Thing 7

At our school all staff have e-mail. Personally I like it because I can send a message to anyone whenever I think of something. I don't feel like I'm interrupting them. I do know that some teachers are overwhelmed by the number of e-mails they get.

We also teach e-mail to sixth graders and that is an experience. They use it like instant messaging rather than electronic mail.

For a public elementary school I wouldn't use the online reference. As a college student I would have loved it.

I do text message friends and family on my phone. I also have used IM with the public librarian. I don't know how/if I could use IM at the library. Nobody sits at a computer to answer questions all the time.

I attempted to attend the OPAL Book Discussion of the detective novel Hard Time by Sara Paretsky. They were planning on doing it with Second Life participants. It didn't start on time which was a little frustrating.
Then the moderator wrote
Tom Peters : sorry, folksTom Peters : I just learned that my father has been hospitalized with chest pains.Tom Peters : We're going to reschedule this book discussion.
This could probably be a great tool for having meetings with media specialists in districts far away. I do wonder how expensive and difficult it is to set up.