Module: Communicating On the Communities Channel at http://www.ngflscotland.gov.uk/ connectingcommunities/ use the hyperlinks from Guides to Starting. Here you will find a summary of the key benefits of getting online. One of the key benefits is communication. In this module we look at how getting online can aid communication for communities and for community practitioners. We look at two aspects of communication: Benefits of Using E-mail and Delivering Learning. Benefits of Using E-mail ACTIVITY CASE STUDY: BENEFITS OF E-MAIL TO A COMMUNITY GROUP Read the case study Promoters Art Network. In your group, discuss the benefits to the PAN community group of using e-mail. List the benefits. Tick those benefits that would apply to a group or organisation you are involved with. Case Study: Promoters Arts Network The Use of E-mail by a Community Group PAN is a Highlands and Islands wide network of over 50 community touring arts promoters, collectively bringing in the best of all touring art forms and encouraging the area s own talent. The network is currently promoting 60 local groups, about two-thirds of them being voluntary groups. They are also the first link with people who wish to tour the Highlands with their act. As a community practitioner, you have been advising the group on how they could solve their communication problems. One piece of advice you gave them was that they could think about using e-mail. The group organiser has a PC and, when travelling to different locations in the Western Isles, he has ready access to computers with internet access. Six months after your input, the group s use of e-mail has increased dramatically. The group organiser states: There s lots of e-mail contact from touring companies and the PAN e-mail contact number is included in many e-mail lists increasing the accessibility of PAN to other groups and individuals. PAN also links with other areas in Britain with similar projects. E-mail is used to swap information. Using e-mail, a message asking for information about a touring group can be received, read, checked and replied to within minutes. If PAN have no information about an act, the message can be sent out very easily to other groups and individuals asking for recommendations and information. Using an e-mail list, a message to 100 people can be sent out at the press of a button. Not only is this faster than typing, printing and mailing letters, it is also much cheaper. 2
Another advantage to PAN of using e-mail is that they have a written document in electronic form. This means the material can be cut and pasted into another document. For example, contributionsto a newssheet or magazine do not have to be retyped from scratch. Also, most touring groups which contact PAN have a website. The group organiser states: When we are contacted by e-mail, we can be electronically directed to their site and direct others there easily. This allows us to access and give out a great deal of information with minimum time and effort. We also find that replies are much quicker, which allows us to respond to enquiries rapidly. Not all my contacts and group members are presently using e-mail, but I anticipate that e-mail will become more important to me and to the group as more members set up e-mail accounts. Using e-mail for communication, however, does need consideration. It is important that my contacts and I check the account daily. If not, it leads to frustration for groups trying to contact us. If I want to send a lengthy document, I prefer to send it as an attachment and let the recipient print it out because it is difficult for people to read large amounts of text on screen. Also, there are conventions in using e-mail which I have to remember, such as not using capitals. Benefits 3
ACTIVITY CARRYING OUT A COMMUNICATION ASSESSMENT (FOR YOURSELF, YOUR ORGANISATION OR GROUP) The aim of this assessment is to identify people or organisations with whom you could communicate by e-mail and to decide whether this would be the most appropriate form of communication. On the worksheet on the next page, list the individuals and groups with whom you communicate regularly by phone, meeting, fax, memo, letter or other types of mailings (such as newsletters). Determine which of these people have or are planning to have access to e-mail and check them off. For each of these contacts, assess whether e-mail communication is appropriate. Do this by completing the worksheet, filling in the information on how you currently communicate, the estimated monthly cost and a decision on whether e-mail would be a sensible way to communicate. Consider whether e-mail would enable you to reach people or organisations with whom communication is currently difficult (for example, overseas colleagues). Add these potential new contacts to your worksheet. 4
Worksheet: Communication Assessment Type of contact (member of organisation, member of advisory board, supporter, client, colleague working in my issue/area etc) Contact name Purpose(s) of communication Youth worker in Yorkshire Carolyn McKenzie Consulting on projects, reviewing reports and proposals Current method(s) Phone, fax, mail Estimated monthly cost of present communication 4.00 per month Has e-mail now Plans to get e-mail E-mail communication appropriate 5
ACTIVITY LEARNING ABOUT E-MAIL Go to the BBC Web Basics site http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/learn Navigate from e-mail to learn more about using e-mail. ACTIVITY E-MAIL ADDRESS DIRECTORY At the Free E-mail Address Directory at http://www.e-mailaddresses.com/ you will find listings for over 1,000 free e-mail services. Set up an e-mail account from here or from one of the sites quoted on the BBC Web Basics site. Follow the on screen guidelines to do so. Using Communication Tools ACTIVITY SENDING E-MAIL TO YOURSELF This activity allows you to practise sending e-mails as much as you wish without anyone becoming upset. Try using different features of your e-mail program (such as including attachments) to see if you can make them work properly. Reply to your e-mail. This will be more useful later when you reply to mail from somebody else but you can practise on yourself. If you make a mistake no-one else will know. ACTIVITY NET ETIQUETTE Go to the Core Rules of Netiquette at http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html This will give you guidance on the etiquette governing the use of e-mail. Make your own shortened version of net guidelines for use when you are sending e-mail messages. You can cut and paste from the page into a word-processing package to make this activity easier and faster. ACTIVITY E-MAIL LISTS From the ngflscotland communities channel home page at www.ngflscotland.gov.uk/ connectingcommunities use the hyperlinks Starting > The Main Net Tools. Here you will find out what the tools are and how you can use them for e-mail lists. Use some of the links aö`the bottom of the page to join a suitable list. ACTIVITY FINDING AN E-MAIL LIST Go to Mailbase at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists.html to find a mailing list on the topic of your choice. Real-time Communication So far, we ve discussed communication tools that are asynchronous, that is, the communication does not occur at the same time but at the convenience of the user. In addition, there is real-time communication in the form of chat and instant messaging. While almost everyone uses e-mail, real-time discussion is very much a matter of personal choice. 6
Instant messaging (knowing when someone is online and chatting back and forth when both are willing) can also be useful. It can be good way to build a bond with others while you are online. ACTIVITY REAL-TIME COMMUNICATION Here are four examples of software programs that can be used by anyone who wishes to communicate easily with people using the internet. Each of these programmes has significant advantages over some of the other chat room programmes on the Net. YOU control what you do, who you speak to, what chat room content you may be exposed to. You can limit any contact to your own friends on your contact list as opposed to entering an open chat room where anything goes. Explore these sites and decide whether any of the facilities they offer could be of use to you. 1. ICQ (I Seek YOU) http://web.icq.com/ 2. Yahoo Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/ 3. MSN Messenger Service http://messenger.msn.com/ All of these programs are free, easy to download and install, and only require a short sign up process prior to use. Although there are some differences in the features of each program, in general each will offer the user the following. 1. You choose the mode of communication you wish to employ. Regardless of the application, be it chat, voice, message board, data conferencing, file transfer or internet games 2. You can choose multiple-user mode, so groups can conduct conferences or just hang out online. The program runs in the background, taking up minimal memory and Net resources. 3. You can page your friends: send text messages to your friends cell phones and pagers. 4. You can share your files: trade pictures, music, documents, or other files. 5. You have control over your information: you have complete control over your online status and how it appears to others. Your status will automatically switch to away when you ve been inactive for several minutes, you can appear to be offline, and you control who can and cannot send you instant messages. You can also see who has added you to their contact list. 6. Support for COPPA (Child Online Privacy Protection Act): MSN Messenger Service allows you to control whether or not a child can use the service. 7
Mobile Phones and the Internet At the time of going to press, 45 million text messages are sent per day in the UK alone. Latest figures show that 73 per cent of people over 15 years old own a mobile phone. http://www.oftel.gov.uk/publications/research/2002/q8mobr0402.htm The most common form of ICT used by young people is SMS (Short Messaging System) or mobile phone text messaging. Many youth workers have found that it can be a particularly effective way of communicating with young people. For example: you can send text reminders of appointments or messages of encouragement young people have a means of leaving messages for youth workers that doesn t involve them having to speak to an answering machine if they don t want to it can help to foster a sense of community between a group of people arrangements for outside group activities can be made by texting one another. In addition, the ability to text has meant that mobile phones have become invaluable to many deaf people. For more about this, you might like to read the article Deaf go mobile phone crazy on the BBC website, which includes postings on the subject from deaf people At the time of going to press you can access this article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1808000/ 1808872.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1808000/1808872.stm. (However, if it s moved, simply do a search using the keywords mobile, deaf and bbc.) How much does it cost? Typically, sending a text message costs between 5p and 12p, depending on your network (e.g. Vodaphone, Orange) and the type of contract you have. This can add up, of course, but you can do it for free from the web. The following activity will show you how. ACTIVITY SEND A FREE TEXT MESSAGE FROM THE WEB For this activity, you should choose a website from the list below. (Note you ll need a mobile phone for all except vizzavi.) register as required. make a note of your username and password. send a text message to a mobile phone either your own or a friend s. http://www.breathe.com You can send up to10 free text messages per day, and you don t even need to have a mobile phone number. Click on register (top left) and follow the on-screen instructions. Once you have signed up, click on texting (from the menu bar at the top of the screen) and follow the on-screen instructions. www.o2.co.uk You can send up to 100 free text messages per month, and you need to provide a mobile phone number to register. 8
Click on register now and follow the on-screen instructions. Once you have signed up, click on send free txt and follow the on-screen instructions. www.lycos.co.uk You can send up to 10 free messages per day, and you need to provide a mobile phone number to register. Click on sign up here (beside the login button), and follow the on-screen instructions. Once you have signed up, click on send free SMS and follow the on-screen instructions. WAN2TLK? This is the unofficial name given to the SMS language that is evolving in response to the limited space of a message (around 100 characters per message) and the constraints of a mobile phone keypad. Words are abbreviated and grammar simplified so that the message can be transmitted as efficiently as possible. While there is room for some creativity in this approach, you do need to make sure that your messages are decipherable by their recipients! A comprehensive wan2tlk dictionary can be found at http://http://www.expage.com/atkins152001ltxt http://www.mantex.co.uk/samples/texting This can give you a start, but not all of the abbreviations shown here are in common use. ACTIVITY DICTIONARY Go to the dictionary at the above address. Compose a message using words from the dictionary and send it to someone else in your group see if they understand it! Text messaging is a simple yet powerful means of communication, and one that you may well want to tap into. The next activity will give you the opportunity to think about ways that it could enhance your relationship with your clients and/or colleagues. ACTIVITY USING TEXT MESSAGING FOR WORK Either by yourself or with a partner, see if you can come up with a few ideas about how you might incorporate text messaging into your work. Look at the resources below to find out how other people are exploring this area. Write down any ideas you have for your own situation in the space below. Share these ideas with the others in your group. 9
1. Youth.org: Text Messaging Ways Youth Workers can use it This web tutorial provides suggestions including: texting clients to remind them of the time or date of an appointment sending personal greetings of encouragement helps to build relationships competitions such as quizzes or poetry exchanging vital information after a counselling session. More details can be found at http://www.youth.org.uk/resource/webtutor/w-59.htm 2. National Youth Agency, Leicester: YouthBOOX Project This project explores ways of encouraging reading among socially excluded young people. This includes looking at ways of using text messaging to motivate the target group. One example is a treasure trail with prizes for completion. This involves sending young people text message clues where the answer is found in bite-sized snippets of reading. Young people then text back the answer to get the next clue. A full report on the project can be found at http://www.resource.gov.uk/action/dcmswolf/ rdp2001_79.asp 10
3. Gay and Lesbian Youth in Calderdale This group has set up a system of texting for arranging to meet outside drop-in times. It has established a pool of three mobiles that can be borrowed by those who don t have one. http://www.lesbianinformationservice.org/ar2001.htm 11