Gmail +1 for Elementary Accounts

This great tip comes from Practical EdTech and it's a winner! It shows a workaround for websites that not only require an email address, but require verification of that email address.   This is problematic for students in lower grades because while they have email addresses, the ability to send and receive mail is turned off for K - 6.  Check out the steps below that outline Gmail+1.  It's quick, easy and allows the teacher to control the accounts.

Elementary school teachers often ask me how their students can use services that require email addresses when the students don’t have email addresses. The solution is to use Gmail+1. Here’s how Gmail+1 works. Let’s say there’s a new service that I want my students to use but my students don’t have email addresses that they can use to register for that service. In that case I can quickly generate Gmail addresses for my students by using the Gmail+1 strategy.

Here’s how the Gmail+1 trick works:

1. Create a new Gmail account just for your class. Example mrbyrnesclass@gmail.com

2. Issue email addresses to students as follows mrbyrnesclass+1@gmail.com, mrbyrnesclass+2@gmail.com

3. Gmail overrides the “1″ and “2″ at the end of the mrbyrnesclass and sends all emails to the inbox at mrbyrnesclass@gmail.com however almost all other services that require an email for registration will recognize mrbyrnesclass+1@gmail.com as distinct from mrbyrnesclass@gmail.com

4. Students can use the “+1″ emails to register for services, but I get to see all of the emails coming and going.

5. Because of #4 above I may have to confirm all of my students’ registrations on a new service.

Disclaimers:

1. This hack doesn’t work on every service so your mileage may vary.

2. Don’t give students the password to the class email address (in the example above I would not give students the password to mrbyrnesclass@gmail.com) because if they have it they could all send and receive email from the account. The passwords that they choose on  the services that they register for should all be unique and they should not share them with each other.