Students could not experience this depth of instruction from textbooks and tradebooks alone. Access to media sources was limited by cost and location before the web. Now comes the easy part. Using the web as a communication tool in the classroom is simply as limited as the imagination. You have only to put your foot in the water and you will take the whole plunge into the countless resources available to support instruction.
Students also benefit from posing a question to their teacher or another student via email.
Using Book Rap, an e-mail conference process, students in my classroom have discussed a literary work with students from another classroom in the county. After using this process, they began to examine the questions and what type of questions would create more interesting responses. Posting the monthly letter with its goals, the weekly plans along with standards and benchmarks, and the daily homework to a website, brings the parent from their office or home into the classroom on their own terms. Writing an creative story via e-mail with several other classrooms around the country gives vent to creativity and provides a purpose for publishing. Receiving the finished story from a classroom in Australia heightens the interest and excitement.