Anybody's kids been given school gmail/google accounts?

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scuwp

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#765939 19-Feb-2013 20:37

mattwnz:
scuwp:

Personally I don't have any concerns. This is the way the world is moving, and the kids need to get on board pronto.

True, but our laws haven't kept up. One example is that anything that is published on google + is treated as a 'publication' , so I wonder who is liable for any defamatory comments that maybe made. It does essentially give kids as much as a voice as adults. Also could be used against kids in future jobs, as checking peoples online footprint is what employers now do. A lot of kids do some pretty stupid things from time to time. Once something is online, it's out there forever.
Maybe they should have a google+ / facebook system just for kids, so only people under a certain age can view those posts.

Nice idea, but again open to abuse (e.g. pedo's signing up as a 13 year old looking for a special friend)
I don't think an employer is going to be to concerned about an 11 or 12 year old online comments. What this comes down to is education, much like the old "don't talk to strangers". Kids need to be taught how to use the internet wisely and safely and protect themselves.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

timslim

43 posts

Geek

#765992 19-Feb-2013 21:30

So, this is an interesting thread for me.

Because as the lead/point IT person at my school, we have begun the process of moving our email and calendaring over to Google Apps for Education. Office 365 is also quite well promoted in the edu sector, but the Google Apps for Education is very popular.

Initially it is for staff only - for administration, for collaboration and shared calendaring. But the potential is there for student use. My school is a full primary in Wellington. Goes up to Year 8/Form 2. The plan is that Form 1 and 2/Year 7&8 students will be provided with a school domain email - but hosted by Google.

The addon that staff at Y7&8 will use to manage student accounts is Hapara, http://hapara.com/teacher-dashboard-for-google-apps/

So my question is - as IT folk and as parents - what would your baseline of information be that you would expect to be included from a school.

Would you expect a parent evening introducing the concept?

Would the process outlined on a school wiki/website be useful? Or would you rather an email?

Couple of points to consider.
1. All content created by teachers or staff, unless explicitly stated via a CC license, the copyright remains with the the Board of Trustees of the school.

http://www.tki.org.nz/Copyright-in-Schools/Guidelines-for-schools/For-teachers-and-contractors/Overview-of-copyright-issues#who

2. All content created by students - the copyright remains with them. I assume, this would defer to the parents or primary caregiver, but may be wrong.

http://www.tki.org.nz/Copyright-in-Schools/Guidelines-for-schools/For-principals-and-trustees/Your-students-work

A large number of my Y7&8 students already make use of personal google accounts for writing and researching. They use these accounts in class.

GoogleGirl

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#766560 20-Feb-2013 16:31

I am surprised the school has allowed G+ for the school, I think the restriction is still 13 (and put into EDU for University users) but as it is a free service within Google Apps for EDU they may find they restrict it later.

http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1350409

The benefits of Gmail in the schools is the students create the documents, share them with the teacher, receive comments, collaboration, work form home and school etc.

Teachers Dashboard completes a lot of this sharing with the teacher automatically and gives a grid-like view of the students work on one page. TD also has a nifty add-in that you can monitor a user on a Chromebook while they are working (or add an extn to a browser-only Chrome User) and teachers can ensure they are working and aren't on Google+, facebook, Angry birds etc. Another good thing about TD is that you can easily audit kids email mailboxes, eg if you suspect one is bullying the other then you can set it up so this mail is also copied to the Teachers mailbox as well. (Remember the school owns the domain and all emails, similar to your work environment & this is not currently on the TKI website).
(BTW - I don't sell this)

If there are privacy concerns about how this is used, I say definitely contact the school and ask. They may not think through all the implications but most of it is or can be locked down. Eg - turn Google + off or ask why they enabled this. If they have Google, they can create a webpage for their school with the FAQs or refer people to this TKI.

Gone are the days of Crayons, Encyclopedia's and dog ate my homework. Now it is, Chromebook wouldn't let me login, someone "Phished" my password and then my battery died.

cyril7

9058 posts

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#766566 20-Feb-2013 16:40

Hi Lynda, thanks for your input, so have I detected that you are some sort of Google apps rep, and are you domicile in NZ or elsewhere.

Cheers
Cyril

GoogleGirl

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#766826 21-Feb-2013 09:06

Hi,
Yes, I work for in NZ deploying Google. I have only looked at a few Google Apps for EDU as they are free for schools, but I can see the merits (and concerns).

Don't have any Google insights though, except the new Chromebooks (lighter\cheaper Samsung model) are due in the next month! These are great for schools as they are easy to manage.

:)

Klipspringer

2385 posts

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Inactive user

#766827 21-Feb-2013 09:07

Thanks for all the responses on this everyone.

Just an update. After having a chat to some people, it seems google+ was enabled and should never have been. It has now been disabled. :-)))

Glassboy

850 posts

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#766851 21-Feb-2013 09:34

timslim: So my question is - as IT folk and as parents - what would your baseline of information be that you would expect to be included from a school.

As a Enterprise Arcitect for a core Govt. agency my answer to that question is far too long to go into here

For a short answer, from what I have seen, there are some major governance issues that should be addressed before schools travel further along the lines of moving their students online.

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slartibartfast

61 posts

Master Geek

#766883 21-Feb-2013 10:38

Glassboy:
timslim: So my question is - as IT folk and as parents - what would your baseline of information be that you would expect to be included from a school.

As a Enterprise Arcitect for a core Govt. agency my answer to that question is far too long to go into here

For a short answer, from what I have seen, there are some major governance issues that should be addressed before schools travel further along the lines of moving their students online.

Exactly the answer I'd expect from an Enterprise Architect for a Govt. agency. (joke)

Whilst there are some governance issues - and they should be covered - I don't think they're particularly major. Some sensible decisions by schools on the services they enable for which groups of students is the first step. Good advice from an implementation partner or other schools is probably a good step.

And yes, with Google Apps for Edu you can turn on and off every service, and limit external sharing etc., by groups. Certainly Google+ should be disabled. You can also liberate all your data from Google via the various tools they offer.

There are no ads in the Edu edition and they don't mine your data for advertisers. I think Google gives this away for free partly because everyone seems to for Education, and also because they want to break the hegemony of Microsoft.

This FAQ that might be useful: http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139019

TinyTim

1042 posts

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#766935 21-Feb-2013 11:46

My kids (8 and 6) have been given accounts on their primary school's Google Apps system. Not sure if they have access to G+ - will find out.

TinyTim

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#767273 21-Feb-2013 19:38

TinyTim: My kids (8 and 6) have been given accounts on their primary school's Google Apps system. Not sure if they have access to G+ - will find out.

No G+.

blackjack17

1705 posts

Uber Geek

#767289 21-Feb-2013 20:09

I just made/asked my year 12 bio class make gmail accounts so we can use google docs (yahoo mail doesn't seem to play nice with google docs).

They all after joining the shared folder stated playing with google+ and trying to stalk me (but these are 15-16 year olds)

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