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digital citizenship

Are You a Victim of Typosquatting?

by Dr. Bruce Ellis May 21, 2020

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Educators have made great strides in teaching digital citizenship to students. Many students now know the value of a strong password (that is, not shared with anyone), common phishing scams via email, and even how to spot fake news sites.

But few students realize that if they misspell a website URL, they may end up at a site that is more than they’ve bargained for.

Cybercriminals have figured out how to scam folks, even those who are trying to do all the right things. It’s likely that this has happened to you or someone you know. You type in the URL and hit Enter, not realizing that you made a small typo in the address. But you end up at the intended site, or so it seems, so you don’t catch your error.

Little do you know that those criminals have planned for your typo and created a mock site at which they hope to solicit personal information from you and/or gladly share malware with your system. The term given to this type of nefarious activity is typosquatting; you may have also heard of it by other names such as URL hijacking or cybersquatting.

To counter this, many retailers purchase misspellings of their own URL and have it automatically direct users to the intended URL. Those retailers who aren’t quite so savvy, or slow to purchase the misspelled domains however, may find that the criminals are getting free traffic each time a user accidentally makes that typo.

For example, Google’s main site is http://www.google.com. But they also have these other domains that, if you type, will automatically direct you to the correct page: gooogle.com (notice the additional “o”), googel.com (it should be “le”), and gogle.com (oops! an “o” is missing).

Strategies to Lessen the Likelihood of Being a Victim

Check Your Spelling

If you are typing the URL in the search box, be sure that you are typing the address accurately. Just a small typo can land you on a website that can be nefarious and damaging to your computer. If you have ended up at a typosquatting website, check to see if your browser allows you to block specific websites. If so, add the site to your list to prevent the mistake from happening again.

If you aren’t sure if your browser has this feature, check out Computer Hope’s post; you’ll find a variety of ways to block the website to protect you and others that may share your computer.

Verify Before You Click

If you are clicking on a link, be sure to check the spelling of the domain before clicking on the link. It is very easy to read what we think something says instead of what it really says, like the word puzzles that have “the the” in the sentence, but our minds only read it as one “the.”

If the URL is in a hyperlink in which the text is different than the URL, mouse over the hyperlinked text; you should notice the URL appear (typically in the bottom left of your browser). Paying attention to this can greatly reduce the chances that your computer is compromised by hackers who are creative enough to use typosquatting as one of their strategies.

Educate Your Users

If you are in a position that supports users and manages the network at your district, it is important to provide clear instruction and education to your employees. Though you probably already have SPF and DKIM included in your DNS and are utilizing anti-spoofing technology, don’t underestimate the creativity of hackers. After providing adequate training, make use of designated emails to catch those who are employing the strategies. All it takes is one user to infect their machine, which can then quickly spread to other users.

This education isn’t just limited to adult users. It is important for students to have appropriate information included as part of their digital citizenship curriculum. Also, it may be helpful (and appreciated) if basic information and strategies are shared with parents.

Are You Already a Victim of Typosquatting?

If you think you’ve been a victim, contact your information technology department. They can guide you in current strategies that are being used in the district, as well as specific recommendations for trusted browsers and possible browser extensions to use. They can also help make sure that your antivirus software is installed correctly and updates regularly without any effort on your part.

At TCEA, we want you to be safe as you surf the internet. For more information on how you can stay safe, check out our other posts related to cybersecurity, such as Five Cybersecurity Tips for Newbies and How to Adopt a Security Mindset, at https://blog.tcea.org/category/cybersecurity.

May 21, 2020 0 comment

Educational Trends

Ed Tech News Roundup: Digital Citizenship, Rural Schools, and More

by Andrew Roush January 17, 2020

written by Andrew Roush

Howdy, folks! Welcome to another in a series of periodic ed tech news roundups. We hope you enjoy this one, and if you have a story you’d like to see included, let us know.

Digging Into Digital Citizenship

Today’s students will grow up in a world full of technology. Knowing how to safely navigate that world requires good digital citizenship, and schools and districts around the country are making it a major focus.

Massachusetts curriculum and instruction director Matthew X. Joseph shares his “R.E.A.D.Y.” strategy for nurturing responsible digital citizens. [District Administration]
Want students to have ownership of their cybersecurity and digital footprint? Try giving them experience — and even certifications — as IT support. [EdTech]

Connecting with Rural Schools

Rural school districts often share a particular set of challenges, not least of which is keeping schools connected. Connecting rural communities with broadband access can have an impact in the classroom and well beyond it.

Think your school is remote? Try administering a district on an island off the coast of Alaska. Here’s how one administrator does it. [Education Week]
High-speed internet isn’t just useful to instruction — it’s vital to the kinds of careers students will take on after they graduate, even in remote areas. [Broadband Communities]

Face to Face

Safety is a top priority in every school. Now, some are turning to facial recognition technology to keep kids safe, but critics warn it may lead to violations of privacy.

Earlier this month, Lockport City School District in upstate New York activated AEGIS, a facial recognition system, but some students and civil rights activists are wary. [edscoop]
Vox’s Recode takes a deep dive into the history, uses, and concerns over student facial recognition. [recode]

… And Finally

Many students may puzzle over their physics textbook, convinced that the day they understand the subject will be the day pigs fly. And in one case, it just might be. [WGME Portland]

January 17, 2020 0 comment

Digital Literacy

Celebrating Digital Citizenship Week with Powerful Resources

by Andrew Roush October 15, 2019

written by Andrew Roush

Digital citizens are critical thinkers. They carefully weigh evidence and sources and come to informed conclusions about what they encounter online. They are digitally literate, that is, they use information technology effectively and in ways that empower them to be lifelong learners. Creating an informed citizenry, one that can skillfully use ubiquitous and evolving tech tools, is a central goal of education, and the primary goal of digital citizenship.

What’s more, a good digital citizen is safe online. As we increasingly live our lives through connected devices, understanding the smartest and safest ways to use them, and the networks they run on, is vital to ensuring that students are well-prepared for life outside of school.

A Week of Celebration

Spreading awareness of these benefits is the purpose of Digital Citizenship Week, October 14–18, 2019.

Education nonprofit Common Sense describes the week as an opportunity to “amplify your students’ voices and give them ownership of their digital lives.” It’s a skill that today’s students will need not just in the future, but today. Want to bring digital citizenship into your classroom? Below are some resources that might help.

Digital Resources for a Digital World

Common Sense, mentioned above, offers a number of videos paired with lesson plans for elementary, middle, and secondary grades on a variety of digital citizenship and literacy topics. Best of all? You have access once you create a free account. Need resources in Spanish? They’ve got you covered.
Nearpod offers starter-pack lesson plans for K-12. Once you teach them, you can receive a limited edition Nearpod badge to use in your classroom or email signature. And they have day-by-day activities recommended, too.
For a day-by-day outline of digital citizenship, check out this post from curriculum developer AES Education. Written for last year’s commemoration, this piece lays out a progressive understanding of the topic, one day at a time.
If you’re willing to go the route of resources available for purchase, ISTE’s Digital Citizenship in Action, Empowering Students to Engage in Online Communities, written by high school librarian Kristen Mattson, is all about flipping old practices on their head. Instead of teaching what not to do, she explores what action students can take to be good digital citizens.
Those looking to dig into more detailed topics might want to explore the educator tools at DigitalLiteracy.gov, a joint project of ten federal agencies. Notably, the site’s powerful search and filtering function lets you find the right tool based on your interest.
Digizen, as the name implies, is a website all about digital citizenship, with pages specifically designed for teachers, parents, and students.
Be sure to scroll through Cyberwise’s massive trove of digital resources on the subject.
Find out what the fandom around the incredibly popular Korean pop band BTS can tell us about digital citizenship.

Photo: Tim Gouw

October 15, 2019 0 comment

Digital Literacy Libraries

Research in the Age of the Filter Bubble

by Heather Lister, Guest Author October 8, 2019

written by Heather Lister, Guest Author

We live in a personalized world. Everything from the music we listen to, the firmness of our mattresses, and the news briefings delivered to us online, it’s all personalized and tailored to our preferences. And who wouldn’t want to listen to a radio station that only plays music they like? Advances in technology have allowed companies to give a custom experience to each of its users — and those users include the students in our classrooms.

A Custom World

As educators, we typically hear the term “customized” or “personalized” in a positive light. Yet when seeking information, those customizations can actually translate to bias and ignorance. It’s what Eli Pariser termed the “filter bubble,” the algorithms used to provide targeted search results and tailored news feeds are creating a distorted and divided reality by only revealing one side of the story — the side you want to see.

Websites use massive amounts of data to create an experience that we’re more likely to engage and interact with. This data is often collected by “trackers” that exist on numerous websites. Google trackers can be found on the top 75% of the top million websites. These trackers do just what they say they do; they track. They track everything from the time you spend on a site to the type of computer you’re using to the time you typically wake up in the morning. All of this somewhat personal data is gathered and used without us being aware we’re even providing it. So for those of us that think we do a pretty good job of keeping our online lives private, unfortunately our actions and behaviors online can tell companies just as much, if not more, information about our lives.

For professionals dedicated to helping others search for facts and uncover the truth, this is obviously problematic.

Escaping the Bubble

Sadly, escaping this bubble is nearly impossible. Even methods that give the appearance of removing this bubble and putting the user in control of their data do very little. For example, private browsing such as Google’s “Incognito Mode” only prevents your browser history from being recorded on your computer and does not offer any additional protection such as preventing the websites you visit from collecting your information (e.g. your searches on a search engine). According to an engineer at Google, even when logged out, Google is still able to use 57 points of data to tailor your experience. Facebook’s privacy settings allow you to opt-out of seeing targeted ads, but they don’t stop the collection of data in the first place. This data and more is following us across the web, with vast implications.

So if the filter bubble is an issue, but there isn’t really a way to “pop” it, what do we do?

For better or for worse, customization is only going to get more precise and have a further reach. But unless you’re willing to go completely off the grid, we’re going to have to address this issue. This means taking a different approach to research and doing a better job of teaching students how the Internet actually works.

A Different Approach

For starters, if you’re giving students a list of “pre-approved” websites or databases, stop (for two reasons). First, by hand picking resources for students, we are robbing them of the opportunity to navigate the resources themselves. They aren’t always going to have someone there to hand pick articles for them and tell them whether they are credible or not. It’s a skill they need to develop themselves, and what better time to practice that skill than when in school? Second, there is no such thing as a 100% credible site. Even databases curate resources from the open web, so directing students to databases is a flawed practice as well. Several sites and authors that were once considered “trustworthy” and “academic” have been called into question due to bias, misinformation, or misrepresentation.

Additionally, students (and our colleagues) need to understand the existence of a filter bubble. They need to understand how companies are using data to tailor the results on nearly every site we visit. They need to understand that while their search results may have produced hundreds of “great” results, there are millions of other results they aren’t seeing. When we have students evaluate websites, encourage them to not only focus on what is in the article, but also what isn’t in the article. What perspectives are missing? What isn’t being discussed? Who wasn’t a part of the discussion?

Useful Resources

While librarians can be champions of this effort, it cannot be addressed by us alone. This is a societal issue and one that needs tackling by the community at large. While still limited, here are some resources to help teachers and librarians in this effort:

Checkology and The Sift from The News Literacy Project

Checkology is an online suite of tools aimed at making students better users of information. With lessons on algorithms, bias, identifying hoaxes, and more, it’s a comprehensive platform for addressing the many facets of media literacy. The Sift is a newsletter that shares current teachable news stories regarding misinformation, hoaxes, and other viral content.

Harvard’s Project Implicit

This resource includes a series of assessments aimed at identifying thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control. This is a great tool for your older students or your staff to help become more self aware of the biases they may have.

Mozilla’s Teach the Web and Google’s Be Internet Awesome

Both organizations have an education branch focused on teaching how the web works. Yes, I recognize the irony, but they both have some excellent resources and activities.

Choose Privacy Everyday from ALA

Each year, ALA and other organizations celebrate #chooseprivacy week in May. This website hosts resources to promote privacy and confidentiality year-round. The site includes programming and lessons for elementary school through adults.

Photo: Lanju Fotografie

October 8, 2019 0 comment

Educational Trends

Ed Tech News Roundup: Esports, Newfangled Libraries, and More

by Andrew Roush September 20, 2019

written by Andrew Roush

Howdy, folks! Welcome to another in a series of biweekly ed tech news roundups. We hope you enjoy — and if you have a story you’d like to see included, let us know.

Staying Safe Online and IRL

Digital citizenship and personal safety online are a vital part of everyone’s life, and a topic of growing concern in education. As the focus grows, schools and districts are working to imbed good digital practices into their curricula.

Schools have begun monitoring student behavior online in an effort to prevent bullying and violence, both physical and digital. But questions of safety vs. privacy, especially for students, are being raised. [NPR]
The U.S. Department of Education announced this month that, beginning in 2020, they will grant two Presidential Cybersecurity Education Awards, one to an elementary teacher and one to a secondary teacher, for educators who “best instill skills, knowledge, and passion with respect to cybersecurity and cybersecurity-related subjects.” [ExecutiveGov]

Game On

Esports is another growing trend, and even as educators begin to consider the effects and educational potential of competitive video gaming, new resources are being rolled out.

The High School Esports League (HSEL) has released a free, “turnkey” esports curriculum, with the support of Microsoft, called “Gaming Concepts.” [THE Journal]
Nintendo’s Super Smash Brothers titles are esports mainstays. Now, the Japanese gaming giant has partnered with Digital Schoolhouse to provide UK students with Nintendo’s Switch devices for gaming and devise-based learning. [Pocket-lint]

Not-So-Quiet in the Library

The role of school libraries has changed drastically in previous decades, and as technology continues to adapt, adjust, and innovate, librarians are doing the same.

In Oregon, the number of licensed librarians in schools has dropped nearly 80% while the number of students per librarian has jumped more than 500%. Schools and districts are hurrying to catch up, even as the role of teacher-librarians expands. [The Register-Guard]
In a wide-ranging Q & A, a library department supervisor and president of the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association weighs in on the role of the modern school librarian. [Lancaster Online]

…And Finally

The students at North Farmington High School in Michigan didn’t grumble when they had to take their student ID pictures this year; instead, they got creative. Check out how these high schoolers recreated their favorite pop culture characters. [Newsweek]

Photo: fran hogan

September 20, 2019 0 comment

Google Tips and Tricks Microsoft Tips and Tricks

Increase Student Engagement with Pear Deck

by Tracey Smith August 16, 2019

written by Tracey Smith

As teachers, we all face the challenge of how to keep students engaged in our lessons. We also want to get authentic formative feedback in a manner that makes students feel safe and comfortable participating. Pear Deck is a tool that will allow you to do both and have your students begging for more!

What is Pear Deck and How Will it Help Keep Students Engaged?

Pear Deck is a live slides presentation tool that works with Google Slides or PowerPoint presentations,and allows students to see the slides on their own devices. With Pear Deck, interactive slides can be added to solicit feedback, do a quick formative check, or just see how your students are feeling today.

When students respond, their answers can be shared anonymously by the teacher so only he knows who submitted which answer. This allows all students to feel safe in answering as they know they can’t be singled out by a classmate for a wrong answer.

To make classroom management even easier, you can control your presentation on a tablet or phone. This allows the teacher to move about the classroom freely rather than be tethered to a computer.

Not Just Another Slide Deck Tool

Pear Deck goes beyond being just a slide presentation tool with the vocabulary game Flashcard Factory. Flashcard Factory allows the teacher to upload or create a list of vocabulary words and definitions using your own definitions or pulling them from an embedded dictionary. Students then pair up and take turns writing sentences using those words and drawing a picture to illustrate their sentence. They earn points for their team when their flashcards are evaluated at the end. The flashcards can then be exported to Quizlet Live for further study. Talk about gamifying learning!

Pear Deck and G-Suite Are Perfect Partners

Pear Deck and G Suite become perfect partners with the Pear Deck for Google Slides add on from the G Suite Marketplace. This allows you to quickly and easily add interactive slides and questions to your existing Google Slides presentations. Pear Deck has the “essential” plan, which is free, and the “premium” plan which adds some additional features like “takeaways” that allow you to share a copy of the deck and anonymous responses with students in their Google Drive and Google Classroom.

Not sure how to get started with your first Pear Deck presentation? Visit the Pear Deck “Orchard” which is a library of example decks you can download and edit to suit your needs.

Pear Deck Can Help Teach Social-Emotional Skills

Teaching and modeling social-emotional skills is a large part of what we as educators do each day. As we all know, our students can’t be engaged if their SEL needs are not being met. Pear Deck has a free Social-Emotional Skills Template developed in conjunction with Newsela that can be used as a whole lesson, or selected slides can be interspersed with your own lesson to get a pulse on how students are feeling.

Be Internet Awesome with Pear Deck’s Free Digital Citizenship Curriculum

In today’s blended learning classrooms, digital citizenship is something that must be taught early and reviewed often. To assist in this endeavor, Pear Deck partnered with Google and ISTE to develop their “Be Internet Awesome” digital citizenship curriculum that includes free, ready-made lessons, recognition badges and certificates, and parent handouts.

It is refreshing to find a tool like Pear Deck. It helps us keep our students engaged and encourages them to take ownership and embrace the learning. I hope you’ll explore Pear Deck to learn more about how it can make your teaching life a little bit easier.

Tracey Smith is a TCEA member and fifth-grade teacher in Arlington ISD. She’s a self-proclaimed ed tech geek and blended-learning evangelist who has served as a teacher-leader on her campus and in the district. She recently presented at the TCEA Elementary Technology Conference and at Region 11 ESC’s Leveraging Canvas conference. You can find Tracey on Twitter or find her blog, Bright Ideas in Blended Learning here.

Photo: Joanna Stołowicz

August 16, 2019 0 comment

Cybersecurity Digital Literacy

Internet Security 101: What Teachers and Students Need to Know

by Guest Blogger April 2, 2019

written by Guest Blogger

As educators, you have a high expectation to provide a quality education for today’s youth. But you know that being an educator means much more than just being a teacher. You’re their mentor, their supporter, and someone they can look up to. Your role is ever-changing.

Over the years, we’ve noticed an increase in threats to both student and teacher safety. One less talked-about threat has caused a serious issue for many schools recently. In 2017, there were 455 reported cybersecurity incidents in the education sector alone, according to Verizon’s data breach survey. This number does not reflect unreported cases of problems such as cyberbullying and identity theft. With the expanding use of technology in classrooms, Internet safety has become an issue —and it’s time we start talking about it.

This article will provide tips to help you encourage safer and more responsible use of the Internet among your students.

Tip #1: Learn Your School’s Policy

The most important step is to familiarize yourself with the policy and regulations that your school has in place. There is likely a section on this topic within your employee handbook or on the district website. If there are resources listed for parents and students, check them out.

Having a strong antivirus program installed and knowing the signs of a phishing attack are some of the best mechanisms to protect your school from a cyber attack.

Ask your administrators the important questions. What disciplinary actions are taken when students or faculty break the rules? Are there materials on Internet safety lessons that are available to you? You should also ensure that your school has proper defense systems in place. Having a strong antivirus program installed and knowing the signs of a phishing attack are some of the best mechanisms to protect your school from a cyber attack.

Tip #2: Incorporate Internet Safety Lessons

Beginning the conversation in the classroom will help encourage responsible use, even outside of school grounds. These conversations need to be had, but limited support exists for teachers. Developing ways to incorporate Internet safety into lessons is often best. Important discussion points include appropriate behavior, protecting their personal information, and chatting responsibly online. There are many sites that offer lesson plans and activities, such as this one from BrainPOP.

Tip #3: Talk About Cyberbullying

It’s hard to always be aware of everything that is happening with your students online. One common issue is cyberbullying. Kids and teens are unfortunately more likely to participate in bullying their peers in an online setting. The Internet can be much more anonymous than face to face. That makes its occurrence more prevalent than traditional bullying. Teaching your children to be kind to one another is the best prevention method. It’s also important to build a relationship of trust with your students. This will help them feel comfortable notifying you when they are being cyberbullied or have witnessed a peer cyberbullying another peer. Be on the lookout for the warning signs by educating yourself.

Tip #4: Protect Your Digital Identity

When it comes to Internet security, children are often most at risk. Because of this, its crucial that they learn to protect their digital identity. The earlier students begin using the Internet, the sooner their digital footprint forms. Over time, a larger profile builds around them which can be revealed with a simple Google search. Future college admissions representatives and employers look into these digital profiles. Students wouldn’t want a simple mistake to hurt their chances of going to their dream school or getting their perfect job. Teach them the importance of being responsible with what they post and knowing how to properly remove anything harmful to their reputation.

Tip #5: Take Your Own Advice

The best way for your advice to resonate is to practice what you preach. Take precautions and protect your devices. When you hear your students talking about the newest craze, whether it’s a social media app or a video game, take the time to research it.

Use strong passwords and create an email address that is more professional than personal. You should also look into the privacy settings on your computer to ensure that you have the right protections enabled.

As an educator, there is a higher need to keep your own information secure. You wouldn’t want your students to access anything that is potentially embarrassing, or information you want to keep private. Use strong passwords and create an email address that is more professional than personal. You should also look into the privacy settings on your computer to ensure that you have the right protections enabled.

Together we can make the Internet a safe, responsible, and fun resource for students to use!

This is a guest blog post by Brent Scott. Brent works in the field of cybersecurity, educating the community on the best ways to protect their digital identity online. His goal is to work with teachers, parents, and educators everywhere to ensure that the Internet is a safe environment for all students to explore.

April 2, 2019 0 comment

Digital Literacy Libraries

Student Online Life: Targeted Digital Citizenship Education

by Guest Blogger October 11, 2018

written by Guest Blogger

It’s almost Digital Citizenship Week. While it’s great to bring awareness to the importance of digital citizenship this week, five days is not enough. That’s why I’m outlining the areas of digital citizenship that need dedicated attention and purposeful planning by librarians, teachers, and administrators.

Librarians Lead the Way in Information Literacy

Current librarian digital citizenship practice is about helping our students use online content in responsible ways. We should be teaching our students that you cannot just use anything you want from the internet in any way that you want. We should be communicating to our teachers that we can help them when their assignments involve students using information or images from the web. For every assignment, librarians should be demonstrating how to find, evaluate, and use information from credible sources. We should be talking about copyright and how to use citations to give attribution. This important digital citizenship skill set is often overlooked by administrators and teachers because it is easy to put on the back burner and also because librarians are not making these lessons and resources readily available in the curriculum. The bottom line is we should be inserting ourselves into every lesson, every project, every essay, and every assignment where students are asked to do anything with the information.

Modeling Good Behavior

We all know that the online world is changing and shifting at a rapid pace. Often, as educators, we aren’t fully aware of what our students are really doing online. I know I am not a gamer, so the world of online gaming is something I am aware of, but don’t participate in. I am also not an avid YouTuber. I don’t watch a lot of YouTube for pleasure, nor do I subscribe to popular YouTuber channels. I give these two examples to explain that even though we have to teach digital citizenship, we may not completely understand the online communities and environments our students are spending a significant amount of time in.

The responsibility of helping kids be good digital citizens often falls to parents. Parents, after all, are the ones who are supposed to control what devices, games, and social media accounts their children have access to. Kids now know they can create multiple accounts for almost any online service, and some go as far as acquiring a trap phone (usually a second phone kids use without their parents’ knowledge that has WiFi capability only). Parents are often not in the know about the extent of what their kids are doing online.

Modeling appropriate online behaviors and educating students about what it means to be a good digital citizen is becoming increasingly important. I talk to students all the time about their online reputation. A quick and easy Google search can reveal a great deal about a person. I try to help my students understand that something their 15-year-old self finds funny or appropriate to post or share online might not be something their 30-year-old self appreciates. This is especially true if it costs them a job or opportunity. I ask my students to think about showing their online life to a respected family member or someone they might want to marry. Would they be proud of everything that shows up?

Resources for Teaching Digital Citizenship

At the start of the school year, I always do a digital citizenship lesson with my Career and Technology classes. This year, I revamped some outdated content my school had been using. With the help of my Digital Learning Coach, we created a Google Site to house the content and paired the eight “stations” of content with GooseChase missions. After the students successfully completed the missions, they were given an access code for a Google Quiz that I made to accompany the stations which I dropped into each teacher’s Google Classroom. Here is a Google Folder I made with copies of content and other resources for this activity. I want to encourage other librarians to create and share the content we use to teach and model digital citizenship!

Our students are growing up in a completely digital world. Their entire lives, often from birth, are documented online through social media, images, videos, and online profiles. We have to help them understand this fact and recognize that what goes online, stays online – forever! We should be talking about digital citizenship issues in every school, every day, and with students of all ages.

This is a guest blog by Nancy Jo Lambert as part of a monthly series of blogs from LIB-SIG. Nancy Jo is a high school teacher librarian at Reedy High School in Frisco ISD. She is a presenter and speaker who advocates for libraries by telling the story of the learning happening in her library. She holds positions in the Texas Library Association and in TCEA. She also has committee appointments in the American Library Association, American Association of School Librarians, and the Texas Association of School Librarians. She has been published in professional journals and has won numerous awards and grants. Nancy Jo is also a Google Level 1 and Level 2 certified Educator. She is known for her sharing her professional work on her library website: http://www.reedylibrary.com.

October 11, 2018 1 comment

CTO/CIO Cybersecurity Leadership Technical Support

Resources for Cyber Security Awareness Month

by Dr. Bruce Ellis October 10, 2018

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

As of 2004, Cyber Security Awareness Month has been celebrated in October. This month is sponsored by a division within Homeland Security (the National Cyber Security Division) and the National Cyber Security Alliance. The goal is to encourage all technology users to be more aware of risks and potential online threats which typically target human behavior. You may notice various posts and updates this month across your devices and tools as it relates to cyber security. For example, you may have noticed the Presidential Alert on your cell phone on Wednesday, October 3. Though that alert is to warn of a more widespread disaster, it wasn’t a coincidence that it took place this month. To help you participate, we’ve collected resources, ideas, and activities that can be implemented and shared with students (and teachers).

Resources

Weekly Security Themes – The National Cyber Security Alliance has identified a theme for each week of this month in order to bring more awareness to specific aspects of online threats to consumers, educators/students, and businesses.

FBI Resources for Weekly Security Themes – In conjunction with the NCSA, the FBI has provided specific resources to help educate yourself and students.

CISCO Resources for Weekly Security Themes – CISCO has organized resources that provide more in-depth, relevant information for each week covering topics such as Machine Learning 101 and Data Protection and Privacy.

Science and Technology’s Cyber Security Division Overview Video [4:55] This video shares the major tasks of the Cyber Security Division and how this division brings together government departments and private sector organizations to develop innovative technologies and safer procedures.

Ideas and Activities

CyberSmart! Classroom Activities & Posters – The NCSA partnered with McAfee to distribute free cyber security posters along with accompanying activities to educators. Even if you aren’t able to incorporate the activities this month, consider using them at another time during the year as you discuss various aspects of digital citizenship.

GenCyber Teacher Camp Resources – The University of Tulsa has organized a GREAT list of lesson plans, units, activities, and resources for educators. Be sure to explore and share with others!

Cybersecurity Lab – Teens will find this a fascinating and intriguing game to play as they learn what fosters authentic scientific exploration. The four major gameplay components consist of Coding Challenge, Password-Cracking Challenge, Social Engineering Challenge, and Network Attacks.

CERIAS Lesson Plans and Presentations – The Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) has gathered and organized an excellent list of lesson plans for educators. The categories of lesson plans include lesson plans for all grade levels, lesson plans for K-5, and lesson plans for 6-12.

eGFI Lessons and Activities – The Engineering, Go For It (eGFI) organization has put together several activities that you’ll enjoy sharing with your students. Along with the activities is a list of related lesson plans!

NICCS Resources for Engaging Students in Cybersecurity – The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies (a part of the Department of Homeland Security) has put together a helpful guide to lead educators in bringing awareness of careers in the cybersecurity field.

Winning the Cyber Security Game – If you are a middle school teacher, you’ll enjoy using this lesson plan with your students. Canadian educators will appreciate that it is aligned to the Digital Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools. Anticipate the activity taking one hour for 5th and 6th grade students and up to three hours for 7th and 8th grade students.

Free Resources for Teaching Students Cyber Security – Orion Technologies provided an “ultimate list” of resources for teachers. To better assist you in finding the perfect resources, they have divided them into the following groups: for teachers, for administrators, for younger kids, for pre-teen and middle school kids, and for older kids.

Cyber-Security Starter Activities – STEM Learning provides two starter activities to help get you started with educating students age 14 to 19 in aspects of cyber security.

Unplugged Activities – Did you realize you can teach cyber security concepts without the Internet?! Bits N’ Bytes by Kyla provides you with a lesson plan for 4th through 8th grade students that will take up to two hours to complete.

Find More…

If you would like to search for more ideas and resources, consider doing a Google search using this as your search query [ cybersecurity site:.gov ]. This query (without the square brackets) will limit your search results to websites that have the .gov domain. If you want to search for information provided by universities, then change the .gov to .edu. Here are the search results for each: using .gov and using .edu.

If you feel like you have the skills and interest to become an ethical hacker, then check out Penny Hoelscher’s post at comparitech, 6 courses to learn ethical hacking online. Other resources to investigate include #ethicalHacking, #hackerNews, #infosec, and #cybersecurity. And, if you have high school students who seem to have a knack for ‘getting into things,’ then this may be a honorable career pathway for them to make good use of those talents.

October 10, 2018 0 comment

Digital Literacy

A New Tool for Digital Citizenship

by Lori Gracey September 10, 2018

written by Lori Gracey

I think we can all agree that it is much harder today to know what is true and what isn’t. The amount of fake news, almost true news, and just plain stupid, no-one-cares news has grown unbelievably in the last few years. Couple that with the fact that, regardless of what generation we belong to, we seem to be more willing to believe anything we are told, and you have the recipe for a disaster.

Learning About Fake News

Being a good digital citizen includes being able to tell what is real from what isn’t. You can find ways to help teach students about that in this blog. But there is now another tool that can help as they are learning. And that is SurfSafe.

SurfSafe is a free Chrome add-on that attempts to identify misleading, Photoshop-ed, and fake news throughout the internet. As the company explains,

“At the heart of every fake news story is an image that is likely doctored or taken out of context. SurfSafe uses the news sites you trust, along with face-checking pages and user reports as benchmarks for what images are considered ‘safe.’ It’s simple — just hover over an image and SurfSafe will classify the imge as ‘safe,’ ‘warning,’ or ‘unsafe.’ It will also show you every instance of where the image in question has been seen before. That means that you will be able to see if the context of the image in the article has anything do to with the original instance.”

digital citizenship

How SurfSafe Works to Promote Digital Citizenship

digital citizenship

It works by having you first tell it what news organizations you trust. Then, it uses those sites as a basis for truth as it evaluates content from other web pages. In addition, you can easily report anything that you see that is not correct through a simple check box.

Here’s an example of what that might look like:

digital citizenship

In the Classroom

I would encourage CTOs and Google admins to add the SurfSafe resource to both student and staff browsers. Then, instructional and technology specialists should spend time helping teachers understand how the add-on works, as well as how to best teach students to use it. I envision robust discussions on what news sources are actually reliable today, why the use of fake news and propaganda has grown so much, and how important it is for all of us to rely only on accurate and factual news upon which to base our opinions and actions. SurfSafe provides an excellent tool, as well as a powerful opening to talk about bigger issues we all face.

September 10, 2018 5 comments

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