eLearn: Feature Article: "Ever since email exploded onto the scene in the early 1990s, it has become a fast, popular, and convenient medium for communication between college students and their professors. Some would argue that it has become too convenient. Students today seem to rely less on face-to-face meetings or phone calls with their instructors and more on electronic mail, which they use to challenge grades, explain absences, deliver unsolicited paper drafts, and announce their intention to 'drop by' outside of office hours, assuming that we will either be available or shift our schedules to accommodate their needs. Today's students view themselves as customers in a consumer culture who are entitled to answers and information 24 hours a day. Do things really have to be this way?"
Examples of the suggestions:
Don't email your professor to ask whether they will excuse a particular absence.
Don't email your professor to ask whether they will excuse a particular absence.
Don't expect an immediate response to your email.
You are what you email.
Use proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
These are simply a few of the excellent suggestions. For more information, check out
"i dont mean too bother u but": Student Email and a Call for Netiquette,
1 comment:
I found myself smiling as I read this article. I am a high school teacher and an online student. So both aspects of my life have a great deal to do with e-mail. I do think that more and more students are using e-mail as a way to communicate with their teachers; however I do understand that frustration that at times goes along with that. Being in a traditional high school setting, I see my students face-to-face everyday. It is their parents; however, that choose to e-mail me when there is an issue with an assignment or a grade that their child earned. My district has an online grading system that is open for parent viewing. The annoyance comes when that parent doesn’t understand how to read the screen and e-mails with an insane amount of disrespect. E-mails that I receive from my students look something like, “I cant come to skool cuz im sick what did i miss”. The grammar is beyond poor, they expect an immediate response, and never politely. This issue is that my high school students are the future’s college students. So these “bad” habits have to be fixed.
As a student, I do use e-mail often, mainly because the professor who teaches online is usually at his/her computer. But, I know when an e-mail is appropriate and when I should reference other students in the class network. We are in a consumer’s culture and today’s young people have been immersed in it since birth. So really, they don’t know any different. I think that the huge focus on up-to-date technologies has spoiled these students. We need to really teach them the importance of respecting the person behind the technology.
Post a Comment