Posted by ericsaints on June 12th, 2007 in News bulletin

We’ve started giving out free e-mail accounts (yourname@hedcen.com) to parents who’ve signed up since the launch of the website, mostly to those who attended the New Parents’ Orientation held last June 2.

For other parents who may be interested in getting their own e-mail accounts, kindly download, print and fill up the Parents’ Survey Form (see Downloadables at the lower right portion of the Home Page), and submit it to the school’s Business Office at your convenience. (Copies of the Form are also available at the Business Office.) As soon as we’ve created the account, we’ll send the corresponding notice to parents to their existing e-mail addresses, stating the temporary password and other instructions for activating the account, including accessing the Personalized Start Page of the HEdCen.com Google App’s services.

By the way, the default username we’ve adopted for parents is nickname.surname@hedcen.com or what they’ve used for their other e-mail accounts. (To those who wish to have a different username, please let us know by indicating it in the Parents’ Survey Form or by e-mailing ericsaints@hedcen.com.)

For students who will get their own accounts (see below), we’ll leave it up to them to create whatever username they desire, subject to the usual reminders as to its acceptability and that it should be one they can take pride in (or at least live with for the next few years).

Students from Grade 5 to Year IV will be getting their own accounts. How to set up and maintain their accounts will be among the first items to be taken up in their computer education or lab classes in the 1st trimester of this schoolyear. They will be required to get written parental consent, and they are expected to study and understand the Terms of Service and Policies of Google Apps and of HEdCen.com, and use their accounts responsibly.

For younger students (Grade 4 and below), HEdCen.com’s policy is to encourage parents to directly supervise and monitor their children’s internet activities. Thus, no separate accounts will be given to these students; instead, their parents may open their own HEdCen.com e-mail accounts and “share” these with their kids. This way, parents get to guide and teach them about e-mailing and basic internet surfing by doing these activities together.

We’re gratified to receive heartwarming responses from some parents about HEdCen.com, commending us for doing a great service to the school community. Our sincerest thanks, guys!