Today I had the privilege of working with a 4th grade 1:1 class to add their GMAIL apps for education accounts to their iPads. We reviewed the BOBCAT EMAIL CONTRACT with them and went over the purposes for using email. Currently, EISD has no set restrictions on student email accounts. However, for BPE, we have decided that students will only email themselves, teachers, and parents or email addresses specifically allowed to them with teacher permission. The students were excited to have an email account and many had already used it for Khan Academy. Coming from seven years at the middle school, I have personal experience with students and email at the MS level. I am very glad to see it implemented at the elementary level so that teachers can work more directly with students and parents to establish good emailing practices prior to attending the middle school. We discussed cyberbullying and chatting as inappropriate use. Using the account to ask appropriate questions, email projects back and forth or to communicate with parents are examples of appropriate use that we reviewed with the students. Soon we will add the privilege of emailing classmates to collaborate on projects. For information on how to access student Gmail through EISD, please see the GMAIL for Students handout.
