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Thanks for all of the great responses on Gaggle! This was very helpful... I had a lot of requests for a HIT so here it is! ________________________________ We use Gaggle sparingly at our High School. It's okay for those students who really need to email others outside our building, but Gaggle itself is a pain. Because of its free aspect, users receive many unsolicited emails (junk emails). And as the administrator, I receive even more junk emails that are blocked before they get to the students. And, many emails are wrongly blocked and sent to me, so I have to unblock them. To get around the need for email, we've begun using an online course management tool, Moodle. It's free. Students can access their school files at home, and upload files from home to their school account which has taken away most reasons why students needed email before this year. Hope this helps. Elizabeth Van Pate Media Specialist Mancelona Public Schools Mancelona, MI __________________________ I am a technology teacher - 8th graders from sp. ed. to high school credit classes. I have been using Gaggle.net for several years. The filter is very strong and I receive many student emails - some on purpose, but most unintentionally. First, I go over our district's Acceptable Use Policy and elaborate on words that the filter will pick up on and automatically send the emails to me - sucks, bomb, hit, mean, ugly, kill, etc. I discuss how the filter is not "intelligent" and will take these words out of context. I normally have a few students that try to use shortened/altered words for profanity (wtf, biotch) or some just use cuss words to see if I will say anything. I normally talk privately to these students, showing them a printout of the offensive email. That gives them a warning before and during use of the emailing site. I initially told them that another occurrence would result in attaching both of the offensive emails to a office referral. This year, I changed it to removing their account. I do make sure that parents are aware that their child will be using Gaggle and I limit their emails to only other students on our campus - yet another thing I have learned over time. I also read them an article from Reader's Digest (April 2008) that discusses how employers are using Google to check potential employees, use the local news events related to emails, and discuss how our district and other jobs are now having employees sign off on Appropriate Use. I feel students need to learn how to appropriately use email. This is best done by actually doing it. Our state TEKS also state that our students need to use electronic communication, so it is an educational supported activity. I would much rather they learned about it in 8th grade. Real life scenarios: Several Houston Police Dept. employees who were publicly punished and/or fired for inappropriate use this past year. (They used it for supporting their privately own business.) There was also an incident in 07-08 where the Houston DA lost his job over emails. (First he deleted emails requested by the court. The emails they did obtain included information about an affair with an employee and her substantial pay increases while the affair was ongoing.) Local news: Internet pedophiles convicted - Yes, looking at porn at home is not acceptable and your files can be recovered and used against you! I really have very few students who have gotten an office referral or lost their account. It is normally 1-3 per year out of approximately 110-120 students annually. On the positive side, students enjoy the activity, become accustomed to using words that have a positive connotation instead of negative, they learn how to copy/paste in an email and add an attachment. These are valued skills - for high school and college students to share info. and turn in assignments. In addition, I have had several students email me instead of speaking to me about their problems. I was able to refer them to the school counselor and get them some much needed help. So, email is beneficial for developing skills for later employment, fun, educational, and a discrete method for children to seek help for real problems they otherwise would not discuss. I also use ePals.com so students can communicate with other students from another country. We cover lots of email issues prior to giving students any email account. A few of these issues are: knowing the difference between private and personal information, cyber bullying, yelling online, and more. There are free resources online. I hope this helps you out. Beverly Juranek ___________________________________ Steve, My high school library media specialist forwarded your email about student email problems to me. If you are looking for other solutions, I have some ideas. You are dealing with teenagers and they need help and guidance. I see so many districts not allowing students email accounts and banning cell phones, blogs and wikis. Maybe we should think about not letting them have paper and pencils because they might write each other notes. As teachers, administrators, librarians, and others who deal with children in a school environment we have a job to do and that is to educate. A large measure of our job is to teach children to effectively communicate both with adults and with each other. For a long time that communication was either written or spoken-I will leave out art and music for the moment because so much of that is open to interpretation. Today in 2009 we have some phenomenal ways to communicate: email, twitter, blogs, instant messaging, text messaging, etc. and children are into it. However, there are problems with these technologies. We all worry about those unsavory child predators and bullies as we must. However, banning these forms of communication is the wrong way to protect kids. When children are away from school, they are still near cell phones and they can text. In fact, in speaking to many teens I have learned that they prefer texting to almost any other form of communication. I'm willing to bet the email is near the bottom of their preferred list. By banning cell phones in schools we effectively avoid many problems: electronic note passing, cheating, classroom disruptions, bullying etc. However, too many schools think that this has freed them from their responsibility to educate children about texting, sexting, instant messaging, emailing etc. Children today need to learn the difference between face to face communication and a text message. The loss of vocal inflection, facial expression, and body language can all effectively change the meaning of the written word. This should be a big concern for schools but I find few with such programs. Ban the phone and solve the problem is not a good solution. With policies like this school are abdicating their responsibility to educate children. So, if you have an email problem, deal with the offenders-educate-but don't punish all kids by taking their technology away, ditto with cell phones, I-pods, game boys, etc. I ask anyone with problem like this is, "What does your school do to educate students about the appropriate use of electronic communication tools?" Are they aware that people can and sometimes do get fired for emails that they have sent? If they are upset are they taught to calm down before sending an email or text message? There have always been consequences for the physical things kids get involved in (hitting, pushing, etc.) now they need to learn there are consequences for communication (email, texting, etc.) that they are involved in. 2009 is a whole lot different than 1977 when I started teaching. Teachers and administrators need to take a good hard look at how technology is shaping the world at large and schools in particular. The unfortunately part is that most teachers and administrators cannot think out side the 1977 box. I don't see cell phones or email going away anytime soon, so we are going to need to deal with it sooner or later. For the sake of our students I hope it is sooner. Sincerely, Frank Sobierajski Technology Coordinator/Math Teacher ____________________________________ My teachers hate gaggle because they have to approve each and every email sent. We don't have enough accounts to go around so we allow other email and do a lot of cyberbullying mini-lessons. Not enough, but I don't think it is realistic to prevent them from using email. We are supposed to be getting them ready for college and they must submit pretty much everything electronically so we should begin in high school with the use of that method. ___________________________________ Our district is currently using gaggle but we're switching to SharpSchool next fall. Gaggle tends to have lots of problems (sometimes it doesn't work) and the tech people on their end weren't very cooperative. We only give email accounts to kids for school reasons - emailing lessons to each other, staff, sending documents to school from home, etc. They have to request an account or a teacher has to request they be set up with an email account - they're not automatically given. All other outside emails are blocked. Hope this helps. Lori Reynolds, Librarian Bonners Ferry HS Bonners Ferry, ID __________________________________ Another teacher and I use Gaggle.net for email for our classes. There are settings where you can disable the ability for students to do certain activities with their emails. You can set for them to send email to you only, to their group, or to their class, as well as some other settings. I have all email cc'd to me and the students know it, so even though I let them email people in their own class, it has dropped inappropriate emails to zero. I like the system. We use the "free" setup. Kate Hass Librarian Ubly Community Schools Ubly, MI 48475 khass@m3isp.com<mailto:khass@m3isp.com> __________________________________ Hi Steven, If you use an Internet filter such as LightSpeed, your tech might be able to block the student-to-student e-mail transmissions that way. I know my husband's district -- where he's the tech director -- uses LightSpeed, and he is always telling me of little tweaks he can do. I do know that LightSpeed and Outlook don't "play well together," so it might not be possible, but it's worth looking into. If you choose to go a different route, I have used Gaggle.net in the past and was pleased with it. I don't know if they still offer a free account, but that's what I used and never had any need for a subscription. It was very easy to set up and use. Best of luck, Kim L. Kim Thomas Library Media Specialist Leavenworth High School Leavenworth, KS 66048 913.684.1550, ext. 106 Kim.Thomas@usd453.org<mailto:Kim.Thomas@usd453.org> __________________________________ Would you please post a hit of the responses that you get to your question? Our high school is going to start having student email accounts next year, and I am concerned about inappropriate use and how to manage it. We currently allow students to use their personal email accounts (like Gmail) from school, and it hasn't been a problem so far, but I have occasionally noticed students writing email that isn't really appropriate to be sending from school. I worry that this will become a more complicated issue when students are sending such messages from a school-sponsored account. Maybe one solution is some kind of school-wide education on what is appropriate use of school email? (Kind of like the difference between a message you would send on your work email and one from your home email - this would be a good lesson for students, because many employers monitor employee email (or at least have the ability to do so), so they could use this opportunity to learn good habits now. I'm not sure how you would go about implementing the lessons, though...) -Kaia Converse Kaia Converse, Librarian Kodiak High School Kodiak, AK kconverse01@kodiakschools.org<mailto:kconverse01@kodiakschools.org> __________________________________ We do use Gaggle throughout our district. It does have an email alert to administrators when certain words or terms are flagged. It also uses a "digital locker" that students can upload work to and access it from anywhere at home or school. We have very few problems with inappropriate emails after a couple of incidents that spread the word quickly that you will get caught! Terrie Hinojosa, Librarian San Jacinto Intermediate 3600 Red Bluff Pasadena, TX 77503 thinojosa@pasadenaisd.org<mailto:thinojosa@pasadenaisd.org> 713-740-0480 _________________________________ I have used Gaggle in a small student group situation and like it for this very reason. The students still have email but it can be monitored. You can even add words, etc to monitoring list as needed. If you have other questions that I might be able to help with, don't hesitate to ask. Betsy Ruffin librarian-technologist Cleburne (TX) ISD betsy.ruffin@cleburne.k12.tx.us<mailto:betsy.ruffin@cleburne.k12.tx.us> __________________________________ ________________________ Steven Reed - Library Media Specialist Wilmington High School steven.reed@wilmington.k12.oh.us<mailto:steven.reed@wilmington.k12.oh.us> -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. 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