In general, there are pros and cons to the above debate.
Pros of electronic communication:In the case of email, texts, etc. - it can be done anytime of the day. It is fast, it is easy and you can communicate with people that are far away. You can think about what you want to say instead of maybe saying something that you cannot take back! You can research what you want to say ahead of time instead of relying on current knowledge.
Cons of electronic communication: Sometimes it can be cold and impersonal. It can also be misinterpreted without the body language in FTF communication.
In SKYPEing, the pros are that you get the face to face along with the electronics. The cons are that if you have difficulties using SKYPE as our group did, then the communication breaks down. Our SKYPE session was so bad, at best we lost 3/4ths of our conversation.
Pros of FTF communication: Body language and tone of voice help to convey meanings that words sometimes do not.
Cons of FTF communication: Trying to find time to communicate.
Based on the pros and cons above, electronic communication was better for our lesson presentation than FTF communication would have been, mainly due to the time restraints. But as for the argument of Electronic Communication vs. FTF Communication, I think it depends on the situation.
Butterfly Museum @ Brookgreen Gardens
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