Everyone knows that media isn’t real; it is a useful tool to be utilized. That’s what I naturally think of when I explain how I would view interactions with media. It’s only on deeper introspection that I may decide my perceptions are not what I think they are; that is, I ‘know’ the reality of my computer being a piece of nifty wires and plastics, but I don’t realize that I treat it with the same patterns of social behavior that I do with anything else I consider intelligent (usually other people, but my cats count sometimes) and appearing to be capable of interactions.
I am in charge of the Math Lab, and I am used to watching interactions between my tutors and students every day. I don’t often consider if these students act differently when they are confronted with our ‘tv tutors’ until I reviewed the media equation. It doesn’t come to mind intuitively that these students should treat their ‘tv tutor’ differently than a real tutor. However, “people respond socially and naturally to media even though they believe it is not reasonable to do so, and even though they don’t think these responses characterize themselves” (Reeves et. al, 1996, p10-11). I have noticed that my tutors treat their ‘tv tutors’ in the same way they would react to someone in the same room. They make faces at it when they don’t understand something, or pay more attention and watch the actions and movements the figure on the screen makes as though they could see their audience. They get mad or frustrated or bored at the television even though there is no one or nothing in the room that would respond back to them in the same way (unlike a real person would).
This is only one example in my Math Lab, but there are too many examples to count (especially on a college campus, where quotes of “my computer is being stupid” are in abundance) of this media equation in action.
So how could I use this knowledge to my advantage in the Math Lab? There are a lot of different ways media design can be improved over the lengthy and sometimes dense instructions and rule-learning associated with understanding applications right now. If I made my video instructions or added new computer tutoring media that was consistent with social and physical rules (whether by personality in a program and realistic responses to more interactive video displays), the easier the technology would be to use since “people have a strong positive bias towards social relationships and predictable environments” (Reeves et. al, 1996, p10-11). The media equation is useful to keep in mind, especially in a work environment like mine where even in real life, students may need more stimulation to aid in learning and understanding.
Reference:
Reeves, Byron, and Clifford Nass. 1996. "Ch 1, The Media Equation," pp. 3-18 in The Media Equation. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved on April 15, 2007 from
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1 comment:
I enjoyed your response to the Media Equation article. How may times do you hear students actually talking to their computer? I admit, I do it as well. I think if we are going to spend so much time on something, (I am on the computer ALL the time these days) then we should have a relationship with it! :)
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