First here is a few simple tips on what passwords should have in them:

•  At least one uppercase letter and one lower case letter
• At least one number
• At least one symbol like @#%^&*
• Be at least 8-12 characters long
• Never use the same one twice

Now with all these rules you are probbly saying there is no way I will remember a oassword such as ""T0o1n2y3"" but if you look closely it is really not that hard of a password to remember.   Today's most popular passwords are 123456, password, or for teachers the name of the school.  

So back to the question how do you create a password that is so hard to guess but easy to rememeber?  If you look back at the password I created it is my name with numbers after each letter and quotes around it.  The trick is to not remember the password but to remember a rule and make the rule work so that every place you need to create a password can have a different one.

Here are a few simple examples to get you thinking the right way:

•  Use the sites name broken up by your favorite number then use quotes around it - "T7o7n7y7s7"
• If it is a secrect question never use the real answer use parts of the question and something else you will remember.

If you notice nothing here is hard to remember and it will make your passwords so hard to guess you will be more secure.

Steve Gibson founder of Gibson Research Corporation and host of Security Weekly on the TwiT network has a great site designed to help you see how secure your passwords are.  It is called a Password Haystack because it is like hiding your password(needle) in a huge haystack.

Create a password and then pop it in Steve Gibson's site and see how great your new rule will be in protecting yourself online.

ABC News Link

This is a great video where Steve Gibson talks about his password haystack and explains why complex passwords are not always more secure.

At least two school districts are already doing this.  The first is Convent of the Sacred Heart in Greenwich, CT (http://tony.fm/eLq3KJ ).  When school was closed for snow students found messages from their teachers with lessons using online video and websites and homework attached to be completed before they came back to school.  This school gives all its students laptops so web and computer access is not a problem and their teachers regularly use the internet to post content and create online spaces for their students to work.  A second school district moving to online for snow days is Mississinawa Valley School District in Darke County, Ohio (http://tony.fm/hsFOam).  They decided to use at least two of their snow days as online days which means they do not have to make them up and they do not lose that important instructional time.  Teachers used PD time over the summer to create online lessons to use in the case of snow days.  Students that do not have access to the internet have been given local libraries and fire stations that they can use to get access to their assignments, this gives all students access to the materials.

There are at least two places moving to get rid of snow days so how can we move everyone else to do the same well here is my strategy to move online during snow or public health emergencies. 

• Conduct a survey of all students and their parents to find out if they have access to the internet at home or through their cellphones.  With this data a school can start to make a plan for those that do not have internet access. 
• For the students with internet access schools need to work with their teachers to develop online lessons using a CMS like Moodle or Blackboard or just setting up documents and activities using Google Docs and other free online websites.
• For the students without internet access finding them locations to access the internet might be difficult during an emergency so my plan would use a text messaging service to have teachers’ text home assignments for their various classes.  This gives them the ability to use their books and home resources to complete the assignments
• For students that do not have access to the internet or a cellphone the school could have the teacher call the student’s house to give them their assignment.  This group of students should be very small with the wide spread use of cellphones and internet.

If your school district has started to move snow days online share your experiences here.

Online textbooks and resources give teachers access to vastly more information than a single textbook from one publisher.  Here are a couple of great examples of online textbooks and resources.

CK12.org Flexbooks (http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/)

CK12.org gives you the ability to create a textbook that works for your class and your individual students.  These books are updated frequently and mistakes in them are reported and fixed without the need to republish the book.  Books can be printed and used in the classroom, however they also have the ability to be downloaded to the iPad or the Kindle for easy electronic consumption.

Henrico County Mathematics (http://henricostaffdev.org/math/)

This website is created and run by Henrico County Public Schools in Virginia.  The site has online resources organized for mathematics on two different websites. 

The first one http://henricostaffdev.org/math/courses/ is broken down by course and is setup like you were actually taking the class.  Each course has the topics laid out with information about the topic, examples on how to do them, and then exercises to complete.  Some of the topics include video explanations and interactive activates for the student to complete.

The other website http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/math/index10.html or http://henricostaffdev.org/math_links/ has all the activities and all the courses loaded together and give you the ability to pick anything you want to see.  Once you choose your topics and activity you will see all the resources available for you to use.

These two websites are great examples of collated resources for teachers to use.  If you have other great sites like these please leave them in the comments for others to see and use.

1)      Apple had a great head start this year with the iPad and education jumped on it however this coming year Android will make its way into the tablet market in a big way and because they are going to be cheaper and easily customizable by schools Android tablets will take over the education market.

2)      Facebook in its efforts to expand its functionality will open up an educators section to allow teachers easy access to their services and the ability to communicate securely and safely with their students.

3)      Google taking a page out of Apple’s book in the 80’s will give their new Google Chrome Laptops to urban schools across the country in an effort to show how the cloud is the wave of the future and how cheap and secure computers can be used to bridge the achievement gap.

4)      YouTube make an education portal for schools allowing safe surfing of videos and the placement of top education videos on the main screen.  This will allow school districts the ability to unblock the site and give teachers the ability to use this great resource.

5)      Microsoft seeing the big gains by Google and Apple in the education market will eliminate the license fees for office and windows for educational organizations.

6)      Book publishers will move from selling hardcopy textbooks to an online subscription model that will allow schools to always have the most up to date information and anywhere access to the textbooks.

Well these are my thoughts on the upcoming year only time will tell if I am right or not.  Do you agree or disagree?