(2008) Synchronous in Science Education - The Need, The Opportunity and the Practice

Asynchronous methods dominated the Distance learning for many years and even now, despite the widespread of more interactive technologies and the need for better and more interactive tools, asynchronous interaction, mostly via forum/message boards and Web content, is frequently the "solo" formula adopted in e-learning courses and content quality is still the big issue. Texts, videos, CD-ROM, etc, distributed by post mail or TV broadcast in the previous models of distance learning (DL) have been gradually replaced by Web sites and e-Learning platform systems. Besides asynchronous availability of materials, asynchronous communication by way of message boards (forum) and email has been widely defendedr J and become the dominant practice in most distance learning courses (Cardoso, 2007) leading to an unprecedented widespread of a biased practice: the "all asynchronous'. In this paper the authors defend constructivist and investigative learning environments based on Synchronous methods and give examples of such methods