E-mail provides a means of gathering and compiling data from journals much more easily than writing entries and comments in a notebook. It is also possible to comment or correct students' work in the dialog journal. Private e-mail is also a safe place for students to give their opinions about their homework, the class, or assignments, and for holding private consultations with the teacher. The advantage here is that the teacher can take a bit more time out of class to interact with students. Otherwise, as in the Japanese university courses I teach, a class of 40 provides little intimate teacher-student interaction.
Many mailing lists are forums for discussion.
These public forums are places for exchanging information, debating particular issues, and meeting people with similar interests who can then become more intimate correspondents down the line. The Web has several places to visit to exchange information on lessons, research, and theory. The Well Connected Educator. Though this requires the teacher to vigorously monitor, e-mail can be used for giving assignments to entire classes or to particular students. It is relatively easy to gather students' e-mail addresses and then send out announcements to all of them at a single keystroke.