Using Email in the Classroom

Many school districts do not encourage student use of personal email accounts. In fact, many have acceptable use policies in place that prohibit the use of personal email accounts on campus.

However, in recent years, some school districts have begun providing filtered or monitored email accounts for student use in the upper elementary, middle and high school grades.

Your school district may already be offering a similar service. Check with your local tech support team for details.

Check with Administration First

You will definitely want to check with your administrator and/or school district office before implementing any lesson activities that require the use of student email.

You will need to be very careful in initiating and/or responding to email to and from your students and their parents. It is wise to archive copies of any incoming and outgoing email received from and/or sent to students and parents in the event that there are every questions of propriety.

That being said, there are some wonderful opportunities for integrating email into the classroom instructional program.

Specific Uses of Email in the Classroom

Students can submit assignments as email messages or email attachments. If your school/district offers a filtered email service, you will likely be encouraged to find ways to use the service in the classroom.

Several non-profit organizations sponsor KeyPal (email pen pals) programs to encourage and support the educational use of email.

The Kidlink Project has been promoting online collaboration between children since 1990 and has been used by students in 176 countries.

http://www.kidlink.org/  

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