Quasi Gmail “Sub” Accounts = Student iPad Workflow Solution

Going paperless using iPads means you have to have workflow figured out. And with students under the age of 13, workflow without emails can be an issue. In our district, we are using both Dropbox and Boxnet. Both are great cloud solutions, but was not meeting all of our needs.

While at Illinois Education Technology Conference this fall, I learned some amazing things about google in the Google Apps Successes in the Classroom session presented by Aida Awad  and Dexter Roknich  of Maine West High School. While in the session, I learned that by using a “+” symbol, it creates sub accounts for a gmail account. This is a not a new feature, and has been a work around teachers have used when needing to set up web 2.0 accounts that require emails. However, now it has the added impact of now being a email solution for iPads. Now, you can set up “sub-accounts” on the iPads along with filters to give students the ability to email items without having to have their own email account. Instead there is one teacher account with  unlimited sub accounts. No student personal information is needed. Further, with the set up of filters on the gmail account and setting on the iPad, you control email functions.

The next steps I am going to share with you is how I created the accounts, set up gmail filters, and iPad settings that allows students to email from their iPads and limits who they receive email from.

1. You need to create the main gmail account. For example “mrsmithsclass@gmail.com” the sub-email addresses are based off of this account. Note, you are not actually creating the accounts, you are simply using them. To do this, you add + after the userid. For this example it would be

• mrsmithsclass+ipad1@gmail.com
• mrsmithsclass+ipad2@gmail.com
• mrsmithsclass+ipad3@gmail.com

2.  On your students’ iPad, go to settings and add the sub-gmail account under “mail, contacts, calendars”.  The password for all of these accounts is the password you used when you set up the main gmail account. Remember, although you are using this email address, you do not have to create it in gmail. Gmail treats all these accounts as the one main account.

Although these 2 steps are all you need to do to allow emailing from the iPads, I strongly recommend that you do the additional steps for added security and control.

USE GMAIL FILTERS

In the main gmail account, you can add a filter that limits who the students receive emails from.

1. Go to mail settings in the gmail account by clicking the gear icon in the upper right corner.
2. Select the filter tab
3. Create a new filter
4. In the “doesn’t have section” place who they can receive emails from. You can either put a specific email address or just the the @domain. For example afairbrother@dps61.org, or @dps61.org. The latter allows emails from any district staff member.
5. Click “create filter with this search”
6. Select skip the inbox and always mark important. This last option will send a copy of all emails sent to the student that is not authorized to a folder on the main email account allowing you to document them.

*note, if you plan on emailing students, you should select another email other than the main account. If not, this will allow students to email each other’s iPads with the main gmail account. Remember although you have entered different id’s this is all one account. I would not suggest using this email for students to communicate with each other.

UPDATE LABELS:

In the labels tab, you can control what folders are seen on the student’s iPad.  For the IMAP, I unchecked the “all mail”, “important”, and “spam” This way, students can not see any of the non-authorized emails. They can only be seen by logging into the main gmail account. You might elect to select other folders not to be seen based on your preferences.

SET UP RESTRICTIONS ON iPAD.

I would also recommend that you go to the general settings on the iPad and enable restrictions if you have not already done so. Under the feature “Allow Changes”, select Don’t Allow Changes”. By doing this you prevent students from being able to add or delete accounts to the iPad. Note, if  you do enable, you will have to create a 4 digit passcode.

With all of these steps, you have set up a teacher’s email account on all iPads allowing you to use email for work flow options. For the iPad classes in our district. this has helped us with workflow and going one step closer to going paperless. In my next post, I will explain how we took this feature one step further using boxnet. With this feature, student email work to folders instead of teacher’s email.

And remember, this system is an end run for setting up web 2.0 accounts that require email! and extra bonus.