Weekly Tech Tips and News for May 11, 2018

Happy Mother's Day for all the moms and mother figures. It's time to draw on that "mama bear" or watchdog in each of us to learn to protect any children in our lives from online dangers - including on those smartphones and iPads. Protect Young Eyes has numerous resources on their web site and blog for protecting children online to help you become a watchdog for children. In this online age we are in, we cannot let children have free reign on the internet. Some of the things they may encounter at best will disrupt their development, and at worse could be deadly. Every adult in a child's life must take the time to become a knowledgeable online protector. The two posts below, about YouTube parental controls and where it is the most dangerous places for children to be online (Grandpa and Grandma take note!) are the first two in a series of posts I'll be sharing. On a more utilitarian note, if you took a look at the new Gmail last week, there are a couple of tips for finding your contacts and snoozing your emails. As comedy relief, treat yourself to the video by James Veitch about his way of unsubscribing to those unwanted emails (don't try this at home, kids). If you use Google Drive sync on your PC or Mac so you can work offline, it is going away tomorrow, so make sure you read that post. If you have a Twitter account, you also need to tend to that account by changing your password - be sure to check out that post too. In a less task oriented mode, there are a couple ideas and tips to use in the classroom - just for fun, take a walk down memory lane with the MOOO.

• How to Find Contacts in the New Gmail
• How to Snooze Emails in Gmail Without Any Browser Extensions
• The Agony of Trying to Unsubscribe
• Google Drive Sync Ending May 12
• EDU in 90:  Latest for Spring 2018
• How to Secure Your Twitter Account (Even if Your Password is Stolen)
• What are the Four Most Dangerous Places for Kids to be Online?
• How do I Properly Use YouTube's Parental Controls
• History and Literature Text Messages
• MOOO - Museum of Obsolete Objects

How to Find Contacts in the New Gmail

How to Find Contacts in the New Gmail, from How-To Geek by Justin Pot
This may be a mystery to some, but not to others. If you were used to finding Contacts by clicking on the Gmail logo, then you may be still looking for Contacts. If you access all your G Suite apps via the "waffle" app switcher, then Contacts are right where you left them.

How to Snooze Emails in Gmail Without Any Browser Extensions

How to Snooze Emails in Gmail Without Any Browser Extensions, from How-To Geek by Justin Pot

This will help you snooze emails you aren't ready to deal with, as well as where to find them again.

The Agony of Trying to Unsubscribe

James Veitch's way of finding the game in unsubscribing from spam emails. Get ready to take a laugh  break for 7 minutes and 40 seconds.

Google Drive Sync is Ending May 12

Several months ago Google announced Drive Sync, the program that is loaded on your Mac or PC to sync Google Drive locally and allow you to work offline, would be ending this May. Well, here we are, and if you were using Drive Sync on your Mac or PC hopefully you already switched to Drive File Stream. Even if you have, keep reading, you still may want to remove your old Google Drive folder on your hard drive before May 12 (see instructions below). If you haven't already switched, over the course of the next several days, Drive Sync will stop syncing to your My Drive online and you will receive a pop up message informing you that it has stopped. That pop up message will include a link to install Drive File Stream. Please install it (if you haven't already) to continue syncing your Google files to your computer. The upside is that Drive File Stream will sync not just your My Drive, but Team Drives as well. After installing, you will need to enable offline syncing in Drive > click the Gear > Settings > Offline = check the box to Sync Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings to this computer so you can edit offline. After May 12, Google will make changes to the Google Drive folder on your hard drive so it no longer syncs.
Remove the old Google Drive folder:  To avoid confusion and free up space, delete this folder prior to May 12. You will find it in c:\Users\<your user name>\Google Drive. Note that after May 12 you will remove the folder named Google Drive (not syncing). Right click on the folder and select Delete. It is a large folder, so it will take several minutes.

EDU in 90:  The Latest, Spring 2018

How to Secure Your Twitter Account (Even if Your Password is Stolen)

How to Secure Your Twitter Account (Even if Your Password is Stolen), from How-To Geek by Cameron Summerson
You may have heard about Twitter suggesting all their users change their passwords. This is a good cautionary tale for any social media account, as well as good advice for securing those accounts? Not good at remembering passwords? A password keeper does all the work for you - you only need to remember the one password for the password keeper.

What are the Four Most Dangerous Places for Kids to be Online?

Courtesy of Protect Young Eyes
The Protect Young Eyes team has over four decades of youth ministry experience and has found that there are four places where internet risk for kids skyrockets. Do you know what they are? You might be surprised. Please read more about them here so you can make sure the right controls are in place for your children or students. When parents know the risks, they can do the right things to protect their kids.

How Do I Properly Use YouTube's Parental Controls

Courtesy of Protect Young Eyes
YouTube is the second most popular search engine with over two billion searches daily! Kids love it, but parents typically don't. There are some steps parents can take to enable a safer search experience for their kids, which is very important. Make no mistake - there is an abundance of inappropriate and downright pornographic content on YouTube. Please read this blog post that includes detailed step-by-step instructions for protecting all types of internet-ready devices from junk on YouTube!

History and Literature Text Messages

History and Literature Text Messages, from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
This is a fun way to make historical or literary characters come alive for students. They can create a texting conversation between two characters - without the use of a mobile phone.

MOOO - Museum of Obsolete Objects

MOOO - Museum of Obsolete Objects, from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
For many of us this will be a walk down memory lane, for our students it will be a look at ancient artifacts. At least two of the items in the video library are currently in use here at school. I was disappointed the mimeograph wasn't included. What else is missing?