Netiquette: Communicating with the Internet Generation

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Netiquette Communicating with the Internet
Generation

• Michael Imort
• Geography and Environmental Studies
• PowerPoint presentation available upon request
  from
• mimort_at_wlu.ca

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Outline

• Welcome
• Introductions
• The problem too much or too little?
• Strategies for Success
• Best Practices (Roundtable/Groups)
• Summary

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Student-Instructor Communication The Root of the
Problem

• Three aspects of communication (Imort 2025)
• Communication
• transmits factual information
• represents the sender
• addresses the recipient

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The Students Perspective

• Many students are only aware of the first aspect
• the facts
• They overlook the other two, meta-textual aspects
• the values expressed
• Caution students may be ignorant of the theory
  behind meta-textual value expressions, but they
  certainly are sensitive to their practical
  effects
• As my mother used to say People dont remember
  what you said, they remember how it made them
  feel
• This should guide us when we communicate with
  students

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Student-Instructor Emails

• In general, students evaluate the use of emails
  more positively the more frequently they use it.
• When asked about the use of email in
  communicating with instructors, however, students
  evaluated it increasingly negatively the more
  they used it.
• Waldeck, Jennifer H., Patricia Kearney and
  Timothy G. Plax (2001) Teacher e-mail message
  strategies and students' willingness to
  communicate online.Journal of Applied
  Communication Research Vol. 29, Number 1,
  February 2001, pp. 54 70.

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In other words

• Students and Instructors do not seem to
  communicate well with each other over email.
• Status difference?

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Recap

• First students may not realize they are sending
  meta-textual messages that may affect the
  recipients in unintended ways.

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• Second even when made aware of their
  shortcomings, students often dont know how to
  fix them because they havent been taught proper
  tone.

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• Third students may not think they need to change
  their tone, because they think that is simply the
  way communication works in the age of the
  Internet.

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• Fourth do faculty have, and want to invest, the
  time necessary to fix this situation?

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• Fifth is it our problem to begin with?

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Possible causes for students shortcomings

• Any ideas?
• Convenience
• Informality
• Coded online language (e.g., TTYL, LOL)
• Facelessness and outright anonymity
• Expectation of immediacy no reflection

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Internet Generation

• It is common to see these and other behaviours as
  characteristics of the Internet Generation, also
  called
• Millennials
• Generation D (for digital)
• Generation M (for me, media, and marketing)
• and, more recently,
• iGeneration (iPod)
• MySpace Generation

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The Horizon of the Internet Generation

• Globalization of interpersonal connections (only
  virtual ones, of course)
• Real-time communication
• Immediacy of responses
• The world exists only online
• Repeatability of attempts without penalty (video
  games to exams to relationships)
• Technology is a cause, rather than an effect

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Behold the Future and Tremble Web 2.0 and the
Neo-Millennial Student
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Can you understand this language?

• Hello there,
• Are there any out-of-the box handhelds that run
  Linux/Apache/MYSQL and PHP?  Does Redhat, Suse,
  or Gentoo support any handhelds?
• I know the Zaurus comes close, but Ive heard
  people have problems running LAMP applications on
  it.

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Todays Students(Courtesy of Bob Sharpe)

• are (and aspire to be) consumers rather than
  producers of knowledge.
• do not see computers or the Internet as
  technology.
• no longer make a distinction between what happens
  in cyberspace and what happens in the physical
  world.
• dont expect to necessarily understand a subject
  or even have a working knowledge of it. Instead,
  they are satisfied when they know where to find
  answers.
• consider skills more important than knowledge.

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Bottom Line

• The Internet Generation simply takes technology
  for granted
• Students adapt their communicative behaviour to
  technology (e.g., cryptic text messaging TTYL,
  LOL, R U r8y)
• At the same time, students expect us to function
  the same way.
• So, our first mission is to make them realize
  that professional communication through the new
  technologies still is subject to those old
  fashioned conventions.
• How do we do that?
• Personally, I have had some success with three
  interconnected strategies
• 1. making sure my own communications are good
  examples of what I preach
• 2. setting some general rules for communicating
  with me
• 3. using (modified) templates when responding to
  individual offenders

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2nd Strategy Setting General Rules

• In class, I give obvious and offensive examples
  of what not to do
• Shame factor (without personal reference)
• Human tendency to see the flaws in others
  actions where we cant see them in our own
• Four offenses (in the original sense)

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Offense 1 Unprofessional Email Addresses

• Real-life Examples (with my apologies)
• tightchick_at_hotmail, assgroove_at_yahoo
• Response
• Visible (FROM THE STUDENT PERSPECTIVE) none
• Hidden Consequences (FACULTY PERSPECTIVE)
  blocking, loss of consideration etc.
• Alternative template response
• Advice to students
• Use Laurier account
• Second best create professional email account
• Options for faculty
• Clear communications policy for your course only
• Require course code in subject line, e.g., GG102
  question
• Requires professor to define email filter

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Offense 2 Trial Balloons

• Assumption
• Emails have lower status threshold (or it cant
  hurt to ask in an email)
• Response
• Visible rejection
• Hidden Consequences possible loss of
  understanding and good will
• Alternative modified template response
• Advice to students
• always discuss sensitive matters face to face
• Human face
• Advise that email format plays down gravity of
  request (effort on part of the student must equal
  the desired accommodation by the professor)
• Options for faculty
• Insist on seeing students during office hours

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Offense 3 Tone

• Examples
• Hey teach, wazzup
• Yo dude, wheres sic those marks posted?
• Response
• Visible (indignant) silence
• Hidden consequences insulted feelings
• Alternative template response
• Advice to students
• grow up
• Options for faculty
• Set clear expectations for formality (with
  examples!)

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Offense 4 Content

• Examples
• run-on sentences, lack of formatting, poor
  grammar, confusing syntax, etc, pp.
• Response
• template response
• Advice to students
• grow up

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So what does grow up mean?

• This is where we have to step up and fulfill our
  obligations as instructors and mentors
• Third strategy

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3rd Strategy Template Responses to Individual
Offenders

• Objectives
• Address the issue
• Set clear expectations and boundaries
• Give examples
• Minimize the time spent on that task in the
  future
• Solution
• Prepare templates for most common offenses and
  modify them as necessary

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Examples of Templates

• For unacceptable addresses/servers
• Please Note
• Your email has not been read as your professor
  has defined a filter that rejects emails from
  your server in order to block spam, viruses, etc.
• Please use your internal Laurier email account
  ONLY to communicate with faculty and
  administration at Wilfrid Laurier University.
• This is an automated reply.

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Examples of Templates

• For Trial Balloons
• Dear Lisbeth,
• Thank you for your recent email. I believe the
  issue you raised in your email is too important
  (grave, sensitive, complicated, etc.) to be
  resolved via email. I encourage you to see me
  during my office hours at your earliest
  convenience.
• Regards,
• MI

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Examples of Templates

• For improper tone or form of address
• Dear Django,
• Thank you for your recent email. Please be
  reminded that communications with your professor
  should reflect a certain level of respect and
  professionalism. Unfortunately, your email did
  not conform to the standards of formality and
  tone expected in a university setting.
• As soon as you make the effort to compose an
  email that meets those standards, I will be glad
  to respond in an appropriate fashion.
• Regards,
• MI

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Examples of Templates

• For poorly written emails
• Dear John,
• Thank you for your recent email. Unfortunately,
  it did not conform to some of the most basic
  standards of written communication. As soon as
  you take the time to compose a properly written
  and formatted message, I will take the time to
  compose a response.
• Regards,
• MI