Friday 301

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

OOC: Unfortunately work is being a drag and I have lots to get done, so no real content today. Sorry gang. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves, stir up drama...get injured (I see we have a school doctor). Or maybe we have tentacles coming out of the back of the classroom. Who knows. Go wild.

Today we'll be talking about sender, message, and receiver
*fixes glasses and begins one big boring lecture*

Communication focuses on the messages exchanged between people and how those messages affect other aspects of their lives. In interpersonal communication, we further limit this to focus our research on how the messages people exchange affect the relationships between them" (Petronio, Alberts, Hecht, Buley 3). Most relationships are not strictly interpersonal or impersonal; they usually fall somewhere in between. Levels of intimacy, commitment, trust, honesty, disclosure, acceptance and emotional empathy vary and change within all relationships. A recent course in Fall 1997 taught by Schrader in Advanced Interpersonal Communication at Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis had students examine the developmental process of interpersonal relationships by focusing on those messages which lead to growth, maintenance, and termination of social encounters and how computer mediated communication (CMC) influences these messages.

Computers have revolutionized communication. As Michel observes, "computers and modems...have opened up new opportunities for communication between people normally separated by distance and social norms" (1). New areas of communication research are frequently emerging as a result of the adoption of innovative technologies. One field of communication research that is becoming increasingly important due to technological advances is that of CMC.

Chesebro and Bonsall suggest that "any form of human-computer interaction can be seen as a form of communication, varying in degree to which the computer or the user is in control" (qt. in Gibson et. al. 7). Bordia adds that CMC includes "any means of communication which is mediated by a computer" (2). Therefore, programming computers, using educational software, and playing computer games can be part of the communication process (Gibson et al., 7). CMC can include such innovations as electronic mail (email), computer-conferencing and the Internet (Walther 52).

There are numerous theoretical perspectives and methodological techniques available for examining interpersonal computer mediated dynamics. The Advanced Interpersonal Communication course framed its exploration by examining intercultural-interpersonal CMC. In other words, students were asked to conduct original research in the area of how a cultural difference such as gender, influences interpersonal computer mediated communication. It was assumed that students would learn more about the subject matter if they reconstructed their original research paper into a World Wide Web (WWW) site. The pedagogical assumption of praxis was the driving force behind facilitating student learning of the mechanical (e.g., learning html language) and social (e.g., rule structures) cybercultures they were studying.


ooc: text blatently stolen from http://www.mtsu.edu/~itconf/proceed98/sschrader.html if you want to read the rest of it.