Checking students' email history

[HEBDave]

It's finally happened; we have reason to check some students' email history in their Google Apps for Education accounts. What are our best options / what do you do in this situation?

My understanding from my pre-pilot research is that I can either change a student's password, log in as them, and look at their emails...or I can use a tool like Google Apps Manager to download the entire contents of a student's email. Obviously the first option would tip off the student to the investigation because we'd need to reset their password (assuming they maintain our permission to use the account).

[Joseph Hartman]

GAM is pretty slow, it took a couple of days for my audit to be processed when I tested it. I'd just change the password and be done with it. A good reminder to other students that it can happen. In any case I'd act quickly before the suspect has a chance to go fiddling with things. BTW, GAM can pull up deleted emails within a certain time frame, so if you don't find what you're looking for on first glance, you may give it a shot. Good luck! -Joe

[Matthew A. Peskay]

We are piloting Hapara Teacher Dashboard which gives teachers and administrators access to student mail from the Teacher Dashboard interface, which is great. 

However, our SOP for dealing with issues of possible misuse/abuse is to immediately change the student password and provide the new password to ONLY the school leader/principal to investigate.  We didn't want to have our teachers bear the burden of inspecting the email and dealing with the resulting conversations so we immediately hand access over to the school leader to investigate and follow up and the students account will not be returned to them until authorized by the school leader/principal.

All my best,

Matthew

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Google Apps K12 Technical Forum" group.
To post to this group, send email to k12ap...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
k12appstech...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/k12appstech?hl=en?hl=en

[Jonathan Crosby]

I would use GAM (Google Apps Manager) to delegate the student's mailbox to your own. (gam user <student> delegate to <you>)
--
Jon Crosby
Technology Operations Manager

Technology Center - Westport Public Schools

On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 4:38 PM, HEBDave <heb...@gmail.com> wrote:

It's finally happened; we have reason to check some students' email history in their Google Apps for Education accounts. What are our best options / what do you do in this situation?

My understanding from my pre-pilot research is that I can either change a student's password, log in as them, and look at their emails...or I can use a tool like Google Apps Manager to download the entire contents of a student's email. Obviously the first option would tip off the student to the investigation because we'd need to reset their password (assuming they maintain our permission to use the account).

--

[Vinnie Vrotny]

I will second the use of Teacher Dashboard from Hapara. We too are piloting this product and have used it to monitor all of our 5th grade email accounts. It works really well, plus allows for monitoring of Docs as well. Great for our 4th - 8th graders.

Vinnie

------------------------------
Vinnie Vrotny
Director of Academic Technology, Quest Academy
Blog - Multi-Faceted Refractions  (vvrotny.org)
Twitter, Skype, etc. - vvrotny

847-921-0023

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth"

-Roberto Clemente

[Carol LaRow]

Gentlemen,

Just read this thread and have to write a comment. Each and every one of the 5 posts to this thread is so well written. Honestly, I was reading for content, but I was struck by the articulate answers - the syntax, the clarity of the answers, the descriptions, and the advice.

Wow!  I REALLY noticed, and I just had to pass on the compliment.

Carol

GCT NYC '07
CT '11

Carol LaRow
Google Certified Trainer
Google Certified Teacher
Google Apps For Education K12 Regional Leader, East Group
Smithsonian Laureate
Apple Distinguished Educator

Niskayuna, NY

[Mike Chappell]

I concur with Matthew.  Any violation of Acceptable Use results in the immediate lockdown of the account, passwords changed, logins disabled, etc.  However, in the case of an inappropriate email being sent, if you are not archiving student email, then a GAM audit, while time consuming, is about the only way you might be able to recover an email that was sent then deleted from the student account prior to being locked down.

[Kevin O'Donnell]

I now have administrators wondering how we can track or keep track of student emails. I agree if there is a violation of delegating or locking down their account.  But the question is how will I know there is a violation unless it is reported to me.  When we used Gaggle I got a copy of all student emails that may have been inappropriate  I was thinking of using Hapara but I have sold the administration on the "free" aspect of Google Apps as well as the other positives. This is also the reason we don't pay for the postini archiving for the students. We have been spending our funds on Chromebooks. We now have 240 and with that more to worry about

How do I use the GAM to do the audit?

Kevin O'Donnell

Belmar Elementary School

Belmar, NJ

[Joseph Hartman]

Hi Kevin,

I think you will find what you are looking for here:

https://code.google.com/p/google-apps-manager/wiki/ExamplesAccountAuditing#About_Google_Apps_Audits

However, is there a reason you don't just use the built in objectionable content filter, or is there a reason that wouldn't work for you?

One district I work with setup the following:

create objectionable content filter of bad words

set flagged emails to redirect to "fla...@school.edu"

Sign into fla...@school.edu email account

Setup vacation responder with no end date for fla...@school.edu email account

Vacation response reads: your email violated district policy and has been sent to the school principal.

Setup filter on fla...@school.edu to forward all incoming emails to school principal.

It's been working great for them and the principal gets alerted whenever an email is flagged.

[Chris Franzen]

I agree with Joseph as I have a similar setup to monitor for certain words.  And also consider watching for threatening words as well.  It does provide for some extra junk, but better to be vigilant.

--

Chris Franzen

chrisf...@nokomis.k12.il.us  

Technology Coordinator | Nokomis School District

511 Oberle St. | Nokomis, IL  62075

QR
Please consider the environment before printing this email.

--

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Google Apps K12 Technical Forum" group.
To post to this group, send email to k12ap...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
k12appstech...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/k12appstech?hl=en?hl=en
 

---

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Apps K12 Technical Forum" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to k12appstech...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.