“Email is for old people.” This is the conventional wisdom among students at my university. Many of us “old people,” who remember inter-office memos reproduced on a hand-cranked machine and printed in purple ink, receive that statement with some amusement that a technology as “new” as email would be considered obsolete. Others, perhaps having just mastered email, are dismayed that our students are turning up their noses at what we consider to be the state of the art in communication. Some might also be discouraged, conclude that their efforts to stay current with technology are futile, and might be tempted to throw up their hands and say, “what’s the use?” However, if we understand what technology students are using—and how they are using it—some interesting implications for language teaching emerge.
