[MACEP] Anyone providing student email?

Sat Jun 16 15:33:55 PDT 2007

Hillsboro Schools provide Outlook email to all students via our Exchange servers. We have for almost ten years. We do use separate Exchange servers for staff and students.
All mails are recorded and stored for a period of time and can be reviewed by IS Admins if requested by a building Admin or Tech. We do block all outside web and PoP email access from within our domain using Websense filtering.
Many staff at the High School level, and more and more at the Middle Schools as well, rely on student email as a way to communicate with their students for reminders about assignments, tests, grades, due dates and many other classroom and school related subjects. That said, there are also many complaints from staff regarding student misuse of email and that it is often just a time waster in computer based classes. Occasionally we will have parent request that their student not have email access, and we comply. We also will terminate individual student email accounts when they violate their user agreements with email.
As someone who teaches all lab based classes and manages my High School's technology I see both side of the issue and do block email access by students in my classes after about the first 5-10 minutes of class because I have found that if they have open email all period long, much less class work gets accomplished. We have been pretty successful using NetSupport School in our labs as a way of monitoring and being selective as to what our student users have access to during instructional time.

Jim Richardson
Technology Coordinator
Liberty High School

________________________________

From: macep-bounces at macep.net on behalf of mannm at ortrail.k12.or.us
Sent: Sat 6/16/2007 1:39 PM
To: macep at macep.net
Subject: Re: [MACEP] Anyone providing student email?

We provide student E-mail accounts upon requests from teachers. They're on the same system as our staff accounts, just a different drive. It's all a web based system so we can monitor if necessary. We do block the free E-mail stuff as it's caused problems. 

Miriam

***********************************************
Miriam Mann, Technology Coordinator
Oregon Trail School District
36520 S.E. Proctor Rd.
Boring, OR 97009
503-668-0939 (voice), 503-668-0723 (fax)
mannm at ortrail.k12.or.us 

John & Peggy Bromley <the.bromleys at verizon.net> 
Sent by: macep-bounces at macep.net 

06/16/2007 11:43 AM 
Please respond to
macep at macep.net

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Re: [MACEP] Anyone providing student email?	

Very good post Paul. Kids must learn web, TM, blog, and email etiquette in schools. Their parents probably can not teach this stuff. They need to know about spam and phishing. Saying that it is too hard to control and we don't want to take the risks is just taking the easy way out. As educatiors, sticking our heads in the sand should not be an option. 

John 
--  
John Bromley 
(503) 668-3332 

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." -----  Will Rogers 

On Jun 16, 2007, at 8:46 AM, Paul Nelson wrote: 

On 6/14/07, charlie irish <irishphoto at verizon.net <mailto:irishphoto at verizon.net> > wrote: 

 We do not provide student e-mail because of our interpretation of CIPA 
which requires that content be filtered and there is not any way to do that 
that we are comfortable with wiuth e-mail. 

There are lots of ways to monitor and protect students online. If you 
are REALLY concerned about protecting them, then you WILL give them 
email access through your school where you can protect them. If you 
don't give them email, they'll get it somewhere else without the help 
and protection the school can provide. 

Do what is best for kids. 

It is easier for schools to not give email to students, but it's not 
what's best for them. 

Oregon standards for technology require this of 5th graders: 
* Demonstrate safe use of 
communication resources 
(e.g. email, web sites, 
chat rooms) 

* Use appropriate email 
etiquette 

Today an email address is an entry ticket to a digital world. It's 
like having a digital identity and membership card to a world of 
information, collaboration and learning. 

If you really just don't know how to provide safe email to students, 
let's discuss those options here on the list. The requirements of CIPA 
are not a roadblock. 

I'm offering solutions to the schools I serve in hopes that they will 
eventually provide email to all students 4th grade and above. One easy 
solution is to use Google mail, run it through your own SMTP server, 
grep for nasty words and delete attachments with prohibited 
extensions. It's all free and automated. 

If you don't have the expertise to set this up, then consider 
gaggle.net. They have free email with automatic filtering and several 
admin options. The downside is there is advertising. Google lets you 
turn off advertising for student email accounts. If you upgrade to the 
paid version of gaggle.net, you can turn off the ads. Google is free. 

We started giving our 4th graders at Riverdale email back in 1994. The 
only problems we've ever had were not related to email but were the 
same kinds of problems those same kids would be having on the 
playgound, they were rude and mean to each other. Having an email 
record of it made it all that much easier to deal with it. [Aside: 
Parents could not believe that their little angle could have said 
"that" in an email...] 

I want ALL of our students to have every competitive advantage they 
can get. It's a tough world out there and I want to give them all the 
tools they'll need to be successful. Email is one of those tools. 

From: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html <http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html>  

What CIPA Requires 

   * Schools and libraries subject to CIPA may not receive the 
discounts offered by the E-Rate program unless they certify that they 
have an Internet safety policy and technology protection measures in 
place. An Internet safety policy must include technology protection 
measures to block or filter Internet access to pictures that: (a) are 
obscene, (b) are child pornography, or (c) are harmful to minors, for 
computers that are accessed by minors. 

   * Schools subject to CIPA are required to adopt and enforce a 
policy to monitor online activities of minors; and 

  * Schools and libraries subject to CIPA are required to adopt and 
implement a policy addressing: (a) access by minors to inappropriate 
matter on the Internet; (b) the safety and security of minors when 
using electronic mail, chat rooms, and other forms of direct 
electronic communications; (c) unauthorized access, including 
so-called "hacking," and other unlawful activities by minors online; 
(d) unauthorized disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal 
information regarding minors; and (e) restricting minors' access to 
materials harmful to them. 

Schools and libraries are required to certify that they have their 
safety policies and technology in place before receiving E-rate 
funding. 

   * CIPA does not affect E-rate funding for schools and libraries 
receiving discounts only for telecommunications, such as telephone 
service. 

   * An authorized person may disable the blocking or filtering 
measure during any use by an adult to enable access for bona fide 
research or other lawful purposes. 

   * CIPA does not require the tracking of Internet use by minors or adults. 

;-) Paul 
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