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The GagglerVolume VII • Issue Vll • March 2012

Gaggle on the Front Lines Protecting our Students

The Bully Project

By now you’ve probably heard that Gaggle is going to add our Human Monitoring Service to our standard subscriptions starting in July. We will be incorporating the HMS into all of our accounts including those that integrate with Google Apps, Live@edu, and Office 365. The response is overwhelmingly positive, but we have had a few people question our sanity! So we want to share some of our experiences over the past few years monitoring students in various districts. Of course, we won’t share any identifying information, but we think you’ll see why we are so passionate about standing on the front line.Story #1: A high school student wrote a poem and saved it to his Digital Locker. The poem talked about how much he hates his mother, and used the word “kill” which was caught by our filters. Our Cyber Security Agent received the notification and read the poem. Given the disturbing content, Gaggle contacted the district, who in turn brought in the student’s father to see the poem. He had no idea his son was so upset, but he and the school were able to work together to get the student counseling.Story #2: A middle school student used her Gaggle email address to sign up for Facebook, unbeknownst to her mother. The student was friended by an unknown man, and received a Facebook message with suggestive language from him. Because the message came through her Gaggle account, it was blocked and rerouted. Gaggle contacted the school principal, who informed the mother so she could intervene.Story #3: While reviewing blocked messages in chat logs on a Saturday evening, our Cyber Security Agent came across a student who made comments that life wasn’t worth living and he wished he was dead. Gaggle immediately called the emergency contact for the district who in turn contacted their school resource officer. Quick intervention resulted in the student getting the help that was needed. These are just a few examples of the many such stories that Gaggle uncovers each year.At Gaggle we believe technology can support learning as well as students’ social and emotional development. Our filtering and safety features have always given educators the peace of mind they need to provide web tools that engage students and empower teachers. Providing our Human Monitoring Service to all subscribers is a way to protect kids and let teachers focus on teaching. It’s true that our children are our future, and it takes a village to raise them. We’re proud to be part of the village.For more information on Gaggle’s Human Monitoring Service visit our HMS FAQ’s page or contact sales at 1-800-288-7750 or sales@gaggle.net.

Need a Gaggle refresher? Register for one of our many free webinars. Visit our Webinars blog at www.gaggle.net/webinar/ or use the Portal Link on the left panel in your account to see all of our upcoming offerings. The webinars run about 45 minutes and are offered at multiple times so you are sure to find one that fits your schedule. If your school gives credit for attending these trainings, please email us after participating, and we can provide documentation for your attendance.

Free Webinars

Gaggle is committed to preventing bullying and protecting students. Over 13 million American kids will be bullied this year, making it the most common form of violence experienced by young people in the nation. The new documentary film BULLY, directed by Sundance and Emmy-award winning filmmaker Lee Hirsch, brings human scale to this startling statistic, offering an intimate, unflinching look at how bullying has touched five kids and their families. We encourage you to learn more about The Bully Project at http://thebullyproject.com/.

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School Spotlight Avalon Middle School, Milton, FL

Frank Beckwith, Science Teacher at Avalon Middle School in Milton, Florida, wanted to begin a STEM initiative, called The STEAM Team (Science, Technology, Engineering, Activity, Math). Beckwith knew from the beginning, that if STEAM was truly going to embrace the ISTE NETS standards, they would need to go paperless. With that goal in mind, Gaggle was there to make it all possible. Gaggle has been working like a dream, Beckwith notes, giving him the ability to post all the large documents, forms, rule books and assignments in the Digital Locker and share with the students, electronically.

Earlier this year STEAM used Gaggle’s communication and collaboration tools to prepare for BEST Robotics. Team meetings were scheduled using Gaggle calendars, while all information related to the meetings was shared in the Digital Locker. It was necessary for students to work together in teams, analyzing and problem solving; Gaggle email made this possible.

The STEAM team is headed to the State Level Competition of the Science Olympiad and the students are using Gaggle to prepare for both individual and team events. The Science Olympiad encourages

group learning with many of their events. The real time collaboration that Zoho brings in Gaggle’s Digital Lockers makes a difference in the success of the team.

The STEAM team also uses Gaggle for Sunshine Math. Sunshine Math is a program developed by the Florida Department of Education to challenge students that are motivated and self-directed learners at all grade levels. The students at Avalon Middle School are able to complete Sunshine Math activities at home and then email their answers to their teachers for evaluation.

The key to success for Avalon Middle School was to start small for the 2011-2012 school year. They introduced Gaggle to a select group of students and are now ready to expand. Seeing Gaggle’s safety and security features work in this small setting has given Beckwith the peace of mind to bring more students on board with Gaggle. All Avalon students will practice safe communication, collaboration and social networking in the upcoming school year. Beckwith believes that “Gaggle is like a technology lab” safe enough for students, but full featured to allow collaboration at all levels.

Gaggle in the News

The Gaggler Volume VII • Issue Vll • March 2012

Ask Admin…Question: I’ve set up my classes, and noticed I now have class pages. What can I do with them?

Answer: Gaggle’s Class Pages make it easy to stay connected with your students. The Class Page can be used as a one-stop shop for you and your students. It contains a Class Wall, which can be used to post important information and reminders for your class. The Class Wall can also be utilized as a way to post prompts that your students respond to much like Facebook. Additionally, you can post photos of your class to easily share them with your students. The Class Documents section is a Digital Locker that can be used to share files. You and your students can access the Homework Drop Box for your class by clicking on the Homework Assignments link. Also found on the Class Page is the Class Calendar link that will allow you to keep your students informed of important due dates and events for your class. Anytime you post an event on the class calendar, it will be available under the Class Calendar link, and it will also show up on the students’ personal Gaggle Calendar. Lastly, the Class Page has a link to a Class Message Board, which can serve as a great tool for class discussions, as well as a forum for students to share their thoughts.

Gaggle has been the subject of several recent TV News Segments:Memphis Fox 13 News interviewed Cleon Franklin, Memphis City School District’s Director of Instructional Technology, who credited Gaggle for saving a student’s life: http://goo.gl/5feFE

Dallas-Fort Worth’s Fox 4 News interviewed staff and students at Grand Prairie ISD. Grand Prairie attributed their intervention with a recent student suicide situation to Gaggle’s Human Monitoring Service: http://goo.gl/6DgYf

Grand Rapids Fox 17 News interviewed Carol Glanville, Instructional Technology Specialist & Trainer for Grand Rapids Public Schools, who explains GRPS uses Gaggle as a part of their blended learning curriculum. Glanville said teens often need some “online training wheels.” http://tinyurl.com/84mm7cn

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Gaggle.Net, Inc.1-800-288-7750P.O. Box 1352, Bloomington, IL 61702Copyright © 2012

Coming from a family of educators, Illinois State University graduate Drew German also found a place in education when he joined Gaggle in September 2009. As an experienced customer service representative, Drew answers questions and concerns for the mid-sized customer accounts in the eastern U.S. to ensure classrooms are able to use Gaggle with ease.

Drew’s favorite part of working at Gaggle is interacting with the customers, “Nothing feels better than talking with teachers and students that are excited about using Gaggle in the classroom!” Recently Drew attended the PETE&C conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania where he loved being able to meet Gaggle customers in person (and enjoyed eating all the chocolate).

When not in the Gaggle office assisting customers, Drew enjoys going to the movies, concerts, and reading. Drew is also an avid traveler having been to Austria, Germany and Mexico. He hopes to add Maine as his next destination.

The Gaggler Volume VII • Issue Vll • March 2012

Tech TalkWebDAV Integration with the iPad

A Gaggle Introduction

WebDAV is an internet protocol that facilitates collaboration between users when editing and managing files stored on the internet.

With WebDAV, Gaggle users on the iPad can create, edit, and share files using the iWork suite and their Digital Lockers. For example, Apple’s Pages application can connect to a user’s Digital Locker. The user is then able to modify a document and save it back to the Digital Locker or send it to another user. WebDAV allows everyone to have more options and flexibility when using iPads and other tablets.

If you are interested in using Gaggle’s WebDAV integration on the iPad, please contact your representative for configuration details.

Conference 2011 Dates Location URLMOREnet March 21-23 Kansas City, MO http://conferences.more.net/ASCD March 24-26 Philadelphia, PA http://www.ascd.org/ Tech & Learning Forum April 27 Boston, MA http://www.techlearning.com/SIIA Ed Tech Industry Summit May 8-10 San Francisco, CA http://www.siia.net/etis/2012/

If you are looking for creative, educational activities to do with your students, look no further. Here you will find a couple of activities that are useful as students work independently or in small groups. Easily implemented after a morning testing session, they are fun for students and serve as an excellent review of concepts taught earlier in the year. Send your students on a search for real life grammatical errors. When students find a mistake have them take a picture of the mistake using either a regular camera or their phone. Students can upload the images to their Digital Locker and use FotoFlexer or SumoPaint to crop and edit the images. Once edited, student’s can post the images to their Blog, Class Page, or even a Social Wall Group such as “Dear Grammar Guru.” Classmates can then comment on the posts to correct the mistakes. Math teachers are always looking for ways to use Gaggle in the classroom and here is a fun idea. Send students on a search to create real life math problems. For example, your students could write a word problem about purchasing a bushel of peaches and include an image to represent the peaches. Students can use FotoFlexer or SumoPaint to edit the images and then insert the pictures into a student created worksheet, using Zoho Docs. Once students have created a worksheet with several word problems, have them share it with classmates to complete.

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