The Internet
This is simply a brilliant research tool, like a giant library, but you have to know how to use it wisely. There are various search engines (Google is probably the most well known) that allow you to find links to key words, names, etc. They give you access to millions of pages. Like any other information research, you can get far more out of it if you are clear about what you want to know, otherwise you just find yourself trawling through loads of information. Used well, it can help you with almost any subject you can think of, providing links to academic information and useful contacts.
Email
Perhaps you have already used email to communicate at work. If not, your use of e-mail has probably been confined to emailing friends and you would have found out that it is an easy way to keep in touch. As a student, there are two good reasons why email is useful. Firstly, it is a good way to keep in touch with tutors and lecturers when you can’t catch up with them in person. Secondly, if you are doing any research that entails contacting businesses and other organisations, email is an excellent way of making initial contact and often a highly successful one.
A few tips for email success
Email is instant, this is usually one of its benefits, but there are drawbacks. If you are displeased with your marks on an assignment and you feel a tutor has been unreasonable, it is easy to fire off a stroppy email. If you have to go and find them in person or put something on paper, you gain a valuable cooling off period. Think before you press “send”. More common, and less dramatic, is the tendency not to write clearly and succinctly. For someone on the receiving end, whether he or she is a tutor or a work colleague, this can waste their time and yours.
What you should not use your computer for
Apart from illegal activities that do not need an explanation here and the dangers of hasty emails mentioned above, there is another consideration when you are using ICT. It has made obtaining already completed assignments easier. This is plagiarising and cheating, and in the end, it will do neither your academic nor your working career any good. The fact that it is easier to import information and incorporate it into your own text does not make it any wiser. Academic staff are becoming increasingly alert to this problem. Have a look at Chapters 15 and 17 (should chapter references be included as they aren’t used to organise content in the CWS? Consider rewording) on essays and dissertations respectively, for further information on this.

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