Email

Years ago there was some talk about creating a font to be used for making sarcastic remarks so that the person on the other end would know the tone was meant to be sarcastic. It never came to pass but now tone indicators are making the rounds in social media posts. Put simply, tone indicators are written shorthand for the poster’s intent and emotion. For example, one might use “/j,” short for “joking” to indicate the disparaging comment you just made about your best friend was just a friendly nudge and not the ‘nastygram’ that it might be taken as.

It will be interesting to see if this trend catches on. The tone indicators are showing up on Twitter and in the comments sections of The New York Times. And if your children start using them, you will certainly need to know what they are. Here is a sample list:

/j = joking
/s = sarcasm
/srs = serious
/nsrs = not serious
/r = romantic
/lh = lighthearted
/f = fake
/th = threat
/li = literally
/nm = not mad or upset
/t = teasing
 

Both parents and teachers should be aware that new ransomware campaigns are targeting teachers with email subject lines indicating the messages contain students' assignments. According to an article on the TechRadar site, teachers have received e-mails in which the attacker poses as a parent or guardian submitting an online assignment on behalf of a student, claiming the student encountered technical issues when trying to submit the assignment themselves. However, instead of attaching an assignment to their emails, the attacker has attached a malicious document that downloads a custom ransomware payload. Some of the email subject lines have included, "Son's Assignment Upload" and "Assignment Upload Failure for [Name]."

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is an emoji worth? Dating back to 1995, emojis have become such a large part of our communication that approximately 5 billion are used every day -- and that's just on Facebook and Facebook Messenger! The most used emoji on Twitter and Facebook is the crying with laughter emoji, whilst the heart is the most popular on Instagram. In a fascinating piece on the World Economic Forum site, you can take a quick look at the history and growth of emojis that may or may not leave you with a "laughing face with tears of joy."

Kids don’t send many emails these days and rely instead on texting, so even more of a reason to share some tips about emailing with them. The key? Brevity. What was once considered rude in letter format is now proper etiquette when writing an email. Here’s more:

• People are burdened with email. Help relieve their burden by keeping your message concise and clear. Brevity in an email shows respect for your reader’s time.
• Don’t bother with the niceties like asking “how are you” unless you have a real reason.
• If you need a yes-or-no answer, make sure you are asking a yes-or-no question
• If you need to set up a meeting, don’t just say you need to set up a meeting; suggest a time and place.
• Shoot for five sentences or less.
• Keep your subject line short. It will likely be read on a mobile device so six words max. Never leave the subject line blank. That’s rude. And never put the whole message in a subject line; that’s a text message.

Personalization is the key to effective parent-school communication, according to a survey of parents, teachers and school leaders by the Center for American Progress. The survey found that in-person, parent-teacher conferences were preferable to technology-based communication, with research associate Abby Quirk saying, “We thought there might be special interest in options that use technology because they’re newer, they offer potentially more options, but what we found was that the technological advancement, so to speak, of the communication method really wasn’t that important. What we found was that the individualization was really important.”

While parents are used to being the sole receiver of important information about their kids, the college application process marks one of the first times when the communication goes directly through the teenage applicant. According to some experts, this could be a flawed process, as colleges primarily use email for communicating with prospective students, yet teenagers statistically do not default to email to communicate. Critical information sent via email may be lost in a crush of other messages. Research shows high schoolers don't commonly use email, and it is possible for important information to fall through the cracks when they're inundated with messages, experts say.

You might think that entering and storing personal data for easier access to online sites is convenient, but generally speaking, it's not a great idea. Breach after breach proves as much. Many sites require entering an email address to register or gain access to full features, but it can also be fodder for spam. If you are visiting a site that doesn’t seem credible or trustworthy but requires entering your email, consider creating a disposable email address.

Thinking about sending your child’s teacher an after hours email? You might want to wait until the next school day. Some educators in Australia are asking for a break from the burden of answering emails sent by parents after hours and on weekends. The State School Teachers Union there says that some parents expect lengthy, instant responses, which is why they are seeking to include a provision that offers teachers a reprieve in their contracts.