Learning+about+synchorous+communication

=Sychronous Communication ( module pages 15-16) =

Up to this point today, we have been talking about asynchronous communication tools. The opposite of asynchronous is synchronous communication tools. These are tools that offer students and teachers real time communication benefits not available through traditional communication tools. Examples would be AOL Instant Messenger or Skype. There are some great educational benefits of these types of tools.

Watch the Video - What is Skype? media type="custom" key="3699871"

 Great example of how synchrounous communication was used in the classroom:  There was a 3rd grade eMINTS class that used IM to connect with a person in     Antarctica for a year. Once a week, the students would converse with this person through AOL about penguins. The students embarked on a penguin project that year and were able to access the information they needed through real-time interviews. Another benefit for the students was the awareness of time differences between the two countries. The conversation took place at 9 a.m. local time, which was 3 a.m. the following day in      Antarctica.

What are some other ways synchronous communication can be used in the classroom?