Information

Upcoming Google Changes

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The web is an ever-changing landscape. Here are some upcoming changes in Google Applications:

Calendar Event Creators

You will soon be able to tell who booked a room on the Room Resource. In Find a Time, simply hover over the event and you will see who Created (thus booked the room) the event. This can be extremely useful when you need to see if someone can “swap” a room with you.

Available: Now

Priority page in Drive

You can access the Priority page from the left-hand navigation panel in Drive. Some features you’ll see on the Priority page include:

  • Priority:
    • Here you’ll see the documents we think are most relevant to you right now. These machine-learning-powered suggestions are based on various signals from your activity. On each suggested document, you can also take actions in line, without navigating to the doc in question, like replying to a comment or reviewing recent edits.
  • Workspaces:
    • In Workspaces, you’ll be able to see intelligent suggestions of related content to group together for easier access— like multiple files related to the same project.
    • You can also create your own personalized Workspaces collecting any files you have access to, including content stored in your My Drive and various Team Drives.
      • Right-click on any file and select Add to Workspace to dynamically group files as you work.

Availability: Rolling out throughout April

Tasks – Start Times, Repeating Tasks & Import Reminders

Google is adding three highly-requested features to Tasks. You can now:

  • Set a date and time for your tasks and receive notifications
  • Create repeating tasks
  • Import reminders into Tasks

Availability: Now

Images in Google Sheets

Google has made it simpler to add images inside of cells in Google Sheets.

On Desktop:

  • Via the menu bar at the top of a Sheet: Insert > Image > Image in cell

On Mobile:

  • Tap once on a cell to select
  • Tap again to bring up menu: Insert > Tap the “+” at the top of the screen > Image > Image in cell 
You can have multiple cells containing an image in a Sheet, but note that only one image per cell is possible at the moment.
Images inside cells will be associated with a row and move along with the data—so, if you move rows, filter or sort them, the images will move with the content in the row, unlike previously when images would sit on top of the grid.
Using the formatting and alignment tools, you can pin the image to a specific corner of the cell or set the alignment how you’d like. By default, images will align to the bottom left corner of the cell.

Availability: Rolling by April 15th

Chrome Extensions

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Chrome extensions can be wonderful. These can add great functionality to the Chrome browser. Unfortunately, Chrome extensions can also be used by those with ill intent. Recently, we have seen a rash of employees having trouble with their browsers due to installing a Chrome extension. Many of these users didn’t even realize that they installed the extensions. For instance, I received this email just the other day:

FYI

When I posted my blog today, three advertisement links popped up😱
The teacher who sent this had installed several extensions that “helpfully” added advertisements. (This was not helpful at all.)
I also received this one:
For some reason my browser has been acting up and will not let me go to google images.  Can I please get this fixed?  It says “web page blocked” when I try to open a new tab in chrome.
This employee had installed several extensions as well. One of those extensions redirected his searches to a site that purely provides advertisements.
Currently, we don’t restrict employees from the extensions that they can add. Students are restricted. Extensions must be approved by the district before a student can install an extension.

Installed extensions (Ads)

Here is a list of some extensions that employees have installed:

  • Ad Offers by GameDaddio
  • Ad Offers by GamesChill
  • Ad Offers by MapsScout
  • Advertising by Entrality
  • Advertising Offers by PlayZiz
  • ArcadeFiesta Advertising
  • ArcadeFrontier Ads
  • ArcadeStar Advertising
  • Ball Pin Pal Ad
  • Battle Terrain Advertising
  • BoredPlay Advertising
  • BrainyZanyGames ads

You can see a general trend here (and we didn’t even make it out of the B’s).

Why is this a problem?

Ad sites frequently send the user to a different place. As you can see from the emails above, this can lead to frustration. This is also a potential security risk. As the bad actors get more sophisticated, the potential for harm increases.

Approved Extensions – Students

Currently, extensions must be approved prior to students installing them. We publish a list of the approved extensions for students on the Technology Blog.

Checking for Extensions:

You can easily check to see which extensions you have installed.

  • Click on the three buttons in the top right-hand corner of the Chrome browser (to the right of your picture/avatar)
  • Select “More tools…”
  • Select “Extensions” from the pop out

Click pattern to open extensions

This will open a new page. This page will list all of the extensions that you have installed. The page of extensions will also allow you to remove any extensions that you don’t want (unless the extension is District installed).  The example below is an example of 1Password as an extension (note the “Remove” button).

1Password extension

*1Password is a “paid for” extension that I purchased. 

District Installed Extensions

The District can “force” install extensions. The only one that we are currently installing is Clever.

District Approved Extensions

In addition to the Student Approved Extensions, we are currently comfortable with the following:

  • Google Cast for Education – allows teachers to have students screen share to a projector (via desktop)
  • WAVE – review ADA compliance of a website
  • Hypothes.is – annotation for the web

We will be reviewing Extensions over the next few months.

Apps vs Extensions

Just to confuse things more, individuals can also install Chrome Apps. Although these will appear similar, extensions enhance the Chrome browser. Apps run within the browser. For your purposes, you can consider them the same.

Changes this Summer

Starting this summer, all extensions will need to be whitelisted in order to be installed. This will include staff as well as students. Starting this summer, any Chrome extension (or App) not approved will be removed. Currently, we are reviewing the extensions and Apps installed by all users.

Action for YOU to Take

  • Review the extensions that you have installed.
  • Remove extensions that you don’t need or want.

Congratulations to Nancy V. Hmayed

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Nancy V. Hmayed is a Media Specialist here in Dearborn Public Schools. She does terrific work helping our students learn to read, learn to love reading, learn to research and so much more! Ms. Hmayed has just been appointed to represent librarians from schools on the Library of Michigan Board of Trustees. She will apply her specialized skill and knowledge to help students throughout the entire state (while still sharing that knowledge with our students).

Mission of The Library

The Michigan Legislature created The Library of Michigan to guarantee the people of this State and their government one perpetual institution to collect and preserve Michigan publications, conduct reference and research and support libraries statewide.

Please congratulate Ms. Hmayed on this valuable and influential role. She is a shining example of the great work and valuable role that our Media Specialists provide here in Dearborn.

Clever Log in issue

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We wanted to let you know that Clever logins into Chromebooks on Chrome OS 72 are not working properly in some cases. We apologize for any disruption this has caused.

We’re seeing login errors when students/teachers attempt to log into Chromebooks with Clever using their Google credentials. Users logging in with Badges, or logging in with Google credentials outside the Clever Chromebook login process are not impacted. We’ve been hard at work investigating that issue, including working with Google on a resolution.

In the meantime, we wanted to reach out with information on how you and your users can avoid running into that issue.

  • We recommend that you update to Chrome OS 72
  • Students logging into Chromebooks with Badges do not need to change their behavior
  • Students/teachers logging into Chromebooks with Google credentials should choose “Sign in with a different account” rather than “Next” on the first screen, then proceed to log in with their Google credentials

An article outlining the Clever recommended login flow is available here.

Thank you,

Katie Ginsburg

District Success

Google Document Sharing

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Google has updated Contacts. In Contacts, the “groups” that individuals create are now “labels”. Unfortunately, a side effect of this change is that you can NOT pick that “group” to share documents with. That group IS still available within Gmail.

I have a ticket open with Google (as do a few others) seeking resolution.

New District Web Site

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Dearborn Public Schools web site is currently undergoing a refresh. It’s time to spruce things up, add a new coat of paint and reorganize things a bit.

Now we need your feedback. Please take a look at our new site while it is still under development. Next, provide feedback on your experience (there’s a big button on the front page).

Website Feedback Button

Quiz Default Review Options in iLearn

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Due to feedback from teachers, we have made some adjustments to the default settings on Quizzes in iLearn.

 

Checklist of default settings for iLearn Quizzes.

We know that timely feedback is one of the most powerful instructional strategies. Moodle allows for teachers to provide timely, specific feedback. Providing that feedback while students are working through quiz can assist students in learning. However, also have listened carefully to how teachers are currently using Quizzes and what they expect. It is through working with teachers that we have made the changes to the defaults. Please remember that these are the defaults. These can be changed and adjusted by the needs and use of the teacher. If your situation calls for providing instant feedback (i.e. if you are using a Quiz for students to review/practice), you can easily turn on the Specific feedback.

Teachers have the option to enter Specific feedback, General feedback and Overall feedback. These are great opportunities to communicate with students in an efficient manner.

Feedback Times:

iLearn allows for that feedback to happen at four different times for a quiz:

  1. During the attempt – is only available when ‘ How questions behave ’ has been set to ‘ Immediate feedback ’, ‘ Immediate feedback with CBM ’ or ‘ Interactive with multiple tries ’. If set to one of these options then a ‘ Check ’ button will appear below the answer and when clicked the student will submit that response and then receive immediate feedback.
  2. Immediately after the attempt – means within 2 minutes of the student clicking “submit all and finish”.
  3. Later, while the quiz is still open – means after 2 minutes, but before the close date (if the quiz does not have a close date, this phase never ends).
  4. After the quiz is closed – means what it says (you never get here for quizzes without a close date).

Feedback Type

Additionally, iLearn allows for the following information to be conveyed:

  • The attempt – Will show how the student responded to each question.
  • Whether correct – Displays whether the students response to each question is correct or incorrect*.
  • Points – The numerical points for each question and the overall attempt score.
  • Specific feedback – Will show the feedback for the response to the answer as set when adding the question to the quiz. Each response to a question can have feedback for both correct and incorrect answers. This is entered by the teacher in the appropriate section of each question. (*noted as one of the most powerful instructional strategies). 
  • General feedback – Displays the general feedback for the whole question as set when adding the question to the quiz. You can use the general feedback to give students some background to what knowledge the question was testing.
  • Right answer – Reveals the correct answer to each question, whether the student answered correctly or not
  • Overall feedback – Displays feedback for the entire quiz as set in the quiz settings

The new defaults will just show the student their answer while they are attempting the quiz. After they have attempted the quiz, it will students will see points and overall feedback, but nothing specific. After the Quiz is closed, students would receive feedback on why their answers are correct or not (if entered by the teacher).

Support

Please know that the Tech Coaches are available to assist you in utilizing iLearn for student achievement. You can reach out to them on their blog.

 

*Note: Currently, the Answers display is a bit inconsistent between different question types. For example, the matching question type shows students which of their responses are correct, but does not tell them the right answer for the ones they got wrong. The short answer and multiple choices question types do tell the student what the correct answer is.

A Few Thoughts About Online Security

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Troy Hunt (no relation, but a really great first name) has a post explaining “Collection #1” on his blog. Rarely do people read about online security because it can be complex and confusing. However, online security is crucial. In the case of identity theft, it general takes between 100 to 200 hours and six months to fix. While it isn’t fun to protect your identity, it sure beats the frustration involved in spending hundreds of hours to fix.

Troy’s information is powerful and useful. I suggest that you take a few minutes to read the post.

What follows is some basic information and advice.

Collection #1

Collection #1 is a database of almost 773 million unique email addresses (there are actually 2,692,818,238 rows of data – some are duplicates). This means that almost assuredly your email and password combination (at least one the you’ve used somewhere) are known by hackers.

Action

How do you know for sure if your email has been leaked? Head over to Have I Been Pwned. Enter your email address. Click on the “pwned?” button. I’ll share that a couple of my email addresses are available to hackers/spammers (some on sites that I’ve completely forgotten about/not sure I ever went there) and some aren’t.  The results also include what was leaked. In some cases, the leaked information is demographic information; in other cases, user names and passwords were leaked. See the results below:

Email Address #1

Email Address #2

Credential Stuffing

So, how do hackers and spammers use this information? One way is credential stuffing. Essentially, they take the user names and passwords that have been leaked and try those on other sites. Since many people reuse passwords and email addresses, it is very likely that one combination will work in many places. Importantly, this doesn’t mean that you specifically were targeted, just that you were on the list. (Many people think that they are “safe” because they aren’t well known, aren’t especially “rich”, aren’t on a lot of sites, etc. Credential stuffing isn’t personal at all- to hackers. It become very personal for you if it works and you have to deal with the cleanup).

Next Steps

This is where I recommend to never reuse passphrases. In order to realistically do that, a Password Manager is a must. I’ve written about these before. Free options exist but are limited to a small number of devices. This is one of those things that I’m willing to pay for. (And I have. I purchased a family account of 1Password many, many years ago. 1Password has teamed up with Have I Been Pwned, but this isn’t a sales pitch for them. There are several good password managers available).

Most importantly, do not reuse the same password (passphrase) over and over.

Turn on 2 Step Authentication wherever possible. Although certainly not a cure-all, 2 Step Authentication can be a powerful assist in keeping you safe.

 

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