In one of our readings, Sharing the Fun—and the Paper Load, I noticed many similarities to what we have been doing in our class. We are using the internet and technology to communicate with students, making less paperwork for all of us. I understand the importance of this. It can be very overwhelming to constantly be bombarded with draft after draft from some times up to a hundred or more students. This makes communicating much more organized and less time consuming.
However, in my opinion, it isn’t all that it has cracked up to be. Communicating through email may be quicker and more efficient, but it eliminates the personal contact with the student. And I don’t know about the rest of you, but I often find it hard to explain without having the student right in front of me. I always find myself struggling to put into words what needs to be fixed because I am constantly wondering if the student is actually going to understand what I am trying to say or if I should try to explain it in a different way. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but I just feel like I can be a more effective teacher sitting face to face with a student.
And then there are the problems we discussed in the last class. Some students don’t have access to a computer or they have really slow internet. That can prove to make internet discussion a problem. The other problem is that students may expect too much of you, i.e. answering there questions at midnight, expecting a reply in just a few minutes. The important thing is to establish rules and expectations going into the email program.
I guess I still believe that nothing is better than the old fashion way, handing in papers and face to face feedback. Just something for everyone to think about. Let me know what all of you think!!!!!
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I agree that the use of email when communicating as a student or as a teacher can be challenging. I just had a discussion with a fellow classmate about email "tone" or "voice". We agreed that many times what is written or read in an email is misinterpreted.
It is a challenge to set the right level of formality and courteousness in your communication. I don't think that email takes the place of good old fashioned oral communication and I think as teachers we need to make sure that we do not let this practice fall to the wayside.
On the other hand, it allows a student to ask question that they might not ask otherwise and for many students, it is the preferred method of communication.
I think it might be an interesting lesson to focus on email etiquette and do some exercise where students can see how word choice affects reader understanding. Hmmm, might add that to one of my lesson plans.
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