Students should be encouraged to write, contribute and comment upon each others work. As a result, they will get experience in reading and writing and exercising their critical thinking. The collaborative nature of Streams OnLine makes this possible. The work is easily accessible on computers in the school lab. It is easy to attach comments to specific works, and students and teachers can exchange email.
Email provides a written record of the exchange between students and teachers.
This, in addition to the revision control system, provides a resource for evaluation purposes. Streams OnLine enables collaboration between schools that normally would not be able to collaborate. The technology allows student exchanges to occur more rapidly than methods such as penpal letter projects, and yet still retains some measure of control for the teachers. The hope is that this exchange will improve the literacy rate among the students. As a result, they will get experience in reading and writing and exercising their critical thinking.