Week 7 Assignment 1: Educational Technologies Blog

EDUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES BLOG                                                                                   

          In today’s society, the most common way to communicate with other people is by some form of electronic exchange of information.  In centuries past, there was a limit to the forms and methods of communications to use.  This is no longer the case in today’s world of digital communication explosion.  People communicate using a large assortment of digital devices, in a multitude of ways.  People can now digitally communicate in such ways as emails, text messages, twitters, cellular phone calls, or blogs.  Through digital communications, people are able to reach out to others all over the world, at any time of day.  Communication is no longer limited, but expansive.  With this expansion, comes the responsibility of the communicators to communicate in respectful, educative, and protective manners (Ribble, 2012).  People need to learn and exercise good digital citizenship.

          An area of digital citizenship that is important in the field of adult education and employee training is email ethics.  More and more business and academic interaction takes place through electronic mail.  Unfortunately, many of the emails are unintentionally offensive.  The email may also be sent or read by the wrong person.  It is important for employees of the educational organizations know and practice the rules and/or guidelines of ethical emails.  There are specific core rules to follow in constructing and sending ethical or netiquette emails (Roblyer & Doering, 2012). 

          Netiquette emails will be a subject presented and trained in a New Employee Training Class.  New employees will receive in-class training on the core rules of netiquette.  The class will discuss and construct emails together using the core rules, to ensure each employee has a clear understanding on how to construct and send ethical emails in their position.  The new employees will then be placed in pairs to practice sending and replying to emails with one another using the netiquette rules.  The employees will save the emails they do together and send them to the training class email for review and discussion on the good ethical netiquette practices they followed and used.  

http://www.edication.com/reference/article/netiquette-rules-behavior-internet/

          As there are specific rules to follow in constructing and sending emails in an ethical netiquette manner, there are guidelines for employees in the business world to follow that instruct them on how and when to deal with the emails they receive on a netiquette basis.  The guidelines for Electronic Mail at Work, by Virginia Shea, provides specific practices for employees to follow in working with electronic communications a netiquette, professional manner.  The guidelines cover how often to check and respond to emails, the effects of email overload and what to do to combat this problem, emailing the CEO and/or executives in the organization, what emails to keep and which to delete, and whom to contact when email problems arise.

          Netiquette workplace emails would be the subject of team meetings, where the trainer would develop, and present written corporate guidelines, following appropriate practices of the educational organization that will instruct employees on how to work with the electronic mail they receive on a daily basis.  The trainer will review and discuss each of the section of the written guidelines for clarity and understanding, so the employees can follow them without difficulty.  Employees input during the meeting will be welcome and supported, especially when it strengthens their ability to work with the emails they receive in a netiquette manner.  These forms of suggestions will be reviewed and added to the guidelines where appropriate.  The trainer will perform periodic one-on-one email reviews with employees at their desks.  The reviews are to follow-up and ensure the employees are able to use the netiquette guidelines given them from the team meeting with success.  

http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/0963702513pp91-99.html

          Digital technology has made it possible for people to communicate with others across the globe for personal, academic, and professional reasons.  Digital communications can take place at anytime, using a multitude of electronic devices, in an equally number of ways.  It is important to educate/train digital users on the etiquettes of good digital citizenship.  They must become good digital citizens to be responsible, respectful, and protective of the rights and privacies of those they communicate (Ribble, 2012).

                                                                      References

Ribble, M.  (n. d.).  Nine elements: Nine themes of digital citizenship.  Retrieved May 30, 2012,

          http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html

Ribble, M.  (n. d.).  “Nine elements: Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship.”  Retrieved from

          http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html.  Used by permission of Michael S. Ribble.

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H.  (2010). Netiquette: Rules if behavior on the Internet.    

          Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/netiquette-rules-behavior-internet/

Shea, V.  (2004). Netiquette.  Retrieved from

          http://www.ablion.com/netiquette/book/0963702513pp91-99.html

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