101 Things to Do With an E-Mail Account

A Literacy Assistance Center Workshop

Wednesday, May 24, 2000

Workshop facilitator: Kemala Karmen


HOAXES, VIRUSES & OTHER ANNOYANCES

Beginner's Corner
http://antivirus.about.com/compute/antivirus/library/weekly/aa020698.htm?once=true&
"Everything you need to know about viruses for Mac and PC, how to protect yourself, what software to use, how to see if your software is working, and how to make sure that bad things don't happen to your computer due to a virus." Written in plain English.

The Urban Legend Combat Kit
http://netsquirrel.com/combatkit
"Anyone who has used e-mail for a while has received messages with virus warnings, requests to send cards to a dying kid, information about a giveaway that sounds too good to be true, etc. While forwarding these messages seems helpful, most are actually hoaxes that clog the Internet and linger. Next time you get a message with a request to forward, check this site and the CIAC Internet Hoax site first to see if it is a documented spoof."

Anti-Virus Education Page
http://members.xoom.com/kbechtel/edu.htm
An independent site on viruses, how to evaluate antivirus software, etc.

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E-MAIL PRIMERS

A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email
http://www.webfoot.com/advice/email.top.html
More than everything you ever wanted to know about e-mail. Includes emoticons, an interesting section on status in e-mail use, etc.

Using E-mail: Projects in Reading and Writing
http://www.nifl.gov/susanc/startind.htm
Susan Cowles' E-mail how-to designed specifically for teachers. The Eisenhower exercise we used in the workshop comes from this site.

Basic Smileys
http://www.eff.org/papers/eegtti/eeg_287.html
Just what it says. Smileys (such as :-) ) are symbols used to indicate sarcasm, jokes, etc.

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LINKS WITH E-MAIL IDEAS

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/fr_Technology.html
List of e-mail projects. Mostly aimed at teachers of children but eminently adaptable.

http://www.otan.dni.us/webfarm/emailproject/email.htm
Susan Gaer's low-level ESL project; short submissions

http://www.otan.dni.us/webfarm/emailproject/site.html
Intro to Gaer's vast site

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KEYPAL EXCHANGES

ePALS Classroom Exchange
http://www.epals.com
"E-mail Classroom Exchange (ECE) helps classrooms to meet, correspond, and interact with other classrooms through the Internet. Users can search, browse and contact classrooms listed in the online database or submit a profile of their own classroom. Great for cultural, language, history, science or geography projects."

Intercultural E-mail Classroom Connections
http://www.stolaf.edu/network/iecc

ExChange
http://deil.lang.uiuc.edu/exchange
For individual ESL students to find keypals (anachronistically noted here as "pen pals"). Can also submit essays / stories here. For non-native speakers only.

Math Keypals Project
http://novel.nifl.gov/susanc/mathkey
Notes on the workings of a project in which classes used email messages to pose and solve math problems.

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DISCUSSION GROUPS & LISTSERVS

Discussion lists for ESL
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/www/education/sl/sl.html

Susan Cowles' list of e-mail lists/ discussion groups
http://novel.nifl.gov/susanc/lists.htm

Dave's ESL café list of student and teacher discussion links.
http://www.eslcafe.com/discussion

Liszt Directory of E-mail Discussion Groups
http://www.liszt.com
"This searchable database is a great starting point for "meeting" people who share your interests. Whether it's a hobby, job, or new topic that piques your curiosity, enter the word in the search line and see if there's an e-mail list server for you. (Note - Andy Carvin's list of education-oriented mailing lists is another great resource.)"

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ASK AN EXPERT SITES

Pitsco's Ask an Expert
http://www.askanexpert.com
"Excerpt from the Web site: "Ask an Expert is a directory of links to people who have volunteered their time to answer questions and webpages that provide information. " - This is one resource you might use when brainstorming your Web-based activities. FAQ files are great sources of info and students learn best when they have a real audience for their hypotheses. 300 web sites and e-mail addresses are organized into categories: Science / Technology, Career / Industry, Health, Internet /Computers, Recreation / Entertainment, Education / Personal Development, International / Cultural, Resources, Money / Business, Fine Arts, Law, and Religion."

Ask an Expert About Cuba
http://www.lacnyc.org/resources/technology/institute/marthabeth.htm
Step-by-step ESOL lesson plan using the Ask an Expert site.

Time Warp Advice
http://missabigail.com
A Dear Abby of sorts where all the advice comes from vintage advice books!

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DAILY E-MAIL

Merriam Webster's Word of the Day
http://m-w.com
Get a word an example of its use and etymology.

A Word A Day (AWAD)
http://wordsmith.org/awad/index.html
Similar to Webster site, but words seem to be a little harder. On the plus side, they have a plug-in so that you can hear the word pronounced.

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POSTCARDS

Susabelle's Postcards
http://home.fastrans.net/~smiskel/postcard.html
A compendium of many postcard sites.

The Electric Postcard
http://persona.www.media.mit.edu/Postcards
A relatively simple noncommercial postcard site with varied images.

Cyrano Server
http://www.nando.net/toys/cyrano/v2.1/LoveLetter.html
A fun site where you create love letters (or breakup letters) mad-lib style. Good excuse for knowing your parts of speech.

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CONGRESS

Write to Congress
http://congress.org/elecmail.html
Use this site to find and then write your Congressperson or Senator.

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FORA FOR WHICH YOU NEED AN E-MAIL ADDRESS TO PARTICIPATE

LitLinker Forum
http://www.pbs.org/literacy/forum/forumhome.html
"The LitLinker Forums feature individuals who have contributed significantly to literacy in the United States. Here you will find a biography, photo, and statement on literacy from each guest. For a two week period, you are able to interact with the current guest by emailing us your literacy-related questions for him or her. After we review and consolidate your questions, we forward them on to the guest. Once the guest responds to the questions, we post both the questions and answers with the guest's other materials for your information and enjoyment."

CNN Simplified Stories
http://literacynet.org/cnnsf
Versions of current events stories reworked especially for literacy students; you need an e-mail address to write a response to a story.

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