The human dimension of computer-mediated communications: A case study of preservice teachers' use of a computer conference.

This study examined the nature of preservice teachers' perspectives on, engagement with, and use of a computer conference during a one-year graduate-level teacher certification program. The guiding question was, What is the role of a computer conference when the participants have the opportunity to interact face-to-face? The interpretive research paradigm was used to provide a fuller picture of these preservice teachers' experiences, and most data came from face-to-face interviews rather than from the conference transcript. The conceptual framework for this study draws upon the iceberg metaphor of educational telecommunications. This metaphor maintains that the on-line communication is similar to the tip of an iceberg, whereas a great deal of the participants' learning experience takes place off-line. The metaphor's implication for this study was, therefore, to shift the focus from the conference transcript to extensive interviews with the participants. One important benefit of this shift in focus was the ability to speak to, and learn from, non-participants and lurkers (people who read, but rarely contribute to the conference). One of the main findings was the participants' perception of ownership over the conference. Many participants felt the in-class seminars were controlled by the faculty whereas they controlled the conference (i.e. no assigned discussions, faculty presence was minimal, could initiate discussion on any topic). The conference provided a forum where the interns could direct their education with an appropriate amount of support, and lack of interference, from the faculty. However, intern control of the conference did not produce a discussion space where all participants felt free to speak without fear of being judged negatively by their peers or even by faculty who might observe their work. This perception of conference ownership seems to primarily derive from the way both the seminar and the computer conference were structured by the faculty, and not from any inherent traits of computer-mediated communications. Thus, the participants' views speak as much to the nature of the face-to-face seminars as they do to the conference itself, and to the need to continuously assess the contributions of both as well as the interactions between the two environments.Ph.D.EducationEducational technologyTeacher educationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/130831/2/9811190.pd