Email makes it possible for teachers to send out important messages about topics, such as breaks, changes in assignments and class cancellations, to large groups of students at once, saving the teacher's time. This is especially helpful if last-minute changes have to be made. Teachers are also able to answer individual questions via email, discuss student progress and send links for additional research materials. Students and teachers are able to reach each other more easily after-school hours through emails. When teachers or students receive documents or messages from each other that others may want to share with others, they can use the forward feature within most email accounts to send the info on to others.
Students often use email to communicate with each other about assignments. When they use email, they don't have to be in the same room at the same time or even online at the same time to be able to have a back-and-forth conversation. Through email, students can help each others on homework assignments, ask questions about assignments or coordinate for a group project. Email allows them to send a message to more than one person at a time, which can be helpful if they are trying to make decisions about a project or to meet to work on it.
Email allows parents or teachers who have concerns about individual students to communicate with each other without having to meet in a classroom setting, which can be helpful to working parents. Parents can email teachers with major and minor questions. Email allows teachers to send out messages about field trips, breaks, parent-teacher conferences or other events to different parents, and parents can easily email teachers or other parents when they have questions about the events.
When teachers and students use email in the classroom, they use less paper. Teachers and students are able to create documents and send them out to others. Students can submit some of their assignments, including essays or papers, through email. Sending out a document via email means that teachers and students spend less time printing out or photocopying documents. Using email can save schools money on paper; these funds can now go toward the purchase of other supplies.
Email teaches children basic computer skills. They learn how to type, to send messages, cut and paste typed sentences or paragraphs and attach documents or pictures. Young people often use the computer skills they develop from using email in the classroom when they are older, especially if they have jobs working with computers. Students often communicate using instant messenger programs or text messages on their cellphones, using shortened forms of language, such as "lol" for "laugh out loud" or numbers for certain words, such as "for." Using email in the classroom could help them to learn the correct forms of written language, especially if their teachers expect them to use proper spelling and grammar in their classroom emails.