Source: Arkus Private Investigators
Archive for June 24, 2019
Classcraft Launches “Story Mode” And Debuts Season 1 Trailer at ISTE 2019
Posted in Commentary with tags Classcraft on June 24, 2019 by itnerdAt ISTE 2019, Classcraft will premiere the trailer for “Classcraft: Season 1,” an episodic adventure that helps K-12 teachers engage and motivate students by harnessing the power of storytelling. Classcraft, a Google for Education Premier Partner, provides tools to measure and promote student motivation that are used by more than 5 million students and educators.
Classcraft: Season 1 will premiere during Back to School 2019, with a new episode released each month. Teachers can use it as a year-long adventure to complement their existing lessons, creating deeper student engagement.
You can watch the trailer for Season 1 here.
Classcraft: Season 1 is a part of Classcraft’s new “Story Mode,” which is designed to help teachers improve student engagement, foster a positive school climate, and promote social emotional learning (SEL) through a series of ready-made stories set within the Classcraft world.
By providing a set of plug-and-play stories that align to class objectives, Story Mode allows teachers to harness the power of storytelling without having to spend time crafting their own narratives.
Classcraft: Season 1, which explores themes of self-discovery and the value of human relationships through a year-long adventure story, will premiere during Back to School 2019. New episodes will be released each month. The Season 1 trailer was created and animated by Classcraft’s Storytelling team of writers, designers, and illustrators, who have been recognized for their work at video game studios such as EA and Gameloft. The trailer features an original orchestral score by award-winning film composer Garth Stevenson.
Classcraft unveils a new look
Last week, Classcraft introduced a new logo that reflects its goal of making the power of games accessible to all teachers and students.
For the story of how the new logo came to be, read a blog post from Classcraft co-founders Shawn, Devin, and Lauren Young.
The all-new Classcraft Ambassador Program
At ISTE 2019, Classcraft will officially unveil its all-new Ambassador Program. Classcraft Ambassadors are a group of passionate teachers inspiring and supporting other educators with Classcraft, from their schools to communities all around the world.
Educators interested in sharing their Classcraft story, connecting with other educators, and helping Classcraft have a deeper impact for the millions of students using it are invited to submit an application or visit Classcraft at ISTE Booth #2030 to learn more.
All things Classcraft at ISTE 2019
For a complete guide to Classcraft’s activities at ISTE 2019 — including speaker sessions, a Nintendo Switch giveaway, and the Classcraft AR Experience, take a look at their ISTE round-up announcement.
The Cycle For Sight….. How My Wife And I Spent A Saturday To Help To End Blindness
Posted in Commentary on June 24, 2019 by itnerdThis past Saturday, my wife and I rode the Cycle For Sight event here in Toronto. Well, it’s actually in Loretto Ontario which is about 70 minutes north of Toronto. But that’s close enough. You’ll recall that I was soliciting donations from the readers of this blog as I know that I have a very loyal following of people who would be interested in helping to end blindness. And boy did you come through. But before I get to that, let me get to the event.
My wife and I got up very early to drive out to the start and finish point of the ride which was the Sheldon Creek Dairy in Loretto Ontario. Their claim to fame is that they make incredibly fresh milk including A2 milk which is better for lactose intolerant people.
That’s a side shot of the one of the buildings on the dairy farm along with a shot of my Road bike which has had some major upgrades this year which I will talk about in a separate story on Wednesday.
Now this is what visitors get to see when they drive into the dairy farm. The small hut on the right sells ice cream. The bigger building sells milk and milk products.
Events like these never go off without a ton of volunteers to do everything from registering participants to doing bike repairs. They work really hard under these tents and if you go to an event like this you should take a moment to say thanks.
Here are the riders in the 50K group that we were riding in. There were also 30K, 100K and 130K distances that were on offer depending on your fitness and skill level. You’ll notice that most are wearing the same jersey. You get a jersey if you raise $600 or more as an individual (as you can raise money part of a team as well which is what my wife and I did). Now my wife and I did raise more than $600 each so we each got a jersey. But we didn’t wear them in the event as we wanted to wear our Velocity Cycling Club clothing as it would make us easier to spot each other as the starts of these events tend to be a bit chaotic and it is easy for a group to get separated during that chaos.
One unique part of this event is that Trailblazers Tandem Cycling Club was here. They are a registered charity, provides recreational cycling to people who have limited or no vision, the opportunity to cycle with sighted volunteers on their tandems. That was really cool to see as I have never participated in a cycling event with tandems before.
Just after 10AM we were off for 50K…. Well it actually came out to 50K of cycling on a very nice June day on Ontario country roads. Here’s the start of the event via the Instagram feed of Sheldon Creek Dairy:
The course was challenging as it was filled with rolling hills. But it wasn’t over the top and if you had a decent amount of fitness, you should be able to complete the course. To make sure that my wife and I stayed hydrated, we each carried a bottle of water and a bottle of Skratch Labs Hydration Mix which ensures that your electrolytes stay topped up. We also had our respective choices of energy bars and I also took some gel packs which will give an instant shot of energy if we needed it. The course was challenging as I mentioned, not just because of the hills, but also because of the wind as in a few places we faced crosswinds that were pretty strong. But we did out best to power through. Speaking of we…..
Here’s a shot of my wife wearing the Velocity Cycling Club clothing pushing up one of the many uphill sections. I should note that taking a picture and cycling at the same time is something that only experienced cyclists should do as things can go really wrong if you’re not careful. But back to the uphill sections. There were many uphill sections as this shot from Strava illustrates:
That’s a lot of up and down over 52K. In terms of how we did, here’s a shot of the result from my Strava account:
That’s a hard 2.5 hours of work. But totally worth it as thanks to your help, we raised this amount:
Thanks very much to all who helped to raise $2025 which when combined with other riders who participated amounted to this:
That’s a lot of money that will go towards research that will hopefully put and end to blindness. Again thanks everyone and we’ll see you next year as we’ll be back to do our part to ensure that blindness is a thing of the past.
UPDATE: I just had someone who read this story donate to the cause. Here’s the new total:
Thanks so much!
Trend Micro Discovers Cyberespionage Campaign Targeting Middle Eastern Countries
Posted in Commentary with tags Trend Micro on June 24, 2019 by itnerdTrend Micro announced that they uncovered a cyberespionage campaign targeting Middle Eastern countries. Now referred to as “Bouncing Golf” based on the malware’s code in the package named “golf”, the malware involved is notable for its wide range of cyberespionage capabilities.
Monitoring the command and control (C&C) servers used by Bouncing Golf, Trend Micro has so far observed more than 660 Android devices infected with GolfSpy. Much of the information being stolen appear to be military related.
What started out as a threat to Middle Eastern countries is likely to increase and diversify. To deep dive into what this means for the mobile threat landscape worldwide, learn best practices to protect users and understand how organizations should ensure that they balance mobility and security, please read the full report here.
Leave a comment »