Email and Education

Communication between teachers and students is very important in the educational process. There are many ways for educators to communicate with their students using Internet communication tools. The most popular method of communication by Internet is email. According the Pew Research Center, 94% of adults use the Internet for email. Students and educators can use email to communicate, share files and receive responses quickly and efficiently. According to the Department of Education, the use of email in the classroom allows students to "use language to understand, develop and communicate ideas and information and interact with one another while learning about other cultures".

Email in education provides for many things. It provides greater access to student. It gives voice to more reserved students. At times it can encourage thoughtful responses. It can encourage collaboration among students and non-students. Also email can create a virtual paper trail.

Almost all colleges and universities use email as their primary source of communication with the university’s students, faculty and staff Syracuse University is one of them. Syracuse University gives each registered student and active faculty and staff member an official Syracuse University e-mail address. All official University email communications will be sent to the assigned Syracuse address. This includes but is not limited to communications from faculty to students registered in their classes and from administrative personnel to students. The University expects that students, faculty, and staff will receive and read e-mail in a timely manner. Failure to receive and read University communications delivered to the University e-mail address in a timely manner does not absolve recipients from knowing and complying with the content of the email.

Using Internet for Educational Research

One of the ways the internet is used in education is to do research. According to a study published in the Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology 58% of student internet users use the internet to do educational research.

The Internet is widely and readily accessible and can provide instant information on most topics, which makes it ideal for doing research. Internet Research simply means to look something up on the Web. It includes any activity where a topic is identified, and an effort is made to gather information for the purpose of further understanding of the topic. It is not the same as scientific research, which is research that follows a defined and rigorous process that could be carried out using the Internet.

Compared to the using the Internet for research, using printed materials physically limits access to information. A book has to be identified, found, and then actually obtained. On the internet, the web can be searched, and hundreds and thousands of pages can be found with some relation to the topic, within seconds. In addition, email, online discussion forums, and other things like instant messaging can provide direct access to experts and other individuals with relevant information to the topic can be used as research. However, with the internet, difficulties persist in verifying a writer's credentials and verifying the accuracy of the information obtained.

Using tools from a library can help in doing research and making sure the information comes from a reliable source. Syracuse University library offers research guides on its website (http://researchguides.library.syr.edu/) that can help students use the internet to find information relevant to the student’s topic.

The topic of the internet is very broad. So the focus of the blog will be its use in education. There are many uses of the internet for education that is discussed in other classmates blogs. Here I will be discussing using the internet for Research, E-Mail, Online schools, and the possible downfalls of using the internet for educational purposes.

The internet is a very important part in education. According to the Pew Research Institute,

• 94% of youth ages 12-17 who have Internet access say they use the Internet for school research and 78% say they believe the Internet helps them with schoolwork.
• 71% of online teens say that they used the Internet as the major source for their most recent major school project or report.
• 41% of online teens say they use email and instant messaging to contact teachers or classmates about schoolwork.
• 34% of online teens have downloaded an online study aid.
• 18% of online teens say they know of someone who has used the Internet to cheat on a paper or test.
• 58% of online teens report using Web sites that had been set up specifically for their school or for a particular class.
• 17% of online teens have created a Web page for a school project.

With these numbers it is important to understand the significance of the internet in education.

Ref: http://www.slideshare.net/rogerja/top-ten-internet-uses-in-teaching-and-learning-2

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2001/The-Internet-and-Education/Summary-of-Findings.aspx

The Internet

For the second part of class I will be blogging about the internet, and specifically its use in education. The internet is something we all use (obviously because we are taking this class) but what is it? According to Yale University, the internet is "a worldwide system of interconnected networks and computers." It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as email and the world wide web. The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used interchangeably. However, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the same. The Internet is a global data communications system. It is a hardware and software infrastructure that provides connectivity between computers. In contrast, the Web is one of the services communicated via the Internet. It is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. There are many uses of the internet but I will get into that later.

Future of Digital Reference

There are mixed feelings from librarians about what the future of digital reference. According to a reference librarian from the University of Montana, some librarians feel that in general library reference will fade away, while other librarians think that it is here to stay and will evolve. The general feeling is that both digital and traditional reference services will coexist and work with each other. As technology becomes more sophisticated, libraries will use digital reference more and more. It is convenient and many users have Internet access and live in a digital world. The move toward a more digital world has become has apparent in libraries, with digital readers and music downloads. Because of this librarians will need to rely more and more on material found online rather than print sources. The problem with this is that reference librarians providing patrons with online resources will soon not be enough. One of the major requests made by reference librarians to vendors is to have the capability to scan material in print and send a PDF to the user. Also currently and in the future, academic libraries and municipal libraries alike will become part of larger consortium in which information is shared. Besides providing 24/7 service, libraries will be able to decrease their collections budgets and take advantage of special collections provided by other libraries. Soon reference librarians of the future will be able to talk to and see the digital reference users, walk around the library showing resources, and scan and send information from in print materials and online sources. The good thing is that digital referencing is still young and as technology changes, it could only improve.

Ref: http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/zanin-yost.htm

Digital Reference Videos

Beside trying to explain all the ins and out of digital referencing. Here are a few videos that can explain how it works.

This is from Syracuse University library and shows using the ask a librarian chat on their website.

Here are other videos that may help.

Libraries and New Technology

I was reading a an Associated Press article on the Washington Post website about how libraries are keeping up with the technology age. The article does not talk about digital referencing but because of technology you would think that people would stay away from the library but the article states different. Here is a link Libraries Launch apps to sync with iPod generation

What are your opinions on this?