The enhancements to the classroom experience are significant, and they derive not from the kind of e-communication used, but merely from the fact of using this new mode. In order to retain control of the goals of the class, teachers should start out with a minimum level of computer use, and not allow the computer to change their style. Use the computer to do what you already do, but in a new way, and see what happens. The procedures for using different systems vary, and pedagogical e-mail use must rest on a foundation of teacher and student ability to use the system. At its simplest, e-mail is nothing more than the sending of written text from one computer to another.
Most teachers now exchange written text with students on paper.
Shifting this to e-mail produces at least two changes with profound results. First, students and teachers can exchange the texts between classes, instead of in class. Second, the student writing is received as a computer text file. I will discuss both of these changes, and then give some references to descriptions of additional uses of e-communication for language teaching. The Assignment Cycle Consider an English class that meets once or twice a week.