A new Netday "Speak Up" survey by Dell and Bell South suggests that  
while teachers are increasingly using email to communicate to  
students, students are increasingly abandoning email for instant  
messaging (including cell phone SMS).

"Students have told us that eMail is still valuable--mainly for  
storing and transmitting documents and for communication with  
adults," said Julie Evans, chief executive officer of the nonprofit  
group NetDay. "IM is more valuable to them because it is instant, and  
they can speak with multiple people at the same time. I believe that  
this highlights a greater sophistication in student tech use--and a  
trend for us to watch."

In addition to instant messaging, students are more likely to use  
social networking tools like MySpace and Facebook to support their  
communication habits. "At least 50 percent of students, by the 12th  
grade, have some sort of personal, MySpace-like web site," she said.  
"This generation of learners seeks community online."

Links:

eSchool News Staff, For students, eMail already is outdated, May 3,  
2006. http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/PFshowstory.cfm?ArticleID=6297

Netday "Speak Up" survey results, http://www.dell4k12.com/netday

Netday "Speak Up" survey tool 2005, http://www.netdayspeakup.org/