech Talk: Kurzweil 3000. Back in September 2010 the Wantagh School District purchased licenses to Kurzweil 3000 for our students who have great difficulties decoding and understanding what they are reading. Essentially, Kurzweil eliminates the difficulty students have with the reading and allows them to focus on the content. Materials, both digital and print, can be entered into the Kurzweil software which will read the content to the student. Picture those students who have the ‘reader’ accommodation on their IEPs. Kurzweil can accomplish that task and allow the student to keep his independence. I know what you are thinking. Kurzweil seems like a huge crutch that will not force the student to learn how to read, but instead do the work for him. Actually, the opposite is true. According to Wise, Ring & Olson, (2000) “For children with reading disabilities, reading stories with computer speech support for difficult words can lead to substantial growth in phonological decoding, word reading, spelling and reading comprehension that transfers to improved independent reading without computer support.”
Most of your classrooms have been equipped with the Kurzweil software. If you are in Wantagh High School Kuzweil is on each of the 24 Netbooks housed in 215. There are headphones for each of the Netbooks as well, so as to not cause a classroom disturbance. However, I have not seen a large or even moderate use of Kurzweil occurring. I’m wondering why this tool is not being used in the classroom. If your student has “reader” as an accommodation on the IEP, your student is entered as a Kurzweil user. If you think there are other students in your classes who would benefit from this type of software please let me know. It doesn’t cost anything to add users. Please don’t think that the software is only good for testing. Use Kurzweil as part of your reading/writing routine. If you wait to use Kurzweil only during testing, the students are not going to know how to use it!
I am available any time for additional Kurzweil training and support, so please reach out to me for assistance. I would be more than happy to come to your classroom and sit with the students to guide them through using Kurzweil as a reading or writing tool. Shortly, I will be coordinating times to come and give whole group instruction to the HS Skills classes. If you feel any other classes would benefit from this type of instruction, please contact me.
I have given or sent many of you a Quick Start Guide to Kurzweil. It is my version of the main and most popular functions of the software. If you need another copy, click below!
Below you will find some literature regarding the success of Kurzweil.
Surfin’ Safari…
12 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
Let’s go surfin’ now
Everybody’s learning how
Come on and safari with me!
Many of us are very familiar with the Beach Boys’ anthem “Surfin’ Safari”. Although we miss the surfin’ days of summer and are in such close proximity to the beach, the only surfing we’ll be doing in Wantagh this year is surfin’ SAFARI Montage!
Some time during the spring of last year, the Warriors Technology department members were introduced to a multimedia database . In times past, if we wanted to show our students multimedia presentations to enhance the curriculum like a movie clip, picture or sound bite, we had to seek that media out via the library, YouTube or some other venue. SAFARI Montage will change that for us! SAFARI is actually an acronym meaning
Students
And
Faculty
Actively
Retrieving
Information.
It is a library of videos, audio and still pictures right at your fingertips. In addition, there are a multitude of file formats accepted by SAFARI, so you can upload any materials that you already have in your bag of tricks and share that content with your colleagues and students! I’m talking your SMARTboard lessons, Word documents, Powerpoint Presentations etc… There is no need to access the student share folders on our network and ask students to access 5 different pieces in one class period. With SAFARI Montage, you can create ‘playlists’ for your students, share them with the school or district, and your students can easily access your creations and any media you wish them to view. SAFARI draws on our Active Directory, that is, the usernames and passwords we all have already! In addition, and especially for our older students, playlists can be created by the students and used during oral presentations. There’s no need to save the information on a flash drive or other portable storage device or log in and out of accounts because SAFARI is completely web-based. As long as your internet connection is active in your classroom, you and your students can access your materials. Another great feature is that since SAFARI is not technically streaming the video, there is no buffering!
SAFARI spans all grade levels and content areas and can be used in an infinite number of ways to enhance your curriculum. Although I specifically cater to the Special Education staff, SAFARI will be implemented district-wide.
Very soon you will be hearing a great deal about SAFARI Montage. Training sessions will be conducted, you may hear your supervisors speak about SAFARI, and you will definitely see something about it on Staff Development Day. When you are scheduled to attend a training session, come to the session with some topics related to your curriculum. SAFARI is very easy to use and manage, so once you have the basics down, it is just a matter of narrowing down your resources and seeing where they best fit into your lessons.
I look forward to working with each of you and taking you surfin’ through SAFARI Montage!
Surf’s up dude!
Let’s Get it Started…Let’s Get it Started in Here!
02 Sep 2010 2 Comments
In the life of a teacher, or anyone involved in education, the first day of school is like New Year’s day. It is a time for starting over, for improving, for trying new things. It isn’t any different for me. The position of Special Education Technology Teacher Trainer (that’s a MOUTHFUL!) is new to me. In fact, it is new to Wantagh! The position was created this year through ARRA funds provided by the federal government. So many wonderful tools were purchased through this grant and with them come staff development. It would be silly to try to implement such tools without training and support. That’s what I’m here for!
Many of you may be familiar with the writings of Marc Prensky. He coined the phrase “digital native” when referring to the generation of children who have grown up using technology. Many of us are considered “digital immigrants” because technology as it is today was something that we had to learn. The terms were not part of our native lexicon, but we acquired them through living with it for a while. Some are still hesitant to establish permanent residency, but that’s OK! Our students’ world revolves around technology. They do not know any different. The goal of the technology integration program is to use some of that native knowledge to help the students accomplish their goals, whatever they may be. When you have a minute (actually, 4 minutes and 32 seconds) watch this interview with Prensky. He really explains the digital native well.
During my years as a teacher and technology mentor one thing I have learned is that everyone learns at different rates. As special education teachers, you see that more than anyone else in the district. Your students’ needs are so varied and most of the time need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis. There is no ‘one size fits all’ method. That’s how I plan to help you; on a case-by-case basis. Shortly, you will be sent a link to an online survey regarding technology proficiency and use. PLEASE be honest. I will be using the survey to get a better picture of your skills. Just as you prepare for your class by reviewing students’ IEPs, I will be prepared when I come to you.
In general, the basic plan for hardware and software implementation is as follows:
A. Initial roll-out
B. General training session
C. Planning and individual training (as needed)
D. Push-in class time for additional tech support
I am really looking forward to working with each of you this year. Please feel free to e-mail me at any time albrechtk@wantaghschools.org. I check my e-mail multiple times a day, including weekends. I promise to get back to you ASAP!
Have fun with your new crop of digital natives! Happy September! Happy New Year!
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