Don't Fall for Phishing

Hackers and cyber criminals are trying to bait you.  They want to fool you, hook you, and then reel in your private information.  This is phishing - an increasingly common attack that attempts to gain someone's private information and/or credentials through realistic, but ultimately fake, emails.

How bad is phishing?  According to a 2017 report by PhishMe, Inc, the average cost of a phishing attack on a mid-sized company is $1.6 million.  That same report also found phishing attacks had grown by 65% in a year.  The 2019 State of the Phish Report by Wombat found that 76% of businesses were the victims of phishing attacks in the previous year.  Schools are also popular targets.  Just recently, hackers stole personal information of over 500,000 staff and students in a San Diego school district through a phishing attack.  The first line of defense to prevent these attacks is the user.

People must have training to identify phishing attempts and disregard them.  Jigsaw, a special part of Google that researches and develops solutions to technology issues, released a quiz on phishing to help people spot these potential attacks.  I got seven out of the eight scenarios correct.  I'm still kicking myself about the one I missed, which I thought was a phishing attempt, but it turned out to be safe.  Take the quiz here and see how many of the phishing attempts you can identify.

One final resource that can help both teachers and students become safer and more savvy online is Google's Digital Citizenship and Safety course.  This self-paced, online course trains teachers on incorporating digital citizenship and safety lessons in their classrooms, but it also provides many helpful tips on digital security that are relevant outside of the classroom.

Hopefully, these resources can help you to not take the bait.

   

5 Steps to Optimize Your Email

According to research done by the Radicati Group, an estimated 11.2 billion emails were sent every hour of every day across the world in 2017.  The research also found that an average office worker received 121 emails and sent 40 emails per day.  Email was the preferred method of communication for 86% of professionals.  In light of this digital deluge, the efficient management of emails is an important way to bring clarity and calm to your work life.  Here are five steps you can take to tame the wild world of email.  I will be focusing on Gmail, but these steps can apply to any email service.

1.  Purge

If you were to take only one of these steps, this is by and far the most transformative.  Simply put, delete all the emails you truly don’t need.  Decluttering your inbox (or anything else for that matter, such as a room or a car) will make it much easier to find things, and it will make the things you still have easier to manage.  In Gmail, check the box next to the emails you want to delete.  Once you have all those selected, click the trash can icon near the top of the page to delete them.  The deleted emails will still be in your Gmail trash, and you can go there to permanently delete them.

2.  Unsubscribe

Over the years, you have probably signed up to get emails for a variety of sources.  You may also be getting emails from places where you didn’t sign up.  Spam filters are usually good at detecting and removing spam emails, but many unwanted or useless emails still get to your inbox.  There is a quick and easy way to reduce the number of emails you get by unsubscribing from them.  At the bottom of an email is usually a link that you can click to unsubscribe or update your email preferences for that sender.  Just click on that link and unsubscribe.  Here is what those links may look like:

3.  Organize

The first two steps will greatly reduce the number of emails you have in your inbox, which will make this step of organization much easier.  In this step, you will create labels for you Gmail.  These are essentially folders that you can drag and drop emails into to categorize and organize them.  This will help you manage all your emails and make it easier to find them since they’ll be in categories.  On the left side of Gmail, you will see “Inbox”.  Scroll down that left side until you see “More” with a down arrow next to it.  Click on “More”, scroll down, and then click on “Create new label”.  Now, you can name the label something like “Lesson Plans” or “Parents” or “Administration”.  Once you have created all the labels you want, you can drag and drop your emails into these labels.

4.  Use Email Groups

In a school or business, there are always certain groups of people we email on a regular basis.  Typing in each recipient in the To field (and even remembering all the people you want to include) can be tedious and time-consuming.  Having a ready-made email group makes the sending and organizing of emails faster and easier.  Email groups can be handy for teachers as they can create groups for parents, committees, courses, extracurricular activities, etc.  Below are screenshots and instructions on how to do this yourself in Gmail.

First, click the down arrow next to “Mail”, and then click on “Contacts”.

Next, click on “New Group...”, and then name the group.

Now, you can add people to the group.  Click the button with the plus sign, and then type in the email addresses of the people you want in the group.  When you’ve included all of them, click “Add”.

On the Contacts page, you can select a group to email.  Or you can return to the Mail page (click the arrow next to Contacts), compose a new email, and type the name of the group in the To field.

5.  Undo Send

We have all experienced that sinking feeling in the moment after sending an email you wish you didn’t send.  Gmail has a way of making that wish come true.  There is an undo send feature in Gmail that gives you the ability to stop an email from being sent even if you already hit the send button.  When you’re in Gmail, click the gear icon on the right side of the screen.  Then, click “Settings”.  Click the box next to “Enable Undo Send”, and then select the amount of time you want to give yourself to undo a sent email:  5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds.  Once you have undo send enabled, a narrow window will appear at the top of your Gmail inbox with the option of undoing the sent email and showing you how much time you have left to do it.

Hopefully, these steps will help you live a more manageable, organized, and efficient email life.

Tour of the New Google Sites

The students who are now in our classrooms are digital citizens through and through, having grown up with computers and the Internet at their fingertips.  Teachers are asking them to become more than digital consumers.  Students are now being given the opportunity to become digital creators, which activate and strengthen many important skills.  One tool that teachers can use to not only improve classroom communication, but to also allow students to be digital creators is the new Google Sites.

The new Google Sites is a vast improvement over what is now called Classic Google Sites.  The new Google Sites offers trendy modern aesthetics, increased ease of use, and adaptability to PCs and mobile devices.  It provides many other cool features that you can explore once you get into it.  Since many schools use G Suite for Education, the new Google Sites is a perfect tool to integrate into a classroom as it works seamlessly with all the other G Suite apps.  Teachers can use it to give their students, families, and coworkers a look inside their classrooms.  Students can use it for a variety of projects for different subjects.  I’m going to give you a tour of the new Google sites below.

You get to Google Sites in Google Drive, and all the Sites you create will be in your Drive.  Just right-click in Drive, and you’ll see the following menu.

At the top of Google Sites, you’ll see a place to name your site as well as buttons for undo, redo, preview, link, share, options, and publish.

You can also add a logo that will appear as a small image in the upper left corner of your Site.  You even have the option of using the color from the logo as a color theme for your Site.

You have three options for the size of the banner:  large banner, banner, and title only.  The “title only” is the smallest of the banner, making the content of your website appear farther to the top of the page.

You can change the background image of the banner to one of your own images, or you can choose one from Google’s gallery of images.

Double-click anywhere in the blank area of your site to make the insert menu appear, where you can insert a text box, image, or file from Drive.  You can also use the menu on the right side of the screen to get insert options.  If you want to add a footer to your website, you can do that from the insert menu as well.

The menu of insert options on the right side of the screen provides more features, such as inserting a divider, YouTube video, Google Calendar, Google Map, or something from Google Drive.  You can also easily move these items around your page and resize them to fit your layout.

The Pages tab is where you’ll go to create, name, and organize pages and subpages on your Site.

You can style your Site with any of the available themes under the Themes tab.  If you know the hex color code for a particular color, you can configure that too.

Click the gear near the top of the page to choose between top navigation or side navigation.  You can click the eye icon near the top of the page to preview your Site and how it would look on a PC, tablet, and smartphone.

Finally, you can publish your Site by clicking the Publish button at the top of the page.  Here, you’ll get access to publishing settings and the ability to unpublish it if you want to take it offline.

For more information about using Google Sites, check out this video tutorial.

Google Sites gives teachers and students many exciting opportunities to become digital creators and integrate multi-faceted learning opportunities into classrooms.

Developing Digital Citizens

Although the Internet as we know it has been around for over 25 years, it will always be a brave, new world to the latest generation of children.  The younger generations are labeled as “digital natives”, having grown up with computers and the World Wide Web at their fingertips.  Yet, we must not assume they are native digital citizens.  The digital world has its own rules, expectations, and customs that can only be acquired and mastered through the guidance of those who know how the digital world works.  That’s us – teachers, guidance counselors, parents.  We must welcome these new, young citizens to our digital land, and help them to safely and successfully navigate its strange terrain.

Since this week is Digital Citizenship Week (October 16-20), it is the perfect time to begin the journey to help students become respectful and responsible digital citizens.  We do not have to go this journey alone as there are excellent resources to help us teach digital citizenship.  Since many K-12 schools already use G Suite for Education, I will focus on Google’s Digital Citizenship resources since they are easy to use and integrate.

Google wants students to Be Internet Awesome.

The core principles that shape the lessons and activities of the Be Internet Awesome program are:

Be Internet Smart – Share with Care

Good (and bad) news travels fast online, and without some forethought, kids can find themselves in tricky situations that have lasting consequences. The solve? Learning how to share with those they know and those they don’t.

Be Internet Alert – Don’t Fall for Fake

It’s important to help kids become aware that people and situations online aren’t always as they seem. Discerning between what’s real and what’s fake is a very real lesson in online safety.

Be Internet Strong – Secure Your Secrets

Personal privacy and security are just as important online as they are offline. Safeguarding valuable information helps kids avoid damaging their devices, reputations, and relationships.

Be Internet Kind – It’s Cool to be Kind

The Internet is a powerful amplifier that can be used to spread positivity or negativity. Kids can take the high road by applying the concept of “treat others as you would like to be treated” to their actions online, creating positive impact for others and disempowering bullying behavior.

Be Internet Brave – When in Doubt, Talk It Out

One lesson that applies to any and all encounters of the digital kind: When kids come across something questionable, they should feel comfortable talking to a trusted adult. Adults can support this behavior by fostering open communication at home and in the classroom.

The Be Internet Awesome program offers a free, ISTE-aligned curriculum with well-designed and detailed lessons and activities.  There is also a very fun and engaging game that reinforces the lessons.

Here are some other great resources for Be Internet Awesome:

Classroom Poster

Student Pledge

Paper Cut, Fold, and Glue Activity

Finally, Google offers a free Digital Citizenship and Safety Course for teachers to help them better educate their students on staying safe and secure online.  This course takes approximately 75 minutes to complete.

The Internet is a brave, new world for our children.  It is paramount that we take the time to teach them how to respectfully, responsibly, and safely explore this world that is becoming a bigger part of our lives each day.  The Internet is a community like any other, and the better citizens we can be in our community the better we all will be for it.

Finding Images Right Within Google Docs and Slides

A few months ago, I wrote about effective ways to use Google Image Search to not only find the perfect picture for your needs, but to also get pictures that are free and legal to use and/or modify.  This is important for students because it allows them to be good digital citizens and avoid plagiarism.  There is a way to do this within Google Docs and Slides, which makes the whole process of finding and inserting images much faster and smoother.

When you are using Google Docs or Slides, click on “Insert”, and then click on “Image”.

A new window will appear, and you should click on “Search” to begin looking for images.  You are given three choices of databases to search:  Google, Life, and stock images.

Depending on your needs, you can conduct the same search in one or all three of these databases to find exactly what you want.  The images that do appear in your search will automatically be ones that are free and legal to use because of the built-in filter with the search.  If you are using a G Suite for Education account, then all of the images will be filtered with Google’s Safe Search as well.

Using this embedded image search tool within Google Docs and Slides will help keep students on task as they don’t have to leave the file they are working on to search for and get images elsewhere.  It will help them find appropriate and free pictures to use.  Finally, it will streamline the whole process to get the work done more efficiently.

Google Chrome Tips and Tricks

Google provides many time-saving and effective services and apps to help us get our work done faster and better.  Its browser, Chrome, is one of those tools.  Here are five neat things you can do in Chrome to make a teacher's or student's life a little easier.

1.  Set Specific Websites to Open at Startup

If there are particular websites that you always use or want right away when you open Chrome, you can make them load automatically at startup.  Click the traffic light menu button (three vertical dots) on the upper right side of Chrome.  Click Settings.  Then, configure how Chrome starts up.  Click the blue "Set pages" to choose the websites you want.

2.  Do Math

Chrome can solve simple and complex math problems, equations, and measurement conversions.  Just type in what you want solved into the ominbox (the white box where you enter website addresses), and hit enter.  You can also click on the microphone icon in the Google Search bar to do this by voice.  Here's an example:

3.  Save Webpages as a PDF

If you want to save a webpage as a PDF so you can save it electronically to your computer or flash drive, Chrome can do that.  Click Print, and then click Change under Destination.  Finally, choose Save as PDF.  This will save a PDF copy to your computer.  Now, you can keep the webpage for offline viewing, print it, or share it with others.

4.  Zoom and Full Screen

There are two ways you can quickly and easily zoom in and out of any website.  First, press the Ctrl key and the plus (zoom in) or minus (zoom out) sign key at the same time.  Second, click the traffic light menu button (three vertical dots) on the upper right side of Chrome.  You'll see the following options for zoom in, zoom out, and full screen (the box):

5.  Open Recently Closed Tabs

Sometimes you may close a tab that you want to have back.  An easy way to do that is to press Ctrl, Shift, T at the same time, which will open the last tab you closed.  You can also right-click on a new tab to open the last closed tab.

These five tips and tricks will help you and your students be more efficient and productive while doing work with Google Chrome.

Safe Search Engines for Kids

Providing students with safety and accuracy whenever they search for something on the Internet is crucial.  In previous posts, I wrote about Internet safety and how to get better results from Google Search and Google Image Search.  Nevertheless, there are still malicious, inappropriate, and inaccurate search results from which students must be protected.  Below are three excellent search engines for younger students that offer safety, accuracy, and bonus educational information.

Kiddle combines Google Safe Search results as well as results that have been thoroughly reviewed and curated by Kiddle’s editors.  According to Kiddle, search results 1 through 3 are “[s]afe sites and pages written specifically for kids.  Handpicked and checked by Kiddle editors.”  Search results between 4 and 7 are “[s]afe, trusted sites that are not specifically written for kids, but have content written in a simple way, easy for kids to understand.  Handpicked and checked by Kiddle editors.”  Search results 8 and beyond are “[s]afe famous sites that are written for adults, providing expert content, but are harder for kids to understand.  Filtered by Google safe search.”  Kiddle uses picture thumbnails beside each search result and large Arial font to improve visual comprehension and readability.  Finally, Kiddle protects users’ privacy:  “[W]e don’t collect any personally identifiable information, and our logs are deleted every 24 hours.”

Safe Search Kids also utilizes Google Safe Search filters to provide students with appropriate search results for websites, images, and videos.  Additionally, Safe Search Kids’ homepage offers a plethora of information and articles on digital citizenship, cyberbullying, and many other related topics.  It is an effective one-stop-shop to educate students on Internet safety and responsibility.

Junior Safe Search uses a combination of Google Safe Search and its own unique filters to provide suitable content for students.  It also offers three interesting daily bits of information:  Word of the Day, Quote of the Day, and This Day in History.  Junior Safe Search could be a great start page for a browser that students use.

Along with teaching students effective search strategies, these search engines should help them find exactly what they’re looking for while avoiding anything inappropriate.

How to Create and Use Gmail Groups

In a school or business, there are always certain groups of people we email on a regular basis.  Typing in each recipient in the To field (and even remembering all the people you want to include) can be tedious and time-consuming.  Having a ready-made email group makes the sending and organizing of emails faster and easier.

I created email groups for each grade level in my school, so we could have organized and targeted conversations about technology.  I also created an email group for our Technology Committee to keep those messages together.  Email groups can be handy for teachers as they can create groups for parents, committees, courses, extracurricular activities, etc.  Below are screenshots and instructions on how to do this yourself in Gmail.

First, click the down arrow next to "Mail", and then click on "Contacts".

Next, click on "New Group...", and then name the group.

Now, you can add people to the group.  Click the button with the plus sign, and then type in the email addresses of the people you want in the group.  When you've included all of them, click "Add".

On the Contacts page, you can select a group to email.  Or you can return to the Mail page (click the arrow next to Contacts), compose a new email, and type the name of the group in the To field.

Hopefully, this makes all your emailing faster, easier, and more organized!

How to Use Google Image Search

Finding the right image can work wonders for a presentation, document, or website.  Using Google Search to find the right one can leave you with thousands to choose from, which can be overwhelming and time-consuming.  Just like with using Google Search to find websites or publications, there are filtering tools you can use to fine tune your search and quickly find the right image.

Click on Tools, and several filter drop-down menus appear.  The first lets you filter by the size or dimensions of an image.  You can even specify a particular size by clicking on "Exactly...".

The next one filters by color.  For example, I could filter by yellow if I wanted to find yellow foliage.  The transparent option is very handy because these images have no background, so you can seamlessly integrate it into anything you want.  Images with no background look slick when you add them to something.

The Type filter allows you to narrow your search by the following attributes in this screenshot:

The next filter gives you the ability to find images from a certain period of time.  You can even set a custom range if you know of an exact time-span from which you want images.

The next one might be the most important since it identifies if you can legally reuse and/or modify an image.  This filter is especially important to students who must maintain standards of digital citizenship and avoid plagiarism.  The first two filters apply to commercial use.  You can reuse without modifying the image, or you can reuse and modify the image.  The last two filters apply to noncommercial use.

Now, you can find the right image without worrying about being sued!

Sharing is Caring with the Google Classroom Extension

Almost any teacher understands the struggle of trying to get all the students in a class onto a specific website or other Internet resource at the same time.  Students may type the website address incorrectly.  They may accidentally close it and don't know how to get back to it.  They may just not even go to it in the first place.  We have high speed Internet now, but trying to share Internet content with students in the classroom in real time can take a long time.  Alas, there is a better way!

Meet the Share to Google Classroom Chrome Extension.  With this extension, you can push (send) something on the Internet to each of your students' screens instantly.  If you want them to see a specific website or video on the Internet, then simply use this extension to push it to their screen.  No hassle, no struggle, no time wasted.  Here's what it looks like:

Once the extension is installed in Chrome, click on its icon (looks like Google Classroom logo).  The above will appear, and you can push whatever website you're currently on to your students.  That website will open in a new window on their computers.  There are also other options available under the extension you can explore.  Students should have this extension installed on their computers as well.  Students can also push Internet content to the teacher too.

Here's how to install it in Chrome:
1.  Open Chrome and click this link.
2.  Click the blue "Add to Chrome" button in the upper right.
3.  The extension will install, and you'll be good to go!

Now, you can instantly share anything on the Internet with your students in real time without any hassle because, as we all know, sharing is caring!

Put It in (Google) Drive

This Tech Tip is about saving what you find on the Internet to your Google Drive. First, for those that would like tutorials about using Google Drive, please click here.

Bookmarking websites and other web content is a great way to keep and organize helpful information.  Yet, what do you do when you come across documents, PDFs, images, spreadsheets, or slideshows that you want to keep and possibly modify for your own use?  You can often find these files on the Internet, and here is an easy way that you can store them in your Google Drive, so you can always have them at your fingertips.

Meet the Save to Google Drive Chrome Extension.  With this extension installed, you can save documents, images, and videos to your Google Drive with just a couple clicks.  Then, when you go to your Google Drive, what you saved will be right there.  For example, if you find a PDF on a website that you want to keep, you can right-click on the file, and an option to “Save to Google Drive” will appear.  Click on that, and that PDF will now be in your Google Drive.  Right-clicking on what you want to save is probably the easiest way to use this extension.  Here’s how to install it in Chrome:

1. Open Chrome and click this link.
2. Click the blue "Add to Chrome" button in the upper right.
3. The extension will install, and you'll be good to go!

Now, you can kick your online saving into overdrive with Save to Google Drive!