Don't think it's email.
Of course, in class, it's Teacher-Student, Student-Student face to face interaction. Lectures and discussion done in real-time with all the wonderful face cues and gestural information that goes with it. What happens when they walk out of the classroom at the end of the lesson?
Sure, they'll talk face to face IF they are actually with someone.
It's becoming less an email thing.
Instant-messaging, mobile text-messaging, blogging, micro-blogging, and social-networking profiles all help compensate for e-mail's shortcomings.
The above quote is from the post The Death of E-Mail TEENAGERS ARE ABANDONING THEIR YAHOO! AND HOTMAIL ACCOUNTS. DO THE REST OF US HAVE TO?
by Chad Lorenz.
There's also twitter, pownce and YouTube.
We need to start thinking of how these new emerging communication methods can be harnessed into cleverly crafted lessons. We need to experiment to see how Wikis created by a classroom as a collaborative tool can enhance and aid language learning. I will be posting on these technologies/tools in future posts. Click on the links above and get started yourself. We have a lot of catching up to do.