ON THIS WEB PAGE YOU CAN FIND INFORMATION ABOUT COMMUNICATION AS A WHOLE, AS WELL AS DIFFERENT SUBTOPICS RELATED TO IT. YOU CAN LISTEN TO AND READ ABOUT OUR EXPERIENCES IN THE FIELD OF COMMUNICATION. TO GAIN ACCESS TO MATERIALS INCLUDED IN THE WEBPAGE, PLEASE CLICK ON THE BUTTONS.
1. DEFINING COMMUNICATION
WHAT IS COMMUNICATION? IT IS A PROCESS BY WHICH INFORMATION IS EXCHANGED BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS THROUGH A COMMON SYSTEM OF SYMBOLS, SIGNS, OR BEHAVIOUR.
COMMUNICATION IS ONE OF THE 4C SKILLS WHICH WERE EXPLORED DURING ERASMUS PROJECT TRANSDIGITAL EDUCATION
Achieving effective communication as a whole comes with improving your approach to each of its elements - these are listening, delivering oral presentations, creating written outputs, using digital media to communicate, engaging in discussions, as well as communicating in diverse environments.
In order to master your skill of communication, it is crucial to know both the universal requirements, as well as the more specific ones, which allow you to be widely understood in various situations in your life.
The competence of communication includes your language proficiency, sociocultural awareness, adaptability to various situations in communication, cultural sensitivity, as well as empathy. These shape your relationships with people by pulling you together, providing a common ground for understanding as means to effective communication.
The following presentation shows how the elements of communication may be perfected both in theory and with the help of real-life examples. To each element, there are examples either in writting or video format (up to 1 minute each). To access the presentation, please refer to the link below.
2. TYPES OF COMMUNICATION
In this section, you can learn about the different benefits and impacts of communication through language, including different types and examples of verbal communication, as well as different skills needed to communicate successfully.
Verbal communication is the process of expressing thoughts, ideas, or information through spoken language. It is a fundamental form of human communication and involves using words, speech, and language to convey messages, share thoughts, and exchange information. Verbal communication can occur in various settings, such as conversations, speeches, presentations, interviews, and everyday interactions.
Visual communication is a type of communication focused on conveying information in a non-verbal, visual form and passing it on. The aim of visual communication is often to inspire and provoke emotions in order to engage and make a change. Visual communication has been used by humans since prehistoric times. Nowadays, visual communication is especially widely used around the world. Just think of symbols like emoticons!
Written communication is when the sender writes and the receiver reads. For it to be effective, both of them have to share the knowledge of a language or code. It is characterized by being deferred, personal, permanent, and with a precise message.
Body language is a basic form of non-verbal communication, which is often accompanied by spoken language. The knowledge about your body and its movements is crucial to maintain consistent communication. Take a look how facial expressions, gestures and posture might affect your interpersonal communication.
The photo shows the group of participants of our Erasmus project during a workshop in Lublin.
3. COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS & CHALLENGES IN THE ERASMUS PROJECT
3.1 AN EXAMPLE: USING KIALO FOR ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE COMMUNICATION
During the Erasmus week in Lublin on 'Different Forms of Learning', students got to know the digital discussion website Kialo.
Kialo provides a platform for debating different opinions. Arguments that can be created by users to argue for or against and other participants can react to this. Threads develop this way and Kialo makes it easy for everone to see what the most popular topics are - or the most controversial. Erasmus students thus learned to be open up to other points of view and to justify their convictions.
3.2 COMMUNICATIVE CHALLENGES
We interviewed some Erasmus participants about what challenges they faced while communicating with other students.
3.3 HOW THE ERASMUS PROJECT HELPED US DEVELOP OUR COMMUNICATION COMPETENCES
"I was a participant in the Erasmus project in Lublin, where I did a presentation about globalization and its impacts on the environment and societies. It helped me improve my presentation skills. Before, only a few times had I had an opportunity to present before big audiences and it was another moment to practise. I developed my body awareness, because I needed to be conscious about my posture and facial expression so that the audience would listen. I adapted my language to the situation and managed to present my work with success." - Marta, Poland.
"Every day of the mobility in Barcelona we worked in groups, from morning to the afternoon. This photo is from the first day of work when we had to decide on what we were going to present on this web page and how we were going to do it. Almost all of us were strangers, so we had to talk and get to know each other. Because of that we worked on our language proficiency skills, and thus improved our communication skills and the quality of our work. We reached common agreements surprisingly fast, so there were no arguments in the group and the process went very well". - Vilius, Lithuania.
"During the Erasmus week in Denmark, I learned to use many different forms of communication. One of these skills is the communication skill of giving and receiving feedback. After presenting our mini-projects to the other international Erasmus students, we learned how to improve our work by implementing their feedback. Through this experience, I learned how to use their different perspectives to improve my team's project. The diversity of opinions taught us to complement each other's feedback to get the best out of our project." - Marlene, Germany.
"At the beginning of the Erasmus Week in Barcelona in May 2023 we started with little games to get to know each other. These games helped me to improve my active listening since it challenged me to listen carefully at a high level to more than 20 people in a short period of time. Furthermore, it helped me to improve my cultural awareness skills because there were students from Denmark, Lithuania, Spain, Poland and Germany in this group who were all from a different cultural background. I think cultural sensitivity was a must in order to communicate with this diverse range of people." – Julius, Germany.
4. UP TO YOU NOW: AN INTERACTIVE QUIZ
Now that you have learned about communication, take our quiz to test yourself before your continue your journey through our Erasmus project.