Browsing by Subject "Computer mediated communication"
Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item A comparative analysis of nonverbal communication in online multi-user virtual environments(2021-05-11) Birmingham, Christopher Crawford; Bailey, Jakki O.This paper is a comparative analysis of how users use and interpret nonverbal communication through avatars in online, multi-user virtual environments. The development of multi-user virtual spaces over the past thirty years has given users access to new forms of nonverbal communication, with notable advances in the kinds of and richness of the tools made available. This article examines how these virtual environments have evolved since their early inception by examining landmark platforms to represent the different periods of advancement in the capabilities of their contemporaries. It presents a framework by which we can break down nonverbal communication (NVC) into its constituent parts and examines how some forms of NVC are translated directly from face-to-face to a digital avatar, as well as novel forms of NVC that evolve from the platforms themselves. Finally, this article examines how these translated and novel forms of NVC can indicate broader trends in the ways that people communicate through digital avatars, and provides some recommendations for further research into this subject.Item Degrees of abstraction in French and English generic nouns : an analysis of word association tasks(2010-12) Hirsh, Timothy William; Blyth, Carl S. (Carl Stewart), 1958-; Russi, CinziaIn language, there exists a distinction between abstract words and concrete words. It can be said that abstract words refer to generic concepts, while concrete words pertain to physical actions or objects associated with physical movement. With respect to the linguistic community, it is often claimed that French words function at a higher degree of abstraction than English words. However, this claim lacks empirical evidence. The present study aims to examine the usage of concrete and abstract words in word association tasks, which are part of Cultura: an intercultural, web-based project that brings foreign language students from different countries and linguistic backgrounds together in a telecollaborative exchange of ideas. Specifically, this study examines the degrees of abstraction of generic nouns in French and English.Item The English language : rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated : registers in instant messaging conversations(2006-08) Joffrain, Abigail Marie Swan; King, Robert D. (Robert Desmond), 1936-This article looks into accounts of the computer mediated discourse medium of instant messaging programs. Previous accounts have compared communication within this medium either to solely written or to solely spoken language, thus neglecting its relationship to both or to the constraints generated specifically by the medium. Such accounts have therefore, often come to erroneously alarming conclusions. This article lays out an argument for the treatment of computer mediated communication through instant messaging programs as the beginnings of a set of new registers.Item Hetero-technic cooperation with computing and non-computing technologies : a study of the transmodal capacity of prosodic cues to alleviate asymmetric access to tactile phenomena(2017-05) Whitworth, Erin Casey; Bailey, Diane E., 1961-; Streeck, Jürgen; Howison, James; Galloway, Patricia KI present a study of hetero-technic cooperative work involving multiple workers, a shared technical goal, role complementation, and the use of a combination of computing and non-computing technologies. Abundant contemporary examples of HTC (C-NC) work can be found, for example, in the discriminative work maintaining and repairing physical materials. As more work becomes computerized, but still demands the transformation of physical materials using non-computing technologies, HTC (C-NC) will remain important. The access workers have and the necessities of their work point to two seemingly conflicting demands, namely that participants: (1) have different access to their common field of work through the use of their respective computing and non-computing technologies and (2) intimately depend on the complementary use of both technology types in ways that take into account actions performed independently and perceptual phenomena experienced privately. This dissertation focuses on how within this computing and non-computing context, workers cope with differing degrees of access through their senses of touch. To address this topic I primarily consult the literature concerned with the study of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and embodied communication. I first recount how the studies of work and technology have missed work carried out with a combination of computing and non-computing technologies. Then drawing on the CSCW literature, I address the two work practices of awareness and coordination, that are both essential to a cooperative endeavor. I finally layout how scholars concerned with embodied communication have discussed asymmetries in access to phenomena. I pose the research question: How do workers in HTC (C-NC) orient to asymmetries in access to tactile phenomena? I focus on asymmetries in access to tactile phenomena because touch is important in work on physical objects, yet ultimately as private perceptual experience. Careful work accomplished with deft tactile perception is problematic when the work is interdependent and even more still when computing technologies are involved. In addition, the lack of touch is the most significant limitation in HTC (C-NC) work, a particularly striking fact given the importance of tactile sensing in non-computing work and the need for transmitting the understanding derived from such sensing to operators of computing technology. To address the topic of asymmetric access to tactile phenomena in the context of technology mediated cooperative work I present findings from a microethnographic study of the ways participants orient to tactile phenomena through talk-in-interaction. Using video and audio recording techniques, this research sheds light on the ways that participants’ access, and the known information about their access, is surfaced in the midst of work. I choose to study minimally invasive cardiac surgery because it is representative of HTC (C-NC) and because the workers in this environment are faced with interesting and complex asymmetries in access to tactile phenomena. In observing these workers, I find that they flexibly adapt to the particular access provided by their work configuration. Doing so, they overcame asymmetries in access to tactile phenomena through two work practices. The first practice serves as a mechanism for coordinating the execution of work with non-computerized technologies. The second practice fostered a greater awareness of the status of a worker’s execution of non-computerized tasks. By investigating work accomplished with a combination of computing and non-computing technologies this dissertation capitalizes on a missed opportunity in studies of work. I adopt analytic methods from studies of embodied communication to understand how workers overcome asymmetries in access to one rich medium, human touch, using another rich medium, the human voice. In my discussion I draw on theoretical concepts of the “living body” to discuss the work practices of awareness and coordination anew for a CSCW audience. I argue against an instrumental view of communication that easily slips in when scholars allow the role of the felt experience of work to fall from view. This research broadens our appreciation of the ways that participants cope with the private experience of tactile work and the ways that participants make that private experience public as the felt experience is surfaced in talk. In sum, this dissertation supplies important new knowledge about HTC (C-NC) where it otherwise would not have existed.Item Out of sight, out of mind : how proximity influenced access during computer supported collaborative authoring(2010-05) Herschell, Mary Heather; Maloch, Beth; Resta, Paul E.; French, Karen; Mosley, Melissa; Svinicki, MarillaIn spite of the popularity of technologies that facilitate distance learning, institutions still educate students who gather together in shared physical spaces. But now even these traditional settings for learning are more collaborative and technology-rich environments. Qualitative methods in the sociolinguistic tradition allowed me to attend carefully to the vocal and non-vocal interactions of students engaged in a computer supported collaborative authoring assignment. Three research questions guided my inquiry: 1) In what ways did students negotiate roles and responsibilities?; 2) In what ways did students negotiate access to their assignment?; and 3) what was the nature of discourse in computer supported collaborative authoring? I conducted microanalysis of the communication in online discussions and face-to-face discourse throughout an entire semester of one graduate level course entitled The Psychology of Teachers and Teaching. My data revealed that the online discussion forum, physical proximity to the computer during face-to-face collaboration and instructor influence shaped the students’ roles and responsibilities as well as their entry into the assignment. I propose a model illustrating how students negotiate entry into computer supported collaborative authoring assignments and discuss its implications for teaching and learning.Item Performing in the virtual organization(2010-12) Sinclair, Caroline Louise, 1971-; Stephens, Keri K.; Browning, LarryThis qualitative study examined fifteen organizational members across four international technology companies to discover how they behave and manage daily interactions in a virtual environment within a geographically distributed team. Using a grounded theory methodology, an extensive analysis of the interview data was conducted. Three core themes emerged that focus on the individuals’ attempts to manage impressions in an environment that demands multicommunication. The themes of time stacking, participation predications and performance are discussed in detail using the theoretical lens of impression management.Item Student performance on computer chats and in classroom discussions : same or different?(2000) Deveny Oestreich, Tina Marie; Wright, David Allan; Swaffar, Janet K.This thesis explores the concept of learner interaction in the context of an advanced Business German language course at The University of Texas at Austin to evaluate classroom communication in an advanced level, content oriented foreign language course. The goal of this study was to investigate the quantitative differences between intermediate to advanced foreign language learner discourse in both face-to-face classroom and computer mediated communication (CMC) discussions by focusing on the percentages of turns and the length of student utterances in each environment. The questions addressed by this study stem from a growing body of research suggesting that the integration of CMC into the L2 classroom has pedagogical benefits that can be qualitatively and quantitatively measured. Studies focusing specifically on the use of synchronous CMC, which allows participants to communicate in real-time via networked computers, have recognized that learners interacting in a synchronous CMC environment are not bound to the same turn-taking conventions found in oral conversations. Some researchers and educators claim that synchronous CMC might be an environment that can allow for more equal exchanges than that found in comparable oral classroom conversations. Findings indicate that communication was far from equal in both of the oral environments, and that although the CMC environment produced more equal communication than the oral activities, it was still far from equally distributed. Furthermore, there were very few instances of negotiation in the CMC environment.