E-mail - A Guide to using it in Bristol Schools (pdf file)
Transcription
E-mail - A Guide to using it in Bristol Schools (pdf file)
Education and Lifelong Learning E-mail A guide to using it in Bristol Schools Bristol – a city where learning comes first Introduction The use of E-mail is potentially an extremely valuable educational tool for both teachers and children. The purpose of this document is to provide some guidance on how to best use e-mail with children. The document includes a step by step guide of how to register to the our recommended E-mail provider ePALs. Also included are details on internet safety, and how to set up an E-mail project. What is E-mail? E-mail (Electronic mail) is a way of sending text messages from one computer to another. You can send e-mail in several ways: across a local area network, via the Internet, or through an online service like BTInternet or Hotmail--and you can send it to a single recipient or to many of them. But all e-mail behaves pretty much the same way: you send it to a virtual mailbox, and the recipient has to pick it up. Text passes very quickly across the Internet, items can be joined to a text message – these are called attachment and they can be audio/visual in nature. It is as easy to send an email to Australia as it is to the house next door. History of E-mail? Sometime in late 1971, a computer engineer named Ray Tomlinson sent the first email message. He worked for a company called Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN), the company was hired by the United States Defense Department in 1968 to build ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. The USA Defense Department wanted to find a way to link computers so that messages could be passed between them. Email analogy for children Email works in the same way as the post office. Firstly you have to write a letter Then you have to address the envelope for the letter so it will be delivered to where you want it to go The letter is then posted The letter is then delivered and will arrive at the address written on the envelope 1 In a similar way • Firstly you write an email message Then you type in the address of the person you want to send it You send the message by clicking on ‘send’ The email is then delivered to a virtual mailbox and picked up by the recipient when they check their email The Email address To exchange mail with friends and family, and to sign up for email services, you need your own email address, which will look something like this: [email protected] 'luke_skywalker' is the name of the user '@' is pronounced 'at' 'bristol-city' is the name which Bristol City Council has registered with the Internet Society '.' is pronounced 'dot' 'gov' means the name belongs to a government organisation '.' is pronounced 'dot' 'uk' means the name is on a computer in the United Kingdom If you were asked to read this address over the telephone you'd say: ‘luke’ underscore ‘skywalker ' at ' bristol ‘ dash ’ city ' dot' gov 'dot' uk". Every address has two parts: a user name and a domain name. 2 ‘co’ – The suffix tells you the kind of institution using the address (see examples Table 1) ‘@’ separates the user and domain names [email protected] The ‘user name’ which identifies the person to whom you are sending the email The ‘Domain’ name may be provided by the school, council or could be from a commercial website ‘uk’ is the country code used by every country apart from the USA (see examples Table 2) Table 1. Organisation Code Type of organisation .com .co.uk .net .gov .edu .org .org.uk Company UK company Network Government department Educational institute Organisation UK organisation .ac .ac.uk .sch University UK university School 3 Table 2. Country Code Country .ar .au .br Argentina Australia Brazil .ca .de .dk .es .fr .in .it .jp .mx .no .nz .se .sg .uk Canada Germany Denmark Spain France India Italy Japan Mexico Norway New Zealand Sweden Singapore UK Why do children need to use E-mail at school? In the National Curriculum Scheme of Work for ICT E-mail first appears in Year 3: IT Unit 3E (Year 3) ‘In this unit children learn to use e-mail (electronic mail) to send and receive messages. They learn about communicating over distances and will need to consider and compare different methods of communication. Using e-mail can help children develop their reading and writing skills and develop their knowledge of the wider community. The unit requires collaboration with other schools. Children will apply what they have learnt in this unit when using e-mail, gathering information, developing collaborative projects, and writing for other audiences.’ 4 These requirements are divided into five areas: • Knowledge,skills and understanding • Developing ideas and making things happen • Exchanging and sharing information • Reviewing, modifying and evaluating work as it progresses • Breath of study Below, topics related specifically to email are underlined Knowledge, skills and understanding Finding things out Pupils should be taught: to talk about what information they need and how they can find and use it [for example, searching the internet or a CD-ROM, using printed material, asking people] how to prepare information for development using ICT, including selecting suitable sources, finding information, classifying it and checking it for accuracy [for example, finding information from books or newspapers, creating a class database, classifying by characteristics and purposes, checking the spelling of names is consistent] to interpret information, to check it is relevant and reasonable and to think about what might happen if there were any errors or omissions. Developing ideas and making things happen Pupils should be taught: how to develop and refine ideas by bringing together, organising and reorganising text, tables, images and sound as appropriate [for example, desktop publishing, multimedia presentations] how to create, test, improve and refine sequences of instructions to make things happen and to monitor events and respond to them [for example, monitoring changes in temperature, detecting light levels and turning on a light] 5 to use simulations and explore models in order to answer 'What if ... ?' questions, to investigate and evaluate the effect of changing values and to identify patterns and relationships [for example, simulation software, spreadsheet models]. Exchanging and sharing information Pupils should be taught: how to share and exchange information in a variety of forms, including e-mail [for example, displays, posters, animations, musical compositions] to be sensitive to the needs of the audience and think carefully about the content and quality when communicating information [for example, work for presentation to other pupils, writing for parents, publishing on the internet]. Reviewing, modifying and evaluating work as it progresses Pupils should be taught to: review what they and others have done to help them develop their ideas describe and talk about the effectiveness of their work with ICT, comparing it with other methods and considering the effect it has on others [for example, the impact made by a desktop-published newsletter or poster] talk about how they could improve future work. Breadth of study During the key stage, pupils should be taught the Knowledge, skills and understanding through: working with a range of information to consider its characteristics and purposes [for example, collecting factual data from the internet and a class survey to compare the findings] working with others to explore a variety of information sources and ICT tools [for example, searching the internet for information about a different part of the world, designing textile patterns using graphics software, using ICT tools to capture and change sounds] investigating and comparing the uses of ICT inside and outside school. 6 In Year 3 children are required to learn the basic E-mail skills. Children will then be able to use E-mail as an ICT tool to support other curriculum areas as well as the ICT Scheme of Work in later years(see links on E-mail teaching ideas). E-mail can also be used in Key Stage 1. Teachers can lead activities which involve the use of E-mail. Such as sending work to web sites to publish eg Infant Explorer http://www.naturegrid.org.uk/infant/ Where children (or teachers on their behalf) can ask Sebastian Swan questions. What can e-mail offer to teaching and learning in classroom contexts? The use of e-mail in curriculum projects can enable children to communicate quickly and productively with others in their own school, and at a distance. E-mail can provide a means for the exchange of ideas, opinions and information, and is a medium for discussion, negotiation and argument. The use of e-mail in the classroom is only educationally effective if some basic conditions are met: • class access to at least one reliable, high-specification computer • technical support • teacher confidence, based on either sound training, peer support or both • a definite purpose for e-mail use, such as an Email project E-mail Projects An e-mail project involves electronic communication between two or more partners. The partners could be individuals, groups, classes, schools in Bristol or schools in another country. E-mail is an excellent way of communicating with other schools/people around the world. The most important part of having an E-mail project is that it gives the work a purpose and it puts it into a context rather than a sterile lesson. E-mail projects can enhance and support the school curriculum. They can also transform the learning process by opening up possibilities that, conventionally, would be impossible to achieve. For example, collecting data on environmental conditions at different points around the world at the same moment in time. When you plan an E-mail project with another school it is important to highlight the reasons for using e-mail for communication and it should be made explicit to all of those involved. Common reasons include enabling the partners to: 7 • communicate without delay • share provisional versions of work • send materials in different formats such as pictures, text, sound and multimedia. Group activities encourage discussion and the sharing of ideas and opinions. They can also stimulate important thought processes such as articulation, argumentation, evaluation and reflection. E-mail can facilitate discussion with others at a distance, but it is essential to ensure that pupils have the necessary discussion skills. Organising the project There are several ways in which one might want to initiate a project. To begin with it would be better to set a project between classes within the school so that if problems do arise teachers are in close proximity. When confidence grows projects might include other schools in Bristol, Britain or the World. The ICT team provide a matching service whereby schools are invited to send in details about themselves and they will be matched with another school in Bristol. At the end of the document is a form about your school which you can fill out and send to the ICT Team at Bristol Education Centre. Alternatively individual schools can independently contact other Bristol schools. Looking further a field there are several websites which provide the service of matching schools from around the world. To get details of the matching service you can visit the websites listed below: ePALS: www.epals.com Montage: http://www.montageplus.co.uk/ Windows on the world: http://www.wotw.org.uk/ There is a more comprehensive list at the end of the document ePALs provides a free translation service so differences in spoken language in most cases will not be a problem (The translation service is an automated service and translates word for word which is not ideal) Alternatively if you would like help in setting up communication with a partner school in another country, please contact: Jill Richie Bristol International Education Service Bristol Education Centre Sheridan Road Horfield BRISTOL BS7OPU [email protected] 0117 9031380 8 Organising communication with your partner school Once you have a partner, the next step is to ensure that you have a joint project and mutual aims for the e-mail communication. It is not 'cheating' to meet face to face, but this is a very good idea if practicable. You and your partner need to make decisions about the timing of the project, the grouping of learners, introducing the work, topics for discussion, how to ensure that communication is both appropriate and on task, and what mechanisms are in place to deal with any problems as they arise. Organising the processes of sending and receiving e-mail in the classroom Before you are inundated with e-mail, it is important for you and your class to discuss and establish some ground rules for e-mail use. These should be generated and agreed to by the class. This involves a whole-class discussion in which experience and understanding of the pleasures and pitfalls of e-mail are shared, and the reasons for rules are accepted and agreed to by all. Whole class discussion: what rules shall we use for e-mail? Why do we need rules for the use of e-mail? Are there any rules in use at home? What might go wrong if we do not agree to some rules? What should happen if people break our rules? What should our rules be? The rules should include an indication that the children understand these points: • Language use in e-mail should be appropriate for a general audience. E-mail should be available to be read by the entire class and teachers. In class E-mail is not a private medium. Teachers would be advised to check emails periodically to ensure appropriate use. • Names or pen names must be included on each e-mail sent, and the e-mail should be addressed to a specific recipient in the partner class. • There may be restrictions on the times when e-mail can be written or sent, and these should be explicitly stated. For example, some schools may expect e-mail to be written off line, while for others this will not be important. • Responsibility for who will check mailboxes should be established. • It is necessary to decide whether e-mail should be stored electronically and where, or whether e-mail should be printed out and, if so, where copies should go. • There should be sanctions if the rules are broken, and it should be made clear that the rules and sanctions are in place to protect and support people in both schools. 9 Organising e-mail facilities and e-mail knowledge and skills Before the project can proceed children will need to learn the necessary skills to send and receive email. To begin with teachers might find it beneficial to have a single class email which is shared. Then as ‘a class’ children can learn how to send and receive mail. Children can develop their skills by taking responsibility of certain roles such as collecting or sending e-mail on behalf of their classmates. By sharing an account children can also develop the understanding that school emails are not private and shared by everybody – this prevents any misuse. This is a good way to begin as it is very easy for the teacher to manage and monitor a single email account as well as children learning important email skills. Key Stage 1 teachers could operate ‘a class’ email which the class could use to support a range of curriculum areas. As children develop the necessary ICT and literacy skills teachers might want to provide pairs/groups of children with their own address Safe Email provider At present there are hundreds of companies offering free email addresses to anybody who wants one (For a comprehensive list of freemail services visit: www.emailaddresses.com. When choosing an email provider you need to ensure that there is a way of filtering the mail so that children do not receive ‘inappropriate’ or ‘offensive’ material. There have been well publicised security problems with some of the free email providers. We recommend using the E-mail provider called ePALS, which can be found at www.epals.com ePALS Classroom Exchange is the world's largest and fastest growing online classroom community, connecting over 4.5 million users from around the globe. ePALS helps learners of all ages become active members of the global community by giving them access to tools, resources and each other. We recommend using the E-mail provider called ePALS, which can be found at www.epals.com. The LEA can also provide safe email services to schools enabling the school to use its DfES registered domain name (schoolname.bristol.sch.uk). This is done either by the school administering its own mail server (no charge) or by the school registering accounts on a central server (annual charge depends on number of accounts). For more information please contact Peter Wangermann, Education IT, tel: 0117 90 37435. 10 Features of ePALS Features for classroom use: Webmail • Send and receive e-mail from any computer with an Internet connection safely Monitored E-mail Monitor students e-mail activities: • Educator monitoring of student e-mail • Flagged Word filters look for inappropriate language and alert monitor • Control where students can send e-mail to and receive e-mail from • Preview e-mail attachments to ensure appropriate educational use Instant translation tools • Practice new language skills • Facilitate communication with those who are new to English Projects • Take part in online collaborative project and independent projects • Exchange project ideas with educators worldwide Discussion Forums • Engage in discussion with peers and colleagues at your school, in your district and around the world • Moderators ensure conversations are relevant and appropriate Ecards • Send electronic greeting cards to milestones or celebrate special days reinforce 11 student achievement, mark Getting Started www.ePALs.com – How to register with To register a class on ePALS a teacher must also register. First of all you need to log onto the internet and visit www.ePALs.com. Click on Join ePALS 12 Click on Teachers and press continue 13 STEP 1: Enter your details, read and accept the terms and continue. Note you have to enter information for every category. You might find that you will not be able to have the e-mail address you first choose as somebody else might already have it, ePALS will offer you some alternatives. 14 STEP 2: Fill in the details about your school and press enter STEP 3: Fill in the information about your class 15 STEP 4: Approve your information! Check to see that it is all correct 16 You are now a member of ePALS! STEP 5: To create e-mail accounts for your class click on ‘set up your free monitored e-mail accounts’ which is under the heading MONITORED E-MAIL 17 STEP 6: Now follow the online instructions. If you leave the first box empty the computer will automatically choose e-mail addresses for your class. Alternatively you might want to enter a common word, for example if you write in the word Blue each childs e-mail address will be [email protected], with each child having a different number. This is a lot easier than setting up email addresses using children’s names – and safer!. It also means that email addresses do not have to be set up each year, instead children can be assigned to one of the emails originally set up by the teacher – in essence email addresses can be reused. 18 STEP 7: Print off the screen of e-mail addresses, children being children will forget their address! Once you have taken a copy approve the E-mail addresses 19 STEP 8: Finally you need to choose a password and press finish 20 STEP 9: You are then given details of your account and you can choose whether you want to filter your class accounts (recommended to begin with). You can change the filters at a later date. Children registered now have their own accounts and are ready to start e-mailing. 21 This is your Inbox, at the top of the page are the Incoming and Outgoing monitored accounts which are messages sent by pupils in your class. You have to check their messages before they can be read or sent. This can be very time consuming! If you do not need to check the mail received and sent by pupils then you can click on either Incoming or Outgoing and change the Filter settings by clicking on Filter Settings. When you do the page on the next page will appear 22 This gives you the flexibility to change filter settings for individuals Internet Safety Before you let children use e-mail you must get parental consent and an out line of how it will be used should be included in the school internet policy. Check out Superhighway Safety DfES Superhighway Safety site – AUPs and home-school agreements. http://safety.ngfl.gov.uk/ or British Computer Society promoting the responsible use of the Internet in schools. http://www.bcs.org.uk/internet.doc kent example of internet policy 23 Ideas for using e-mail Here are a few ideas which have been tried and tested • As part of her key stage 2 literacy hour work, a teacher was looking at fairy tales with her class and set up an e-mail alias for herself as 'The Big Bad Wolf'. Pupils sent e-mails to the Wolf, asking questions such as, 'Why are you so mean to the everybody?’ 'Why did you destroy the houses of the Three Little Pigs?' and 'Did you really eat Little Red Riding Hood?' The teacher then replied to the messages in character and this prompted a wide range of creative writing via email for the children involved. • A class of Year 6 children were interested in developing their geographical knowledge of Australia and America. They began by using e-mail to communicate with children from Australia and the United States. • A class were carrying out a project on rivers, they followed their local river, Rhondda Fach, from its source above the village of Maerdy to the sea in Cardiff Bay. They also asked e-pals from around the world for pictures of their local rivers. They are now building a web site, featuring maps and photographs, where they will present the results. • Pupils with communication difficulties are using symbol word processing software to create letters that are e-mailed to a class of pupils with similar abilities in the USA. This highly motivating activity has helped them develop composition skills, consider writing for an audience and make choices about content. Other benefits include a widening understanding of how technology can be used for a variety of purposes and a deeper knowledge of other people’s lives. • A Year 5 class e-mailed a questionnaire asking their US friends about their favourite foods, pets, bands and so on. They received the replies and turned these into a data handling exercise. • A Year 4 class compared local areas with Bakersfield, USA. The class e-mailed them letters and photos of their area using our digital camera. In return the children received letters and pictures from the USA. • Year 5 pupil arrived at his new primary school in Cheshire a few weeks after the start of the autumn term. He had been very happy at the previous place and was reluctant to leave. He was very tearful on his first day at the new school and during that first week he was so upset he even tried to run off. His teacher, decided to try using e-mail to help him stay in contact with friends from his former school. His face lit up as he read the first message from his old teacher. The pupil and his new teacher replied with a photo of him in his new 24 uniform, taken using the school’s digital camera. During those first few weeks he exchanged many e-mails with his friends and former teacher. Gradually, however, he settled in and started to be able to say positive things about his new school. One sign that he really had made the transition was when he stopped asking to send messages, because he was becoming involved in what he was doing with his new classmates. • A Years 3 and 4 class teacher made contact via e-mail with two schools in California, USA. This was thrilling for both sets of children and, after much communication, they finished up with an 'across the Atlantic' piece of creative writing. The British pupils wrote the first paragraph, the Americans wrote the next and so on. The British school then sent the story off to a couple of other schools and it continued to develop. • Pupils from Years 3 and 4 sent e-mails to a friend of their teacher who was living in India for a year. The messages they received in return brought the geography of India to life. On one occasion they were on-line when an e-mail came in from Goa. The topic table was next to the computer and as the message came down the line, the teacher was able to pick up some Goa brochures to show the children. Year 4 children were encouraged to use e-mail to help them in their geography work. They set about investigating and comparing their local area with that of the participating school in the US. The children used e-mail to send digital photographs. By sharing maps and pictures, the children in both locations were able to describe the differences in the school buildings, transport and road systems. • New Whittington Primary School, Derbyshire, created an e-mail project that later enhanced and supported their PSHE curriculum. ‘Becoming a citizen of the world’ began when Year 4 and 5 children made contact with schools in Holland and Ireland and exchanged data relating to wind speed, temperature and rainfall. They e-mailed data on a daily basis and presented the information in graphs and charts. When the project was finished, they organised a videoconference link between the two schools. This was the first time the children had seen each other. • The use of e-mail has now been extended and Year 5 pupils are discussing citizenship issues with schools in Finland and Poland. The children read about current events and the daily lives of people in each country as an introduction to citizenship. The school plans to introduce a school council, where children from all three countries will learn what it means to be good citizens in their schools. 25 Here are a few ideas which you might like to try • E-mail schools from around the world and ask prices of the objects in their country. Collect the information e-mailed to you and use the information for currency conversion exercises in our Year 6 Maths classes. • Ask the children to devise a procedure. It could be how to play a simple game for example. They need to be reminded that the text should be clear, concise, well structured and with sufficient detail to ensure the task can be accomplished. The procedure could be e-mailed to a ‘cyber buddy’ in the partner school to try out. The friend could then try out the game and report on the success of the procedure (a recount) • Compose a story with a cyber friend. Each child can write one sentence of the story, and pass it on to their friend who will add another sentence. The activity can continue in this way until they decide that the story is finished • E-mail the authorities, schools, businesses or any other relevant people, asking for information on a particular topic (possibly one they are studying in school). This information can then be written out as a report and published. • Children can condense a story into bullet points / note-form. They can then retell this information to a neighbour, and even send it to a cyber-friend via e-mail. This is an ideal way of encouraging children to engage in book reviewing. Managing Email in the class Saving email into folders Once children have received a certain amount of mail, they can begin to feel overwhelmed by it, unless they take steps to manage or file it, just as you would with paper mail. The way to do this is usually to set up folders into which children can store any messages they are likely to need to refer to in the future. The principle is just the same as organising text documents into folders, and saving useful links into favourites or bookmarks. You need to create folders, organised for example by topic or project. You usually create folders by right clicking on the top level of your mail box, for example the inbox. Or choose 'Folder - New' in the file menu. As you set up folders, you can create subfolders within them, naming them as you go. Then move the relevant messages into the appropriate file. You can either drag the message, or you may have a 'Move to Folder' button. 26 Deleting all the rubbish Children need to be encouraged to delete unwanted mail and not to hoard it. The more mail they have in their inbox or folder the harder it is to locate an email. To get rid of mail you usually select or highlight the message and then hit the delete button (the delete key on your keyboard usually works as well) When an email is deleted it usually is simply transferred onto a 'Deleted mail' folder, where you can still read it, and pull it back out into another folder if you change your mind, rather like a trash bin on your desk top. If you delete it from the delete folder, however, it is gone for good. It is a good idea to delete messages for good unless you feel you may need them again - they tend to mount up and take up space otherwise. And if you have a strong feeling you may need to see a message again - don't delete it - store it in a subject folder. 27 Email related websites Electronic mail in schools - A report for the Department for Education and Employment http://www.becta.org.uk/schools/emist/index.html Internet Safety information sheet http://www.becta.org.uk/technology/infosheets/html/internetsafety.html The latest guidance added to the Superhighway Safety pack in March 2001, including the use of chat rooms by children, pupil e-mail addresses and school e-mail systems. Teachers Online Project (TOP) http://top.ngfl.gov.uk/ Teachers can exchange views and join collaborative projects. Virtual Teacher Centre (VTC) http://www.vtc.ngfl.gov.uk Links to ICT in practice across the curriculum, as well as news and updates for teachers. Infant Explorer http://www.naturegrid.org.uk/infant/ This Web site aims to help young children become confident and competent users of the Internet. It contains interactive books, encourages the use of E-mail and provides opportunities for the children's work to be published on the site, making it available for a worldwide audience! Kids on the net http://kotn.ntu.ac.uk/index.htm Kids on the Net is a trAce Online Writing Centre web site. It has writing by children at home and children from schools all over the world. It has many writing resources and it is a good place to publish any Literacy work European SchoolNet http://www.eun.org European SchoolNet Site, with links to international projects and other resources. Epals http://www.epals.com Epals connects over 3 million students and teachers worldwide. Gridclub http://www.gridclub.com A DfES safe site for 7- to 11-year-olds. QCA Scheme of Work http://www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/schemes/ See Unit 3E on e-mail. 28 Thinking together http://www.thinkingtogether.org.uk/ Making group work more effective by teaching effective talking skills. E-mail art exchanges http://www.ambleside.schoolzone.co.uk/ambleweb/thegallery/artexchange/exchange. htm between Ambleside and Edelston primary schools: Montage Plus http://www.montageplus.co.uk/feedback.htm A web site for teachers to communicate with like-minded teachers from other countries, with the aim of creating e-mail links between international classes. St Mary's Primary School, Dover http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/literacy/Monster-Proj/monster3.html Students e-mailed descriptions of monsters to one another. Devon schools e-mail project with Baranya http://www.devon.gov.uk/dcs/englishmedia/baranya/index.html Primary Resources http://www.primaryresources.co.uk Email teaching resources Teaching Ideas http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/ Email teaching resources ICT Adivce http://www.ictadvice.co.uk BECTa site which can answer any ICT related questions – a good reference guide 29 References Epals http://www.epals.com ICT Adivce http://www.ictadvice.co.uk QCA Scheme of Work http://www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/schemes/ Using Email by Frances Thomas and Michael Strachan (A & C Black) 2001 30 Locating an Email Partner School in Bristol If you would like to start an email project with another school in Bristol please fill out your details below and send it to the address at the bottom of the form. I propose to match schools initially by pairing those schools who have identified similar year groups . Schools will be matched as closely as possibly, I will try my best to suite the needs of each school. Details: School …………………………………………. Email Address……………………………….. Address………………………………………… ……………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………. We would like to locate a school which will be using email in the following year groups Reception Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 School Phone Number……………………. Year 6 Contact Name………………………………… Computer Club Please send completed form to:Kristian Hancock ICT CST BEC Sheridan Road Horfield Bristol BS7 OPU Or email to:[email protected] 31