Instructional Technology Newsletter

For more Live Webinars offered by Nearpod, go to their Resources page. To watch on-demand pre-recorded webinars, check out their Video Page on GoToStage.

If you are looking for fun games and formative assessments, check out Flippity.net. It is a user-friendly resource that has a variety of games and interactive activities for students to use alone, with a partner or in small groups. They are all digital and can be accessed easily by students with a URL. Each activity comes with a template and instructions. You can customize the template to add your own content and questions.

myON is a collection of digital books. There are actually thousands of titles in this application. If you have not seen this platform, click on this link. This will take you to the Renaissance STAR site. myON is located within this site and interacts with STAR data. If you want more information about using myON, check out this webinar training session done last week.

As you may have seen in your email, phishing campaigns are on the rise. Make sure you read the emails that pertain to phishing alerts. Malicious cyber actors are continuing to target K-12 educational institutions to cause disruptions and steal data. Some of the threats discussed in the advisory group consisting of the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), are ransomware, video conference disruptions, malware variants, social engineering such as phishing, and open or exposed ports. For best practices, and mitigation techniques for educational organizations take a look at this article.

If you are having difficulty with Zoom features, make sure you are using the web browser and not the Zoom App. In the App, you do not have access to as many features as in the browser. For example, you may not be able to access all of the settings for your meetings in the app. Also, in order to always access your licensed account, make sure you login using your google credentials.

GoGuardian Teacher allows teachers to know what students are doing on their devices and whether they are off-task or need help. If you want to know more about GoGuardian, check out this training session recording.

Looking for a way to use YouTube videos with students, then check out video.link. This site will create safe links for you to use in your classroom and will be viewable by students.

Just a reminder that Ed Law 2-D went into effect on October 1, 2020. If you have not seen the policy go to the NYSED website for Data Privacy and Security. Here you will find District requirements that are necessary to be compliant with this law.

Remember, we can no longer support software that is not compliant with this law. The law sets out to protect student and teacher PII (Personally Identifiable Information). If you are looking to procure new software, you need to fill out the Software Recommendation Form. To speed up the process, take a look at EducationFramework.com. Login with Google and go to Privacy Quality Scores to evaluate the application's compliance with Ed Law 2-D.