The theoretical framework that I would like to explore through my research project is the social presence theory. Looking at work done by Rice (1993) there has been previous work looking at how different media has been used as communications tools and both the social presence and media richness. The social presence is defined by Tu (2000) as “consciousness of another person in an interaction and the salience of an interpersonal relationship” (p. 1). The research by Tu (2000) in looking at this theory in relation to CMC (computer-mediated communication) relates well to the field of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) that I will be focusing on.
The idea of social presence has many different ways that it is measured but the consistent element of this framework seems to be looking at interactions and how they are measured. This will look at the level of connection between multiple participants or potentially between participants and tools.
Further work to define social presence within new technology is explored in this theory by Lowenthal (2010) who looks into the field of VR and different ways that social presence can be measured. There are six different ways that social presence in VR is defined by Lowenthal (2010). They are:
“(a) presence as social richness, (b) presence as realism, (c) presence as transportation, (d) presence as immersion, (e) presence as social actor within medium, and (f) presence as medium as social actor” (P. 130)
Looking at the different ways this framework has been created, I feel that this could fit my research closest in that it will look at creating a community of practice despite the distance between members. The purpose of the research is to look at how the presence and practice can be shared and this framework will look at how to better build that presence going forward.
The questions I have going into this framework is determining the best way to relate this to my chosen topic and how I can use it to go forward. Much of the research is on older technology and media so I do wonder if there will need to be a bit of a look at updating this overall framework. Some of this may also involve looking at the Embodied Social Presence as defined by Mennecke, Triplett, Hassall, Heer, & Conde (2008).
Lowenthal, P. R. (2010). The Evolution and Influence of Social Presence Theory on Online Learning. Social Computing, 113–128. doi: 10.4018/978-1-60566-984-7.ch010
Mennecke, B., Triplett, J. L., Hassall, L. M., Heer, R., & Conde, Z. J. (2008). Embodied Social Presence Theory. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.1286281
Rice, R. E. (1993). Media appropriateness: Using social presence theory to compare traditional and new organizational media. Human communication research, 19(4), 451-484.
Tu, C. H. (2000). On-line learning migration: from social learning theory to social presence theory in a CMC environment. Journal of network and computer applications, 23(1), 27-37.
December 1, 2019 at 8:10 am
Hello Jeff – I second the use of social presence theory. Though I wish to suggest one more, the social agency theory (SAT) by Mayer, which underpins the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML). SAT describes that the visuals of the instructor and non-verbal social cues such as eye contact, eye gaze, facial expressions, gestures, and the speaker’s voice, animated agents… in multimedia messages can activate the feeling of social presence and create a social interaction situation, which motivates students to engage in generative processing (Clark & Mayer, 2011; Mayer & Moreno, 2003). This might give you additional ammunition/inspiration.
I used SAT (in addition to the CTML) when I researched the instructor’s presence in educational videos.
References
Mayer, R. E., & Moreno, R. (2003). Nine ways to reduce cognitive load in multimedia learning. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 43–52. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3801_6
Clark, & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
December 1, 2019 at 1:38 pm
Hi Jeff,
I would agree with Beata that Socal presence would be a good framework for your research and with her suggestion of Social Agency too. I was originally going to suggest that you might want to think about constructivism theory as well as this theory is based on developing knowledge upon previous knowledge (Woo & Reeves, 2007). I am unsure of the detail of your research but if you are curious about building knowledge using virtual reality, this too might be a good foundation for your research.
References
Woo, Y., & Reeves, T. C. (2007). Meaningful interaction in web-based learning: A social constructivist interpretation. Internet and Higher Education, 10(1), 15–25.
December 3, 2019 at 6:43 pm
Hi Jeff,
Beata and Danielle have made some great suggestions and comments about a suitable theoretical framework for your research.
I wonder if connectivism could be added to the mix. The principles of connectivism are the following:
(a) “Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions”.
(b) “Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources”.
(c) “Learning may reside in non-human appliances”.
(d) “Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known”
(e) “Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning”.
(f) “Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill”.
(g) “Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning
activities”.
(h) “Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the
meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While
there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the
information climate affecting the decision” (Siemens, 2005).
In case you are interested, here is the link to the article: https://jotamac.typepad.com/jotamacs_weblog/files/Connectivism.pdf
Cheers!
Reference:
Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. Retrieved from https://jotamac.typepad.com/jotamacs_weblog/files/Connectivism.pdf