elementary student emails

Well, I got no response to my first question here. I'll try once more, with a different question.

I am new to web 2.0 and loving the things I have experience so far. I am ready to go and try things with my class, but wondering if it's safe/appropriate for kids to sign up to various sites if they are 11 years old. They all have school email accounts, so does that's not a problem.

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Cindy London on March 31, 2009 at 4:36am

I teach 9-10 year olds in an independent school in Pennsylvania. We/I have had good and difficult experiences with the students and the various web opportunities out there. Actually, more turmoil with parents. We have found that we need to slow down just a bit, gather a reasoned approach, and bring the families into the education-experience process.

I wonder what sort of sites you are considering. When I listen to the over-lunch chat among the kids I am sometimes amazed and surprised at what they do on line at home.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Colleen Laymon on March 31, 2009 at 7:10am

If you screen their email before the students read it, I would allow them to sign up with approved sites. My daughters got spammed pretty heavily with "male enhancement" email and it may have been due to site registration. I would be much more cautious with students.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Linda Fitts on March 31, 2009 at 7:44am

I too am wondering what sites you are thinking of that require sign up. Many sites that are "educational type" do not have a sign up requirment with email. What types of sites are you looking for, this is 5th or 6th grade?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Paul Anderson on March 31, 2009 at 7:53am

If you are in the USA, you have to make sure that you are not violating COPPA. http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/coppafaqs.shtm

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ed on April 1, 2009 at 1:20am

I'm in Australia. I have been exploring the sites from this wiki : cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com
and, just for instance, I like toondoo.com, a comic creator, which has the option for foreign text (eg Hebrew), but it requires you to register with an email adress. Our kids have email accounts but we don't screen their email as it's pretty much all internal school stuff.