Kids e-mail

We've been having problems with kids sending nasty messages to each other, and also getting inappropriate spam in their yahoo and hotmail accounts. So I tracked down a safe kids e-mail service called gaggle- like the geese. www.gaggle.net
It's pretty cool- in addition to spam filters that don't let things like porn in, it's set up so that I (as an administrator) have a word list. If kids write words in their e-mail that are on that list (like swear words!), the e-mail gets sent to me and not to the other kids.

I created accounts for all the kids that I could think of that were regulars in the lab, with the help of their Plato accounts (first and last names!) and Wendy. I printed up little papers with everyone's username (first name and last initial) and password- I just picked random short words- and folded and taped over the password. I made it sound like James Bond about the password- I don't want them all knowing each other's (they would tell each other yahoo and hotmail for some reason or another!) so I made sure to make it a big deal. They love that too, because it's a secret!

I went over the basics for all the kids- how to get to the webpage, put in username and password, get to the inbox, compose, reply and the directory. I had sent all the kids a message asking them what their favorite thing at the science museum was or what their favorite part of spring break was so I showed them how to 'reply'. Then for some of the kids that are more familiar with e-mail, I showed them that if they wanted to write to another Sky kid, the directory had a list of everone's address. They loved it! I've gotten several e-mails from kids that I don't think use computers for anything but Plato and games before. We had several volunteers that really did the bulk of the work too because I would explain it to all the kids, then there were at least four of us to go around and show the kids and do some hands-on one-on-one learning. It went so well!

I'm very excited about it. The kids that didn't come the first time are starting to hear about it from the other kids, so they come to get their user name and password. They are also starting to ask things like how to send links! I demonstrate with www.homestarrunner.com
The kids really get into that too. Da e-mail, da e-mail, wah wah, da e-mail...