Curriki

Curriki is an open source curriculum wiki. Wow. That might need some explaining. A wiki is a website that allows anyone (or nearly anyone) to modify the content of the website. Open source is a phrase referring to making your content available to anyone else to use and modify for their own purposes. So, Curriki is a website that allows you to create curriculum for others to use/modify as well as a place for you to find curriculum created by others.

Oh, and it also allows you to create your own textbook!

Passwords

One of the things for which I'm paid is to be paranoid about our network. I imagine scenarios like a student learning a teacher's password and changing grades in ProgressBook, a student releasing a virus in our network which shuts everything down (including phones), or even someone with little to no connection with our schools being able to cause trouble on the network. Hopefully, you can help us all feel better by thinking about your passwords a little.

Passwords are the first line of defense against malicious attacks on the network. If someone meaning harm cannot even get access, then they are limited in what they can do. Or, if they cannot log in as someone with access to information - same thing. On the other hand, if they can log in as someone with access, then they can cause quite a bit of grief.

With that in mind, here are some tips I copied from a SecurityFocus article called "The Simplest Security: A Guide to Better Password Practices":

1. No Dictionary Words, Proper Nouns, or Foreign Words - There are programs freely available that can check your password against thousands of words in a few minutes. It would literally take 15 minutes for someone to crack your password if it is an actual word. These programs even try foreign and backwords words, so don't think you're any safer trying those.
2. No Personal Information - It is really easy to find your birthday, Social Security number, anniversary, family member information, pets' names, etc. You may even share that info in class or in casual conversation. Don't make your password something you share openly.
3. Length, Width and Depth - Want to know how long your password would last if a program checked every possible combination? Notice how adding one character to your password significantly lengthens the amount of time it would take someone to crack it. Notice also how much time is added if you use things like upper and lower case, numbers, punctuation, etc. Microsoft recommends the following:
1. Not contain significant portions of the user's account name or full name
2. Be at least six characters in length
3. Contain characters from three of the following four categories:
1. English uppercase characters (A through Z)
2. English lowercase characters (a through z)
3. Base 10 digits (0 through 9)
4. Non-alphabetic characters (for example, !, $, #, %)

Here's a few final suggestions. Don't share your password with anyone! Don't use regular words. Don't write your passwords down (the oldest trick for stealing passwords is to look for it under the keyboard or in a drawer). Change your password frequently.

One way to create a secure password is to combine numbers with words. For example, take a year like "1999" and a word or name like "Prince!" and combine them like this: "P1r9i9n9ce!" You now have a 10-digit password that isn't a word, uses upper and lower case with numbers and punctuation, isn't personal information, and is easy to remember without writing it down.

March Tech Coordinator Meeting

Yesterday was the monthly meeting of area technology coordinators at NCOCC. I wanted to pass along a few items from the meeting.

• If you are interested in learning about how to use blogs/wikis/podcasts for your class, let me know or talk to Cheryl Cronbaugh. NCOCC is considering offering classes in these subjects but they need to see (an educational) need first.
• There should be no major changes this year in ProgressBook. The company that makes it is concentrating on fixing minor, buggy things. Cheryl Cronbaugh is on the committee to recommend enhancements for future releases. Contact her if you have any suggestions.
• On April 1st, the old (a year ago) email addresses will be permanently disabled. If you still receive email on those old addresses, you need to pass along your new address. Apparently, the old system is allowing spam email through. Removing that system will (hopefully) reduce the spam we receive.

That's the highlights. Feel free to contact me with questions.

PBS Starts Web Site for Teachers

"PBS Teachers is PBS' national web destination for high-quality preK-12 educational resources. Here you'll find classroom materials suitable for a wide range of subjects and grade levels. We provide thousands of lesson plans, teaching activities, on-demand video assets, and interactive games and simulations. These resources are correlated to state and national educational standards and are tied to PBS' award-winning on-air and online programming like NOVA, Nature, Cyberchase, Between the Lions and more."

They also have professional development opportunities and an online store.

Fun With Maps

Here's some interesting map-related links I've found recently:

• "If you dig straight down, where will you end up?" -- The age-old question, finally answered! (And no, it isn't China.) This is an interesting use for Google Maps. Pick a point in the world, and it will show you where the exact opposite side of the world is.
• Worldmapper is creating maps that change the size of territories based on statistical data. For example, the USA is huge on the defense spending map, and smaller on the population map.
• WIKISKY is an interactive sky map. Click on a celestial object and get pictures and lots of info.
• Social Explorer has hundreds of maps showing historical demographic data for the United States.
  

That's all I have for now. I'll post more as I find them.

Blogging

It occurred to me that maybe blogs are a good way for teachers to communicate with their classes or with parents. They could also be a way for administrators to reach out to the community. Blogs are free to set up and easy to maintain. We can link to them from the school's Web site.

If anyone is interested in getting started in blogging, let me know!

Homework

This certainly isn't what I had in mind for one of my first posts here, but I came across this article tonight while doing my nightly reading. I hope I'm not stirring up anything here, on the other hand, I like to question the status quo. If you ever think that there is a better way for us to run our network or use technology, let me know!

Returning to the article (I didn't forget!) -- what do you think? Is homework always necessary? If so, are there better ways to do it? Is there anything that the lowly tech coordinator can do to help?

Let me know in the comments!

Welcome

This is the beginning of an experiment. I frequently come across new technologies or old technologies used in new ways and wish to share them with all of you. I also find articles on the Web that discuss issues in education. Sometimes I want to let everyone know about the projects in the works or the things I'm thinking about trying for the district. This is a way for me to let you know about these things. More importantly, it's a way for you to give me your feedback on them.

So, feel free to use the comments area below to tell me what you think about these posts. You can also respond to other peoples' comments and share opinions and experiences with each other through this blog. Hopefully, I can fill this with enough interesting material that it will be worth your time to check once in a while!