SmartMusic and Google Apps Accounts Tip

www.smartmusic.com
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/edu/

My district is just getting started with Google Apps for Education.  I think it is a terrific move and I can see it doing many great things for kids.

Finally, we have e-mail addresses for ALL kids to use for their SmartMusic logins.  I am sure there are a bunch of teachers everywhere thinking the same thing for a number of web-based learning opportunities.  It seems that many web-based programs (not just SmartMusic) are using e-mails for account management.

One of the features of Apps for Education is that who can send e-mail to a student account can be controlled.  This is a big help for student safety and privacy.  In my building students can get mail from other students and teachers with our Apps account provided it comes from our Apps account.  You can loosen these restrictions for teachers and other adults with an Apps account.  You can set-up an Apps account that is very restricted and you can vary the restrictions from person to person.

I haven't heard much from students about these restrictions, until a student was trying to recover a password for his SmartMusic account.  He could ask for the password, and SmartMusic would say it is sending it, but it would never arrive.  Then it dawned on me that SmartMusic wasn't in our Apps account and restricted it from sending mail to our students.  I talked to our Apps administrator and the problem was solved.

Our admin knew what I was talking about when I said SmartMusic.  If your admin doesn't, tell him that SmartMusic isn't going to be sending e-mail through this route, you the teacher will be the one sending e-mail through this route.  This may be a good time for a little show and tell about SmartMusic as well.  You may need the tech department on your side with SmartMusic for other reasons and this is a good opportunity to show what it will do for kids.

Using Google Apps for Education's e-mail to help access and manage SmartMusic accounts solves a lot of issues.  Hopefully, your students will be getting something like this soon.