Using Technology to Teach Communication Skills
By Rajesh Bharvad
Abstract
The widespread prevalence of technology in the modern era assigns some new roles and duties on the modern teacher. Nowadays communication skills have gained supreme importance as far as the employability of the engineering students is concerned. The various tools offered by modern technology can promote the traditional teaching method to an advanced, effective, and interesting teaching method. The incorporation of technology in teaching in teaching technical communication activates their interest in learning technical aspects of communication. The various tools such as blog, audio-video aids, web browsing increase the productivity of teaching.
Communication whether formal, informal or technical is a practical term and technology enables the instructor to generate professional communication skills among the students. In addition to this technology offers new ways of communication such as chat lines where people from all over the world can chat in the virtual world. Similarly, blogging offers new ways of expressing ideas. These modern ways of communication can be incorporated in the teaching of communication skills in such a way that their linguistic knowledge as well as communication skills is enhanced.
Apart from communication skills their language skills can also be developed with the help of technology. Language remains at the centre of communication and therefore, with the help of different technological tools such as software created for the teaching purpose can be of immense help. With the communicative approach offered by the technological tools language can be learnt easily.
Introduction
Technical communication is very important as far as the overall development of the engineering students is concerned. For the career advancement it is very essential that they imbibe good communication skills. An average engineer spends about 40% of his valuable time in doing written and oral communication. However, the toughest task is to motivate the students in terms of the importance of technical communication.
It is very important that they acquire correctness in their writing as well as speech. Correctness in terms of their spelling, pronunciation, and punctuation is required from the engineering students. Moreover, some common mistakes such as incoherent writing, unclear subheadings, careless diagrams, and unwanted signals that obstruct the message should be cured.
Now the question is what kind of technical communication we are aiming at and how can we help them learn in a better way with the help of technology? According to me appropriate use of technology in the classroom is the only recourse to developing their skills. The contents that are taught in the classroom are as follow.
- Technical Reports- Annual Reports, Progress Reports, etc.
- Technical Writings i.e. technical instructions.
- Memorandum
- Letters
- Technical Proposals
- Writing of User Manuals
- Oral Reports
- Application Writing
- Resume Writing
- Documenting Sources
The content possesses practical values in them. Though they are useful, students might not understand its real value. And mere verbal technique of teaching might not work as far as motivation is concerned. Hence, technology is the only recourse left to the instructor. Integration of technology can be an interesting task as it will arouse curiosity among the students. PowerPoint presentations, overhead transparencies, and audio-video aids could be of great help. Writing report is not an easy task and therefore, one should use these technological tools with the help of which all the aspects are presented clearly in front of the students.
Teaching of Technical Communication is consisted of both explaining the theory of writing and enabling them to use it in practical writing. Both the things can be taught with the right use of technology. For example, technical writing is responsible, i.e. honest language, honest format, and simple and direct language. Here one can use technical tools such as overhead projector and demonstrate how can the honest format be created or how can honest language be created. This will invoke a kind of curiosity as well as deepen their interest in this particular subject.
Technical writing needs sincere contribution from the writers as it is written for the practical purpose. The writing will guide the readers in doing the practical work. Writing an instruction for the product to guide consumers or viewers requires sincerity and honesty from the writers. And the students will never be able to write in the desired way if they take the task lightly. Hence, technology can be a very helpful tool in not only teaching how to write effectively but also inculcating the sense of sincerity and honesty among them as they will be able understand their task appropriately.
Bob Collins, a corporate manager, puts it in this way:
The most critical skill required in today’s business world is the ability to communicate, both verbally and in writing. Effective communication has a direct impact on one’s potential within an organization (1).
In order for the up gradation of presentation skill, technology can be proved to be an important tool. There are many instances when the students are required to have good presentation skills. Whether there is a presentation of their technical reports; oral and written, technical proposals, and the like, they have to have good presentation skills which include the appropriate mode of presentation; extemporaneous, impromptu, memorization, and manuscript and the effective use of body language. There are multiple videos based on effective presentation available at the sites like www.youtube.com . An instructor can select appropriate videos that can guide the students on how to make effective presentations.
I will not be wrong if I say that teaching with the help of technology is inevitable in the modern times. Technical writing techniques include: researching, summarizing, designing pages, using visual aids, etc. It is clearly seen that technology proves to be the main source. Moreover, to sharpen the skills of the students some exercises that encourage the students to use electronic tools should be given to the students. For instance, an instructor can ask the students to decide a topic relevant to their career area. Ask them to use the web, find three full-text professional articles. Ask them to make a review of those articles and present it using technological tools. They can be given multiple exercises where web browsing is the key tool for them.
1. Riordan, Daniel. G, and Pauley, Steven. E, Technical Report Writing Today. Biztantra , 2005., P.3
Apart from the traditional resumes there is a growing demand of electronic resumes which should be kept in mind while instructing the students on how to make good resumes. In the electronic era the employers and the recruiters can find the resumes electronically. In other words, electronic resumes are changing the traditional way of job search. The candidate still submits a resume and the employer still reads it, but the whole process is done in an electronic way. Thus, “keyword strategies” are very important. Here technology becomes the main source of instruction. The resume is put into researchable database and when the employer wants to find a suitable candidate, with the help of the keywords he finds some suitable resumes. As Gonyea and Gonyea say,
To insure that your resume will be found, it is imperative that you include as many of the appropriate search words as are likely to be used by employers and recruiters who are looking for someone with your qualifications(2)
Blogs and the teaching of Communication Skills.
Information Technology creates a kind of atmosphere which facilitates communicative teaching, task-driven learning, situational learning, etc. It is indeed true that it stimulates the learning process.
Though the use of PowerPoint presentation in the classroom is an advanced step, it does not alter the traditional classroom scenario where the teacher is at the centre and the student as a passive listener. But with the application of blog in teaching communication skills changes the whole scenario and the emphasis is given on the learner autonomy.
Technical communication is a practical aspect and hence, merely lecturing the students on various skills is not sufficient. They have to be given a right kind of platform where they can present their skill. The platform can be found in the form of blogging where they can write online reports, letters, and other technical writing which can be assessed and viewed not only by the respective teacher but also by their friends and people from all over the globe. Thus, blogs offer a collective way of learning where all the students share their different ways of learning the same thing. This aspect enhances their overall ability of learning.
Blog can be an effective tool for the development of communication skills among the students. Learners can either express ideas on blogs of their own or express views on those of others. They can participate in the discussions that are collectively maintained by the people in blogs. Here they can go beyond the restrictions imposed by the textbooks and teachers. There is a simultaneous development of both the ability to communicate effectively through virtual means of communication and the learning of English language. The freedom from inhibition and fear that can be found in the traditional classroom generates a new impetus in their learning.
2. Riordan, Daniel. G, and Pauley, Steven. E, Technical Report Writing Today. Biztantra , 2005.P-536
However, the role of a teacher as a facilitator is indispensable. He has to monitor and supervise the blogs in such a way that they function in the right spirit. One can give some project – based or task – based works that can encourage students to use blog as a communication tool. In fact, the students can easily understand the process of communication which starts from encoding of the message to decoding of the same. Moreover, such activities on the blog will help them learn the different tactics of writing.
More importantly, blog can be an important tool in so far as theoretical discussions on Communication Skills and their practical application into virtual world are concerned. In their reflective way of learning they can discuss the theoretical aspects such as the types and levels of communication skills, formal and informal way of communication and so on. And an instructor can have a better understanding in terms of the learning process among the students.
Here an instructor can form few groups in the class and give them tasks in which they have to create posts on various blogs or discuss within the group or outside the group. Such activities can activate a kind of insatiable interest in learning communication skills. Similarly, it provides a new exposure of English language to the students where they can communicate using English language. Moreover, it affirms a sense of individuality among the students as through blogging they cam be more opinionated, which could result into self- confidence.
Incorporating technology in teaching language skills to the engineering students.
The key factor in any form of communication is the ability to communicate with the help of some basic language skills. Hence, it is of utmost important that the engineering students know the basic knowledge of the language skills. The more they possess the desired language skills, the better will be their ability to communicate. With the remarkable development in the field of educational technology, teaching has become far better in terms of its effectiveness and productivity.
As we know that the virtual world provides multiple opportunities to enhance our language skills. Writing skill is a key skill as far as written communication is concerned. Written communication includes writing of various reports, technical proposals, letter writing, and so on. In all the forms of writing the basic knowledge of language is necessary. Technology provides a right kind of platform which helps develop the writing skill. Online publishing, word processor, blogging, etc. are some of the tools that help develop the skill. Technology makes writing interesting. Moreover, the consciousness that their writing is going to be viewed by people could inspire them to write in a better way. However, the intervention of a teacher is highly required. It is the job of a teacher to give them tasks that could motivate them to write and communicate with the other students using technology. For instance, asking them to organize an event, i.e. planning a trip and to fulfill the task they have to follow the guidelines such as using only computer technology as a medium for communication among the group. Here an instructor has to monitor their discussions and guide them if necessary. In addition to this, there are multiple softwares that can be incorporated so as to develop writing skill among students.
Similarly, there are multiple options available in the web that can help develop reading skills. Online reading is becoming more and more popular as people tend to read material from web sources. It provides multiple sources with unlimited access. Apart from reading skills technology also offers various opportunities for the development of the other skills, i.e. listening and speaking skills. For the development of the listening and speaking skills one can use audio-video aids. Both the skills – listening and speaking- are very important in the sense that they are directly responsible for the effective communication. The ability of listening and speaking directly correspond to effective communication. Technology offers a very good solution in the form of audio-video materials. In fact, listening and speaking are the basic skills of language that need a kind of training. Modernized language labs can offer good practice to the students. They can listen to the standard recordings which can guide them on how to use language appropriately. It is essential that they are able to speak the language with the right pronunciation of the words. Hence, listening of the standard recordings enables the students to grasp the exact pronunciation of the various words. One of the barriers of effective communication is inappropriate pronunciation of words. In order to correct the students’ pronunciation, an instructor can utilize audio – video aids in the classroom or the language lab. A teacher can record some speeches of the students and observe them minutely and enable them to realize their mistakes. In a computerized lab this task can be performed very easily. Similarly, live conversations among the students can be recorded and their grammatical and linguistic errors can be shown to them. This will enable them to realize their mistakes that they frequently make.
Educational software can be of immense help to the teacher and it can be utilized in teaching communication skills as they provide a great canvas for the development of language skills and communication skills. They can bring revolution in the teaching arena and enhance the qualitative teaching all over the globe. With the help of such softwares the job of an instructor becomes far more effective. Softwares are normally designed and created for various purposes. There are various softwares available for the development of listening skill, reading skill, speaking skill and writing skill. Good and qualitative softwares can generate the desired result. For example, Pronunciation Power-1&2 helps the students to recognize and produce the individual sounds of English at the phoneme, word and sentence level.
Thus, it is seen that technology can play not only a vital role but also a revolutionary role which will replace the traditional or an orthodox method of teaching with the modern and innovative method. Hence, Computer Assisted Teaching of Communication Skills (CATCS) can be more effective in terms of students’ development of the ability to communicate effectively both verbally and non-verbally. It can create stimulating environment of learning experience which will enhance the overall quality of learning process. Moreover, online discussions made possible by various chat lines create a new environment for teaching that we might call as virtual teaching. In short, the whole process of CATCS will be digitized where the students will be given digital assignments and the instructor will check them digitally. This digitalization will empower the instructor with multiple opportunities which will become a source of constant inspiration.
References:
Riordan, Daniel. G; Pauley, Steven. E, Technical Report Writing Today (2005).
Ding, Zhao-guo. Application of Blog to English Language Teaching in China, ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=4722835
Beer, D.F.; Ekberg, K. Teaching communication skills in the engineering college: the Texas/Swedish experience, ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel2/1131/8046/00347539.pdf?arnumber=347539
Morón-García, Sue. Using Virtual Learning Environments: Lecturers’ Conceptions of Teaching and the move to Student-Centred Learning, csdl.computer.org/comp/proceedings/icce/2002/1509/00/15091494.pdf
Gonyea, James C., and Gonyea, Wayne M. Electronic Resumes: A Complete Guide to Putting Your Resume On-line. NY: McGraw-Hill, 1996.