Information Services
Massachusetts Online Network for Education (MassONE)

MassONE Newsletter - September 2010

Welcome back to school!

MassONE is ready when you are! Read on to get some tips and news to help you take advantage of MassONE's resources as you begin the new school year. MassONE enables communication, collaboration, and sharing among educators, students, and ESE staff---creating ONE statewide community.

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.

Resources for teaching online safety

MassONE has some terrific resource collections for teaching about online safety. The Cyber Security Toolkit offers a variety of reproducible materials and videos designed for administrators, educators, students, and parents. The NetSmartz Internet Safety Resources 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 Cyber Security Toolkit and NetSmartz Internet Safety Resources.

Updated TSAT available soon

The Technology Self Assessment Tool, or TSAT, allows teachers to determine their own levels of technology proficiency and professional development needs. Thanks to the state's Educational Technology Advisory Council, the TSAT (for educators), has been updated so that it aligns with the Massachusetts Technology Literacy Standards and Expectations (for students).

The TSAT is available as a spreadsheet and as an interactive tool on MassONE. The interactive tool makes it possible for administrators to access aggregated data from their teachers in order to better focus their professional development efforts. For more information, see the TSAT page on the ESE web site (http://www.doe.mass.edu/edtech/standards/sa_tool.html).

The new TSAT will be launched on MassONE on September 30. At that time, any existing district data will be deleted. If you have data that you want to save, be sure to download it prior to September 30.

New resources from Teachers' Domain

Teachers' Domain recently launched a new collection on Financial Capability (http://www.teachersdomain.org/special/fin10/). The collection is designed to engage students in financial awareness, economic empowerment, and personal responsibility by addressing topics such as saving, investment, credit cards, and entrepreneurship.

Teachers' Domain, which is produced by WGBH, offers free access to more than 2,600 classroom-ready media tools, including video clips, interactive activities, and lesson plans--all aligned with the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks. For more information about Teachers' Domain, including how to access it through MassONE, see the June MassONE newsletter (http://massone.mass.edu/newsletter/10Jun.html).

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.

Online Thinkfinity Course

A new online course was offered over the summer to prepare Massachusetts educators to become Verizon Thinkfinity trainers for their school districts. Verizon Thinkfinity offers an online portal that provides over 55,000 educational resources, including standards-based, grade-specific, K-12 lesson plans and interactive tools and materials. Fifteen teachers took the course through MassONE Moodle, and they will be able to start training teachers to integrate Thinkfinity resources into their teaching in the fall.

The 45-hour online course will be offered again soon. The course is designed for educators who have a deep knowledge of the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks, experience in the use of technology resources in their classrooms, and experience in providing professional development for other teachers. If you are interested in taking the course so that you can provide training for your district, contact April Graziano at aaj.graziano@verizon.net.

For more information about Thinkfinity's resources and professional development opportunities, see the Massachusetts Verizon Thinkfinity Partnership page on ESE's web site (http://www.doe.mass.edu/edtech/teacher/thinkfinity.html).

MassONE evaluation underway

ESE has contracted Learning Innovations at WestEd to perform an evaluation of MassONE. The purpose of this evaluation is to help define the future direction of the state's investment in online collaboration and learning tools for public school educators and students. The evaluation will include interviews and focus groups with district administrators, teachers, students, and ESE staff, including users and non-users of MassONE. If you use MassONE regularly, you may receive a request for an interview with the evaluators. Results of the evaluation will be published in the winter.

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."

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.