Use of communication tools in teaching and learning

After the arrival of coronavirus in Bhutan on 6th march, the schools and the colleges in the country remained closed.  During this time the use of communication tools in teaching and learning became important. The teacher was asked to teach the students online. So to teach online, different communication tools such as WeChat, Vle, Google classroom, zoom,  and skype was used to interact, share information with the students, and to keep track of the lesson.

 Through the use of these tools, we can discuss, share, and ask our doubts as to if we are in a real classroom. Moreover, we get the opportunity to interact with our tutor frequently compare to the real classroom.

Out of many communication tools, I was familiar with google meet, vle forum, WeChat, and email as we were taught the lesson using these tools through video conferencing, video, and audio.  During our online classes so far, the above-mentioned tools have helped us understand new knowledge and concepts better. These virtual tools are a good substitute for face to face interaction, especially at a time like this where we cannot have access to face to face teaching and learning. I feel comfortable and convenient to learn through these communicative tools because they add excitement to our lesson and we show extra interest in learning too.

The following picture shows how we have use communication tools in our teaching and learning:

video conferencing

Wechat discussion 

vle discussion 

two types of communication tool

Communicative tools are those applications that enable the easy flow of communication either between teachers and students or amongst students. communicative tools allow us to easily communicate beyond the physical barrier either by space, time, or both of the classrooms. With the use of communicative tools such as email, VLE, google classroom, and many other applications, the communicators need not necessarily be present in the same space or time zone. All thanks to communicative tools that learning can take place even beyond the classroom walls. Towards the end of the session of communicative tools, I came to know that there are two types of communicative tools and they are as follows:

 Synchronous or also called real-time communication: as the name suggests, communicators in this type of communication must be present at the same time. An example of this type of communication would be videoconferencing where both the teacher and students are present for the communication at the same time.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Urgent issues can be resolved immediately with prompt feedback. We did a video conference with our module tutor and found it pretty helpful as we could ask and show our problems with assignments.	Bad network connections distract the discussion and quick comments may not be accessible. we had to constantly mute and unmute the audio so I found that little exhausting.

Asynchronous communication: this type of communication does not require communicators to be logged on to the internet at the same time. One common example is the use of VLE discussion forum for learning.

1. Advantages	Disadvantages
   It provides more thinking time for the responders. We have been using VLE for discussions and it is quite handy as well as easy to use.	It fails to maintain the interest of the users and checking the blogs, the virtual learning environment is an additional task. Sometimes, I did not want to write in the discussions.

The communication tool basically emphasizes the social constructivist learning theory where people use communication tools such as email, WeChat, Skype, and etc to interact with other people to enhance their ideas and knowledge.
There are lots of opportunities using communication tools such as sharing ideas and knowledge, exploring new things, construct new knowledge, and make relation with the people around the world.
However, there are threats while using communication tools such as lead to addiction, become more dependent on the information source, and a high chance of losing one's own culture and identity as people are exposed to other cultures.

communication tools  

I found this tool is essential to integrate into the classroom teaching as it will provide a platform for the students to develop effective communication skills. When we were in the school, we were not allowed to used such communicative tools in imparting the concept and providing feedback since most of the students were misusing the purpose of communicative tools into creating disorder in a society. That is the reason why I lack behind in communication skills as compared to others. Till that, I used to think the purpose of the communicative tool is just to convey the message,  but after this session, I came to know that we can also integrate into classroom teaching to develop communication skills and to provides constructive feedback in the learning. So, in order to equip students with effective communicative skills, the teachers need to integrate a communicative tool in his/her teaching.

ICT as an informative Tools

In a classroom, there are diverse students with differences in educational background, interest, developmental rate, learning styles, and experiences. So to cater to the needs of students, the teacher can use information and communication technology (ICT) in the classroom as:

• informative tools 

• communicative tools

• a constructive tool

• a co-constructive tool

• a situating tool

1. ICT as an informative tool

After going through the topic of ICT as an informative tool, I learned that informative tools are the application that we used to store a large amount of information for learning. Informative tools include sound, videos, text, animation, graphics, and images.

The informative tool does not provide the information directly. Hence we have to explore the information through different sources such as television, internet, books, and radio to provide the learners with valid and authentic information.

As a teacher, we can integrate the information tool in the classroom by providing information/reference/content for the students in the beginning or during or after the activity. Besides, let students analyze, synthesize, and manipulate, and construct their own knowledge and meaning. Moreover, the use of an informative tool in a classroom will cater to the needs of different learning styles and can enhance their academic performance and motivate a child to learn. 
Searching information on Hitler's sexuality using different websites:

 

Presentation on Hitler sexuality:

After making a presentation on Hitler Sexuality, I came to realized that it's not enough to get authentic and accurate information about the particular topic from only one source. More often we have to access different sources to get a bigger chunk of information from the internet. Moreover, I learned that whatever information given on the internet is not all the time true and facts about the particular topic. What we need to do is to check whether the sources are reliable and authentic or not first, then we need to compare and contrast referring different sources to get accurate information. 

When I become a teacher in the future, I will brief them on how to access accurate and reliable information from the internet with examples. I will also provide activities such as providing them with a debatable topic and ask them to find information from the internet by weighing the pros and cons.