Module 2-Communication

The task this week was to discover communciation, and how we can effectively use communication as a learning tool.

Boy are high schoolers good at communicating--just not neccessarily at appropriate times or in the manner that you are trying to get them to communicate! It got me thinking about whether I am using communication effectively myself.

I use Facebook, Twitter, Google groups, a blog, wikis, e-mail, and texting to communicate in writing already. I also now have an RSS reader which is helping to filter "spam" communication.

I have incorporated wikis in every class I teach--see an example of my wiki for Global Business at http://whsglobalbiz.wikispaces.com . I have found that students are much more engaged in group projects when they can be completed using a wiki and there is less instance of that kid that just sits and doesn't participate when they know I can "check" to see what contnet has been editted.

I admit that I am still a big believer in synchronous communication and I am that teacher who will walk down the hall to talk face to face to a colleague rather than send an e-mail. However, I hat the telephone. I have never been ver comfortable using the telephone--not sure why. So asynchronous communication methods such as e-mail are a lifesaver for me! We are beginning to teach more and more asynchronously--podcasts are big. Will classroom teachers be replaced by 24/7 "lectures on demand"? There are those that say yes. I say we will still need to have some method of synchronous communication.

So today in Global Business I practiced. I had students communicate with me via an asynchronous method--send me an e-mail for a warm-up (yes, I sometimes do this even though they are sitting in the same room with me). Then we had a face to face discussion about the same question. I found the face to face discussion generated more legitimate responses than the warm-up e-mail (several IDK's, this is stupid, etc.). I think students feel like no one is really "listening" if they respond in an asynchronous world. Hmm. How do we get over this? Students need to understand there is someone on the other end, even if response is not immediate.

A mobile tool I have used for educational purposes this week is www.pollseverywhere.com I used this for vocabulary review in my Digital Media classes. It worked! I can't say Photoshop vocabular review is the most interesting subject in the world but everyone was engaged and no sleepers!