FTT - Zoom and Meet Security

 

  Video Conference Security 
@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

You don't have to watch episodes of Black Mirror to tell you that there are some aspects of our coexistence with technology that can be panic-inducing to say the least. Cyber attacks and general virtual crimes have been increasing, and grow more elaborate and esoteric as the years go on. So at the very least, let's take a look at what we can control: Video Conference Security.

Google Meet

"Quick Access" will be at the heart of your strategies to secure your Meet sessions. Turning this option off will give you more control over who joins your Meet and what they can do while they're in there.

• First turn off "Quick Access" after you enter your Meet by clicking on the blue shield icon on the bottom left hand corner of your screen.
  
  

• Unfortunately, you must do this every time you start your meet. There are no global settings to turn off Quick Access.
  

• Turning off Quick Access will cause your video chat participants to ask permission to join your class. Only invited participants can join and they cannot join anonymously.

• You can also disable participant Screen Sharing and Chat Capabilities by clicking on the same blue shield icon.

                                                    

• You can also remove participants from the meeting by going through the participants view on the top right corner.

Zoom

• By default, only authenticated email domains may join your Zoom session at any given time
  

• To temporarily grant access to outside domains, you can go to your “Meeting Options” and change the “Only Authenticated Users can Join” option from “District 113 Accounts Only” to “Sign in to Zoom”
  
  
  
• Participant controls can all be done by right-clicking on their picture on Zoom. (You can also click on the 3 white dots in the blue square on the top right corner as well)
  
• Here you can quickly mute their audio and video, rename, remove, or put back into the waiting room. Once a participant is removed, they cannot rejoin your Zoom meeting. You’ll have to start a fresh session if you’d like them to rejoin.
• While we have disabled participant name changing, there are loopholes to this that we cannot block. Therefore the best way to verify your students is to ask them to share their screen and/or speak. A common warning sign is if a participant refuses to turn their camera on and is on audio mute. Have any other tips or strategies you use for securing your video conferences? Let us know below

FTT - The SAMR Model in a Remote Setting

Dr. Ruben Puentedura

                    The SAMR Model in 

Remote @LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

One of the more difficult things to accomplish in the EdTech world is to scale teaching innovations. If you've got one teacher doing some incredible things in their classroom, how do we then replicate their success and scale their innovation to the rest of the department, or school, or district? 

If there's been any good to come out of this pandemic and remote learning, we should acknowledge that the last 8 months have created the ultimate incentive to branch out and explore EdTech tools at an unprecedented rate. While perhaps not the most organic transition to this level of professional development, it's hard to argue with the results. We've all been pushed head-first into the pool of EdTech and now it might we worth revisiting the SAMR model!

What is the SAMR model?

"You don't know what you don't know." Integrating your curriculum with new pedagogical strategies is hard. Where do you start? How do I know if it'll work in my classroom? Do I have time to experiment with everything? The SAMR model allows us to superimpose the myriad ways to integrate technology into our classrooms with a very simple, scaled framework. We all know that just because it's digital, doesn't mean it's automatically better for our classroom and our students. So the SAMR model is a lens with which we can identify different instructional tech strategies as it relates to four categories:

The SAMR model essentially categorizes all tech-integrations into 4 categories. Substitution and Augmentation are considered to be enhancements to your curriculum, while Modification and Redefinition can be transformative. The goal is NOT to reconstruct every lesson and interaction into the Redefinition category. Sometimes a "simple" substitution is the correct choice. Regardless, the SAMR model gives us a lens to which we can gauge different strategies and tools as it relates to our remote curriculums. It can also be a valuable assessment tool. What are the majority of your classroom strategies like? Make sure you think about the added value of any tech-tool relative to your students' needs before you spend your precious time and energy towards it. 

Need more inspiration?

Check out some sample lesson plans/tools that fit specifical subjects and courses on Chesterfield County Public School's awesome SAMR site.

Have you found any other models like SAMR to be helpful in your unending quest for pedagogical excellence? Let us know below.