email

media type="custom" key="111602" toc =e-mail Overview=

e-mail has become a fairly standard way to communicate and is even being replaced in many ways by text messaging. Many people have at least one e-mail account and often times they may have 2 or 3. To sign up for a variety of different free tools and resources online it is often necessary to have an e-mail address so it quickly becomes an issue for your students if they don't have their own address. As with anything online, safety is a big concern and as a teacher you want to have a reliable way to monitor student communication that is facilitated via e-mail. It's reasonable to expect parents to help in this monitoring process but it's also important to acknowledge the responsibility schools have in keeping kids safe especially when e-mail is being used for school related activities.

**Uses of e-mail in Education**
I certainly wouldn't qualify e-mail as an emerging technology and it's probably one of the most familiar technologies around with many people having multiple e-mail accounts. But even though it is quite common many teachers don't use e-mail much with their students because of the safety concerns of having students send and receive inappropriate e-mail messages. That's why it's nice to have a service such as[| ePALS] that allows you as the teacher to monitor and manage student accounts. Both of these systems have filtering capabilities and also allow you to determine who can send e-mail to your students. Providing students with e-mail accounts allows them to more fully participate in many of the online resources available such as Wikis, Collaborative Tools and MUVEs. They can also promote communication between your students and a broader audience that includes parents and content experts as well as other students and teachers. Instead of having pen-pals you can have e-pals where students can learn about another culture, climate, geographic region and custom through e-mail based communication.

Educational Benefits of e-mail
As mentioned above, e-mail can be used to facilitate communication on a variety of subjects with an audience that extends far beyond the boundaries of your classroom. In addition, as a teacher you can facilitate communication with your students and parents through e-mail. Students (and parents) can send questions about homework, upcoming tests, field trips and many other things to you. They can also send along works in progress in the form of Word documents and other electronic based assignments for you to review and comment on. You can send reminders about upcoming events, tests or assignments to both parents and students as a way to keep everyone informed. Parents don't have to worry about contacting you during a planning period or other times when you are available at school when they can send an e-mail at any time of the day.

Specific Ideas for using e-mail in a k-12 Setting
Click here to add or view a lesson plan or idea for using this technology in the classroom.

**Relevant Online Tools**

 * **E-mail account creation and management tools:** These tools allow you to create free e-mail accounts for your students. They include various kinds of account management options and filters to help you keep students safe as they communicate through e-mail.
 * [|ePALS] is another free e-mail service that provides a safe e-mail environment and access to an entire community of users and online projects. Previously it had been a subscription based service but now that it is free it is even more attractive. In addition to an e-mail service it also provides safe blogging tools to use with students.
 * [|Think.com] is a bit like ePALS in that it provides access to more than just e-mail accounts for students. It also isn't free but they have a free trial you can check out to see if you like the service.
 * **Temporary/Disposable e-mail creation tools:** Temporary or disposable e-mail tools allow you to create e-mail addresses where you can receive mail but not send it. The value of a tool like this is that you can use it to create temporary addresses for students in order to sign them up for accounts with different tools and sites without worrying about the students getting spam or even needing to have a working e-mail address. [|Click here] to learn more about the benefits of temporary or disposable e-mail accounts and see a review of the top 20 tools or review them on your own by using the links below.
 * * [|Mailinator]
 * [|myTrashMail]
 * [|MailExpire]
 * [|TemporaryInbox]
 * [|MailEater] || * [|SpamBox]
 * [|GuerillaMail]
 * [|SpamHole]
 * [|10 MinuteMail]
 * [|dontreg] || * [|TempEmail]
 * [|PookMail]
 * [|SpamFree24]
 * [|KazMail]
 * [|SpamMotel] ||

**Relevant Articles or other Readings**

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