HSB members want to know more about 'Gaggle'

GAINESVILLE - Hall County School Board members Monday night expressed interest in and want more information on a new teacher student communication application called 'Gaggle'.

It's Gaggle, not Google, according to school system Executive Director of Technology Dr. Aaron Turpin, who said it would enhance email communication between teachers and students. One way it would do that is protect those outside of school communications.

"There is archiving of the messages as long as the text is begun inside the platform with the teacher's cell phone or the student's cell phone and identified using Hall County credentials," Turpin said. "Additionally for students who might choose to email each other the application is filtered so that if there are inappropriate pictures or words, the filtering system will catch most of those."

Turpin said 'Gaggle' could teach students to communicate more professionally by requiring more emails and less texting.

"As our world changes it becomes increasingly mobile," Turpin said. "Our students are communicating in a texting language with their friends. In the business world if they communicate with that texting language it would be inappropriate. This would give us the opportunity to help students develop emails and communicate in a business like format."

Turpin said the application cost would be determined after the system applies for E-Rate next season. Under the E-Rate federal discount the Hall School System gets about $1.6-million annually in discounts.