Upon researching and evaluating the significance of e-mail several
realizations have presented themselves to me.
Obviously the first point one realizes about e-mail is the speed
with which it is able to transmit memos and letters. A feat which can
never be achieved with the traditional postal service. So true is this
fact that some people affectionately refer to traditional postal services
as "snail mail". By comparison, e-mail is without question the more
immediate medium.
Another unique and beneficial feature of e-mail is that there is no
chance of losing a correspondence due to human error during the transfer
of data. Also, resubmitting e-mail messages is as easy as you might
imagine, due to the fact that all previous e-mails can be saved in
memory. This allows an individual to generate as many multiple messages
as desired or until a response is recieved.
One quite significant use of e-mail which I discovered through my
research is, e-mail as the link between classroom teachers and their
students with Subject Matter Experts (SME's). In particular the
Electrones Emissary Project at the University of Texas, Austin at
http://www.tapr.org/emissary.
Participants volunteer to be a telementor by applying on line,
completing the necessary forms and under going a thorough investigation.
If the field of expertise is required for a particular project being
worked on by a class and teacher, a facilitator will contact the
volunteer to schedule project periods or times of mutual availability
as well as detail project planning. The role of the facilitator is to
provide support and scaffolding to SME's in the field.
One first time facilitator of the Electronic Emissary Project was
really surprised at the almost immediate responses she received through
her e-mails. She believed that e-mail is much more agreeable than
an answering machine or telephone because it dosen't require that you
divert your immediate attention or interrupt your work process in order
to deal with the messages. She also believed that the medium was very
powerful for instructional purposes and the messages were much more
personal and, often, more informative than those left on answering
machines.
