Week 6 - Synchronous Communication

The technology we are looking at this week is synchronous communication. My experience and reactions are all over the map. Repeated attempts to set up multi-person video connection proved quite frustrating. I could manage good audio links but never got stable video with more than one person. At first I was disappointed. However, in the end, using the audio through voice-over-internet (Skype) or speaker phone and sending pertinent web links via email was quite efficient.

I also used chat one-on-one through Google and Facebook and with a large group through Moodle and a Facebook group. Some of the experiences were planned, others just dropping in on someone I noticed online. I found the lack of non-verbal cues can be almost maddening at times. For a quick question and answer; or sending a link for a short comment, chat seems quite adequate. What sometimes bothered me most about the chats was the slow speed. More than once I looked up and realized an hour had passed online. I chided myself for wasting so much time. But was it a waste? I had deepened social and professional connections. I had learned about things I would have not otherwise encountered. I remember having similar reactions when I would spend an unplanned-for amount of time chatting with friends and extended family I might encounter on walks around my old neighborhood. Same activity - chatting - different medium. The computer replaces the front porch for spontaneous synchronous communication. Despite the frustration and the time “wasted,” I think have found value in this opportunity for serendipitous chat.

Is there nonverbal communication during computer-mediated communication? 
I notice some level of non-verbal communication even in text-only communication.  Silence, level of formality, spamming, lurking, attempts to control the flow of the conversion - these are non-verbal aspects of text communication. I think users of text are so hungry for non-verbal signals that we have invented a set of non-verbal conventions such as emticons and graphics and typing all capitals to fill the gap caused by the scarcity non-verbal cues. The addition of audio adds many non-verbal cues to computer communication. Cues such as physical appearance, dress, adornment and many emblems and gestures come into play in when video is added to computer communication.. However, unless great effort is made to rectify the problem, camera placement contravenes the communication we generally glean from eye contact. For me this is a major loss.  I find that many of the regulators, adaptors and facial feedbacks we depend on in face-to-face conversation seem distracting when caught on camera.  Signals from touch are not conveyed. Certainly video connection provides much more non-verbal communication than text-only communication, but many of the nuances of face to face-communication are still lost or distorted.

Week 5 - Social Networking

A few thoughts on my experience with social networking - This week I joined Linkedin as part of our class assignment. It looks very practical. While I do enjoy Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family who live at a distance, I can appreciate  Linkedin as a useful, professional alternative. I wish it had been available when I had a small business in an isolated community. It is quite interesting to me to learn through Linkedin that some people I know through their “day jobs” have second careers or are very devoted to their work in music, art, sports or civic service.

I was intrigued by Estus’ article describing the use of Facebook in a geriatric course for pharmacy students. As a health educator, I am interested in effective ways to bring about change in attitude as well as changes in knowledge or skill. Estus states that three-fourths of the students reported a change in their perceptions of older adults. Improvement in the relationship among the students was also noted. In this situation, the Facebook discussion was used to enhance an educational strategy that also included reading and in-class discussion. The instructor was involved in facilitating the Facebook discussion thread. Estus showed that the judicious use of Facebook discussion teamed with other educational interventions can be a useful tool in the challenging arena of teaching in the affective domain.

Week 4

E Books

            In his June 26, 2010 NYT article, Steven Johnson defended the growing adoption of electronic

readers. He states: “We are marginally less focused, and exponentially more connected. That's a bargain all of us should be happy to make”  In her 2010 white paper for the ACLS, Nina Geilen points out that “Scholarly content generally involves extensive networking and cross-referencing between individual works through various channels, including bibliographically citation and subsequent analysis and discussion.” Geilen's statement leads me to think that the networking and connectivity needs of the scholarly users of handheld readers is in some ways different from the needs of the social and business users. Some additional tools and features are needed by the scholarly user.

             Most of the respondents in Geilen's assessment of scholarly E-books were satisfied with the hardware and interactive features such as adding notes, bookmarks and highlights. However, some of the needs of the scholarly user were not meet satisfactorily. Many expressed frustration with the search function. The inability to access and search across a large number of titles was seen as a problem. Difficulty was noted with citing and referencing. Gielen concluded “...the convenience of portability and access to permanent downloads (perceived as a boon for the casual reader) did not outweigh the limits of functionality when it came to scholarly reading.” I agree with Galein that advancing technology can overcome the current challenges to the use of handheld readers for scholarly applications. The growth in the availability of scholarly E-books as noted in the January 12, 2011 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education and the introduction of new technology such as the Android-compatible Nook Color bring scholars ever closer to the happy bargain touted by Johnson.

Cloud computing

My experience with cloud computing is still somewhat limited.  I enjoy Audible Books. I have used cloud back-up and storage for personal use. My understanding is that security and privacy standards for the cloud are a work-in-progress and that there is a history of security breaches.  Being a rather dull and private person, I just don’t store anything that I would worry much about others accessing. I would think twice about using the cloud for sensitive or confidential material.

I recently began using another aspect of cloud computing. Overall, I found the experience with Google docs positive. It seems very useful to share and collaborate on documents. There are some drawbacks for me. The frequent automatic saves don’t suit my working style.  I like being able to do the code manipulation that I can manage in the Corel products. I understand that I would need to know Python to do any code manipulation in Google docs. I also have some security concerns for confidential work. The cost is certainly a plus. I can see why Google docs is so popular.