Before introducing students to electronic communication, be sure to instruct them
on “Netiquette,” which is good manners on the Internet.  There are some general rules
that all should adhere to (Snell, 1995):

1.  Be precise and to the point.  Do not waste Internet resources or cause
considerable download time by sending an unnecessary message or a long message that
could have been summarized in a few short lines.  Given the concern about resources, it
is advisable to forego thankyou messages.

2.  Do not type with all capitals as it appears that YOU ARE SHOUTING.

3.  Do not “flame” others, or set yourself up to be flamed.  Because the
communication is at a distance, it is easy to say nasty things (flaming someone), however
this is not acceptable.  Others may stop responding to you, and mailing lists and
newsgroups to which you are subscribed may ban you.  Similarly, failure to read the
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) of a list or newsgroup before posting a commonly
asked question is more than likely to get you flamed.  Most established lists and
newsgroups have an FAQ file.

4.  Do not be rude or use offensive language.

5.  Do not post personal or commercial advertising to public lists.  This is called
“spamming” and members do not appreciate it (more grounds for flaming).

6.  Do not send private messages over e-mail or IRC.  You never know who could
be eavesdropping or when a message will get lost in cyberspace.

7.  Use a signature block to identify yourself at the end of messages you send, but
keep it brief.  A signature block has your name, e-mail address, and often a short quote or
saying.

For more on Netiquette, see Life on the Internet: Netiquette at
http://www.screen.com/start/guide/netiquette.html or Netiquette by Kenji Kitao and S.
Kathleen Kitao at http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/internet/art-netiquette.htm

Lastly, it is also advised that if a teacher wishes to address the entire class in the
computer lab that the students turn down the contrast on the monitor or turn it off, to
ensure that attention is not diverted by the computer (Robb & Tillyer, 1993).