Dinopass: A Tool For Students To Make Passwords

Making new passwords can be challenging - and that is for adults. When I have seen the passwords that some of my students come up with, they can be a little too simplistic. (Or worse a slide across the keyboard.)

When I talk to adults or older students, I recommend they choose a sentence as a password. 

However, some students have difficulty doing that. 

I recently came across a great tool for students who have a challenging time making passwords. This tool called dinopass creates a random password for students. It has two modes: simple and strong. 

My Advice To A Parent About How To Talk With Their Child About Media Use

Today I spoke with a student's father who is a little distraught over his child's device usage. This was the first of many conversations we will have.

Here is my reply to him.

Hello Mr. Smith,

Thank you again for talking with me today. I just wanted to send a resource to you. 

The first is a family agreement to get a dialog started with Jonny. I recommend going over it with him and making sure you are both on the same page in terms of Jonny's device usage. If he agrees with everything in this contract- great! There is extra space to write in additional ideas.

If there are points of disagreement, that could open a dialog and negotiation where you could ask questions like:

... where good places to use the device. Is the kitchen table OK? The living room? The floor? I recommend that you say the device screen must always be visible.

... when good times to use the device are.

... how the device should be used. Here I would focus on creating rather than consumption. (This would be like doing digital art rather than watching YouTube all the time.)

... what activities are worthwhile when using the computer and which are not so beneficial?

The family agreement might need to be rewritten if you come up with different ideas.

I will continue to look for ways to have more control over what Jonny can do with the computer.

I am looking forward to talking to you again next Friday, September 13 at 9:00 am.

Please let me know if you have any questions before that time,

Tom Hammerlund

"Students should be banned from YouTube"

Google is rolling out several changes to their Terms of Service and what you can and cannot do with certain apps. I first noticed this when I logged into my Blogger account and a brief scan of the changes told me that students would not be able to use Blogger anymore.

Then I was forwarded this video which basically says the same thing. All users not labeled over 18 will be blocked from creating channels on YouTube and will be restricted from other services.

This brought up an interesting conversation with my coworker who made the statement, "Students should be banned from YouTube".

The crux of her argument was that kids should not be thinking that being a YouTuber is a job. 

So I replied, well, yes it is.

Then she said something like it's not a real job and gave an example of a video being posted about what a person did over the summer. 

So I pointed out that her example sounds like an assignment I might have my own students do. 

Then she said that you don't need skills to be a YouTuber.

I thought about the skills that are required:

• Creativity 
• Video Editing 
• Digital Citizenship
• Synthesis
• Writing
• Communication
• Critical Thinking
• Media Literacy

I could go on, but my point was that I thought she should have a coffee and relax a bit.

I do agree somewhat with Google on this issue. I don't think students need all the access they have had. But, I wonder why Blogger is getting blocked and if that is more of a Google-not-policing-content issue rather than a child protection issue. As for YouTube, I mostly see benefits students having a school YouTube channel or being able to watch a live stream.

I guess I am disappointed they are being so heavy handed. My guess is that there is a lot of pressure from governments on this issue. 

What will happen though, is that kids will open their own private accounts and use those instead. 

Create a Digital Breakout Room using Google Sheets

I have been working on a "digital puzzle" that can be used with students. This can be used in any subject, but for me, a specialist teacher without a home classroom,  I wanted something I could use with teachers. 

The prototype was this robot I found on Pixabay. But like I said, for teachers, I wanted to do something that challenged them to get all the answers without guessing what the picture was.

Today I tried making a puzzle that revealed a QR code and it worked.  

The QR code opens up more possibilities for what I can do with this. 

If you are interested in making this for yourself, I wrote out the directions here. 

The Skills to Create

I was asked recently, "did you do any interesting tech projects over the summer?" 

My initial thought was a resounding, "NO!" But then I thought about it another half second and answered, "Actually, I figured out how to make a puzzle in Google Sheets where every time you answer a question it reveals a part of the picture."

I was thinking of that tonight and was wondering what it would take for a student to do that same thing.

My story is that I found something similar on Instagram. It was linked to a paid site. I wanted the template but didn't want to pay for it, so I thought, "I've been learning a little Google Sheets. I will try to make it myself."

My prototype

How did I do it?

1. I found the post with the template. 

2. I thought I could figure out how to do it myself.

3. I knew it had to use the "IF" function. 

4. I knew how to search for the information I wanted. 

5. Since I couldn't find the exact information I wanted, I had to know enough to make connections to fill in the gaps.

6. Tried and tried until I got it.

What skills and attitudes did I need?

1. Found inspiration

2. Had the confidence I could do it myself.

3. Had prior knowledge

4. Had search skills

5. Application

6. Grit

So if a student were to do the same task they would need to ...

1. Find the inspiration (be curious)

2. Have confidence in their own ability

3. Have prior knowledge

4. Have basic research skills

5. Be able to apply information

6. Have grit

I suppose finding inspiration was also curiosity since I did follow that account.

It is also interesting to see what kinds of PYP ATL skills they need.

1. Gathering & Recording

2. Evaluation

3. 

4. Consuming & Processing

5. Application

6. Resilience

I don't know - I don't really have a good one for #3. But this was an interesting thought exercise. I wonder what it would be like to ask students to do this for an activity. 

1. Write the steps you did.

2. Write the ATL for each step.

Grab the template to the puzzle here.

Audiblogs Went Paid!

I don't blame Audiblogs for going to a pay model. I am just disappointed.

Audiblogs is an extension that will convert web pages to audio. The kicker is that it can then send those audio files as a podcast. I tested it out in the beginning of the summer and enjoyed being able to listen to articles (and PDF documents) instead of sit in front of my screen to read them.

Well, I tried it out today and was met with a paywall. 

I get it. We all need to eat. I am just disappointed (there's that word again) the developers didn't consider a few free articles a month.

I was just about to recommend it to teachers at my school.

Well, a short Google search after that brought me to a bunch of alternatives - many of sites have a feature to download the mp3 file. 

I tried out naturalreaders.com and it seems like a good alternative, but downloading the files costs a fee.