Teach a man to Phish...

Hey, you... blog reader... can you hear me now?

Yes?  Good!  I have a question for you...

Every hear the old joke...

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day - teach him to fish and... his spouse will yell at him for all the wasted time!!

But seriously, Phishing - the attempt to get information out of someone by tricking them online (see my blog post "Gone Phishing") has gotten so much more sophisticated lately.  As a matter of fact, the latest scam uses your own voice to create a false transaction record for telephone marketing!!

Let me explain...

You answer your phone and a telemarketer asks "can you hear me?"  

You answer "Yes!"  

Bang... they have you!!

Now even though you don't buy anything, they take your "Yes" - which they have recorded... you know, the opening line... This call is recorded for quality control - and create a whole phone conversation that never took place.  It sounds something like this... "Hello Mr/Mrs/Ms Soandso, I am Dewe Cheetem and this call is being recorded for quality control.  It's a bit noisy, can you hear me? (You Say YES) GREAT! Would you like to buy a full sized sedan for only $55,000 for 200 hundred monthly payments? (They put your recorded "YES" in here)."  So, when you get your bill and you challenge the charges, they play the recording back to you.

Now, of course, this is fraud, but most people are so embarrassed that they never inform the police.

So, what do I recommend you do?  Well, as the police and the BBB recommends - just hang up!  Yep, don't say anything!  If you don't know the person, just hang up!

CBS News did an excellent piece on this topic and you can watch the segment here.

And while you are at it... re-read this blog post and check out how false news stations are now making news!

Bottom line... be very careful and keep your wits about you. 

Can you hear me NOW?

Yossie

Yossie Frankel

Tech Specialist - CIJE

Checkout my blog: www.technorebbe.com

Twitter @yossiefrankel

YouTube Channel: YossieFrankelChannel
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/yossiefrankel

Time won't give me time (with apologies to Culture Club)

So much to do, so little time, and - before you know it - a whole week has gone by!

Last week was one great big airplane ride for me.  I started in New York at the CIJE headquarters on Broadway (If you are a CIJE school, just wait until you see some of the new material we are working on - it will blow your mind!!), mid-week back in LA to livestream Rabbi Sufrin's Parenting and Parasha Class, then a quick stop for food poisoning (boy was I sick!!)  and ending up in Boca Raton for the Consortium of Jewish Day Schools (COJDS) Southwest Regional Conference on how to "Be the Best Educator You Can Be!"

In Boca, I had the honor to be the opening presenter, and in keeping with my ongoing LIVE Webcast Series, my presentation was entitled: "Full STEAM Ahead! How to Immediately Enhance Your Classroom with 21st Century Techniques" 

Here is a picture from the session...

(Notice the KUBI mid picture by my hands... we had a whole crew joining us - fully interactive - live!  See this blog post for more info on the KUBI)

So, you may ask, what is the next event on Yossie's schedule?

Why, the LIVE Webcast next Wednesday, January 25th at 4PM PST of course!!

Please join me and my special guest, Rabbi Aryeh Hoffman - Director of Katz Corner (Brain Space) at Cheder Menachem in Los Angeles, CA - as we discuss Rabbi Hoffman's out-of-the-box approach to maximizing teaching time in a science curriculum that only schedules 1 hour every three weeks for science class!  

If you have ever faced the issue of not having enough time in your curriculum to offer quality, in-depth coverage of a course, this LIVE Webcast is a must for you to attend!

https://youtu.be/GwEXOhmAP54

As always, I solicit you comments on the blogsite.

See you next week!

Yossie

Yossie Frankel

IT Director - Shalhevet High School

Checkout my blog: www.technorebbe.com

Twitter @yossiefrankel

YouTube Channel: YossieFrankelChannel
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/yossiefrankel

For the love of STEAM!! (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math)

It's a new year, so I though that I should start it off with a bit of a confession...

As well as being a techno-geek, I am also an animation nut!!

It was in high school that I fell in love with the three main types of animation (of that time... Hey! I am "well seasoned!" what do you want from me! :-) and took classes on  on Cell/Hand Drawn, Motion Graphics and Stop-motion animation.  Now we have 2D and 3D CGI (Computer Generated Images) that create fully animated worlds, but my first love is, and will always be, stop-motion animation.  My very first creation was sand based, done to a song from the then brand new Pink Floyd - The Wall - album.  I shot it with super 8mm film on an animation rig that I made in my garage.  Ah, the memories!!

Imagine my "geeked-out" excitement when I heard about Chase Me, a stop-motion animation that was done using 3D Printing!!!  Please, You MUST take the next 2 minutes and 55 seconds to watch this masterpiece!!

(Click her to watch video)

Amazing, YES??

The way the director did this was to first create a full CGI video using 3D animation software.  Then he took all of the frames and used a 3D printing technique called SLA (Stereolithography - using the affordable desktop "prosumer" Form1+ 3D printer from Formlabs) to fashion 2500 stop-motion elements.  Then the fun part - animating the film, frame by frame!  

This is the ultimate in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) education!! 

Imagine this as a course of studies in your school... Students learn the art of film making and using 3D modeling/animation software. They then create the parts needed using the latest in 3D printing!  Synchronizing the music, film the movie, working as a team, managing time in a school schedule and the joy and pride in presenting their work - all of the 21st Century Educational modalities in one place!!!

Here is a very short (1 minute, 51 seconds) "Making Of" video.  You should give this one a watch as well...

(Click here to watch video)

Well, what do you think?  Can you see my point about STEAM education?

As always, I solicit your comments on the blogsite.

Regards...

Yossie

Yossie Frankel

Tech Specialist - CIJE

Checkout my blog: www.technorebbe.com

Twitter @yossiefrankel

YouTube Channel: YossieFrankelChannel
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/yossiefrankel