The ABC below shows three very different accounts of how e-mail affects teachers' lives.
Abby's View
I get a lot of e-mails, but I like to get them out of the way pronto. I check my inbox as soon as I get to school, and plough straight into them. I start at the top, and read them in order. I believe in 'single handling' - I answer each e-mail straight away and carry out any actions (providing information for example) there and then. I can sometimes read all my new messages before lessons, but if not I'll log on again at lunch-time and read the rest. I generally check my inbox again after-school for e-mails which have come in late in the day. Again, I'll try to deal with them immediately so I don't have anything hanging round for too long. Sometimes, though, there are just too many e-mails to handle in one day.
Brenda's View
I don't see why I should let e-mails run my life. I do check my inbox, but not every day. I delete most of the stuff I get, but if something really needs a reply, I'll send one, usually on Thursday afternoon, when I have two free periods. There are a few messages in my inbox which have been there for a while, I just haven't got round to them yet.
Charles' View
I don't think computers and education mix particularly well, and I certainly don't think teachers should depend on e-mail. I try not to use it. If I have a message for a colleague, I leave a note in their pigeon-hole. Typing? I usually ask one of the girls in the office.
Taken together, these three characters summarise how e-mails are used in school. Teachers are rarely given guidance on how to use e-mail, and when they are, the guidance is often of the 'find what works best for you' variety. Schools often have policies regarding external communication (“all e-mails from parents must receive a reply within 48 hours”) but rarely tackle any internal communication issues well.
So... what is the best way for an efficient teacher to deal with e-mails?
Firstly, let's discount the traditional wisdom - “everyone has their own best way”. This just isn't true. Of course there are lots of ways of working, but they vary dramatically in how much time they take and how much stress they cause the teacher.
Take the Abby example above. Abby is letting her e-mail program rule her life. If, like most people, she is at her most creative in the morning, she is wasting that creativity on mundane work. She is definitely wasting valuable lesson preparation time. Most importantly, Abby cannot really feel in control of her working life if her activities are dictated by whatever nonsense has been sent to her in the previous twelve hours. Abby's approach – 'getting e-mails out of the way' – is very common among young teachers, especially if they don't get that many work-related messages. There may be some benefits, of course: Abby gets all the gossip early, and she can be confident there are no nasty surprises lurking unopened in her Inbox. Followers of the Abby-method also often see a kind-of-virtue in tackling their e-mails first thing each day. However, Abby needs to realise that e-mails very rarely represent the biggest challenge or the most important project in a teacher's life. Abby is almost certainly reading e-mails when she could be tackling a more important and more rewarding task first thing in the day, with a fresh mind and plenty of energy.
Brenda, on the other hand, is clearly more in control of her life. Unfortunately, she is likely to gain an unwelcome reputation in her school. Urgent stuff does arise sometimes, and some communication does require a prompt reply. If Brenda has the Charles Dickens video (see previous page) she may become very unpopular; if she has forgotten about the Year 10 grades, she may even be in trouble with the Head....
Charles is clearly suited to a more leisurely age. If he has survived in a modern secondary school with these old-fashioned attitude, we can deduce that he is very good at his job indeed. Unfortunately, he needs to realise that he could be even better at his job if he learned to type and developed a wider range of communication options. E-mails are quick, e-mails are easy, and they should be used by all teachers.