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| Introduction to Online Communication | ||
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E-mail (electronic mail) has revolutionized the way that many Internet users communicate. As more and more of our friends, family, and colleagues "get connected", we are relying less and less on the US Postal Service for written communication. Why the sudden change in habits? E-mail is almost instantaneous. We have all had the inconvenience of waiting days for a letter to travel across town, weeks for international mail to arrive and have often heard "It’s in the mail". With e-mail, worldwide communication is as quick as sending a letter from the computer to the printer. E-mail is convenient. Stationery, envelopes, stamps and a trip to the mailbox or Post Office aren’t necessary. In addition, almost any file that is located on your computer can be attached to an e-mail message and sent to another e-mail address. Collaborative work on projects has never been easier! E-mail is often the first part of the Internet experience that captures the interest and enthusiasm of new users. In the event that you haven’t experienced e-mail yet, let’s go through the steps you will need to get started. Virtually every Internet Service Provider (ISP) offers e-mail to their customers. Each customer receives a unique e-mail address, often consisting of the user’s login name followed by the domain name (internet address) of the ISP. For example, when I began working at Fresno Pacific University I was assigned this e-mail address: bobjost@fresno.edu My e-mail address may look confusing but actually follows an easily understood format. The "bobjost" portion of the address, identifies me as the unique Fresno Pacific University employee with the login name of "bobjost". ISP’s will allow only one person to use each login name (as you may have discovered when you initiated your account and discovered that the login name you wanted to use was already taken). Each service provider has a slightly different way of assigning login names but most often a part of your name is included in the login name. The @ character following the login name tells the e-mail server at your ISP to send the message to the domain name that follows. In my case this is @fresno.edu. The final three letters identify what type of service provider you have. The most common domain types are:
School district e-mail addresses look a bit different than commercial e-mail addresses but even these longer addresses make sense when you realize that moving from left to right in the domain name takes you to specific computers within a larger network of computers. For example, the typical Kings Canyon Unified School District e-mail address looks like this: bjost@kingscanyonusd.k12.ca.us or jost-b@kingscanyonusd.k12.ca.us The first intial and last name (or last name followed by a hyphen and the first initial) before the @ sign identifies the unique user on the KCUSD system and is the same as the user's login name. The kingscanyonusd portion of the domain name identifies the mailserver at Kings Canyon Unified. The k12 portion of the domain name identifies it as a school district domain. The ca identifies that domain as a California school district. The us identifies the domain as an American school. If you don’t already know, you will be interested in determining what your own e-mail address is. You should have received this information when you KCUSD account was initiated. Typically your address will be: login@kingscanyonusd.k12.ca.us Quite simply this is, the login name you use to log in to the KCUSD website, followed by the @ character (Shift-2) and kingscanyonusd.k12.ca.us . Spaces are not allowed in an internet address although you may notice that some ISP’s use the underscore character ( _ ) to simulate a space in the name portion of the address. If you don’t know your e-mail address, you can send some e-mail to a colleague with a known e-mail address and have them tell you what your address is. The return address is always included as part of every e-mail message. The activities in this module of the Kings Canyon Unified School District Staff Development Website will guide you through a series of interactive e-mail exchanges designed to familiarize you with the basic e-mail procedures as well as some more advanced procedures such as attaching files to your e-mail messages. In addition, you will be introduced to several "shortcuts" that will maximize your productivity. These tutorials will include specific instructions for both Microsoft Outlook Express, the district recommended e-mail application, and the KCUSD Web Mail service.
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Fresno Pacific University | School of Professional Studies |