Teacher Tuesday: Scam and Scammers

Good Morning Tuesday!

Today the South Dakota State Jackrabbits will play for the Summit League Championship for both the Mens and the Womens BB team.  This is the second year in a row that both teams have made the finals (with both teams winning and advancing to the NCAA tournament last year).  Just another step closer from changing the name from "The Summit League Tournament" to "The Jackrabbit Invitational".

Today's subject is Scams and Scammers.
I was actually inspired this morning by a CBS New Feature on the "Jamaica Lottery Scam".  There is no streaming video of this yet, I checked, or else I'd attach a link to the story here.

This Article does a better job of explaining the scam than me.  Basically, scammers are calling older US citizens, and tell them that they won the lottery, but they have to pay taxes.  And it begins.

There are a number of scams and frauds out there.  The Government even has a handy website, with hints and suggestions to help you avoid a scam.

What are some of the more popular scams?  Well, here is a list of the Top 10 e-mail/internet Scams of 2012.  I have recieved several of these e-mails over the years, including the Nigerian Scam (which is really quite hilarious if you read the whole thing), The Lottery Scam, and Disastery Relief scam.

Also, this year we have had several "Phishing Scams" with e-maill sent to staff members, asking them to click a link.  (The State usually does a great job of "catching" these, and letting me know exactly who got the e-mails).

So, just some general hints and thoughts to help keep you and your family safe.

1. People won't track you down to give you free money.  This doesn't happen, except in the movies.  Now if a lawyer arrives at your doorstep, with paperwork and documentation...that's one thing.  But anyone on the phone or over e-mail is NOT to be trusted.
2. You have to buy a ticket to enter a lottery!  If someone says you won the lottery...think about it, did you enter the Jamaican lottery?  When did you buy a ticket?
3. Never, Ever, Ever - Give out passwords, PIN numbers, or anything like that.  
4. Reputable organizations that help the needy; like the Red Cross and Salvation Army would NEVER e-mail you soliciting for donations.  They are usually linked to from other sites (like Katrina relief or Sandy relief or whatever the case may be).  But if you get an e-mail out of the blue...that's not them.
5. Make purchases and/or transactions online only on secure sites.  How do you know they are secure? Well, usually there is a "lock" symbol in the address bar that shows they are secure.

Notice the "lock" on the left?

This is good, you are secure.

And the always reliable, dependable, trustworthy, rule of thumb:

"If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is".  

Tuesday Tidbits: Saving your laptop battery

Hope everyone had a restful day off yesterday... Yowza was it slippery out there!

I nearly biffed it twice on my way to work this morning.

Today's blog post, is actually a link to a powerpoint created by a Harrisburg High School Student.  The link was provided to me from the Harrisburg Tech Guy, don't think he'll mind if we link to it, since he shared the link with the listserv for all the technology directors in the state.

It's a good issue, saving the power on your laptop battery.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ui4wloz23p2j2g/battery.ppt?m

Hope to see everyone at the Science Fair this evening.

Weekend Update! March 1st...

Started the Weekend off with a really good night on Thursday Night!

1. I got a 30 minute "Tempo" Running Workout in.
2. I was able to give M and M a haircut, which was long, long, overdue.
3. The Jackrabbits Won, and clinched their first outright Summit League regular season title!
4. The Tarheels Won!
5. Duke Lost!
6. Coach K was upset about Virginia storming the court.
7. The Lakers Won!

We just need the Elks to win tonight, and it will be a perfect couple of days!  

Go Elks!

Today's Friday Video is posted with the Elks game tonight in mind!  

Enjoy Muse..... Let's have a bit of an Uprising tonight in the Elmen Center.

Good Luck tonight Fellas!

Also just for fun... a great photo of Coach K from last night, that I must share.

Serendipity?

Another Presentation

Here is the link to the presentation that Cheryl Harming (sister-in-law) gave today on Common Core items.

https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?resid=6DA7824867B97501!357

I saved this document to Sky Drive, so that those who were unfamiliar with it, could kind of see what Sky Drive looked like.

Enjoy!

Today's Presentations

I thought I would post the links to the Presentations I made today.

I put them both in Google docs, so you can all access them.

First, the Presentation for the Paperless... or I should say LESS Paper
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xNIDy3qe2Ykb72AsinpCGMTjasmcuj42vW-PlpuJxkM/edit?usp=sharing

Second, the Presentation on the Chromebook
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oTkMhTkYnMk_pz4FTb1tDapIK75vesqn_Ivn8LKMN4k/edit#slide=id.p

I mentioned Sky Drive in both my presentations, but just realized that many have never seen it or heard of it.

Here is a link to: Sky Drive

Like Google Docs... you will need a Microsoft account to access Sky Drive.
(You need a google account to access Google docs.... and a Microsoft account to access Sky Drive.)

Here is a brief tutorial on using Sky Drive:



Have a great day everybody!

No Tuesday Tidbits Today!

No Technology Tidbits today.

I've been busy working on presentations for tomorrow for the late start at Elkton!

I'll go over them in depth tomorrow, and post links to the presentations themselves in the blog here.
(They are both on Google Drive)

Best of Luck to the Elkton-Lake Benton Boys BB team tonight as they take on the Flandreau Fliers in District action.  The game will be held in Flandreau at 7 pm.

Go Elks!

Weekend Update

Welcome to another addition of weekend update.

North Lab

This week the Tech office was super busy.  I am continuing to work on the North Lab in the school, making sure that each machine in there is being used and treated properly.  I have found many of these computers that have had changes made to the desktop over the week.

Other things that students are doing to the computers include:

1. Changing the background image or wallpaper
2. Students are adding "shortcuts" to the desktop.
3. "Pinning" programs to the task bar, so they stay up and running.
4. Changing the size of the icons on the desktop.
5. Changing the resolution of the screen.
6. Changing the size of the display
7. Changing the mouse (or pointer)
8. Changing the color of the windows (Pink and Black seem to be the favorites).
9. Moving icons on the desktop around.
10. And general mischief... mouse unplugged, keyboard unplugged, etc, etc...

Please keep in mind, and remind your students, all of them, that the North Lab computers are for the use of all students... Particularly those that don't get their own netbooks (Grades K-8).  The computers in the lab should not be "personalized" for individual students, as the computer is not set up for one person, but the use of all.

The more settings and/or changes made to the computers can lead to problems down the road.  I would like to see the number of programs on the desktop and/or taskbar minimized.  The more programs that are on there, the more RAM is being dedicated to have those programs "ready to run".  While I know it is common practice to have your commonly used programs on your desktop with a shortcut, the LAB is not a personal computer... we'd like to keep it "streamlined" so that everyone sees the same screen.

Two easy ways to ensure that the lab is being used correctly:

1.  Do NOT send students to work in there, unless they are being supervised.  (I chased two JH kids out there again this morning).

2.  When supervising watch your students... are they working on their programs, or are they changing the screen resolution?  Are all of the keyboards still plugged into the machines?  

Mobile Lab

In addition to the North Lab, I focused on getting some more computers ready for the Mobile Lab.  We had 20 in there, earlier... but #20 died, and a few others have started to show some problems (there's one that has a sticky keyboard, and another that has a noisy fan).  I worked on getting a few more in there, so that we can have the lab filled, and then remove the problem ones, and see if we can get them running, as well.

I know that having a lab that will work consistently, each time you use it is the number one goal.  I am hoping that the changes we have made to the lab, and to the machines, will help us.

Weekend!

Not a great deal planned this coming weekend, the 3rd and 4th grade boys will have their final BB game tomorrow at Deubrook.  Good Luck boys!  (It has been a joy and a pleasure to help these guys this year)

Saturday Night the SDSU Jackrabbits will be on espn2 facing Murray State in the annual "Bracketbusters" challenge.  Should be good exposure, but I hope we get a little better end result than the last game on espn2. (Game vs Alabama, that they lost on a last second shot).

Otherwise, some household duties, a few maintenance issues, and a few good runs (hopefully outside) to look forward to.

For the Friday Video, enjoy a little Black Keys "Tighten Up"

Have a great weekend everyone!