Inbox overloaded? After signing up for all those e-mail lists (see last month's column, "How to Use an E-Mail List," at http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=18900792), what can you do to organize the messages you do keep?
Folders: Create folders in your e-mail program. You can store your e-mails in separate folders just like your computer files. Organize them in a way that makes sense to you; by sender, topic, or project, for instance. Some programs even allow you to create folders within folders for more specific organization.
Searching: Even when filed in folders, specific e-mail messages may be difficult to find. Many e-mail programs offer a Find utility you can use to locate a message. All you need to do is remember a single word from the message and the Find feature will locate it for you. In addition to keyword searches, some programs offer the ability to search by sender, recipient, date sent, or date received.
Sorting: Sorting is an alternative to searching. Most e-mail programs present you with a columnar list of your messages, usually sorted by date (with the most recent messages at the top). In many of these programs, you can simply click on a column heading and sort your list by that column. Sorting by sender, for example, will result in all messages from each sender being grouped together.
Filters and Rules: Filters and rules can be used to automatically sort and deal with your incoming e-mail. Do you want all messages with the word "Viagra" as part of the subject to automatically be deleted? Set up a rule within your e-mail program that tells it to do so. Should all of your e-mails from your supervisor go into a specific folder? A filtering rule can help.
Colors: Both Microsoft Outlook and Apple's Mail program offer the ability to customize colors for certain messages. For example, you can have it so messages from your principal are listed in red, making them easy to pick out in the list.
Archiving: This can be especially important if you have network storage of your e-mail, such as with FirstClass or Microsoft Exchange. You may want to store copies of your e-mail locally (on your own computer). Programs such as Outlook have an Archive command that allows you to make a copy of any or all of your e-mail folders on your own computer. Some programs can be configured to do this automatically, for instance, for all messages over six months old. If your e-mail server is periodically purged of old messages, yours will still be safe on your computer.
Jeffrey Branzburg is a contributing editor and regular columnist for Technology & Learning.
Speaking of e-mail, our Web site offers a broad range of tips and articles on school-related uses.
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The growing volume of information available in our 21st century networked economy often makes checking e-mail a chore. This article presents an overview of rules or filters available in most e-mail software to assist in managing wanted, as well as unwanted, messages.
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E-mail and other forms of electronic communication have become important in our society. As educators, we must prepare our students and ourselves for using electronic communication effectively.
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When something goes wrong on your computer, you need help fast. Here are online tech support services so that you can fix it yourself.
Observations on Developing a Virtual Community by David L. Stoloff, Ph.D.
David had a grant to explore creating a virtual community. His goal was to develop a virtual community for school-university learning and teaching that was designed to provide support for educators to develop online learning resources and to discuss issues in educational technology and effective teaching practices. He learned several important lessons, and this project changed how participants approach electronic communications.
