Return to TLC
Reports & Snapshots
SNAPSHOT #2
In an amazingly brief period of time, electronic mail has become a critical part of
many people's lives, at work and at home. Is this true for teachers as well? Although they belong to the "knowledge economy," teachers practice their craft in greater isolation from peers than do other
professionals. As a result, electronic mail may be even more valuable for them than for those who work more closely with other adults. Yet, the fact that teachers have so few work associates in other settings may
actually result in their feeling less of a need for professional e- mail communications. As of Spring, 1998, only 16% of U.S. teachers had conducted a regular e-mail conversation with a teacher at another
school. (By "regular," we mean that the teacher indicated he or she had had e-mail contact with teachers at other schools on more than 5 occasions during the school year.) This seems like a fairly low
participation rate for a category of adult professionals. Factors such as availability of Internet access, age (younger teachers might be expected to be more comfortable with e-mail), or the breadth of a person's
professional network, could certainly affect how likely a teacher is to use e-mail for professional communication. Our initial investigation into these factors found that younger teachers actually were less likely to
use e-mail professionally than older teachers, most likely because they knew fewer teachers at other schools. We also found that teachers with classroom Internet access were four times as likely to
have conducted regular e-mail exchanges than teachers without classroom access (28% vs. 7%). The teachers most apt to use e-mail professionally were those with both home and classroom access. One-third of
such teachers used e-mail to communicate professionally, using the definition of having had "more than 5 contacts during the school year." (See accompanying Figure.) Teachers with classroom Internet access
but who don't have Internet at home are more likely to use e-mail professionally than are teachers who have Internet at home but who don't have it in their classrooms. This is somewhat surprising because home
access suggests personal interest in the Internet, whereas the issue of classroom access may be substantially outside of a teacher's own control. The fact that teachers with classroom access but not
home access are more likely e-mail users than those in the opposite situation suggests the impact on teachers of providing them with Internet at a convenient place where they conduct their other
business–namely in their own classroom. This is a small indication that providing teachers with the resources of a professional may result in greater professional communication. Additional information on teachers' use of
the Internet can be found in our first report from the