1. To activate Student Google Accounts, in the Safari search window, search Google Accounts. 2. Students will come to a log in screen. Student login using their username@students.sps186.org. For example: cjones@students.sps186.org. Their password is their lunch pin. 3. The first time students log in they will be required to accept the Google Account Agreement. You may review and summarize the Google Terms of Service with them.
4. At the end of the Terms of Service Agreement, students will be asked to input the silly characters in the security code box. If they are not sure what the characters are, they will be given another one. These are difficult for adults, let alone kids :) 5. Once students click I Accept, they will be directed to their Google Accounts. Here, they will be able to create and share documents with other students and with teachers. They also will have an email account. However, at this time, middle school students are in a closed email environment and can only email their teachers. Students can email teachers through their Gmail in their Google Account. Teachers DO NOT need to be in their Google Accounts to mail students. Teachers can email students using Mail.
HOW TO INTRODUCE STUDENTS TO THEIR GOOGLE ACCOUNTS... Things to think about... Which teachers will be responsible for activating the Student Google Accounts? How will the students be instructed on how to use their Student Google Accounts? Suggestions on introducing Google Accounts to your students... 1. Have students activate their google accounts (Use the previous directions) 2. Put students in pairs (or threes) 3. Now have students click on Docs Create New Document. 4. It s a good habit to name the documents as you create them. Name this one PracticeDoc_initials. 5. Have students type a message to their assigned partner. They will be sharing this document with this person. 6. When students are finished typing, have students go to Share. This can be done within the document.
7. Students will be asked to input their partner s address in the Add People box. 8. They also have the choice of allowing the person with whom they are sharing the document to have editing privileges, commenting privileges or just viewing privileges. Right now we want them to share with Can Edit so their partner will be allowed to type in the document. Uncheck the Notify via email box because students cannot send messages to other students. The document will still be shared but no email will be sent. Now click Save and Share. Students will get a warning box telling them they are not notifying with an email message. Click OK. Can Edit - Can edit the document Can Comment - Cannot edit the document. Can make comments, however. Can View - Cannot edit nor add comments. 9. Clicking Save and Share takes them back to their document. To get to their list of documents, they can click on Google Docs (upper left hand corner) and they will see all of their documents... in this case probably two -- the one they created and the one shared with their partner.
10.Have the pairs decide which document they want to open. They can open either one, as long as they both open the same one. Then, have them both start typing on the document. The students will see what they are typing and also what their partner is typing. 11.You can also show them Revision History found under File. This allows students to revert to a different version should they choose to. NOTE: Students do have a storage limit attached to their Google Accounts. However, students can easily save their work from Google as a Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc. document to the district server, their own flash drives, etc. You save Google files by going to File and Download As and choose the appropriate file format.
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT: 1. It is important to remind students when giving Edit privileges they are giving their partners the same amount of access to the document as they have themselves. So, things they type can be deleted by someone else. If students are all working towards completion of a project, it is important for students to organize responsibilities and to have a plan of what to do when things are changed, either intentionally or unintentionally. 2. It is probably a good idea for students to ALWAYS give to you editing access, or at least comment access to any document. That way you can easily remove anything needing to be removed and can provide guidance throughout the project -- This can be done once and all students will see it or you can provide feedback for each group member. Student Gmail Accounts Students have email accounts through their Google Account. Currently, middle school students may only email teachers, admins, etc. and may not email other students. The GMail Team at Google may also send messages to the students. When they first open their account, they will probably find 3 messages from the GMail team.