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MMSD Hijacked my Google Account

posted Jul 18, 2011 5:02 AM by Nate Schmolze   [ updated Jul 18, 2011 7:06 AM ]
Well at least that's the fear with a recent MMSD email,

 A notice came up and said that the administer for my account(MMSD) may want to add some google apps. (or something like that) I'm wondering does this give the district the ability to see what I google at home?? Should I no longer check my e-mail at home? I guess the district loses if this is the case because I certainly will not.

One district employee added a signature to all outgoing email as a response,


Subject: Out of Classroom

The new MMSD mail system interferes with internet use, in that there is confusion about what is done with the work account and what is done with personal accounts when used on one's home computer.

To avoid any mistaken appearance of using my work account for personal business, I will not be accessing my MMSD mail from home any more. This means that I will rarely be using MMSD mail over the summer.

I will be back in the classroom regularly after August 22. If you need to contact me in the mean time, I can be reached at my home phone number (listed), or my home email (which most of my personal contacts and colleagues already have).

Sorry for the inconvenience. Have a great summer


This MMSD update is two fold. This past year because certain Google services were not available some employees created accounts such as xxxyyy@madison.k12.wi.us. This update makes such accoCunts no longer possible and migrates the other account into the district one. The main Google service that motivated the creation of a second account was Picassa which the MMSD choose not to add. This is a mistake because it forces teachers to locate district data on non district accounts. The second aspect of the upgrade is Google services (not the right ones) that previously were unavailable are now available under the district account.


So, what is the good, the bad, and the ugly of this upgrade. 

The good is there are services and options available to you that were not earlier. One new service I noticed was Wave which would allow meeting like activities online. Staff Meeting sitting home at the computer anyone? The most important change with the migration is you can now access / download district email on your phone or home computer. For example, by using my district address (Not B # as username) and password I was easily able to add MMSD email to my Android. I Phone has a similar app, just download Gmail.  Even more than the mail, having the calendar on my phone is great.

The bad is MMSD has chosen to cripple certain services. Some of the services not included are Picassa, Groups and YouTube. Why shouldn't I be able to create a list serve with Groups for Tuesday LMC or 4/5 teachers. Or why should I have to create a whole new Google account to share school pictures with students, teachers, and parents. Just because MMSD cripples access for certain services does not mean the educational need for those services go away. It would seem to me that it is in MMSD's best interest to keep MMSD data in house.  

The ugly gets to the heart of the two quotes at the beginning. One teacher complained about a message that you can't access you tube on your Google Apps account. This was a good thing because if she did all of her activity would have been on her district account.  Even though Google tries to be very transparent, unlike Facebook, computer and human (you) mistakes can happen. For example you open your personal gmail in one tab, and work in another, you decide to do a search or go to your favorite website, which account will that happen on. Google offers multiple sign on which seems convenient at first, but leaving it off forces you to log off your personal account before logging into your work account. That of course assumes you are logging in at Google rather than the district sign on you used during the school year.

 Confused, worried?  Here are a few tips.

  • Do not use multiple sign on (even though I do). If you do make sure the correct address (work or home) is at the right side of your Google page.

  • Do your business and log off.

  • With this upgrade, migration etc. you can now rather simply download your email into your favorite client (Endora). I would recommend Thunderbird http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/.   It should be pretty automatic. You set it up as a standard Gmail account with your full email as your username and your password.    





  

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