Archived Information

Information Services
Massachusetts Online Network for Education (MassONE)

Welcome back to school!

As you begin the new school year, it's a good time to think about how you can help students develop the skills they will need to succeed in the 21st century. MassONE exists to help you and your students develop those skills. With the rapid growth of online learning and collaboration in the realms of higher education and business, you can give your students a head start by exposing them to MassONE.

New technology standards available

In April, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved the Massachusetts Technology Literacy Standards and Expectations. You can access and search these new standards in MassONE. After you have logged in, just click "Curriculum Tools" from the toolbar on the left and then click "Search academic frameworks."

MassONE's Acceptable Use Policy

Like the real world, the virtual world offers wonderful opportunities for learning, as well as opportunities for getting into trouble. With the start of a new school year, it's a good idea to talk to your students about how to be safe and ethically sound when using online resources. Take time to review MassONE's Acceptable Use Policy, as well as your district's policy before beginning an online project.

MassONE has some terrific resources on online safety, provided by NetSmartz. They include videos, computer activities, real-life stories, and activity cards--all geared to specific age groups. NetSmartz also has a teacher training program. To access these resources, click the icon for Teaching Learning Resources (TLR) on the left side of the MassONE screen. Then scroll down to NetSmartz Internet Safety Resources.

Setting up student accounts

Classroom teachers can create student accounts by simply rostering students into their classroom workgroup. The roster tool allows teachers to search for the names of students in their school, select the names, and then add them to the workgroup. The tool will also produce a list of students' usernames and passwords.

Note, that in order to maintain efficiency in MassONE's operations, MassONE requires that students be in grade 5 or higher in order to be eligible for an account.

MassONE identifies virus-infected files

MassONE's antivirus software has been upgraded. MassONE can now identify users who have uploaded files with viruses. In most cases MassONE's antivirus software will repair the file. If the file cannot be "healed," the file will be deleted.

If the file is deleted, MassONE will notify the user (for educator accounts) and/or school administrator (for student accounts). If you have any questions regarding this issue, please contact the MassONE Helpdesk.

Back up your files

If you are storing important files on MassONE's Virtual Hard Drive, it's a good idea to store copies of those files on another system, such as your own hard drive, a CD, or your school's network. Then, if anything happens, you will not have lost any files.

Keep your MassONE profile up to date

It's important to keep your MassONE profile up to date. Your profile includes your email address. If your profile does not have your current email address, you will not be able to receive email from MassONE, which means that you will not be able to use the password reset tool.

To update your profile, log into MassONE and click the "profile" icon at the top of the screen. To change your email address, click "personal data," enter the new email address, and click "update profile." You can also use the profile tool to change your password.

New features in lesson plan tool

If you haven't used the MassONE Lesson Plan Tool in a while, check out these features! The Tool leads you through the process of creating a lesson plan, prompting you to include all of the information you will need. In the "Alignment to Standards" section, you can search the Massachusetts frameworks (including the new technology standards) and then have them automatically inserted into your lesson plan. The "Assessments" section includes a link to previous MCAS questions, which you can paste into your plan. Finally, the "Instructional Strategies" section links to the Thinkfinity web site, which offers thousands of standards-based resources. You can add links or copied text from Thinkfinity to your plan.

To access the tool, log into MassONE and select "Curriculum Tools" from the tool bar on the left. Then click "View and create lesson plans." After you have created a lesson plan, the Tool will save it so you can edit it later. You can also convert your lesson plan to a PDF document that you can share with your colleagues.

Report on Moodle pilot project

In 2007-2008, eight districts received grants through the Partnership for Online Professional Development (POPD) to develop and teach online courses through MassONE. These districts piloted the use of Moodle, an open source course management system, within the MassONE environment. The project's spring 2008 evaluation report indicates that the vast majority of educators were pleased with the quality online courses. In addition, they liked the opportunity to share ideas with educators from other schools. The complete report is available at http://www.doe.mass.edu/edtech/grants/fy08/popd.html

Did you forget your MassONE username or password?

If you misplaced your username or password, you can quickly and easily retrieve them anytime. To do so, just go to MassONE's home page and click "Forgot Username or Password?" To provide security, MassONE uses a two-step process. First you need to provide some basic information, along with a new password. Then MassONE will instantly email you a secure link, along with your user name and password. When you click the link in the email, your password is reset. You should do this as soon as possible, because the link expires after 24 hours. For security reasons the password reset tool cannot be made available to students. To reset a student's password, choose your classroom workgroup, click on the "Admin" icon at the top of the screen, and then click "Reset Password."

Tools for learning about MassONE

If you'd like to know more about how to use MassONE's tools, there are several resources that can help. Once you have logged into MassONE, look for these resources:

• On the main announcements page, there are links to the MassONE Quickguide and the Student Quickguide. These quick tutorials will help you get up and running.
• For more in-depth information on using MassONE in teaching, you can take the MassONE Orientation. To access it, click the TLR in the menu bar on the left. Then click "Online Courses" and then "MassONE Orientation."
• For help with specific tools, you can use the MassONE Help tutorials. To access them, click the Help icon in the toolbar at the top of the screen. Then select the topic.

Help using MassONE

If you need help with a problem, start by contacting your district's MassONE Admin. A list of Admins is posted on the MassONE web site at: http://massone.mass.edu/Admins/list.html. If your district doesn't have a MassONE Admin, or if the Admin is unable to resolve your problem, you can contact the MassONE Help Desk at MassONEHelp@doe.mass.edu or 781-338-3020.

Back issues of newsletters

If you missed any previous issues of the MassONE newsletter, you can now find them on the MassONE web site. To access them, click MassONE News Archives on the MassONE home page.