InfoTeacher

Slate’s Farhad Manjoo writes about the next version of Office, Office 2010. The provocotive title, Microsoft Office’s Last Stand, alludes to the coming revolution.  If 2010 has something to offer beyond what one can get online, it will continue to dominate as it does now. If cloud computing, long predicted by forward thinkers but lagging in implementation and practicality for full function users, does become more and more dominant, why would you pay to get what you can get for free. Why would you pay when free and online offers more?

I’m a user of Google Docs (I use them just to be current. At this point, I don’t really have projects I work on that need to be shared/collaborated on in the way that really makes Docs superior). I use Google calendars. I think the cloud councept is amazing (not necessarily for everything – for some things I want control right here in my reach). True, one needs an app for the times when broadband is not available (a problem that is becoming less of a problem all the time). To me, Open Office would fill that void just fine.  Now in reality, Office 2007 is on every computer I use. I bought a laptop for personal/school use. I have a computer at school and a school laptop that I also use. All of these have MS Ofc 2007. My desktop has ‘03 (it’s the oldest computer in my house).  Yet, I wonder. . . How much of Office’s market dominance is because “it’s just what everyone has to have?” Will that kind of motivattion continue when the cloud becomes dominant?  What will computing look like in ten years?

Farhad Manjoo, Slate’s technology writer, writes an article entitled, “Fix Your Terrible, Insecure Passwords in Five Minutes.”  Most of us have bad security habits (this is going to come back and bite many, many Americans in a bad way — possibly soon).  I’ve written earlier about the password keeper I use (which is always out of date on at least one password,  is often out of reach when I need it, and doesn’t serve me as quickly as I’d like — but in general does funtion ok). I use the same password for many apps/sites — which is ok for the less security necessary ones, but I confess less than secure behavior (better than most people I observe, however — except for some areas where I know I routinely follow clear no-no’s, but there are in areas where I choose my level of risk).

Back to the article — interesting trick. Create a sentence you’ll remember related to the site — make it a mnemnonic, tweak it, and you have a unique password that is untraceable, yet related to the specific site. This gets one past two cardinal security rules – (1) use a different password for each secure site; and (2) don’t use a dictionary word at all. For the third cardinal rule (use special characters and mix up numbers and capitals in random ways), that comes in the Teak it step, above.

I’ve read this somewhere before (though there is no reference to an earlier version on the magazine’s site!), and have one very important (non-school) password that I created with this same technique. I may expand my use of this. The sentence one creates just has to be something you relate to a site and can remember.  This also allows you to remember very long passwords which are much more secure than short ones (the level of security goes up exponentially after you get past 10 digits).

Bottom line — password security doesn’t have to be hard. Be systematic and follow true secure procedures. Using your memory is important, too.  Teachers often complain about having to remember so many, but in this day and age what profession wouldn’t have to remember several different passwords?

Next time I have a presentation of any kind, I’ll use Prezi.  It’s part Slide Show (without the slides if you can imagine), part Poster (electronic), part Graphic Organizer and Note Taking Machine all in one. That probably doesn’t really explain it, but I know that a Prezi presentaiton will get noticed.  I may be practicing something, and if I get that done, I’ll come back her and post a link.  Interesting tool. I would really like to find a way to use this with students.  A character development timeline sould really be interesting with this tool, though there are lots of possibilities.

Post Script- the day after I posted this, I go to a meeting. At the meeting Greg Wilborn talks to us about 21st Century Teaching. What does he use for his presentation? A Prezi.  It was mentioned by someone else in the group earlier, too. I’m going to have to stay up later to stay ahead of these guys and gals.

Everyone should read this post at the Dangerously Irrelevant Blog (the title of the post is “10 Questions About Books, Libraries, Librarians, and Schools” (great blog to read, by the way — oh, I forgot, I mean btw).

At least one colleague emailed me to note that I should cross reference Joyce Valenza’as Things That Keep us up at Night post at Never Ending Search. She is on my RSS feed, is she on yours?  Or, check out her 21st Century Librarian Manfesto.

Check out Spreeder — “free online speed reading application.”

I’m not sure what it is, but there must be a way to use it (probably not with your Dylexia students; but then again maybe because they see only 1 word rather than lines and lines of words . . . . who knows?). Anyway, what a cool, creative site.  (Maybe in a staff training?).

Myna – a web based audio creation site. See the Myna Demo. It looks cool. It shows what can be done and how easy something that used to take specialty equipment can now be done.

Ill admit, I haven’t tried Myna. It was just something I noticed while perusing a new 2.0 Webside called Electric Chalk (now in my Blogroll)  I’m into Audacity and find bandwidth a challenge at times, and I spent too many years working where web link was unreliable.  Same reason I don’t link to You Tubes, but instead download them so that I “have” them whether the web is working or not.

Anyway, cool site, cool tool.