Quick Tech Updates

This message is not intended to single anyone out, but merely to make a comment or two about email etiquette.

Dramatization: If you wanted to get a message to all of the math teachers at the high school, would you consider telling every single teacher at the school in order to get the message just to the math teachers? Of course not, yet that is exactly what some do with email. Frequently, we see an email to one of the mailing lists that is actually intended for only 4 - 6 people. Sending an email to a mailing list for only 6 people may save you time, but generates a lot of extra email. Okay, what if it is for Math and Science teachers at the high school? Where do you draw the line? That becomes personal preference, but you do have to consider the numbers. If you are at the high school, for example, and the hsstaff mail goes to 75 people, you are sending it to 8 - 12 that need the mail, but you are also sending it to at least 60 that have no interest. If it is an attachment that you are sending, then it becomes an even bigger issue. Aren't you, in essence, spamming the 60 users that it was not intended for?

So here are your choices: Send it to everyone when only a dozen need it, or take a minute to type in addresses of the teachers you need. There is a better way to handle it.

Take some time over the summer to work on developing an address book in your email program. Think of possible combinations of people you would be emailing from time to time. Maybe you are a kindergarten teacher and occasionally you email the other Kindergarten teachers in your building. Put them into an address book. Maybe you are a support person and from time to time you email all of the teachers of a certain grade level in your building. It will take some time, but put them into an address book. Create an entry for each grade level and combination that you might need. One more tip - when you are emailing another Willard staff member, you do not need to put the complete address, only the username. For example, to email me from your Willard email account, you only need to put bandrus on the To: line.

Address book entries are a much better way of handling it than mailing it to 50 or 75 people when it was only intended for 4 or 5. You just avoided creating email pollution.