Tech Tips and News for October 19, 2023

Young State Park, Boyne City, MI

Mea culpa! This post was scheduled for last week, so we'll be a week behind schedule for the rest of cybersecurity month. However I'm sending this a day early, as I will off on a long weekend of rock hounding and color touring, leaf peeping, or whatever the kids are calling it these days. While I'm up north, I'll be using good cybersecurity practices, such as using a VPN on my devices while they're connected to the hotel WiFi (or any other public WiFi), using a password manager to auto enter our passwords, treating all texts and emails with a fair amount of skepticism - never clicking on the links in the messages, and not sharing our weekend plans on our social media accounts. Fortunately, someone will be at our home this weekend, so I assure you I didn't just announce to any crime seeking reader that my house would be empty for a couple days - it will be occupied. 🍁🍂

• Cybersecurity Week 2:  Passwords Are the Keys to Your Digital Castle
• How Good Are Kids at Making Passwords? (video)
• Latest Updates with Canvas New Quizzes
• Google Workspace Updates
• Docs:  Instant Access to Building Blocks
• Drive:  New Activity View
• Jamboard:  The Next Phase of Digital Whiteboarding for Google Workspace
• Sheets:  Add Emoji Reactions to Comments
• Google Drawings Manifesto for Teachers
• Turn Quiz Questions Into Online Arcade Games
• KISD (Ed)Tech or Treat 2023

Cybersecurity Week 2:  Passwords Are the Keys to Your Digital Castle

Passwords Are the Keys to Your Digital Castle, from National Cybersecurity Alliance

Long, complex passwords are better than needing to change your password regularly.

How Good Are Kids at Making Passwords? (video)

Latest Updates with Canvas New Quizzes

This explanation of the latest New Quizzes features also includes a demo video. You'll be able to migrate questions from your current question bank into new quizzes. It is also possible to create practice quizzes that don't count toward a grade or appear in the gradebook. If you haven't switched o new quizzes yet, you may be interested in the recording of the New Quizzes Webinar Track 1 for Newbies. Those of you who may already be using new quizzes, there is a recording of the New Quizzes Webinar Track 2 for Existing Users webinar. Finally, for all things relating to new quizzes, such as updates, instructor and student guides, visit the New Quizzes Hub. 

Google Workspace Updates

Google Docs:  Instant Access to Building Blocks

You should be seeing new buttons at the top of new, or empty Google Docs pages. These buttons are to help quickly add building blocks, such as creating meeting notes, composing an email, or accessing the full building blocks menu. These are the features you can add by typing @ and the building block feature you'd like to add, such as dropdown list, meeting notes, email draft, drafts for a calendar event, or a code block. If you'd like to learn more about using Smart Canvas features in Google Docs, such as building blocks and smartchips, take this self-paced lab. 

Drive:  New Activity View

Within the month of October, you should be seeing a new Activity option in the left hand column in Google Drive. This will allow you to see requests for file requests and approvals, as well as comments for all your files in one place. In the Access Requests section, click Manage Access next to the file to approve or decline permission. In the Approvals seection, you'll click on Review to process your pending approvals. Full details are available here. 

The Next Phase of Digital Whiteboarding for Google Workspace

With the retirement of Jamboard in late 2024, Google will be integrating other digital whiteboard tools, such as FigJam, Lucidspark, and Miro, so you can use them when collaborating in Meet, Drive or Calendar. Your existing Jamboard data will be able to be migrated to these new platforms, so you won't lose any work. Jamboards retirement timeline is as follows:

• October 1, 2024 - users will no longer be ableto create new, or edit existing Jams.
• October 1, 2024 - Jamboard will operate in view-only mode - you'll be able to see your files but not edit. 
• December 31, 2023 - Jam files will be deleted and users will no longer have access to them. In the coming months there will be instructions for retaining or migrating Jam files. 

You can keep your Jam Files in Drive by saving them as PDFs, or by downloading them. 

Sheets:  Add Emoji Reactions to Comments

Just like the ability to add emoji to comments in Google Docs, we will now be able to do the same in Google Sheets. You should see this update by mid-October. Learn how to add emoji reactions to comments here. Scroll down to see the emoji section. 

Google Drawings Manifesto for Teachers

Google Drawings Manifesto for Teachers, from Ditch That Textbook

Pretty much everything you ever needed to know about Google Drawings is in this post, including why you would use it, how to use it with studnts, and ideas for lessons.

Turn Quiz Questions Into Online Arcade Games

Quizalize is an online program that will quickly turn quiz questions into an online arcade game, such as shooting hoops, making goals, racing to the flag, and several more. Now Quizalize has an AI feature, powered by ChatGPT that will make questions for you on any topic. There are also premade quizzes in a variety of subjects. Teachers can create a free Quizalize account, create a class, and share the game code with their students, so students don't have to create individual accounts. Find out how to create quiz games in this video by Richard Byrne. 

KISD (Ed)Tech or Treat 2023

This month the KISD tech team has many resources to share with you - with another fun edition of “(Ed)Tech or Treat”! You will be presented with a variety of tools, resources, or strategies that you can implement in your teaching and student learning.  There are many (EdTech) TREATS found here, as well as some hidden TRICKS!