The Awareness of Computer-Mediated Communication's (PDF)

Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 2012 The Awareness of Computer-Mediated Communication's Social Presence for Virtual High School Students Heather Bigley Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected] Recommended Citation Bigley, H. (2012). The Awareness of Computer-Mediated Communication's Social Presence for Virtual High School Students (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/317  THE AWARENESS OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION’S SOCIAL PRESENCE FOR VIRTUAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS A Dissertation Submitted to the School of Education Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education By Heather Ann Bigley May 2012  Copyright by Heather Ann Bigley 2012  iii THE AWARENESS OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION’S SOCIAL PRESENCE FOR VIRTUAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS By Heather Ann Bigley Approved February 13, 2012 ________________________________ Mary Frances Grasinger, C.S.J., Ph.D. Professor of Foundations and Leadership (Committee Co-Chair) ________________________________ Robert L. Furman, Ed.D Professor of Foundation and Leadership (Committee Co-Chair) ________________________________ Rodney Hopson, Ph.D. Professor of Foundations and Leadership (Committee Member) ________________________________ David Carbonara, Ed.D. Assistant Professor of Instruction and Leadership (Committee Member) ________________________________ Olga M. Welch, Ed.D. Dean, School Education Professor of Education ________________________________ Joseph Kush, Ph.D. Chair, Department EdDIT Professor of Instructional and Leadership  iv ABSTRACT THE AWARENESS OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION’S SOCIAL PRESENCE FOR VIRTUAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS By Heather Ann Bigley May 2012 Dissertation supervised by Mary Frances Grasinger, C.S.J., Ph.D. and Robert L. Furman, Ed.D. This research investigated the perception of social presence that students in a virtual high school have of using computer-mediated communication (CMC): email, discussion board, tutoring sessions, and asynchronous classroom activities. The research analyzed data for social presence based on gender, years of experience in a cyber school, and self-proficiency ratings on each form of CMC. The purpose of this study was to identify if high school students in a virtual community perceive email, discussion board, tutoring sessions and asynchronous classroom activities as enhancing their social presence within the virtual community. The findings of the study are:  v 1. Students perceived that email showed more social presence than the other forms of CMC and asynchronous classroom activities showed more social presence than discussion board and tutoring sessions. 2. There was no significant difference found between male and females social presence in any of the CMC studied. 3. Students who rate their own self proficiency as being above average or expert had higher social presence scores on email and asynchronous classroom activities than students who rate their proficiency average, below average or novice. 4. Students perceived that email showed more social interaction than discussion board, tutoring session and asynchronous classroom activities. Asynchronous classroom activities showed more social interaction than discussion board or tutoring sessions. 5. The number of years a student attends a cyber school has no relationship with the student’s perceived social presence in any form of CMC studied. Understanding students’ perception of social presence based on the use of CMC will enable cyber schools to use the appropriate form of CMC to help students develop their social skills.  vi DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my family and friends that have supported me though this process. Without all your love and support I would not have been able to complete this. To my Uncle Dick who’s understanding of how important education is to one’s growth as a person and professional have led me to complete a degree in higher education. His battle with Logic and completing his own degree inspired me to always strive to be the best that I can. Thank you for all your support throughout my life. To my nieces and nephews, Emily, Collin, McKinley and Lukas, seeing you develop into maturing young adults leads me to look at how people socialize in our world today. Thanks for the inspiration, love and support you all have given me.  vii ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I would like to thank my co-chairs, Dr. Grasinger and Dr. Furman, for helping me develop this dissertation. Without their wonderful ideas and comments this dissertation would not have turned out as well as it has. To Dr. Hopson for his patience and understanding in guiding me to develop a coherent structure to my dissertation. His vision and experience led me in a positive direction so I could fully express my ideas. To Dr. Carbonara who supported me though the long journey with ideas and comments. His knowledge has guided me throughout my program. His full insight into how cyber education is affecting teaching and the students learning has guided me to study the effect of cyber education with our high school students. To Andrew Oberg for his willingness to listen to my ideas and concepts as they relate to a whole new dimension of education. A special thank you to Andrew and his staff for helping me in the data collection process of my research. Without the help of the Instructional Supervisors listening and explaining my research to parents, I would not have been able to get the data for this research. I hope in the future this research can help educators make a virtual classroom as socially interactive as a traditional classroom can be.  viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................. iv DEDICATION......................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEGEMENTS .......................................................................................................vii LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1................................................................................................................................ 1 Introduction........................................................................................................................................1 Internet.................................................................................................................................................2 Online Education................................................................................................................................4 Learning Theories .............................................................................................................................7 Adolescence...................................................................................................................................... 11 Cultural Influences on Gender .................................................................................................... 14 Social Presence................................................................................................................................ 17 Significance of the Problem ......................................................................................................... 19 Research Questions ........................................................................................................................................... 20 Definitions ........................................................................................................................................ 20 Chapter 2..............................................................................................................................23 Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 23 Development of Social Skills in School Children.................................................................... 24 Gender Issues in Technology....................................................................................................... 30 Cultural Influences on Internet Users....................................................................................... 36 Online Communities ...................................................................................................................... 39 Online Education............................................................................................................................. 50 Classroom Community .................................................................................................................. 59 Summary........................................................................................................................................... 67 Chapter 3..............................................................................................................................73 Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 73 Participants...................................................................................................................................... 73  ix Proposed Demographic of Research Subjects. ........................................................................................ 76 Procedure ......................................................................................................................................... 76 Measurement Instrument .............................................................................................................................. 78 Chapter 4..............................................................................................................................83 Summation of Data......................................................................................................................... 83 Data Analysis.................................................................................................................................... 85 Question 1. ............................................................................................................................................................. 85 Email compared to discussion board ......................................................................................................... 86 Email compared to tutoring session ........................................................................................................... 86 Email compared to asynchronous classroom activities ....................................................................... 86 Discussion board compared to tutoring sessions .................................................................................. 87 Discussion board compared to asynchronous classroom activities ................................................ 87 Tutoring sessions compared to asynchronous classroom activities ............................................... 87 Question 2. ............................................................................................................................................................. 88 Gender view of social presence in email ................................................................................................... 88 Gender view of social presence in discussion board ............................................................................. 89 Gender view of social presence in tutoring session............................................................................... 89 Gender view of social presence in asynchronous classroom activities........................................... 89 Question 3. ............................................................................................................................................................. 90 Correlation between self-rating of email use and social presence. .................................................. 91 Correlation between self-rating of discussion board use and social presence. ........................... 91 Correlation between self-rating of tutoring session use and social presence. ............................. 92 Correlation between self-rating of asynchronous classroom activities use and social presence. .............................................................................................................................................................. 92 Question 4. ............................................................................................................................................................. 93 Email compared to discussion board. ........................................................................................................ 94 Email compared to tutoring session. .......................................................................................................... 94 Email compared to asynchronous classroom activities. ...................................................................... 94 Discussion board compared to tutoring session. ................................................................................... 94 Discussion board compared to asynchronous classroom activities. ............................................... 95 Tutoring session compared to asynchronous classroom activities. ................................................ 95 Question 5. ............................................................................................................................................................. 95 Correlation between years in cyber school and social presence of email. ..................................... 96 Correlation between years in cyber school and social presence of discussion board. .............. 97 Correlation between years in cyber school and social presence of tutoring session. ................ 97 Correlation between years in cyber school and social presence of asynchronous classroom activities. .............................................................................................................................................................. 98 Chapter 5..............................................................................................................................99 Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 99 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................100 Limitations .....................................................................................................................................105 Further Research..........................................................................................................................106 References........................................................................................................................ 109  x Appendix........................................................................................................................... 116 Appendix A – Dr. Tu Original Survey.......................................................................................117 Appendix B – Modified Survey with comments on changes..............................................123 Appendix C – Modified Survey as viewed in SurveyMonkey.............................................137 Appendix D – Raw data from SurveyMonkey........................................................................145 Appendix E – Total Scores from Survey..................................................................................154  xi LIST OF TABLES Table 1 ............................................................................................................................................................. 85 Table 2 ............................................................................................................................................................. 85 Table 3 ............................................................................................................................................................. 88 Table 4 ............................................................................................................................................................. 91 Table 5 ............................................................................................................................................................. 91 Table 6 ............................................................................................................................................................. 92 Table 7 ............................................................................................................................................................. 92 Table 9 ............................................................................................................................................................. 96 Table 10 .......................................................................................................................................................... 96 Table 11 .......................................................................................................................................................... 96 Table 12 .......................................................................................................................................................... 97 Table 13 .......................................................................................................................................................... 97 Table 14 .......................................................................................................................................................... 98  1 Chapter 1 Introduction Since this study is concerned with assisting adolescents who are taking online courses with the socialization typical of high school, this chapter will provide a literature review in six sections: development of the Internet, online education, learning theories, adolescence, gender issues and social presence. As society has developed, we have improved our means for communicating with each other. The technology for communicating started out simple and has become more complex over the years. The hope throughout history has been that the newer technology will become the utopia for communication. Eventually, each has found its own use within our culture. From the telegraph and telephone to a computer accessing the internet, we have become more attached to technology. In some cases technology replaces the face-to- face interactions of its users. When we break down face-to-face communications, it is not just about the words that we hear but also the actions that coincide. During face-to-face communications we look at body language and proximities to others during the interactions. Our body language tells our acquaintances more about the topics and our beliefs than our words ever could. The internet seems to be a cold and impersonal arena. Freeman (2000) tells us “that it [communication on the internet] is a more difficult way to communicate” (Freeman, 2000, p.5). Joinson (2002) tells us that the opposite may be true. He compared the level of self discloser of participates during face-to-face interactions and email responses. He found that “people were four times more likely to disclose information through email interactions rather than in face-to-face interactions” (Joinson, 2002, p.288).  2 He believes that we over emphasize the importance of face-to-face communications. During face-to-face interaction the words are not coherent, but are only part of the picture. Much of what we say is implied through our speech and body language. When we communicate through email, we need to add more to our writing and really focus on the message. The benefits that Joinson shares about email, “great tool for brainstorming, decision-making and getting diverse groups organized” (Joinson, 2002, p. 288.) can be seen in any style of computer-mediated communication (CMC). To begin thinking about virtual communication, let us examine the development of the internet and implications for virtual education. Internet The internet came out of a desire to communicate. The internet is a network of computers which allows people to communicate and share knowledge with each other. History shows that the world is connected through a network that started one hundred and fifty years ago (Peter, 2004).Across our planet, we have wires that are inter-connected and allow people to communicate with each other. This infrastructure is what the internet was built on and relies on to this day. The beginning of the internet was started out of a military program, ARPANET (Peter, 2004). ARPANET was a program that our military funded and developed for scientific research. The network was to allow a group of users to have access to more computer time or a time-sharing program. This program never really worked (Peter, 2004). Problems that hindered its development were that the computers involved had different operating systems and different versions of applications. Even with ARPANET failing ,the processes that came out of the research helped to create the internet.  3 Research on the internet revealed that five different theories to the development of the internet. Each theory may have led to the partial creation of the internet, but it does not seem as if only one is the sole origin. Peter (2004) found in 1969 that Kleinrock led a team of engineers that launched the first message sent from one computer to another. This marked the birth of a new method of communication. This event was important, but not the beginning of the internet. In 1965, Davies developed NPL Data Communication Network. Davis did not get funding, but he developed the concept of packet switching, the movement of bytes from one location to another. It was Davis’ research which inspired the U.S. military to fund ARPANET. Kahn and Cerf are the developers of the transmission control protocol-internet protocol (TCP/IP), which is considered the backbone of the internet. TCP/IP was developed to solve problems with earlier attempts at communication between computers on the ARPANET network. This need came from the problems they had encountered with computers that were not identical. In 1969, AT&T and Bell labs developed the UNIX operating system, which was used behind the earliest version of the internet and supplied the first cross-country link between the University of California of Los Angeles (UCLA) and Bolt, Beranick and Newman (BBN) in Boston. The fourth theory centers on the development of communication applications. These applications included email, newsgroup and conferencing. The last theory was based on work done by Shoch and Metcalfe. They developed the Ethernet connection at Xerox Parc. Without these developments the internet could not function to the level of utilization possible today. The internet originally was a way for people to communicate and socialize with each other. It was not long before education saw the benefit in the internet. The