Gaggle |
General profile:
Gaggle is specifically designed as a “safe” email and blog tool for schools. Their content filters block a default set of bad words and sites and can be customized by the teacher or school admin to block much more. There are Spanish and cyberbully “bad word” lists available to be blocked, as well.
Gaggle offers both free and paid student email and blog accounts. The free versions have advertising, including pop-ups (Tiribalfusion!!!) and talking banner ads. Since the “look” of the blogs is primarily text-only, you will want to show students EXACTLY what is advertising and what is part of their blog. Younger students may have difficulty seeing the difference. The interface (look and feel and how you find things) is utilitarian and lacks the more polished “look” of many blogs.
This tool has nearly every safety feature a school could ask for: filtering by word, filtering of images, complete controls of who can create, post, comment, and view blogs. The user interface becomes cumbersome as it begins from the student email accounts and include chat rooms, blogs, and complete teacher approval of everything (if you set it that way).
The result of all the settings and controls is that a teacher receives a separate “email” from Gaggle for each item that requires approval. These can remain within Gaggle’s teacher email box or be forwarded to another email account automatically. Teachers may quickly find that they have HUGE numbers of emails to open and approve-- one at a time – from the blog too alone. There does not appear to be any way to “turn off” the email accounts, either, so students will likely try sending and receiving emails to see what happens (lots mote for you to approve or delete).
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Features available: |
Yes/no |
What they call it, and how to find it |
Reviewer comments |
Password-protect entire blog |
Y |
Jump to> My Blog> Blog Setup
> blog access |
Many levels of access: class only, school only, district only, Gaggle only (includes any school using Gaggle), public. |
Choices of blog appearance |
Y |
Color schemes |
A total of 15 options. Teacher can set or allow students to choose. |
Customization of appearance with own graphics |
N |
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If the teacher/admin permits it, students may upload images to email or blogs. |
Keywording/tagging |
N |
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Teacher information explains that teachers can set up dummy email accounts fro each class if they wish to separate different sections or subjects. |
Teacher-managed registration options |
Y |
School admin>school settings> blog settings |
Bulk enrollment possible with their downloadable “Student setup program” |
Teacher-managed posting options |
Y |
Blog Setup> blog access and blog approval required
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Can limit ability to post to class/school, etc. and require post approval or not |
Teacher-managed commenting options |
Y |
Blog Setup> comment access and comment approval required
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Can limit ability to comment to class/school, etc. and require comment approval or not |
Teacher-approval of posts and comments |
Y |
Blog Setup> comment approval required |
Can require comment approval or not |
Teacher-managed control over what different members can “see” |
Y |
Predefined user levels are available |
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Other capabilities |
Y |
English to Spanish translation tool available.
“Say it” button reads many ortions, including emails and blog entries aloud (voice synthesizer) so writers can “hear” what they have written. Admin has the choice to set the “voice” used.
Options to collaborate with other Gaggle users. |
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| RSS Feeds |
Y |
Shows up on student blog page |
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Help available |
Y |
On top toolbar and prompted by several “new user” functions |
Help is text-based |
User comments:
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Be sure to set the defaults to NONE for message boards and chats if you do not want your students exploring these areas.
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Teachers initial log-in gives many choices for student email accounts and blogs. If you are new to such tools, you may want to set up one or two sample student accounts to determine your exact choices. Both email and blog posts and comments can be set as class only, school only, district only, or public.
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Some settings (word lists) require specific “code” entry that is not especially user-friendly (designed to be done by the “tech people”?).
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Since Gaggle was primarily an email tool, you enroll and set up accounts for that first. Go to Jump to> My Blog to set up teacher blog or for students to set up their blogs.
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Inside the Gaggle blogging community, there is a sidebar of “most popular blogs,” a potential distraction fo your students.
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Gaggle keeps all deleted emails in an archive for 30 days. There was no apparent information about blog archives or deletions.
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