Let”s listen to what BasiaGliddon is saying:  “Computers are the future—and it is here.”

          Likewise, Orencia,(2007),a training specialist and a professor at PhilippineNational University,(PNU) emphasized that “the ability to use a computer is considered to bealmost indispensable for survival in these times, but learners must also be able to utilize such for their own purposes.”She further cited the value of technology to help them identify important problems, gather and evaluate relevant information from information networks, use to resolve central issues, and clearly communicate solutions to offer.

          One feature of the computer is the use of electronic mail or the e-mail for shorter term.  We can send or receive messages by way of the Yahoo Mail or in any other World Wide Website .  For learners, they can communicate within the classroom, school, at home, in the community and in the world outside. And this requires familiarity with a variety of activity structures and to adapt to content using interpersonal exchanges-key pals, information collections ( pooled data analysis) and problem-solving projects( social action projects).  Tom McNichol has something to say about e-mail:” Admitting you don’t have an e-mail address these days is almost likeadmitting you still listen to eight track tapes.” E-mail is less intrusive than the telephone and far simpler and quicker than writing a letter, e-mail has been embraced with enthusiasm by millions for their business, education and personal communications.

                According to Rosalie Maggio, writer of the book How To Say It, a book for effective written communication. Precise figures are difficult to ascertain or verify butit’s possible that as many as 180 billion e-mail messages are sent daily, and that 70%  of them are spam, or junk mail.( Fewer than 200 people are thought to be responsible for 80% of the spam.)writing effective correspondence,”

              The hallmark of the e-mailed message is its conversational tone.  Because questions and answers can be sent back and forth rapidly, it resembles a dialogue where a regular letter resembles a monologue.  The relative effortlessness of e-mail has inspires a surge in communicating of different individuals in all walks of life, including teachers as well as the learners.  E-mail has inspired many individuals to use it, those who haven’t written a letter in years use e-mail because of its simplicity, directness, and speed.

            The downside of the immediacy of e-mail is that it allows people to send notes, idle thoughts, jokes, forwards, chain letters, and trivia that they would never, in the old days, have taken the time, effort and postage to send anyone. Now we are privy to our friends and co-workers.

            Properly harnessed and used, nowadays, e-mail is the most significant and useful new communication tool in centuries, especially for teachers and other employees.

                        Maggio suggested some tips in sending e-mails:

1. 1.Don’t use e-mails to convey high-impact news ( a death, a new company president, serious illness).
2. 2.Don’t write anything you don’t want the whole world to know. E- Mail is far from privateIt is easily forwarded or misrouted.  It was never intended for confidential messages.  Etiquette guru, Peggy Post, says, “Work e-mail is a public document.
3. 3.Don’t send an urgent message by e-mail unless the person who will receive it is expecting the message that you willThere is no assurance that the message will be read immediately.
4. 4.Don’t read angry e-mails, it’s easy to fire off our first thoughts and regret them afterward.
5. 5.Don’t use all capital letters unless you want the recipient to understand that you are yelling.

Maggio even suggested some tips in writing an e-mail which are self-explanatory:

• An e-mail address consists of 1. A name identifying the individualor group (“xyz”); 2. The “at” sign (“@”); 3. The name of the server ( forexample, “earthling”); and 4. A code that identifies the mail by type(domain):.commercial;(network;.gov(government);edu(.educationalinstitutions);.org(-usually  nonprofit; mil(military);.st(state government).Thus: xyz@earthling . com.
• Be sure that your e-mail address is professional.  If you’ve had the same e-mail address for some time, give it another look to be sure it suits who you are today.
• Use everyday language.  In a letter you may write “ I will” or more formally, “I shall.” In an e-mail you write ”I’II.”. However, even mails tend to informal language, use correct punctuation, grammar. and correct spelling.
• Respond promptly.
• You may ignore chain  mail, jokes and petition letters without being rude.
• Do not pass on other’s e-mail address.

We at the DepEd must be guided by the e-mail ethics. May be, by this time, it is safe to say that majority of teachers at DepEd have e- mail addresses.

 

            Reference {

: Maggio, R. How To Say It.  Third Edition. Prentice Hall Press

By: LEILANI P LEAÑO | Master Teacher II | Nagbalayong Elementary School Morong District | Morong, Bataan