How do you do it?

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Permalink Reply by Sandra Wozniak on August 20, 2010 at 1:25pm

It is not easy! Some sites, like glogster- allow you to create a bunch of accounts and then you give the kids a username and password and then they can change it. Some sites like the SCAN tool on www.tregoed.com lets you set up a session for the kids and they log in with usernames (initials are linked to usernames just for the teacher's eyes). Some sites, like gaggle.net...allows you to set up accounts for your kids. Edmodo.com has you set up a class and then they log in with the class code to go in and participate. A colleague of mine sets up a yahoo e mail account for the class to use and they all log in and blog with that. Hope this helps! Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Rita Oates on August 21, 2010 at 5:18am

Use http://edu.glogster.com/ so you get the educational version and can see other student work. Don't use the general glogster site, which has too much stuff inappropriate for K-4 students.
(On the main Glogster site, they have recently added a link at the upper right, "Hey, Teacher! This way to Glogster EDU.")

EDU basic is free for up to 100 students and one teacher. It has advertising so it can be free to use.
EDU premium has a monthly fee, or a special offer of $59 for a year, and also bulk purchase for multiple teachers. It has no ads and offers some management features for classrooms,

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Horst on August 20, 2010 at 3:48pm

Thanks for the Edmodo link, I think that has a lot of elements that I would like to use. I have approximately 325 students K-4, and 140 of those are 3-4...I would like to get something like Edmoto started and get them to share on there.

I tried the singular login a while ago for a class and got too little control, and had kids sending messages like "I hate you" etc. even after we specifically talked about that.... :)

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Permalink Reply by Sandra Wozniak on August 20, 2010 at 7:11pm

I taught a 6th grade class called 21st Century Skills, netiquette was an important part. I had the kids do a "practice" discussion on "todaysmeet.com" We watched a movie and "discussed it" (using questions as prompts) on Today's meet. I could print it out, we could discuss what was appropriate, etc. Edmodo was a great place to have kids "discuss" issues.

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Permalink Reply by Alline Sada on August 20, 2010 at 9:51pm

I use the "guest method"... Open Public Wikis, 4-5 accounts per classroom under my name, they transfer files to my USB and I upload them. It's not easy at all, but that just makes us discover a whole bunch of new places.

Some of your students are young enough that they will enjoy many of the Doodle Pads and Photo Editors on Noggin and Disney, you don't need logins for that and they can always print or email to you. Try out Shidonni, full of creative tools for kids and login-free (http://www2.shidonni.com/primarygames/)

You will find more ideas here:
Directory of Educational Resources on the Web
http://www.alline.org

PS. I did a Quick little lesson with my students this week, no passwords or emails....
Collaborative Stickies + Photo Booth from Mac - amazing stuff happens!
Feelings, verbs, nouns - the kids act vocabulary words, take a pic with effects and upload as a guest. Here's the trick, they shouldn't repeat. Toooo much fun!
http://www.stixy.com

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Permalink Reply by Dr LaPrairie on August 20, 2010 at 10:27pm

Here is a trick. Get a gmail account for yourself. Then assign each student a number. Now add + and the students number to the end of your gmail address. For example, if your gmail is Horst@gmail.com - student number ones email would be Horst+1@gmail.com. The student can then use this email to set up accounts but they will not actually have access to an email account. Instead, you will receive any email that is sent to the Horst+1@gmail.com address. You can just keep adding numbers for as many students as you have. I use this all the time. It works for most sites.

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Permalink Reply by Alline Sada on August 20, 2010 at 10:52pm

Awesome trick, I'm definitely trying that next time!

Thanks for sharing!

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Rita Oates on August 21, 2010 at 5:00am

What's the difference between using an email system designed specifically for K-12 use, with teacher monitoring features, and a mass market email system NOT designed for education? It's a lot of hassles to set up a general email account with +1 after teacher name -- and you still don't have the teacher monitoring functions, plus a failure to protect student data and privacy.
Your IT staff at the district level are going to look for things like TRUSTe certification. That's an independent statement that a website is observing and protecting student privacy, and you typically see the TRUSTe logo displayed on the bottom of the screen of websites that have met this rigorous standard.
NYC public schools recently announced they are providing all students and faculty with SchoolMail from ePals, as the outcome of an RFP for district-wide communications and collaboration solution. It's free and doesn't have embedded ads (as some free products do). It has TRUSTe certification. It has teacher monitoring features, which also allow you to do some alternative assessment.
Here's blogger Chris Dawson's take on this announcement: http://zd.net/bvmngS

You can sign up yourself for an account, or a bulk registration for the students in your two buildings, at: www.epals.com.

Some of the collaborations happening are a grade 1 class in Wisconsin with a Chinese grade 1 class learning English; a grade 1 class in New York with a grade 1 class in Brazil, and a kindergarten classes in Atlanta, Paris, Lithuania, Russia, etc. collaborating with a school in Hong Kong to create "Ming the Minibus" books...a tour of "our community" by the minibus common in Hong Kong. See a video explaining this and project description: http://www.epals.com/media/p/234736.aspx

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