inquiry3 -communicating in three contexts

8/14/2019 Inquiry3 -Communicating in Three Contexts

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Michigan State University

CEP806 Learning Science with TechnologyBy: Hasan Mahmud For: Dr. D. Wong

November 16, 2008

Communicating in Three Contexts:

Asynchronously & Synchronously viaInternet and Face to Face


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Introduction

Dear Colleagues,

y This is Hasan Mahmud at Michigan State

University for CEP806 Learning Science with

Technology.

y Communication is an important part of what we

do each day.

y How can we communicate better using computers

or face to face?

y What problems could occur when we

communicate?

y How do we adjust or solve these problems?

y How does time and distance affect

communication?2


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y

This inquiry was about discovering the issuesinvolved in communicating science activities with

partners on the Internet and face to face.

1. Communicating asynchronously on a bulletin

board called Ning using text and digital pictures.

2. Communicating synchronously in real-time

using only text chat at AIM and no digital

pictures.

3. Then communicating face to face using all our

senses.

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Asynchronous Text Chat

y My colleagues and I conducted an asynchronous

chat on a blog board called NING that has file

and picture upload capability.

y We were to collaborate asynchronously to design

and build a catapult using pencils, elastics and

that produces the longest average distance on

three consecutive throws.

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Beginningy There was communication about getting

everything ready to do the activity.

y

The use of digital camera pictures was predictedto help communicate ideas and hopefully would

save time in word explanations.

y The first ideas and suggestions began and we

communicated back and forth as clearly as we

could.

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Middle

I perceived that:

y Communication using words was prone to

misunderstanding and error and required

clarification.

y Technical vocabulary and ideas could cause even

more misunderstanding.

y The pictures positively reinforced what the personwas talking about with great clarity.

y We were able to duplicate each others

suggestions well.

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End

y Practice seemed to make a world of difference in

communicating ideas asynchronously.

y The NING bulletin board with digital pictures

seemed to provide an effective means of

communicating ideas.

y My partners and I had essentially the same

design with a few creative choice variations.

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y

No unusual technical problems occurred duringthe communication of the asynchronous chat.

y The quality of communication was blocked,

irregular and slow.

y It required 4 days to communicate ideas and

accomplish the task of building the simple

catapult.

y It was the slowest communication method out of

the three.

y The fact, that we were located in different

continents did not hinder the communication.

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Synchronous Text Chaty My partners and I conducted a real-time

synchronous chat on AIM without digital pictures.

y I was 9 hours ahead of Michigan time and haverecorded dates and times in Michigan.

y Started: Saturday 1/Nov/2008 at 20:00

y Ended: Saturday 1/Nov/2008 at 21:30y In order to talk at the same time, I needed to be

up at 5am so that it could be 8pm in Michigan.

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y We were to collaborate synchronously to

construct the tallest tower possible using only

rubber bands to hold 20 pencils together.

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Beginning

y We needed to download AIM, set up usernames,

and learn how to use the software in advance of

the synchronous text chat.

y We opted not to do a voice chat because itseemed faster and more convenient to share

ideas by typing and then building.

yAIM did not seem to have a digital picture featureand we relied on only text communication.

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y

One person would ask a simple question and thatperson responded sometimes within a few

seconds with the answer.

y It took longer to text back when we were building

because we were focused on constructing the

tower using both hands to build.


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Middle

y Communication using words was prone to

misunderstanding and error and required

clarification.

y Technical vocabulary and ideas caused more

misunderstanding.

y There seemed to be a rush to get the tower up

and communication was hasty. Sometimes itseemed that we all typed at the same time. Which

reminded me a lot of a 4-way intersection and all

the cars going at the same time.

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y

No unusual technical problems occurred duringthe communication of synchronous text.

y The quality of text communication had a forward

moving energy, regular, fast and speeding up.

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Face to

Face Communication

y Due to the fact that I work and live in another

continent I could not work with my MSU

colleagues.y My wife and I conducted this activity at home.

y Using a limited number of materials, we needed

to build a holder for one raw egg that would allowit to stay together when dropped from a height of

8 ft.

y Started: Friday 7/Nov/2008 at 16:15

y Ended: Friday 7/Nov/2008 at 16:30

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Beginning

y There was communication about getting

everything ready and the place to do the activity.

y There was a free exchange of ideas, cooperation,

and communication.

y There was emotion and excitement and

anticipation of Will the raw egg NOT break when

dropped from 8 ft?

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Middle

y My partner held the balloon and container while I

put the tape around.

y We both shared the activity of cutting up the

pieces of paper and rolled them into a circularshape to create a spring effect or cushion for the

egg.

y I was able to continue working while my partnerhad taken pictures and filmed a video.

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End

y There was reflection about the activity.

y There was laughter and cheering when success

was achieved.

y No unusual technical problems occurred duringthe communication of the face to face activity.

y It required 15 minutes to communicate ideas and

accomplish the task.y The quality of communication was strong with

forward moving, regular and fast.

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Conclusions

y In all 3 communications we were dealing with

time, space, effectiveness of communication, and

the situation or context.y Each has its merits in terms of convenience and

limitations in terms of time.

y

The asynchronous chat had taken the most timeto communicate ideas.

y Followed by synchronous text chat then face to

face interaction which were both almost

immediate, but face to face being the faster of the

two.

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Asynchronousy The asynchronous allowed more time to work on

ideas and solve problems, but was the least

productive in terms of time.

y There was a large gap in time and depended on

how often we could communicate back and forth.

y Using text only to communicate was problematic

and caused misunderstanding and the particular

situation or context added more to the

communication difficulty.

y Digital pictures assisted this interaction greatly.


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Synchronous

y The synchronous text chat reduced the time tocommunicate and there was more pressure torespond in a reasonable amount of time.

y Misunderstandings occurred more frequently becausethere was less time to answer our colleagues, andspelling and grammar mistakes could add to themiscommunication.

y AIM did not provide a means of uploading digital

pictures in real time, or video so we could not exactlysee what the other person was building.

y Communication of ideas would have been improvedgreatly if we could see exactly what the other person

was thinking and trying to communicate.

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Face to

Face

y There was a shared emotion that could be

communicated easily and effectively with

laughter, hugs and a pat on the back.

y Ideas were easily and quickly exchanged back

and forth.

y Possibilities were visually demonstrated and

verbal communication added to the clarity ofideas.

y Thank you for joining me and have a great day.

inquiry3 -communicating in three contexts

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