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SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter #108 June 26, 2009 | ||
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SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter #108 June 26, 2009
What’s on your Summer Reading List? Using PowerPoint and PhotoStory3 to create a Narrated Presentation Copy Website Tables into Excel 2007 Spreadsheets Windows SteadyState is a free of charge download for Windows XP and Windows Vista that can help protect your family from inappropriate Web content and contact on the Web. Windows SteadyState also protects your computer settings from unwelcome changes by your children. Windows SteadyState can return your family computer and hard disk to the condition it was before your children changed it. You just restart your computer.
____________________________________________ Musopen is an online music library of copyright free (public domain) music. We want to give the world access to music without the legal hassles so common today. There is a great deal of music that has expired copyrights, but almost no recordings of this music is in the public domain. We aim to record or obtain recordings that have no copyrights so that our visitors may listen, re-use, or in any way enjoy music. Put simply, our mission is to set music free. | ||
The SchoolCounselor.com e-Newsletter is an electronic publication designed to advance counselors' level of technological literacy, application, and integration. You will find practical solutions and answers to technology related problems, especially as they apply to your job as counselor. If you would like to share a tip or trick, or if you would like to ask a question, e-mail Russ Sabella at newsletter@schoolcounselor.com
Friday, June 26, 2009
SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter #108
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Latest Poll about Cell Phones in Schools
Would you support a ban on cell phones in K-12 schools? Cast your vote …
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/poll/
Friday, June 12, 2009
What are the most dangerous search terms on the Internet?
What are the most dangerous search terms on the Internet? HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- If you like to search for "music lyrics" or "free" things, you are engaging in risky cyber behavior. And "free music downloads" puts 20 percent of Web surfers in harm's way of malicious software, known as "malware." A new research report by U.S.-based antivirus software company McAfee has identified the most dangerous Internet search words that place users on pages with a higher likelihood of cyber attacks. The study examined 2,600 popular keywords on five major search engines -- Google, Yahoo, Live, AOL and Ask -- and analyzed 413,000 Web pages. "Just in the past year, we've seen a pretty dramatic shift in what we call malware," David DeWalt, president and CEO of McAfee, told Richard Quest for CNN International's "Quest Means Business." Watch Quest interview with McAfee boss » "It went from a hacker in a basement, to organized cybercrime to now, literally, terrorism and other forms of organized geopolitical attacks," he said. Categories that had the highest risk of run-ins with malware: screen savers, free games, work from home, Olympics, videos, celebrities, music and news. Riskiest terms: word unscrambler, lyrics, myspace, free music downloads, phelps, game cheats, printable fill-in puzzles, free ringtones and solitaire. The study shows how cyber criminals are increasing in sophistication. "We can have massive outages with a hacker in the basement. We saw that recently with the 'Twitter worm,' a 17-year-old in his basement basically perpetrated tens of millions of (computer) outages. Or, we can see an organized attack bringing down infrastructure," DeWalt said. Antivirus software companies lag behind the latest developments by cyber criminals, he said. "We've been way behind, that's true for the entire world, the global infrastructure of the Internet has grown dramatically -- 50 percent of the world's PCs are unprotected," DeWalt said. Despite the increased risk, DeWalt doesn't believe there will be a "cyber Armageddon" causing widespread destruction of computers and Internet infrastructure. "Last week, you saw President Obama in the United States talk about a major cyber-security initiative sponsored by the government, other governments are sponsoring this as well," DeWalt said. "I think we're learning this can happen, and if we get ahead of it, we can prevent it." |
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Sunday, June 7, 2009
Windows SteadyState
Windows Vista that can help protect your family from inappropriate Web
content and contact on the Web. Windows SteadyState also protects your
computer settings from unwelcome changes by your children. Windows
SteadyState can return your family computer and hard disk to the
condition it was before your children changed it. You just restart your
computer.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/products/family/steadystate.mspx
Thursday, June 4, 2009
SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter #107
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SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter #107 Welcome to SchoolCounselor.com, an electronic newsletter designed to advance counselors' level of technological literacy, application, and integration. You will find practical solutions and answers to technology related problems, especially as they apply to your job as counselor. If you would like to share a tip or trick, or if you would like to ask a question, e-mail Russ Sabella at newsletter@schoolcounselor.com.
New Must See Videos on SchoolCounselor.com I switched from Microsoft Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox several years ago and really had not thought about it very much since. When out in the field doing presentations or while collaborating with colleagues, people who notice me using Firefox as my default browser continue to ask me about it and so I thought that it was finally time to address the use of web browsers as an important technological tool. 3. Download Statusbar. With this one, I can view and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar - without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/26 4. IE Tab. One of my very favorites, with this add-on, I can easily see how a web page is displayed in Internet Explorer (even when I’m still using Firefox) with just one click and then switch back to Firefox. Also, this allows me to continue using Firefox even when the site requires Internet Explorer. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419 5. New Tab King. This extension adds a useful dashboard with recently used bookmarks and links to the Firefox blank tab page, so you can quickly access frequently used web sites. Using the extension is simple enough—just use the Ctrl+T shortcut key, and the new tab page will show up with shortcuts to launch applications, the most used web sites and recently closed tabs You can also get a quick glance on the sites you use the most, by period of the day and an easy search box. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10828 6. Open Download.Allows you to open any file from the internet into the OS assigned program. This is similar to IE's 'Open' or 'Run' file download functionality. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/207 7. Send Link Button. Ever found yourself on an interesting Web site that you wanted to send over to a friend? Now instead of having to cut and paste the URL into your E-mail client of choice, now you have a one button solution. Send Link Button adds a new button to the toolbar that sends the link for the current web page you are on to your email software so that you can send share it with others over email more quickly. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1770 8. Marks (formerly Foxmarks). Xmarks is an excellent bookmarking add-on. Install it on all your computers to keep your bookmarks and (optionally) passwords backed up and synchronized. Xmarks also helps you uncover the best of the web based on what millions of people are bookmarking. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/add-on/2410 9. Amazon Hot Stuff. Amazon Hot! Stuff allows you to easily navigate Amazon, and access to lists such as Bestsellers, Hot New Releases, Most Wished For, Movers And Shakers all at your finger tips. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11542 10. Google Toolbar. Direct access to Google services from a toolbar within your browser. No need to go to Google.com to do a search. Also, this powerful toolbar has other features including AutoFill which can automatically complete online forms for you with your basic information (name, address, phone, email), great for online sweepstakes. http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/toolbar/FT5/intl/en/index.html An important note: You should choose and use your add-ons carefully and sparingly. The more add-ons you install, the slower Firefox will run and the greater the chance that an add-on will cause a glitch. I have installed wonderful add-ons in the past that I found helpful although made Firefox on my computer cause terrible hang-ups. Once I uninstalled it, Firefox came back to normal. Ten to 15 add-ons is probably enough. 1. Click Start, and then click Printers and Faxes. 2. On the File menu, click Server Properties. 3. On the Advanced click the options you want to apply: – Show informational notifications for local printers. This option notifies users when a job is printed on a printer that is attached to this computer. – Show informational notifications for network printers. This option notifies users of this computer when a job is printed on a remote computer. 4. For client computers that are running versions of Windows earlier than Microsoft Windows 2000 that access the printers on this computer, there are additional configuration options to choose from: – Notify when remote documents are printed. This option sends a message to the user who sent a job to a printer that is attached this computer. – Notify computer, not user, when remote documents are printed. This option sends a message to the computer from which the print job was sent, regardless of which computer on which the sending user is currently logged on. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4 Signs Your Children May Be Involved With Cyberbullying The simple fact is, no matter how much we love our little angels, sometimes they engage in behaviors of which we cannot approve. Like cyberbullying. Then it is up to us as trusted adults to step in and work with our children to correct their behavior. But unlike physical bullying which may leave tangible signs (scratches, torn clothes, bruises), cyberbullying may be undetectable. So, how do you know if your children are engaging in cyberbullying behaviors? We turn once again to expert guest blogger Alison Trachtman Hill. http://uyn.blogspot.com/2009/05/4-signs-your-children-may-be-involved.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GOOG411: Free Directory Assistance Looking up telephone numbers online is easy. But you don't always have a computer handy. That doesn't mean you need to pay for directory assistance. You can find numbers for free from any telephone. Google's service (GOOG-411) relies on voice recognition to find results. Tip: Say “text me” after you get results and Google will text you with the details of your lookup. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Twitter for Educators There are many ways you can use Twitter to engage students, improve communication, collaboration, and community in the classroom, and promote writing. I’ve listed 10 ways you can use Twitter in your class, from a simple Twitter group you create that students follow and the group follows. http://itcboisestate.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/twitter-for-educators/ Follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/rsabella Use Evernote to Organize Your Troubleshooting Efforts
Google Cheat Sheet The Rasterbator creates huge, rasterized images from any picture. Upload an image, print the resulting multi-page PDF file and assemble the pages into extremely cool looking poster up to 20 meters in size. Rasterbator is arguably the world's cheapest way to cover a wall with cool-looking art.
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GuardingKids.com: A Practical Guide to Keeping Kids Out of High-Tech Trouble
Russell A. Sabella, Ph.D.
From podcasts to porn, cyberbullying to cell phones, Dr. Russell Sabella helps readers understand the risks that emerge when high-tech tools, uninformed parents, and exuberant youth collide. Because kids are growing up with modern technologies, many are more expert than their parents. As a result, a parent's ability to make effective decisions for how technology is used may be compromised.
GuardingKids.com empowers parents, educators, and other care takers to better understand the electronic terrain. Readers will be better able to help children safely and securely navigate a minefield of inappropriate and risky situations.