Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Using An Email Alias to Receive Student Work

Have you ever asked students to email their work to you and all it does is create a big mess in your inbox?  If you don't use a Learning Management System, then one way to organize incoming assignments is to use an email alias.  Both Gmail and Hotmail have this capability.

Gmail Users
Here's a synopsis from the Gmail help page:  "Gmail doesn't offer traditional aliases, but you can receive messages sent to username+alias@gmail.com. You can set up filters to automatically direct these messages to Trash, apply a label or star, skip the inbox, or forward to another email account."

For teachers, this means you can filter student emails by period.  For example, your Period 1 students can send their work to msjosiebruin+period1@gmail.com while your Period 2 students can send their work to msjosiebruin+period 2@gmail.com.

You can use up to 30 Gmail aliases, so use them wisely.

If you don't know how to create a filter, visit this Gmail Help Page.

Hotmail Users
One nice feature of using a Hotmail alias is that your alias can be vastly different from your username.  Maybe your email address is ELAteacher@hotmail.com, but your alias is "msbruinperiodA@hotmail.com."  You can send out email using your alias without ever giving away your real email address.  You also can't log into Hotmail with your alias, so that can be an additional layer of security for some.

Hotmail allows a total of 15 email aliases, but you are limited to creating only 5 per year.  To get started on creating a Hotmail alias, click here.

4 comments:

  1. thanks admin for the information about Hotmail alias. I include some information about it in my bangla blog http://tutbd.blogspot.com

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  2. Interesting! I do all student e-submissions via Edmodo. Much easier to manage!

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  3. @Kate Baker - Thanks for your comment. I agree that using a learning management system like Edmodo is easier for managing student work. I use Schoology myself. However, I know many teachers who only collect digital work occasionally and don't want to use Edmodo, Schoology, or other similar services. In their case, this is an alternative that might work for them. Thanks for visiting my blog!

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  4. Thanks for sharing it..for more info visit Hotmail Support Number

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