Creating multiple student Gmail email logins

One of the concerns that teachers have about using Web 2.0 tools such as Animoto, GoAnimate! and Prezi in the classroom is the need for pupils to submit an email address when creating an account.

Danny Maas from TILT (Teachers Improving Learning with Technology) has come up with an ingenious workaround to ensure student privacy by taking advantage of one of the features of Gmail which allows a user the opportunity to create multiple email addresses, but have any messages sent to a single inbox which the teacher is in charge of.

For example, you could set up an account with the master email yourname@googlemail.com. Students could then login with yourusername+studentusername@googlemail.com and all email confirmations would be sent to the same address e.g. yourusername@googlemail.com. In this way, students could anonymously register on sites and not have to input their own email address.

To protect the identity of students further, the teacher could create a spreadsheet featuring everyone's Gmail email address with their real name next to it and therefore easily identify who has registered with what name.

Maybe this TILT tip will cause Maas hysteria around the world ;)

Comments

[Danny Maas]

Thanks for the kudos Joe! Great blog!

[Joe Dale]

Thanks for dropping by Danny!

I've been a fan of your TILT project since 2005. In fact it was because of your post on animating with PowerPoint that I discovered the Duplicate Slide feature:
http://tilttv.blogspot.com/2005/12/tilt-episode-7-multimedia-animation.html

[Simon Howells]

Great post, Joe - I have been encountering this problem regularly this term. Can't wait to have a go at the workaround. Many thanks to you and Danny!

[Joe Dale]

Cheers Simon and the workaround does work. I've tried it!

[tony watt / @cuppa_coffee]

Does that mean the students would have to have their own gmail addresses?

Tony

[Joe Dale]

Hi Tony,

No it doesn't mean that. It means the teacher can create one gmail address and the pupils can register with variations of this by adding a + sign and name or figure before the @.

In this way, all registration emails will go to the teacher's inbox and the pupils don't have to submit their personal email addresses, but can still use the Web 2.0 tools mentioned above safely.

Hope that clarifies the idea and thanks for your comment.

Joe

[Madeleine]

Quelqu'un peut traduire en français? Merci

[Joe Dale]

Voilà Madeleine!

http://translate.google.com/translate?client=tmpg&hl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fjoedale.typepad.com%2Fintegrating_ict_into_the_%2F&langpair=en|fr