Educational Uses of Email
A growing question for many educators is how to use the technology available to them. Typically, teachers use technology for the sake of using technology and don't utilize the technology to its fullest.
Email is an example of how technology can be misused in an educational setting. From its onset, email was used in the "penpal" type setting where students communicated one-to-one, much like pencil and paper penpals. If the only exchange made using email occurs in this manner, the full capability of email as a teaching tool has been lost.
Teachers must allow the students to form groups and become "experts" as well as learners and communicate with other similar groups. For instance, when a class is studying about the culture of China, they can form email exchange groups. One class can ask the other class a question while the other class combines their efforts to produce an answer or answers. This type of communication is two-way and uses the thoughts, ideas, and work of the group. This is very structured but allows for a wealth of learning.
How do you find groups to communicate with? There are bulletin boards, project listservs, and school lists. Search engines can also produce some surprising results.
As with any group activity, planning is the key to success. Not only do you need very detailed plans, clear guidelines, and explicit instructions, you need a back-up plan. As with any technology, things can go wrong.
Educational Examples
| Statistics Email Activity on the State of North
Carolina via the NCIH (North Carolina Information Highway--Distance Learning) GOALS: to gather, compile, and analyze data about the counties in the state of North Carolina PROCEDURES: Divide the students into groups of two. Assign each group with several counties from their area of the state. With the list of 10 items to search for, provide the students with the URLs of the sites containing this information. Students should put all information into a database provided by the teacher. Students at every site should email the database to the airing site for merging. After merging the students at the airing site will email the database to the other sites. Students in each region will perform statistical tests on several of the variables researched and compare them with the other regions of the state. Students will post their findings on a Threaded Discussion or through a listserv (whichever is appropriate). Via the teleconference, students will discuss the similarities and differences in the regions and reasons for these. Students will post all of their findings, test results, and the database on the web. |
Visit these sites for more examples and projects: http://njnie.dl.stevens-tech.edu/training/precale.html http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/edu/listman.html http://www.otan.dni.us/webfarm/emailproject/email.htm |