14:Emails

I am still continuing to work my way through the SSSC 23 Things Digital badges and I cannot believe I am at Number 14 already. This badge is all about Emails and how much I know about using, managing and organising this common tool for online communication. 

So what is an email ? Well an Email is messages distributed  by electronic means from one computer user to one or more recipients via a network.

Broken down an email consists of a header,The header has 5 parts,these are

1. To- contain the email address and the name of the main person receiving
2. From -contains the email address and the name of the sender
3. Cc (Carbon Copy) contains other receivers that you have added to the email but not the main recipient
4. Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy) this is where you add additional recipients who can only be seen by the sender
5. Subject line -this explains a little about what the Email is regarding

Message body and attachments

The message body is the main part of the email. This is where you are writing in the actual context of the message. Sometimes this can be really short saying please see attachment but usually this is the part of the email where all the information is held and the reason the email is sent.

When opening any attachments in an Email you need to be very careful as they can carry serious security risks as they can obtain and spread viruses. This can also be said to known sources as the sender may not be aware that they are spreading a virus.At the centre all computers have anti virus software downloaded and updated on a regular basis.  

At work when I send some Emails I have Cc-ed in the Chief Executive of the Centre this is to keep him in the loop about future developments that I plan to undertake such as just now as a team I have taken charge of expanding and developing our outdoor space.

I have never used the Bcc feature and feel that I never will. The reason for this is quite simple, it has never arisen and when I read about Bcc and why it should be used it doesn't apply to me. It should be used when the contacts you are sending the Email to don't know each other or when you don't want users to know everyone you are sending the email too. Every email I have sent to more than one person has been inhouse and everyone knows everyone as is a small team. When I have sent emails out of the centre it is always only to one direct person.

Mostly when  I receive an email that has been sent to a group I usually just reply to the original sender unless I feel that everyone needs to see my reply. My reason for this is it declutters others users mailboxes and I appreciate when people do this too.

As I have said I have never needed to use the Bcc in sending email but a reason that I might  use this in the future is as my workplace is a charity run organisation, I may have to send an email to other charities and if I had to I would use this feature to safe guard data protection of users email addresses.

Junk and Spam-term for unwanted emails. All email providers have ways of dealing with junk and spam. I use Hotmail as my email provider.In Hotmail I can block specific senders or all unknown senders,send unknown senders  to spam and can unsubscribe from newsletters.Sometimes sending unknown senders to spam can cause problems as just last week when I signed up for new classroom resources and I had waited days before I realised it was in my spam folder.It was the first time I had subscribed to the email and forgot that it could have gone to spam ,which it had. 

I have never organised my emails and so they are just arranged in the order they were received. Sometimes this caused problems trying to find specific emails quickly. Last week I took on the challenge of sorting my work emails at the centre. I began by deleting all the emails that I had read and no longer required. Then I set up folders for my important stuff that I need to be organised and be able to find quickly. The system I felt best for me was departments and people.

So I classified my folders in this order and folders.Alison is my line manager and as such any appointments I need, any issues I have or anything regarding my personal development goes through her. Also Alison keeps me informed when I am required to update any training and when I have to attend staff meetings. Having all the stuff  in a folder with her name is a simple effective way of finding stuff. If  I have to update any training I keep it in that folder until it is done then I move it to the training folder when completed.  

Clare is the class teacher so any classroom planning, discussions we have or anything regarding the student that we mentor goes in her folder.

Frances is Head of Administration & Resources so all Admin queries and ordering of sources goes here.

Childsmile is the NHS programme to improving the oral health of children in Scotland. I lead this at the centre so all correspondence goes in there.

All other emails stay in my inbox until I read them and then if it is not required it can be deleted. This system may not work for others but I find that it works for me. I have a junk free organised set up where I can find emails quickly.

So what have I learned whilst completing the criteria for this badge? Firstly the difference between Cc and Bcc. Also I can say that I am surprised at how much I actually knew about emails. Reflecting back to badge 3:Why Digital? and  looking at the scores I had previously given myself I would have to say that I would now give myself a higher score now in both capability and confidence. I would now score myself  Capability 4, and Confidence 4 .So instead of feeling  average I feel I am in  the high category. I know that I now send more emails than I previously did before starting   this journey and staff have also commented on this too. I also learned that having  an organised email system makes finding things easier and looks more professional.