214 Helpdesk

21st Century Skills Concepts

Administrator — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:15:26 +0000

Want to learn some basics about 21st Century Skills? Atomic Learning has an entire section of video content devoted to 21st Century Skills.

Check it out.

Atomic Learning

Administrator — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:11:12 +0000

District 214 has a subscription to Atomic Learning that is accessible from computers inside the district network. This resource provides hundreds of training videos for Mac or PC topics including application-specific content. There is content on the latest operating systems including Leopard, Snow Leopard and Windows 7. For self-paced learning, please visit the Atomic Learning site by using this custom URL:

http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/tutorials/.

Tips on Keeping Children Safe Online

Administrator — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:42:26 +0000

US-Cert has published an informative article on keeping children safe online. Read it here.

Tips on Safeguarding Your Data

Administrator — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:40:53 +0000

Read these tips on safeguarding your data from US-Cert.

District 214 Website Relaunched Today

Administrator — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:01:08 +0000

The District 214 has been launched with a totally new design:
http://www.d214.org/

District Moodle Site

Administrator — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:56:51 +0000

The URL for the district Moodle site is:

http://moodle.d214.org/

Please update your links if they are pointing to the old site.

Moodle Off to a Big Start for 2009-2010

Administrator — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:57:51 +0000

Moodle is District 214’s Course Management System (CMS) that allows students (and staff members) to participate in online learning. Moodle usage has increased significantly during the past year since the system was upgraded to version 1.9, integrated with District 214’s NetID accounts and Course Information databases and heavily promoted by District Academic Technology Coordinators. Moodle is an Open Source CMS that has very low costs compared with other similar systems that are very expensive. The main financial benefit for District 214 in using Open Source software is that there are no costly licensing fees required for using the software and there is a large community of users who are actively involved in supporting and updating the software on a regular basis to ensure that bugs are handled quickly and that new features are added to the code. By deploying Moodle on existing hardware, the only costs involved are for the time required to maintain the system which is minimal. The main educational benefit for District 214 is that Moodle is easy to use and supports a variety of learning opportunities for both staff and students in the district. As an online learning system, Moodle makes it easy to conduct complete online learning opportunites as well as blended courses.

The developers of Moodle have always had for their focus the goal of “giving educators the best tools to manage and promote learning”. As of this posting, there are more than 766,245 registered users on the official Moodle website, comprising a community of users from more than 203 countries.

So far, as the 2009-2010 school year has started, there are more than 7,500 users and more than 500 courses available online through the district Moodle site. More teachers are becoming familiar with the possibilities of Moodle and are using the tool to manage courses and to provide for ongoing conversations and collaboration during off-hours. For more information about Moodle, visit their site at http://moodle.org. For more information about deploying a Moodle course at District 214 contact your friendly, neighborhood Academic Technology Coordinator (ATC).

Shopping Safely Online

Administrator — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:47:07 +0000

Shopping online is a convenient way to shop but it’s important to be aware of some of the risks. This Cyber Security Tip explains the risks and offers suggestions for protection.

Dealing with Cyberbullies

Administrator — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:25:53 +0000

The latest Cyber Security Tip discusses the problem of cyberbullying and how to protect yourself. Read more here.

Cybersecurity Extends Beyond Computers

Administrator — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:33:42 +0000

The latest Cyber Security Tip from US-Cert discusses how cybersecurity extends to various electronic devices, not just to desktop or laptop computers. Read more to learn some basic cybersecurity tips.