After all of the hardware has been installed and the teachers know how to use it, the most basic way to use the internet is for e-mail. This can be a very helpful tool for both teachers and students. Teachers can use it to talk with other teachers to get ideas on how to present a certain subject in class, as well as talking with parents of their students without having to go through all of the trouble of finding a time to talk to the parent on the phone or in person that works for both of them. E-mail is also a helpful tool for talking among staff members at a school. It cuts down on all of the paper memos and all the time it takes for a meeting.
Students can also get a great benefit from e-mail.
E-mailing is also useful for a student of a foreign language. They can talk in the language that they are learning to a student who is a native speaker of that same language. The internet can be a great learning tool, but there are many issues about using it in a classroom, especially with elementary age children. Many of these issues surround what children should and shouldn't see, and whether there should be filters of some sort to make sure that children can't get into things like pornography, whether they mean to or not. There are teachers and parents on both sides of the issue.