FTT - The Perfect Password

The Making Of The Perfect Password *

@LisaBerghoff/@Joe_EdTech

With the expansion of technology in every aspect of our lives, from shopping to banking, to photo sharing, it becomes more and more important to stay on top of your security game. One of the most basic things we can do to protect our digital data is to create strong passwords. 

We all know this but how many of us actually do it? 

There are a number of valid excuses including:

• I can't remember a different password for everything I do online.
• It's too hard to keep track of the requirements for different sites.
• It is so time consuming to change my password all the time.
• I don't think anyone would actually want to hack my information.
• My passwords are strong enough.

As 2017 comes to a close, this is a wonderful opportunity to do some password housekeeping. 

Take a look at your existing passwords. Do you use the same password for many sites? Are your passwords predictable? Are they actual words?  These are important things to think about so you can protect your digital information. 

Let's first take a look at what constitutes a strong password. 

Strong passwords are made up of Upper and Lowercase Letters, Numbers, Special Characters, Nonsense Words, and are Lengthy. 

How are we supposed to keep track of all of that?  You can create your own algorithm, or set of rules, to create strong passwords that you will always remember and NOT need to write down. (please don't write down your passwords).

Here's how it works.

1. Start with a base word. Choose any word that you like. For example, I'm going to use the word MOIST because so many people hate that word!

2. Turn your base word into a nonsense word. I will turn moist into molisat because it has my name in the middle.

3. The site that I am logging into requires at least  8 characters in the password so I'm going to put the number 7 in front of it. I will always use one digit below the requirement. My password at this point is 7molisat.

4. Now I need to add special characters. The site that I'm logging into is a .com site. I will use $ for all .com sites. Also, it's a work related site. I'm going to add @ for everything dealing with work. I'm also going to add _ in between the characters. 

5. My final password is now 7molisat$_@

How do I know if this is a strong password? I can put it in How Secure Is My Password to test it. The site will tell you how long it will take a computer to hack your password. According to the site, it would take a computer 5 years to crack this password. I think  I can do better. By adding another 7 at the end, it now says it would take 200 years! I checked the password that I use for my online banking and it said it would take a trillion years to hack. Yes, I'm bragging because I felt pretty good about that. 

You can create an algorithm that works for you. The point is to create one and then stick to it. Make a game out of it. Once you have your algorithm down, you will never need to write down passwords. You will be able to easily create new passwords and you will know that they are strong.

If you are still struggling, you can also use tools to help you. There are lots of password generators/protectors that you can find in your app store. These apps live on your phone and can help you keep track of it all. Remember, your brain is the best app you've got and it's free!

Do you have any tricks or tips for creating strong passwords? Post them in the comments below.

*This post was inspired by a presentation given by Joe Du Fore at the #digcitchi program. 

FTT - Nearpod

Turn Any Presentation Into an Interactive Presentation with Nearpod

@Joe_EdTech/@LisaBerghoff

Originally posted for DHS in 2015 - Revised and updated for 2017!

When I was teaching full time, I would frequently use PowerPoint Slide Shows in class. The secret I never told my students is that the important things that happened in class, the real moments of cognitive engagement, had little or nothing to do with the PowerPoint Slides. Mostly I used the slides to keep myself on topic - and sometimes that worked.

In class, I really wanted the students to engage in the conversation with me. I didn't want them to just spew historical facts back at me, I wanted them to think about the situations that arose, try to understand why people acted the way they did, postulate what they might have done differently, and so on. But what I mostly saw when I used PowerPoint was a furious dash to write down every word that was printed on the slide as if it were Gospel. And why did they do that? Somewhere along the line they learned that what was important in class would be on the next exam, and everything that was on the next exam would be written on the board or included in the slide show (and yes, I'm sure that I was complicit in that at some point).

Nearpod is a Web 2.0 tool that offers us a chance to change the game a little. If you use Nearpod, and your students download the app to their Chromebooks, you can push presentations to them so that each slide appears on the screen of their device. If they are of the type that wants to write down every word, they can actually just take screenshots and go back to engaging in the discussion in class. Not only that, though, Nearpod gives you a chance to insert polls, quizzes, and other interactive slides into your presentations. With all of the power of a student response system, you can embed formative assessment into your classroom presentations and ensure some level of universal participation. You can even have students create drawings or graphs using their track pads, and share individual drawings to the entire class.

At the risk of being accused of burying the lead, though, Nearpod also serves one other purpose for your 1:1 classroom. While I am still of the mindset that the best way to make sure that your students aren't distracted by the technology is to be engaging with your teaching, teachers who are new to the 1:1 environment often cite classroom management/device management as one of their major concerns. If you use Nearpod for classroom presentations, you can easily see which students are actively engaged in your classroom activity. There is even an "attendance" button on the top left of the teacher screen that lets you see if any of your students have navigated away from your Nearpod presentation. So, while it doesn't lock your students into one screen, it gives you clear evidence of who is engaged in the lesson, and who is not.

Here is Nearpod's short explanation of how it all works:

On the upside, Nearpod continues to offer updates that make the product better and more efficient. With a free personal account, you can present PPT presentations or presentations saved to PDF. You can also share those presentations with other teachers. Additionally, the company recently rolled out a feature that allows students to see quiz and poll results whether they are seeing a teacher led classroom session or an asynchronous session. On the downside, they would really like for you to pay for a school or district license, which really means that storage is limited in the free version. But, this is a pretty decent tool to use in a 1:1 classroom no matter which device your students are using.

Click here to get a free Nearpod account.

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Have you used Nearpod with your class? Or do you have another classroom presentation / classroom management tool that you use? Tell us about it in the comments section below.