Using E-Mail in the Classroom
by Jason Ohler


OVERVIEW
========

I have used, or assisted other teachers (most of whom are K-12 teachers), in using email with kids in a number of ways, including:

-As a literacy builder.

-As a cross-cultural exchange medium.

-As a way for foreign language students to communicate with other kids
in their target language.

-To develop online newspapers.

-To connect kids to resources (such as people and information sources) outside their immediate vicinity.

-To practice certain kinds of cooperative learning.

TEACHER AND ADMINISTRATOR IDEAS
===============================

As part of an electronic mail course I teach (online of course), students (most of whom are K-12 teachers or administrators) are asked to brainstorm ways to use electronic mail as educators. Many of the ideas have been fresh and exciting, such as:

-School counselors wanted to use email to contact other
counselors in the state for insight and information in dealing
with particular student problems, especially as they related to
counseling in remote areas.

-State education officials saw immediate use for it as a
tool to keep in closer contact with central office staff, key
advisory groups, legislators. They saw email shortening the lag
time between requesting and receiving information they needed in
order to make statewide policy decisions.

-Math teachers had creative ideas for the use of email,
like the creation of "Challenge Math," a contest which would
post math problems and collect answers via electronic mail. As a
result of the email course, the head of the statewide math
consortium used email to send out audio conference agenda and
gather input from members.

-Special Education teachers envisioned using email with
the deaf, cerebral palsy victims, and people with other
handicaps to reduce their isolation and put them in better
contact with special educational resources. They also saw it as
a promising administrative tool to be used to coordinate special
ed. efforts within districts, and to exchange critical medical
data with medical institutions much more efficiently.

-Librarians cited a number of reasons to use email,
among them, to expand "our pitifully small library," to
significantly reduce the time and paper work needed in
inter-library loans, and to reduce the number of times
librarians in a district need to meet face-to-face to exchange
information. My first job as a telecommunications teacher was to
train all of Juneau-Douglas school district's librarians to go
online for just these purposes. When I last checked, they were
still active emailers and extremely appreciative of the time,
energy, and busy work that email spared them.

-Bush teachers wanting to take summer school recency
courses saw using email as a way to obtain guidance from
university teachers about course offerings to better enable them
to plan their summers. Many remote teachers noted that email
could also be used to help compensate for the communication lost
due to the severe travel restrictions caused by falling state
revenues. Some commented that as a communication system for
those trying to reach them from outside the school (like
parents), it was preferable to phoning, which often interrupted
their day. One teacher suggested creating an occupation bulletin
board to help students understand the employment opportunities
beyond their own communities.

-Writing teachers had a number of ideas for the use of
email, such as the creation of a creative writing bulletin board
through which students could share poetry, fiction, and essays
on an informal basis, as well as in a contest atmosphere. In
addition, some wanted to pursue 'cultural awareness' by having
students email with other students around the state in order to
compare and contrast their communities and environments. One
suggested a writing project in which students create character
sketches of email partners they had never seen in order to
determine how much of one's personality could be revealed via
electronic mail.

-Science teachers saw joint statewide projects, such as
animal migration tracking and weather data collection. One
suggested starting a weather forecasting service for the state
based upon student efforts.

-Some teachers saw email as a tool to improve
communications within their school. One commented that while
individual attention was an impossibility because of class size
and diversity, email might be effective for reaching some
students because it adapted to the teacher's schedule. Another
saw it as a means for the distribution of lunch menus, quizzes
and legitimate note passing for students, as well as way to
reduce the amount of paper memos for staff.

TEACHER CONCERNS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
====================================

At the conclusion of a recent email project which connected about 80 remote kids in Alaska to a master teacher in Juneau, the kids' teachers were asked for their frank opinions about using email. They made four major points.

Using electronic mail:

1) requires more learning time than they had during the
pilot in order to feel comfortable with its regular, classroom
use. But given the time (perhaps a semester just to play with
it) they could become comfortable.

2) is technically frustrating, either due to bad phone
connections, lack of phone lines, or unsympathetic
administrations, but could be a sound educational tool if the
technical hurdles were overcome.

3) turned kids on to learning, helped support their
curricula, and offered a fresh dimension to classroom
activities- when it was available and when it was working, which
unfortunately for some of them, was infrequently. And,

4) helped kids communicate better, not just via email,
but face-to-face as well. This was an unexpected and frequently
cited phenomenon.

Over and over we heard teachers complain that administrators just "didn't get what all of this online business was about." Thus, teachers' pleas for their own phone lines, a $100 modem, etc., often went unaddressed.

MY CONCLUSION
=============

For some, telecommunications is no doubt just the latest gimmick in the educational technology rally of the last decade which they grudgingly explore 'because it is here.' But others understand it as a way to meet some of the emerging needs of the information age learner, such as the need to:

1. Experience new learning dynamics. Many online computer conferencing projects use electronic networking to practice cooperative learning, resource sharing, and other untraditional methods of interaction which may seem out of place in the typical school but in step with the new methods of living and working which we are warned are the hallmarks of the highly successful Japanese style of management. Cooperative learning does not just occur among students. Indeed, one of the most profound changes that classroom telecommunications encourages is a change in the role of the teacher, from primary information source to guide and coach.

2. Learn in a more global context. A number of online computer conferencing projects take advantage of the fact that they are tied together by a global phone network. Besides those already mentioned, others are worth noting. Kids Network run by National Geographic offers children a chance to track international environmental problems across political boundaries MIX maintains a number of projects with a global or at least international flavor, such as tracking bird migrations over North America, and stimulating communication (electronically and face-to-face) between students in the Soviet Union and the U.S. The list of such projects is long and growing.

Offering a global, less provincial point of view reflects the fact that the world which students of today will inherit is in many ways the global village that was observed decades ago by McLuhan, in which xenophobia is dysfunctional and cross-cultural communication must be a way of life. It is interesting to note that high risk-learners, often with overwhelming personal problems and fixated on their immediate condition, can particularly benefit from a perspective which lifts them out of their own emotional 'muck' and places their lives in a much larger perspective.

3. Learn information economy skills. A telecommunications curriculum for middle and high school students (some would suggest for lower grades as well) might include online searching of data bases, creating and maintaining a discussion group online, and working cooperatively with students from across the country or the world on a joint project. This is not just fun. This is the very stuff of the evolving work place. If nothing else, learning via technology establishes a comfort level with a work environment that students will find upon leaving school.

Not only should students expect to work in such an environment, but they should expect to continue to learn in one as well. Many service industries (such as the health and engineering professions) and corporations need to frequently re-train a geographically dispersed work force due to rapid advances in information, techniques, and technologies in their fields. Focused telecommunications delivery systems are already commonly used for such purposes.

4. Improve communication under certain conditions. This is one of distance education's greatest contributions to 'local' education, the use of improved communication (usually via FAX, electronic mail, phone) to connect teacher and student who exist in a more or less distance learning environment due to scheduling (meeting once a week or two weeks) or the fact that a teacher or student is hard to get hold of for a number of reasons (on the road, conducting research, ensconced in a library heeding the publish or perish imperative).

OTHER ONLINE SERVICES FOR KIDS
==============================

[note: from "What's Online for Educators?" by Jason Ohler
Copyright : 1989, with one time rights assigned to Electronic
Learning Magazine for article publication]

One of the most exciting developments to accompany the growth of distance education has been the rapid evolution of online computer networks, projects, and services. What follows are summaries of some of the more popular activities in this area that are geared for educators.

Service: National Geographic Kids Network
Description: A hands-on science curriculum for grades 4-6 also
involving geography and social studies subject areas. It uses
electronic mail to connect teachers, kids, experts into research
groups from around the US and other countries, for the purpose
of comparing data, sharing expertise, and preparing joint
reports. Activities focus on environmental topics like water
quality and acid rain. Contact: Dorothy Perreca, Project
Manager, National Geographic Kids Network, National Geographic,
Washington, DC 20036. Phone: 202-775-6580.

Service: FrEdMail (Free Education Mail).
Description: A low cost, teacher-created, grass roots network of
90 bulletin boards across the US (with one in Canada) which
share information. Each bulletin board within the network is
used as local bulletin board while also contributing to the
national network's two main conference groups, IDEAS and
KIDWIRE, geared toward teachers and students respectively.
Contact: Al Rogers, 4021 Allen School Road, Bonita, Ca. 92002.
Compuserve: 76167,3514.

Service: Interactive Communication Simulations (ICS)
Description: Offers role (actually character) playing games for
over 1000 students at one time through an enhanced Confer II
computer conferencing network. It is designed primarily for use
in junior and senior high social studies curriculae. Students
from eleven countries are networked together as they assume
roles in simulations of, for examples, the Arab-Israeli
conflict, Environmental Decisions, and a US Constitutional
Convention. Contact: ICS Staff, Univ. of Michigan, School of
Education, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1259. Phone:
313-763-6716. BITNET ID: USERGCEE@UMICHUB.

Service: MIX (McGraw-Hill Information Exchange)
[Note: MIX is currently undergoing reorganization and I am
unsure of its status.] Description: An international electronic
mail and conferencing service featuring a broad range of
services for K-12 teachers, students, and administrators to be
used in a wide variety of content areas. MIX supports student
projects in most academic areas, teacher-to-teacher planning and
support conferences, a forum for educational groups and
consortia, and hosts who help to orient and personalize the
online experience for newcomers. Contact: Lynne Schrum
(503-345-8257), or Griff Wigley (507-645-9347), MIX, PO Box
382, Northfield, Minnesota 55057. BITNET ID: LSCHRUM@OREGON,
MIX ID: LSCHRUM or GWIGLEY.

Service: Dialog Classroom Instruction Program (CIP)
Description: A simplified, student version of Dialog, offering
teacher guide, student workbooks, good online rates to
facilitate group instruction of the techniques of online
searching. Geared for middle school and up. Contact: Anne
Caputo, CIP Administration, Dialog, 1901 No. Moore St., Suite
500, Arlington, Va. 22209. Phone: 800-334-2564.

Service: Pals Across the World
Description: An international writing project for third grade
and up that matches up classrooms in different countries to
exchange electronic mail for a number of activities, such as
letter, report, and poetry writing, electronic journalism,
dialog on social issues, and script writing. Contact: Jim
Irwin, 4974 SW Galen, Lake Oswego, Oregon, 97035. Phone
503-697-4080, or 635-0338. Applelink ID: K0591, Dialcom ID:
WEW001.

Service: Long Distance Learning Network
Description: An AT&T sponsored, international electronic
cooperative education service, using 'learning circles' to
organize activities in many subject areas at primary, middle,
and secondary levels. Contact: Margaret Riel, AT&T, Long
Distance Learning Network, PO Box 716, Basking Ridge, New
Jersey, 07920-0716. Phone: 619-943-1314. AT&T ID: !MRIEL,
Compuserve ID: 76004,1007.

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Author's note: Jason originally shared this on a usenet mailing list for folks interested in linking kids via networking.