Anna Moneftsi,

1st Gymnasio of Sykies, Thessaloniki, Greece

Asynchronous VS Synchronouscommunication communication

not real time

at user’s

convenient time

real time

much like face to face

or talking on the phone

Communication in eTwinningAsynchronous most of the time !

The Wall Blogs Forums

Pros and Cons to AsynchronousCommunication

In pupils’ and teachers’ convenient time

o In class

o At home

time available for thinking & digesting info

No immediacy

Less interaction

Sometimes pupils get impatient, disappointed, or discouraged

Pros and Cons to AsynchronousCommunication

Yumm...yumm!

14 February 2014 14:49

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Please,see our work!!!! The recipes are...!!!!!!!Really!!!

Time for synchronous communication

Writing based chatting

Audio and video based

Video conferencing

Pros and Cons to SynchronousCommunication

Pupils love it

Stimulates interest

Increases participation and motivation

Positive influence on the whole project

Difficulties in synchronizing timetables

Language difficulties

Technical difficulties

Coping with difficulties (1) Inform your school/colleagues/pupils and ask

for help !!!

Timetable difficulties

Plan ahead and rearrange timetable if possible (school bells don’t ring at the same time)

allow for double the time needed for the activities (bad or good things may happen)

Language difficulties

It’s best if pupils have the same level of language competency (more competent pupils get disappointed when their partners have difficulties in communication)

Coping with difficulties (2) Language difficulties (cont.)

Prepare your pupils in advance

Technical difficulties

Use tools/hardware you(or a colleague) know well (Skype & Webcam/microphone)

Familiarize your pupils (if necessary) with tools/hardware

Ask the rest of the school to refrain from using the internet (in case of low bandwidth)

Chatting: What for? Suitable for collaborative activities

E.g.: Creation of a quiz on renewable resources of energy

10 parallel chatting groups, each collaborating on a particular form of energy

Each group has (at best) 2 pupils and sits in front of 1 computer

Questions agreed upon, are included in the quiz

Quiz about Renewable Energies

Good luck to all the students!!

What's your name? *

What does geothermal energy mean?

• Heat from the earth

• Heat from the people

• Heat from the sun

What materials does biomass use?

• organic material

• animal material

• polluting material

Chatting: What for?

Chatting: Most pupils feel at ease ! Comp Lab, Sykies: hello

pasteur wind2: hello

Comp Lab, Sykies: hi

pasteur wind2: what 'syour name

Comp Lab, Sykies: our names are Stella and Kostas

Comp Lab, Sykies: Your's???

pasteur wind2: i'm younes and ludovic

Comp Lab, Sykies: can you explain me if you are girls or boys because we can't anderstand???

Pasteur Sun: Bye bye !

Pasteur Sun: (wave)

Comp Lab, Sykies: Bye bye!!!!

Chatting: language difficulties accentuate Pupils must prepare their contributions to the

discussion (they must have sth written in front of them)

Pupils should be warned for the consequences of the language difficulties of their partners i.e. late/wrong answers (usually few have chatted in a foreign language)

A beforehand discussion on netiquette is important

The presence and help of one or more teachers is important in case of parallel chatting sessions

Recording chat sessions is useful

Video conference: What for? To strengthen ties between pupils, to help them

come closer, to make them feel like a team!!!

Put pupils in front of the camera

Role playing, debating, singing

It doesn’t matter what they do, they love it!!!

You need a plan/scenario

You need to rehearse, because most pupils haven’t had the experience of a video conference (other than a one to one communication)

If you have time, you can let them improvise and you will be surprised!!!

Video conference: technical difficulties

If you’re using standard Webcam/microphone

Quality of image/sound is an issue

It’s better to have a few pupils at a time in front of the computer screen, otherwise you can’t make out facial details

Some pupils (more than others) get disappointed with poor quality of image/sound

• It’s worth investing on video conference equipment

What do pupils prefer?

However, beware of different pupil characters. One of my pupils (a shy and intravert

character) said she felt more at ease with chatting and the written word in general!