Synchronous Communication in a Web-Based Senior High School Course: Maximizing Affordances and Minimizing Constraints of the Tool

Researchers studied the use of a suite of synchronous communication tools in support of a Web-based, senior high school French course whose students were dispersed over the vast, sparsely populated province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The objective was to describe interaction according to four types: student-teacher, student-student, student-content, and student/teacher-tools. The interactions were considered in relation to the tools' affordances and constraints. The study revealed that teachers' decisions related to the choice of pedagogical activities and the assignment of privileges play an important role in effective use of the tools.