Why you need a password manager

UPDATE 8/5/14:  I read over at Lifehacker (Hackers reportedly collect over a billion passwords) about how hackers from Russia have stolen a billion passwords.  In the above link they reference Lastpass and link to a few guides to getting started with Lastpass.  Nothing is for sure, of course, but a tool like Lastpass would certainly limit the damage.


I can't tell you how many teachers and educators I know that use simple passwords that are easy to break; I stopped counting.  I, myself, used to be guilty of poor passwords.  For a few years I helped in the management of user credentials for our school district and I realized that passwords generally fell into a combination of three categories.

Too short and limited character space

Most of the passwords that I previously used were all about 8 characters long and used a mixture of numbers and letters.  Back when I started using these passwords technology at the time would probably take years to guess them.  Advancements in technology have all but made that trivial.  Steve Gibson's Password Haystack highlights this fact perfectly.  The 8 character password that I previously used most often would take less than a second to find under ideal circumstances for a hacker.  Steve's site provides a very in depth and easily understandable explanation as to why that is.

Same password

I was guilty of this.  I had 5 passwords that I used over and over.  Here is the problem with using the same password for different sites.  A hacker only needs to find it once and then they will try it everywhere.  This is an issue of a hacker going for the lowest hanging fruit.  It is unlikely (although possible) that a hacker is going to get the password from a bank or other major database.  However, you might have used that password to try out that cool new online tool that also just happened to use OpenSSL to secure communications (i.e., lowest hanging fruit).  With the Heartbleed exploit, it is likely that password is now known and can be used to try at banks and other major databases.

Easily guessable

Thankfully I was not guilty of this.  If you have one of these as your password, you have big problems and need to change them immediately.

Password Manager and other tricks

The solution to my own password problem was Lastpass.  I manage and store unique and complex passwords for almost 200 sites.  My passwords all look something like this,

wMi6kI%A7KuAde*N0Hv40*

According to Steve Gibson's Password Haystack it would take "1.04 hundred million trillion centuries" under ideal conditions for a hacker to crack that password.

Yesterday, Lifehacker ran an article on the very subject of passwords that is very good.  In it they highlight four great methods to create better passwords.  It is definitely worth the quick read.

Do yourself a favor and strengthen your passwords so that they that are unique, lengthy, and complex.

  

Automating 2014

At the beginning of the year, I saw a Facebook post from a friend that mentioned putting little pieces of paper in a jar with thoughts and memories for each day of the year.  At the end of 2014 you would take them out and read them for a look back at your year.

I am not very interested in keeping little pieces of paper in a jar for a whole year so I thought about a different way of doing this project that was simpler and automated.  Enter Evernote (whose motto is Remember Everything) and IFTTT (If This Then That).

Since I tend to put random thoughts and events from my life on Facebook, I created IFTTT recipes that would  append a note to essentially create a Facebook history in Evernote.  Automatically.

If you have never used IFTTT you should give it a try.  It has connections to over a 100 services and it is easy to use.  All you do is create a recipe to get started:

You can see in the above example that this particular recipe has triggered 29 times.  All I have to do is make the post in Facebook and it is automatically sent to Evernote without any further actions on my part.  I have a similar recipe for photo posts and for links that I share with friends.  It has worked quite nicely and I will end up with a complete summary for the year.

On a side note, Facebook has "Year in Review" but it filters based on Facebook's criteria and I wasn't satisfied with what I got for 2013.  I am interested in getting a complete list of all things that I posted. I have been happy with the results so far and look forward to looking back at 2014.

It's been awhile

It has been a stressful 5 months since I last posted something...so here goes.

I said to my wife yesterday that I finally felt balanced again.  I have been productive around the house and begun re-losing some of the weight I had put on since the marathon. When you keep eating like you are training for a marathon without actually training for a marathon, you are going to put some pounds on. Recently (February), I resigned my position as a site administrator in order to go back to teaching.  This was key in bringing myself into balance.  There are many reasons why I did this, but the biggest and most important was that I need to be doing something that I find fulfilling.

My best days as a site administrator were the days I worked with kids.  Whatever the reasons, they were the best moments of my days, weeks, and months.  Even working with kids who had broken a rule (i.e., discipline) and helping them to improve was fulfilling.  I had posted that I was going to provide time to teachers by taking their class and teach music to the students.  The first time I did this, I was awful.  It had been 12 years since I taught a music lesson and it showed.  The next time was significantly better and by the third time I was on a roll.  I also scared myself.  For the first time in quite a long time, I felt fulfilled by what I was doing.  This had a great influence in my decision to go back to teaching music.

As I shared my decision to go back to teaching, I received a tremendous outpouring of support and words of encouragement.  I joked with some friends and coworkers about how I wondered if I had been a teacher of a different subject (other than music), would the reaction be the same.  "Hey everyone, I am going back to teaching grammar," doesn't quite have the same heartfelt warmth to it as "Hey everyone, I am going back to teaching music!" (No offense to grammar teachers, I had to pick something.)

I am excited for the new year and for the first time in a long time I feel balanced.  You can expect to see some regular posts starting again.  I know I will be looking forward to posting on how I use  technology in music and the classroom. (wow has technology changed for the classroom and music in 12 years, so many cool things!).

On the Path to 26.2

Three months ago, I started on the journey to complete the Modesto Marathon.  Many of the things I have learned throughout the training can be applied to life.

Surround yourself with others like you
Everyone that I spoke to about committing to the marathon said that I should join a running group.  I joined ShadowChase Running Club, who happen to be the organizer of the marathon.  This has become my PLC for running.  We share tips, advice, frustrations, and successes during our training.  This has been essential to my success so far.

A goal without a plan is just a dream
ShadowChase put out an excellent training schedule that started back in October.  I have made 90% of these trainings and it has kept me on track to be successful.  I have avoided injury and been able to do things that I never thought possible.

Use the correct tools
"Cotton is rotten."  Those words echo in my mind from that first day of training.  Getting socks, under-gear, and shirts that are moisture wicking have saved me from uncomfortable and painful runner's rash/chafing (do a Google image search...it's bad).  The other item that has saved me has been band aides. Without them my nipples would be rubbed raw (again, a Google image search if you really need any convincing).

Current Progress
Since October, I have logged almost 275 miles running.  In the last month I have run 2 half marathons and a 16 mile run.  I am anxious for the upcoming 18, 20, and 22 mile runs.  However, back in October I was anxious for the 10, 12, and 13 mile runs that just occurred and I know I can do that now.  I also thought I would never say, "It's only 10 miles this week."

The grind has hit hard

It has been a struggle to sit down to write with the start of a new year in a new role occupying my time.  I missed last weeks post about educational leadership and I missed this week's open topic post.  This three day weekend will give me a chance to adjust and get back in to a productive cycle.

Wi-Fi for All, 5 Things to Consider

I recently read the post on Edudemic, "We Get Wi-Fi With Our Coffee, Why Not Our Schools?" and breathed a sigh of relief.  My district had finally taken the bold necessary step of providing district wide WiFi for students and staff to start this year.

We recently received a QZAB 'grant' that paid for quite a few technology pieces in our districts master technolgoy plan.  Included in that purchase was 910 chromebooks.  The backbone for this project, however, was district wide WiFi.  The Chromebooks required it and we needed to move into the 21st century. Here are 5 things to consider to consider with WiFi:

Get IT specialists involved early
We are lucky enough to consult and work with a local IT company.  They helped us make the connections with manufacturers who then sent engineers out to our sites to get a fully customized WiFi infrastructure. This partnership resulted in a comprehensive system that should cover our needs for at least 10+ years.

What do you want to be able to do?
Because we got IT specialists involved early, we were able to distill the essence of what we were trying to accomplish.  Knowing that we wanted Chromebooks, BYOD, and guest access provided the crucial elements in the decision making process.  I can't tell you how many times I wanted to scream when the question, "what do you want to be able to do?" was asked.  Without it, however, we would have ended up with something we couldn't use or overpay for something we would never use.

Plan for density as well as coverage
Coverage is not enough anymore.  We estimate that we will have 5 devices per person in our district within the next 5 years.  For a district our size, that resulted in almost 15,000 connections for employees and students.  This means we needed density.  Consumer based routers are going to 'melt' under a tenth of that kind of load.  We placed density access points (APs) in key locations where we knew use would be the heaviest.  Our system allows us the flexibility of swapping out APs as our need for density increases for years to come.

Security
Businesses use enterprise level WiFi security.  Schools are businesses; our business is facilitating ensuring student learning. Schools need enterprise level WiFi security.  Don't skimp on security. Without properly secured WiFi, you run the risk of opening your entire network (including confidential information) to anyone who accesses it.

Sticker shock
Boy oh boy did we have sticker shock.  WiFi is not cheap.  Once we were able to apply appropriate education discounts and identify our maximum budget, the manufacturer worked with us to meet our needs. This is an investment in our infrastructure much like a desk, chair, or building is an investment in education. Have a dollar amount in mind and work within it for the best possible solution for you.

Creating and Sustaining Healthy School Culture

Recently, I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Anthony Muhammad (@newfrontier21) speak to a group of about 400 educators from Stanislaus County.  Impressively he asked that everyone keep their electronic devices out during the day because “this was the 21st century.”  Uncharacteristically for me I decided to go low-tech and take pen and paper notes because I didn’t want to be self distracted from the conversation of the day.  Some of what follows is what I would have tweeted had I chose to.

The focus of the day was creating healthy school culture.  He preceded the conversation by setting the stage for change.  He asked the audience to explain to a neighbor why we got into education.  Unsurprisingly, yet still enlightening, was the common thread of ethical and moral reasons people shared.  He further emphasized the moral imperative for education by stating, “We don’t manufacture farm equipment; we don’t harvest crops; we don’t manufacture devices.  We develop lives.  When we don’t do something right we have collateral damage.”

Dr. Muhammad spoke to the “hard facts” involved in creating healthy school culture:

Hard Fact #1 - Human beings are complex

Working with people at a school site involves the skills from at least seven different disciplines such as anthropology, history, and political science.

Hard Fact #2 - You can’t hold people accountable for what you haven't made explicit

Be clear and specific with your expectations and then share those expectations with colleagues.  You will probably have to negotiate the expectations for reasonableness.

Hard Fact #3 - A highly frustrated staff is a highly unproductive staff

Dr. Muhammad explained that frustration is the root of a toxic culture.  Frustration can’t be entirely eliminate, but rather, it must be managed.

Hard Fact #4 - Being correct is no substitute for being effective

Far too often we fight to be right rather than fight to be effective.  He added, “Data is not condemnation, data is information.”  Far too often we ignore the data staring us in the face because we have a need to be correct.

I had some favorite quotes from the day that stand on their own:

“Improvement should be the inherent desire regardless of pressure”

“Change is the gateway to improvement”

“Culture eats structure for breakfast”

Invoking Dr. Martin Luther King, “What is the first thing that has to be done when the lights are turned off; acknowledge that the lights are turned off.”

“It doesn't take a great leader to identify proficiency”

“Support must precede accountability.  Support without accountability ends up as an entitlement.”

“Human beings will improve education”

“Adult drama equals a waste of talent and resources”

“You are hurting the lives of children when you focus on being a drama queen or a drama king.”

“It’s easy to look out a window and identify what is right and wrong; the difficulty is looking in the mirror and doing the same thing.”