Bruce has worked in educational technology for thirty years, but his real love is history and teaching. This BLOG represents that. In addition to technology and history, Bruce is the author of several books, including Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One: Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story, The Insider's Story, How to Play Guitar, and How to Read the Bible.
They say parenting adolescents is mostly about retaining a tenuous balance between being aware of what your kid is up to and giving him or her a fair amount of privacy and independence. Since the Internet age is very much here, conducting a discreet form of surveillance on your kid's activities should be much easier.
However, as the Internet evolved to become increasingly complex and all-encompassing, so did its user's abilities to conceal a great deal of their activities online. Kids and teenagers have become particularly adept at getting around websites with restricted content while hiding the said activity from their parents in the process. So, with all the assorted toxic content floating around on the Internet just waiting for kids to seek them out or stumble upon them, how can a parent protect his or her children when they won't always be around (or when kids choose to hide their online activities)? The answer possibly lies in the installation of a good parental control software. One type of parental control software is known as keylogger. One of the benefits of such software is that it provides concerned parents is that it can be installed remotely and that it is generally undetectable once in place. The kid would know that such a software is in place, of course, but they would not know when it is functioning. (This then serves as an additional deterrent against visiting websites with inappropriate content or engaging in cyber bullying.)
Some of the other crucial benefits that a good keylogger can provide also include the following:
Keystroke logging. Some of the best keylogger software out there can even track your child's keystrokes and show you the sort of keywords or text that commonly pop up when your kid uses the Internet. If some of their keyword searches also turn out to be particularly suspicious, the program can track that too and give you a heads-up.
Screenshots. A lot of busy parents often don't have the time to check in with the program as much as they would like. Fortunately, they can set their parental control program of choice to take and keep screenshots of their child's online activity so that they can peruse them when they are ready.
Some keyloggers also automatically generate reports so that parents can get timely updates on their child's online activities even when they are away from home for long periods of time.
Recording of chat transcripts or emails. Perhaps the scariest thing about cyber bullying is that it often goes undetected until it's too late. This is because a great deal of the bullying occurs behind computer screens, where insults are lobbied behind the safety that distance and anonymous usernames provide. Parental control programs can help nip things in the bud since it picks up on suspicious chat transcripts or email exchanges and keeps a record of them. That way, it can be easier for a parent to notice any disturbing patterns of behavior being made towards their kids. Another advantage is that the records can also stand as proof in case the parent might need to take further action against the bully.
~~~~ Bruce holds a degree in Computer Science from Temple University, a Graduate Certificate in Biblical History from Liberty University and is working towards a Masters Degree in American History at American Public University. He has worked in educational and technology for over 18 years, specializes in building infrastructures for schools that work to support the mission of technology in education in the classroom. He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes. Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel -- with a new book, Learn the Basics: Digital Forensics, due soon. Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!
Education and Technology have always had a promising, if not tenuous relationship. Schools, administrators and teachers alike have struggled with how the two can come together in the most prodigious and productive ways possible. This has been going on for over thirty years... and while there have been some successes, and a large number of promising ideas that have come from it -- the large majority of schools and teachers struggle with the right formula that will consistently breed success. And in the end... the answer is that no such formula exists. Every teacher, every student and every school are different... and because of that, it is an ever changing and evolving area. But recently the ASCD posted a BLOG on 7 questions that every educator should ask themselves as the prepare for this upcoming school year. And these questions speak to how the educator approaches instruction whether it be with or without technology. I am reposting those questions here, and then linking to the article below so you can see how the ASCD has answered these questions. But I urge all administrators, teachers and educators in general to answer these questions for themselves before reading the article. 1. Learning -- Who owns the learning? 2. Learning Space -- Do our classrooms empower students to practice creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, communication and contribution? 3 . Partnerships - Does our school have a plan for communicating with families? 4. Assessment - Does our school have a plan for supporting formative assessment? 5. Reflection - How will each staff member create white space for reflection and growth? 6. College and Career Readiness - Would you hire your own students? 7. Image - What makes your school unique? In the end, the only way to affect change is to create the change... disrupt the norm. Progress in all areas comes from finding new ways to think and then new ways to do. If we want to improve continuously, we must question what we do, how we do it and -- why we do it continuously. Keep reading... and keep asking questions! Here is the original ASCD article.
~~~~ Bruce holds a degree in Computer Science from Temple University, a Graduate Certificate in Biblical History from Liberty University and is working towards a Masters Degree in American History at American Public University. He has worked in educational and technology for over 18 years, specializes in building infrastructures for schools that work to support the mission of technology in education in the classroom. He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes. Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel -- with a new book, Learn the Basics: Digital Forensics, due soon. Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!
Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place using electronic technology. Electronic technology includes devices and equipment such as cell phones, computers, and tablets as well as communication tools including social media sites, text messages, chat, and websites. Examples of cyberbullying include mean text messages or emails, rumors sent by email or posted on social networking sites, and embarrassing pictures, videos, websites, or fake profiles. Kids who are being cyberbullied are often bullied in person as well. Additionally, kids who are cyberbullied have a harder time getting away from the behavior. This makes cyberbullying a far different experience than how you or I may have been bullied as kids.
Cyberbullying can happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and reach a kid even when he or she is alone. It can happen any time of the day or night.
Cyberbullying messages and images can be posted anonymously and distributed quickly to a very wide audience. It can be difficult and sometimes impossible to trace the source.
Deleting inappropriate or harassing messages, texts, and pictures is extremely difficult after they have been posted or sent. What is on the Internet is often public and permanant for better or worse.
Cell phones and computers themselves are not to blame for cyberbullying. Social media sites can be used for positive activities, like connecting kids with friends and family, helping students with school, and for entertainment. But these tools can also be used to hurt other people. Whether done in person or through technology, the effects of bullying are similar.
That's where a product like Stop!T comes in! STOPit is a simple, fast and powerful cyberbullying solution. When implemented at a school or in a school district it can help report, track and effectively deter cyberbullying. Stop!T works via an app that is easily installed on any mobile device. The students get an "intellicode" that identifies them in their school that gets put into the app. Once the app is installed and identified with the school, the student then has the power to anonymously report bullying activity to the school administration via the app. Once reported, the DOCUMENTit system keeps track of the reported bullying case until it is closed by the school, keeping track of every step taken to rectify the situation.
Stop!T is currently on version 1.0 and rolling out a new improved version 2.0 this spring, but 1.0 has been wildly successful. Some schools report a drop in reported cyberbullying of up to 83% after Stop!T is implemented. Take a look for yourself to see if Stop!T is right for your school, and help protect your students from being bullied 24 hours a day with no way to Stop!T!
How often do you bookmark a webpage while surfing around the internet? If you are like many of us, that function on your browser goes relatively untouched. With apps such as Evernote, and social bookmarking sites like Pinterest and Diigo, there are plenty of resources out there to help you keep track of pages that you may want to access later.
But what if you forget to save the page?
What happens when you’re browsing the internet, clicking from one page to the next as so many of us do, but you don’t record any of the site information? Later on if you want to go back and find a particular page you really only have a few options. You can try a search engine to relocate it, but those rabbit trails often end up with you riffling through page after page of distractions and click-bait, and by the end of the search you are no closer than you were to start with. The other option is trying to look up the site on your browser history, but that list is difficult to wade through when the information is only a few hours old, let alone if you want to find something you saw last week.
Neeah.com, a new web archiving service, has got you covered. Neeah is a plugin that works automatically, recording your browsing history and organizing previously viewed content categorically to make the recovery of visited pages a painless activity. The program organizes your history into blocks that are easy to navigate, making your previous pages just a few quick clicks away. Neeah gives you control over your web archive, allowing you to keep your content private or to share it with anyone you choose. Additionally, the program can be deactivated when not in use, or just leave it running and never lose a page again.
There are other bookmarking services and online research tools currently available, both on private and social platforms, but Neeah is the only one that is completely free to the user. Not only that, but Neeah gives you control over your history. Use Neeah to keep yourself organized, share research with a friend or colleague, or just to make sure you never lose a website again.
So be productive while online. Visit as many sites as you wish. Stop worrying that you’re hoarding web addresses you will never again use. With Neeah.com, you can forget worrying about your browsing history and focus on why you were online in the first place.
Reaching Teachers is a great resource for teachers all over the world. This handy little infographic is just a sample of the great things they have going on at their website and the great ideas available there. They have tons of downloadable lessons for every subject and every age level! Take a moment and check them out to find out more here: ReachingTeachers!
I find that talking about and explaining how to prevent loops in a network is something I do an awful lot. So I thought I'd post something up that helps explain how to prevent it, and what the Spanning Tree Protocol is. The Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is a network protocol that ensures a loop-free topology for any bridged Ethernet local area network. Spanning Tree offers your network redundant and loop-free operation. Think of spanning tree as a tree that the bridge keeps in memory for optimized and fault-tolerant data forwarding.
What is Spanning Tree?
STP provides a means to prevent loops by blocking links in an Ethernet network. Blocked links can be brought in to service if active links fail.
The root bridge in a spanning tree is the logical center and sees all traffic on a network.
Spanning tree recalculations are performed automatically when the network changes but cause a temporary network outage.
Newer protocols, such as TRILL, prevent loops while keeping links that would be blocked by STP in service.
Eliminating loops with spanning tree If your switches are connected in a loop without STP, each switch would infinitely duplicate the first broadcast packet heard because there's nothing at Layer 2 to prevent a loop. STP prevents loops by blocking one or more of the links. If one of the links in use goes down, then it would fail over to a previously blocked link. How spanning tree chooses which link to use depends entirely on the topology that it can see. The idea behind a spanning tree topology is that bridges can discover a subset of the topology that is loop-free: that's the tree. STP also makes certain there is enough connectivity to reach every portion of the network by spanning the entire LAN. STP configuration Bridges will perform the spanning tree algorithm when they are first connected to the network or whenever there is a topology change. When a bridge hears a "configuration message," a special type of BPDU (bridge protocol data unit), it will begin its disruptive spanning tree algorithm. This starts with the election of a "root bridge" through which all data will flow. The next step is for each bridge to determine the shortest path to the root bridge so that it knows how to get to the "center." A second election happens on each LAN, and it elects the designated bridge, or the bridge that's closest to the root bridge. The designated bridge will forward packets from the LAN toward the root bridge. The final step for an individual bridge is to select a root port. This simply means "the port that I use to send data towards the root bridge." Note: Every single port on a bridge, even ones connected to endpoints, will participate in the spanning tree unless a port is configured as "ignore." A newly connected bridge will send a reconfiguration BPDU, and the other connected devices will comply. All traffic is stopped for 30-50 seconds while a spanning tree calculation takes place. Rapid STP In 2001, certain vendors started introducing rapid spanning tree, a modified version of the spanning tree algorithm that reduces outages. It's fully compatible with older devices that only know the old spanning tree algorithm and reduces the 30-50-second outage time to less than ten in most cases, so use it if you can. Note: RSTP works by adding an alternative port and a backup port. These ports are allowed to immediately enter the forwarding state rather than passively wait for the network to converge. VLANs and PVST STP can cause problems with VLANs if one of the physical links happens to be a VLAN trunk. That's because with only one spanning tree, it's possible the link with the VLAN trunk will need to be blocked. That could result in no connectivity for a particular VLAN to the rest of its LAN. To solve this, enable per-VLAN spanning trees (PVST). With PVST enabled, a bridge will run one spanning tree instance per VLAN on the bridge. If a trunk link contains VLANs 1, 2, and 3, it can then decide that VLANs 1 and 2 should not take that path, but still allow VLAN 3 to use it. Spanning tree drawbacks One of the drawbacks of STP is that even though there may be many physical or equal-cost multiple paths through your network from one node to another, all your traffic will flow along a single path that has been defined by a spanning tree. The benefit of this is that traffic loops are avoided, but there is a cost. Restricting traffic to this unique path means blocking alternative, and sometimes more direct, paths. That means that your full potential network capacity can never be realized. (It is possible to use multiple simultaneous spanning trees for separate VLANs, as mentioned above, but the traffic in any given VLAN will still not be able to use all your available network capacity.) In the past this has been acceptable, but with the increasing use of virtualization technology in many data centers, there is a need for a more efficient and reliable routing infrastructure that can handle the very high I/O demands of virtualized environments. Spanning tree alternatives: TRILL and NPB Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) is a routing protocol network standard which:
Uses shortest path routing protocols instead of STP.
Works at Layer 2, so protocols such as FCoE can make use of it.
Supports multihopping environments.
Works with any network topology, and uses links that would otherwise have been blocked.
Can be used at the same time as STP.
The main benefit of TRILL is that it frees up capacity on your network which can't be used (to prevent routing loops) if you use STP, allowing your Ethernet frames to take the shortest path to their destination. This in turns mean more efficient utilization of network infrastructure and a decreased cost-to-benefit ratio. These benefits are particularly important in data centers running cloud computing infrastructure. TRILL is also more stable than STP because it provides faster recovery time in the event of hardware failure. ~~~ Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 18 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs. He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes. Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel. Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!
The website says, "Targeted practice questions for student success." And that is what LearningPod delivers -- not just questions but success. With a current database of around 50,000 questions in every subject imaginable, LearningPod delivers on their promises to allow students to practice any subject, as much as they need to in order to help build mastery.
LearningPod is a free resource for educators that encompasses practice test questions on everything from Common Core aligned 2nd grade subjects all the way through AP Chemistry, and even some undergraduate level course work! LearningPod has put together an innovative way to point their students in the right direction to get the practice that they need, when they need it. They do this by creating "pods" that steer the learning towards the student and their needs. But you aren't on your own with LearningPod. In addition to the thousands of questions loaded into their pod database, they also have newly created content that teachers can look to in their premium content area. LearningPod truly is a one-stop shop for your curriculum, advanced testing and college prep needs! Interested? Check it out at LearningPod -- and you can also take a look at this recent article on the Washington Times BLOG pages.
When I was in high school, everyone wanted their driver's license. It was a key to life, liberty, freedom and the pursuit of going to the mall! I guess that dates me a little bit... but we all wanted to drive! I went to a private military school, and we did not have driver training like the local public schools did. But today, many private schools do offer some soft of driver instruction -- and of course there is tech for that. Can't hire a driving instructor? Well -- what about a driving simulator? Need to do research on driving habits or how certain road conditions can affect the way a car handles? Enter a driving simulator!
At Carnetsoft, they have created an affordable Driving Simulator that any school can get into and make available to their students. This software can help students become comfortable with driving under conditions, help treat people who have fear of driving, can help people brush up on their basic driving skills and can even help test people who tend to fall asleep at the wheel. Not only can you have people just use it, but you can use it for research as well. You can create any number of customized courses with various different road and weather conditions, and then store it in a database that keeps track of things like reaction time, success in navigating courses and many more variables. This system can be used for testing of individuals, or research projects that students at high school or university level might be doing. Sound awesome? Check it out on Carnetsoft's website -- and see how this system can benefit you and your students!
In addition to my time working in education technology behind the scenes, I have also coached baseball for several years at two different schools -- plus youth leagues. This experience has lead me to try and utilize new and cool technology in order to bring the tried, and true lessons of sports to the student-athletes of today. And quite often, it is awesome. I will be talking about these tools over the next few weeks.. first up, Coach's Eye.
Coach's Eye is an app for your iPad or Android tablet that allows you to record active video footage of your student-athletes. Cool, right? Yea big deal... but that's not all! Now that you have this video, you can mark it up! That's right. You can take the video of your shortstop's swing and draw on it to show where he is doing it right -- or not-so-right. You can draw the arc of the golf swing to illustrate a tweak or change that need to be made, or how a runner's stride is too short. You can show them right there -- on the field -- and then file it away. Record them again mid-season, and at the end of the season to illustrate the great strides they made throughout the season. The possibilities of such a tool in a dedicated coach's hands are endless. Add to that the ability to do side-by-side comparison and even import video from another camera to get another angle -- and wow! You can imagine that with this kind of analysis tool, you can help your young athletes learn, practice and develop the solid mechanics of their sport in ways that only the pros could do just ten years ago. And it all starts for free. Coach's Eye uses the freemium model to get you to download and use their tool, and then buy add-ins that make using and sharing your edited videos even more effective. If you coach any sport at the high school level, you owe it to yourself and your student-athletes to check out this wonderful tool for yourself!
