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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>



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