Digiteen

Adult literacy/basic education/ESOL students are beginning to use the Internet. An increasing number are very interested in using it for a wide range of purposes: for learning (e.g. to improve reading and writing skills, or take a course;) to access a wide variety of information (e.g. information about the weather, health, travel, other cultures, American news, and -- in the case of ESOL students -- news from their native countries;) for classes at school; for shopping; to communicate with friends, family members, other students, or key pals; for entertainment; for virtual travel; and for the sense of control and power one can feel when using a computer and the Internet. Adult students appear to experience many of the same kinds of difficulties in using the Internet that their teachers do: problems getting access and getting online; having the system crash for a variety of reasons; difficulty figuring out how to navigate online; problems with online and hardcopy instructions; finding out-of-date information at sites; and reading on-screen. Some students also cited problems with their keyboard skills.

So what, exactly, is good netiquette? "A lot of it has to do with tone -- how you ask for things," says Shawn Morris, administrative coordinator of Wichita eSchool, a virtual public school in Wichita, Kansas, that reviews netiquette dos and don'ts with students. No "SHOUTING" and avoiding IM-speak in formal messages are among the most common guidelines. (See "Don't Even Think About It: The Basics of Netiquette," below, and "Beyond Emily: Post-ing Etiquette.") Good online communication is especially important in virtual schools, where most interaction happens digitally. But with the Internet an ever-larger part of most students' lives, brick-and-mortar schools from Longmont, Colorado, to Modesto, California, are starting to teach netiquette, too.

call it Online Manners and Ethics 101.