OverDrive for Homestead!

The Homestead Library is happy to report that we have e-books and audiobooks on offer for students and teachers through our new OverDrive service! It's very easy to use on a variety of devices, like Kindles, smartphones, computers or Chromebooks, just by logging in with the same username and password combination we use for most other on-campus services.

 Right now we have a mixed selection of curriculum titles (like To Kill a Mockingbird, Beowulf and 1984) along with popular titles like Throne of Glass and An Ember in the Ashes. There are also audio and audio-supported curriculum titles in our collection. Please check it out and recommend it to students who might benefit or prefer a e-book version of text. Right now these are single titles while we see what the demand looks like. Explore and let us know what you think!

Google Forms new quiz feature

Google Forms has a new "quiz" feature that allows you to quickly gather and grade data using multiple choice, drop-down or check-box questions. It also gives a really quick snapshot of student results, including frequently missed questions and answer distribution, and has the ability to send immediate responses to students as well.

To use it, create a form as you normally would, then use the Settings icon to make it a quiz. You can add various points values and create an answer key at that point. It's not as robust as using Flubaroo to create and grade online quizzes, but its quick and easy interface makes it a good choice for speedy formative assessments at the beginning or end of classes. For Google's instructions on how to do this, click here.

Setting up a secure password

We often give our students advice on making wise decisions with their passwords (not sharing it, not writing it down, keeping it safe) but often we as teachers do not take the same care with our own password. Here are some guidelines we offer to students in creating their passwords:

1. It should be secure (hard to guess or hack but easy to remember). Most passwords are one or the other.\
2. It should be at least 8 characters in length (more is better).
3. It should have at least 1 number and 1 symbol in addition to letters
4. It should use both upper and lower case letters

One method is to take a word or phrase you can remember and substitute symbols and numbers (such as "0neR1ng2rul$" or "U$Ag0ld-R1O2o16". You can also take the first letters of a memorable phrase or quote and do the same thing (for instance, "Two out of three dentists prefer Crest for whiter teeth" becomes "2oo3DpC4wt"). Extra symbols or letters at the beginning or end can always be added as well (so, #2oo3DpC4wt@@). Some people choose a base password and then add different prefixes or suffixes depending on where the password is being used. Passwords like these are hard to guess or hack but easy to remember.

You may also be interested in a password vault or password manager, which can store, generate and manage multiple passwords for various sites ... but you still need one password to get in, so the above tips should still help.