Social and emotional intelligence and social media- How important is presence?

Social media has become a fact of life for many. More and more, the business and education sectors are mandating the use of online tools. Email has been a standard mode of communication and new forms of social media are rapidly expanding digital communications. A persistent concern respecting the use of web based applications is the perceived lack of social and emotional cues that are evident in face-to-face communications. Communications using digital media covers a broad spectrum from telephone, email, VOIP, microblogging, weblogs, wikis, webinar applications, and multiuser virtual environments.

What is the connection between emotional intelligence and online communication? Hanson, Grange, and Prosser (2010)studied the emotional intelligence of people in the context of their use of social media.

The results also suggest those individuals who pay attention to their own and others emotional states are less likely to have online messages misinterpreted, are less likely to experience stress in the workplace and are more confident in their ability to communicate effectively. Furthermore the study suggests individuals who believe they have a more balanced approach to problem solving (incorporating some consideration of one’s own emotions and the emotions of others in the decision-making process) and who use emotions for the successful engagement of others, will be more consistent in effectively communicating online than those that are less likely to incorporate emotion in the decision making process.

Dabbagh,(2007) has articulated some of the characteristics of successful online learners.

The emerging online learner can be described as someone who has a strong academic self-concept; is competent in the use of online learning technologies, particularly communication and collaborative technologies;
understands, values, and engages in social interaction and collaborative learning;
possesses strong interpersonal and communication skills; and is self-directed.

Many of the personal characteristics are indicative of persons with high levels of social and emotional intelligence.

In the field of online education the sense of presence has been of interest. Moore (1997) proposed a theory of transactional distance that mapped the various levels of presence available between teachers and students and between students. The theory of transactional distance has been most operationalized in efforts to reduce the distance in online communication for the purpose of teaching and learning. Gatin,(2009) proposed that people are not so much interested in narrowing the distance they feel in online learning as they are interested in controlling their distance from others using online learning as one of a array of strategies.


The effect of the sense of presence in online virtual environments has interested educational theorists (McBrien, Cheng, & Jones 2009; Warburton, 2009; Dreher, Reiners, Dreher & Dreher, 2009). How does the use of an avatar effect the sense of presence?

Real worlds and virtual worlds are becoming increasingly interconnected (Davis, Murphy, Owens, Khazanchi, &Zigurs, 2009). For example, the growth of the virtual economy has accelerated rapidly. More and more goods are being developed produced and purchased without any exchange of a tangible product. People are living more and more in virtual or digitally enhanced environments.

What special forms of social and emotional intelligence are used in virtual environments? How are social skills evolving? Can education prepare people to cope and thrive in an increasingly digital reality, the metaverse?

References:

Dabbagh, N. (2007). The online learner: Characteristics and pedagogical implications. Contemporary Issues in Technology & Teacher Education, 7(3), 217–226.

Davis, A., Murphy, J., Owens, D., Khazanchi, D., & Zigurs, I. (2009). Avatars, people and virtual worlds: Foundations for research in metaverses. Journal of the Association of Information Systems, 10(2), 90–117. Retrieved from http://www.isqa.unomaha.edu/dkhazanchi/vita/Research%20Papers/JAIS_Metaverse_Paper%202009.pdf


Dreher, C., Reiners, T., Dreher, N., & Dreher, H. (2009). Virtual worlds as a context suited for information systems education: Discussion of pedagogical experience and curriculum design with reference to Second Life. Journal of Information Systems Education, 20(2), 211–224. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=EJ844222

Gatin, G. (2009). Keeping your distance: A basic social process (Dissertation). Fielding Graduate University.

Hansen, K., Grange, L., & Prosser, C. (2010). An investigation of emotional intelligence and the use of online social media tools in organizations. Swingurn University of Technology.

Moore, M. (1997). Theory of Transactional Distance. Theoretical Principles of Distance Education (pp. 22–38). Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.aged.tamu.edu/research/readings/Distance/1997MooreTransDistance.pdf

Hansen, K., Grange, L., & Prosser, C. (2010). An investigation of emotional intelligence and the use of online social media tools in organizations. Swinburn University of Technology.

Steam Age IT re revisited.

In 2010 I was was reading the article “Is IT Becoming Extinct” by Miguel Guhlin

http://www.edsupport.cc/mguhlin/archives/2008/03/entry_6863.htm

The topic of In-house IT systems and the development of utility computing has been interesting. I like to chime in from my personal experience and reading of various sources, one being a book by Eric Larsen, in “Devil in the White City”. He describes a time when electrical service was new. There was a big debate about AC or DC electricity.

Many of the institutions in the early days of electricity had their own power generating plants. They employed many people who saw the switch to utility electricity as a great threat and passed around a lot of scare stories about how horrible it was and all the hazards.

Of course, the switch happened and not many institutions employ big groups of technical specialists to generate a private source of electricity. The naysayers lost all credibility and the whole specialization evolved.

Same thing with IT, utility computing is here. In spite of all the horror stories and manipulations of the tech elite, there is less and less reason to have a big group of specialists to operate expensive and clunky private networks.

As a teacher using a computer mediated approach over the last 10 years, I found myself “working around” IT a lot of the time. Many of the tech folks didn’t believe that computers should be used for the purpose of education even though they worked for educational institutions.

Nor did they think that teachers were capable of using technology and they reinforced that opinion by constantly undermining any effort teachers made to develop the necessary skills.

The cultural clashes between corporate IT and administration didn’t help either. Lots of energy was spent on those epic battles and teachers and students were a very minor consideration for all the espoused values of “Students are #1″ in every educational institutions mission and vision statement. The struggle for control and authority have resulted in most of the failures of education related technology innovation.

In-house, corporate IT is like the steam powered DC generating plants of 100 ago. Pretty much done. It is going to take a little while for the change but probably not as long as it took to switch to AC electricity. One of the benefits is that education is being transformed. Technology will accommodate education rather than the other way around.

I know lots of teachers who just gave up on computers and the web and felt that they would never be able to develop the necessary skills. It was just so draining always having to get IT to open a port or set up file system or authorize access to a resource. So they stuck to Outlook, MS Word, Internet Explorer, the “approved tools”.

Happy to say that web based tools and cloud computing has made it incredibly easy for teachers to support learning in the digital era. All the alarmist rhetoric about identity theft, cyber-bullying, online predators etc. is being recognized as the last gasps of a system in transition, a struggle for control and authority. I would encourage all teachers to take another look.

Dec, 2011: I just keep updating this post and watching the trend.
Today reading an article about utility computing see how attitudes have changed in just 3 years.

And for startup companies, the decision to not build is a no brainer. Connectivity to the cloud is the real issue for these companies. “If I was starting a greenfield company, the data center would be the size of my bathroom; there wouldn’t necessarily even be a server, maybe a series of switches and all my backoffice apps, my sales force automation, my storage would be handled in the cloud,” said Dave Nichols, CIO Services Leader for Ernst & Young, the global IT consultancy

In the last year I have been teaching IT courses for pre-service teachers and instead of having them buy a couple of $100 textbooks I have them buy $250 netbooks. The class proceeds with a combination of wireless routers and everybody learns how to use ICT and social media on their own devices. The not only learn how to use the netbook but they start constructing their own personal learning networks from amongst their class mates. The idea is that when they are finished their training and are out on the job, they will have a group to communicate with, on a channel the are familiar with using their own device that they know how to operate. As we approach a state of ubiquitous connection and persistent proximity, BYOD is more important and storage in the cloud is just another part of that sort of independence.

Keynote address at the University of Guadalajara

Narration and paper to follow.

Sweet Blogger iPhone app

With lake pics

Never rains, pours

Had to turn down an invitation to address the International Leadership Association because I am presenting at APRENDRED-IV

Two excellent looking conferences, each on topics of great interest to me. If only one, or both, was actually in SL.

MOOCs in Virtual Worlds

Getting set up for a couple of MOOCs this fall.  Change.MOOC.ca and CMC11
I'm on the roster for week 8 of CMC11.

I've been participating in these fabulous learning experiences for a few years now starting with the earliest instances but mostly with Connectivism08. Each one has been an excellent learning experience no matter what level of attention I was able to pay.  It is an amazing way to get to meet with people with similar interests and to participate in all sorts of activities.

In many past MOOC's  a group would meet in Second Life. Some participants were experienced in SL but many took the opportunity to learn and explore a virtual environment and evaluate it as a part of their personal learning environment and as one that they would like to investigate for use for various education related purposes.

I am offering the use of my space in SL as a meeting place to discuss the weekly topics and as a starting point for further exploration of SL, networking, maybe a little dancing etc.

If you are familiar with SL, the meeting space is at

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madhupak/11/25/65

If you are not familiar with SL you can start here to get set up and there are usually many welcoming avatars to help you get oriented.