Abstract
This paper reports the results of a pilot study of computer-mediated classroom discussions using a “quasi-synchronous” program called Aspects. The data for this study are a discussion in a college classroom involving three students. Each students' computer monitor was videotaped, and the information on all three screens was collated onto a single transcript. This single case analysis uses ethnomethodological conversation analysis to discover how participants coordinate their actions in this new type of speech exchange system. In quasi-synchronous computer-mediated communication participants do not have access to each other's messages until they are completed and sent to a group posting board. Thus, participants cannot rely on the ordinary means of coordinating turn exchange and other conversational activities (e.g., monitoring speakers' utterances-in-progress). We found that students' attempts to import conventional procedures from oral conversation resulted in misunderstandings and confusion. Specifically, we found that students experienced what we called phantom responsiveness, phantom adjacency pairs, virtual simultaneity, and the misinterpretation of silence.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Ahern, T. C., Peck, K., & Laycock, M. (1992). The effects of teacher discourse in computer-mediated discussion. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 8(3), 291-309.
Asteroff, J. F. (1987). Paralanguage in electronic mail: A case study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Columbia University, New York.
Atkinson, J. M. and Drew, P. (1979). Order in court: The Organisation of Verbal Interaction in Judicial Settings. London: Macmillan.
Bales, R. F. (1950). Interaction process analysis: A method for the study of small groups. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Bjorn-Anderson, N., Eason, D., & Robey, D. (1986). Managing computer impact: An international study of management and organizations. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Carey, J. (1980). Paralanguage in computer mediated communication. In N. K. Sondheimer (Ed.), The 18th annual meeting of the association for computational linguistics and parasession on topics in interactive discourse: Proceedings of the conference (pp. 67-69). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.
Cross, T. B. (1983). Computer tele-conferencing and education. Educational Technology, April, 29-31.
Cuff, E. C., Sharrock, W. W., & Francis, D. W. (Eds.) (1985). Perspectives in sociology. 2nd ed. London: Unwin Hyman.
Finholt, T. & Sproull, L. S. (1990). Electronic groups at work. Organization Science, 1(1), 41-64.
Fishman, Pamela. (1978/1983). Interaction: The work women do. Social Problems 25:397-406. Reprinted ln B. Thorne, C. Kramarae, and N. Henley (eds.) Language, Gender and Society (Pp. 89–102). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in ethnomethodology, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk. Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell
Goodwin, C. (1984). Notes on story structure and the organisation of participation. In J. M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (Eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis (pp. 225-246). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, C. (1986). Between and within: Alternative and sequential treatments of continuers and assessments. Human Studies, 9(2–3), 205-218.
Goodwin, C. and Duranti, A. (1992). Rethinking context: An introduction. In Duranti, A. and C. Goodwin (Eds.), Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon (pp. 1-43). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, M. H. & Goodwin, C. (1987). Children's arguing. In Philips, S., Steele, S. & Tanz, C. (Eds.), Language, gender and sex in comparative perspective (pp. 200-248). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Heap, J. L. (1984). Ethnomethodology and education: possibilities. The Journal of Educational Thought, 18(3), 168-171.
Heap, J. L. (1990). Applied ethnomethodology: Looking for the local rationality of reading activities. Human Studies, 13, 39-72.
Heap, J. L. (1992). Normative order in collaborative computer editing. In G. Watson & R. M. Seiler, (Eds.), Text in context: Contributions to ethnomethodology (pp. 123-137). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Heritage, J. (1984). Garfinkel and ethnomethodology. Cambridge, England: Polity Press.
Heritage, J. (1987). Ethnomethodology. In A. Giddens & J. Turner. (Eds.), Social theory today (pp. 224-72). Cambridge, England: Polity Press.
Heritage, J., & Atkinson, J. M. (1984). Introduction. In Atkinson & Herltage (Eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis (pp. 1-15). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Heritage, J., & Greatbatch, D. (1991). On the institutional character of institutional talk: The case of news interviews. In Boden, D. & D. H. Zimmerman (Eds.), Talk & social structure: Studies in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (pp. 93-137). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Heritage, J. & Sorjonen, M. (1994). Constituting and maintaining activities across sequences: And-prefacing as a feature of question design. Language in Society, 23, 1-29.
Hertz-Lazarowitz, R. & Shacher, H. (1990). Teachers' verbal behavior in cooperative and whole-class instruction. In Sharan, S. (Ed.), Cooperative Learning (pp. 77-94). New York: Praeger.
Hesse-Biber, S., & Gilbert, M. K. (1994). Closing the technological gender gap: Feminist pedagogy in the computer-assisted classroom. Teaching Sociology, 22, 19-31.
Hiltz, S. R. (1986). The “virtual classroom”: Using computer-mediated communication for university teaching. Journal of Communication, 36, 95-104.
Hirokawa, R. Y. (1988). Group communication research: Considerations for the use of interaction analysis. In C. H. Tardy (Ed.), A handbook for the study of human communication: Methods and instruments for observing, measuring, and assessing communication processes (pp. 229-245). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Hustler, D. E. & Payne, G. C. F. (1982). Power in the classroom. Research in Education, 28, 49-64.
Jacobs, Jennifer Baker. (1996). “All the words that are fit to print: Transcribing Computer-Mediated Communication.” Paper presented at the Fifth International Conference on Narrative: Self and Other. Lexington, Kentucky.
Jefferson, G. (1979). A technique for inviting laughter and its subsequent acceptance/declination. In G. Psathas (Ed.), Everyday language: Studies in ethnomethodology (pp. 79-96). New York: Irvington.
Jefferson, G. & Shenkein, J. (1978). Some sequential negotiations in conversation: Unexpanded and expanded versions of projected action sequences. In Schenkein, J. (Ed.), Studies in the organization of conversational interaction (pp. 115-172). New York: Academic Press.
Kiesler, S., Siegel, J. & McGulre, T. W. (1984). Social psychological aspects of computer-mediated communication. American Psychologist, 39, 1123-1134.
Kiesler, S., Zubrow, D., Moses, A. M., & Geller, V. (1985). Affect in computer-mediated communication. Human Computer Interaction, 1, 77-104.
Kuehn, S. A. (1994). Computer-mediated communication in instructional settings: A research agenda. Communication Education, 43, 171-183.
Markus, M. L. (1984). Systems in organizations: Bugs and features. Marshfield, MA: Pitman.
McGrath, J. E. (1984). Groups: Interaction and performance. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
McGrath, J. E. (1990). Time matters in groups. In J. Galegher, R. E. Kraut, & C. Egido (Eds.), Intellectual teamwork: Social and technological foundations of cooperative work (pp. 23-61). Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
McHoul, A. W. (1978). The organization of turns at formal talk in the classroom. Language in Society, 7, 183-213.
Mehan, H. (1979). Learning lessons: Social organization in the classroom. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Phillips, G. M. & Santoro, G. M. (1989). Teaching group discussion via computer-mediated communication. Communication Education, 38, 151-161.
Pomerantz, A. (1984). Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: Some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes. In Atkinson, J. M. & J. Heritage (Eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis (pp. 57-101). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Poole, M. S., Holmes, M., Watson, R., & DeSanctis, G. (1993). Group decision support systems and group communication. Communication Research, 20(2), 176-213.
Psathas, G. (1990). The organization of talk, gaze, and activity in a medical interview. In Psathas, G. (Ed.), Interaction competence (pp. 205-230). Studies in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, No. 1. Washington, D.C. University Press of America.
Rice, R. E. & Love, G. (1987). Electronic emotion: Socioemotional content in a computer-mediated communication network. Communication Research, 14(1), 85-108.
Rogers, E. M. (1986). Communicating technology: The new media in society. New York: Free Press.
Sacks, H. (1984). Notes on methodology. In Atkinson, J. M. & J. Heritage (Eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis (pp. 21-27). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking in conversation. Language, 50(4), 696-735.
Saunders, C. S., Robey, D. & Vavarek, K. A. (1994). The persistence of status differentials in computer conferencing. Human Communication Research, 20(4), 443-472.
Schegloff, E. (1968). Sequencing in conversational openings. American Anthropologist, 70, 1075-1095.
Schegloff, E. (1984). On some questions and ambiguities in conversation. In Atkinson, J. M. & Heritage, J. (Eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis (pp. 28-53). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Schegloff, E. (1990). On the organization of sequences as a source of “coherence” in talk-in-interaction. In Dorval, B. (Ed.), Conversational organization and its development (pp. 51-77). Vol. XXXVIII in the Series “Advances in Discourse Processes.” Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Schegloff, E., Jefferson, G., & Sacks, H. (1977). The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair for conversation. Language, 53, 361-382.
Schegloff, E., & Sacks, H (1973). Opening up closings. Semiotica, 7, 289-327.
Sherblom, J. (1988). Direction, function, and signature in electronic mail. Journal of Business Communication, 25, 39-54.
Siegel, J., Dubrovsky, V., Kiesler, S., & McGuire, T. W. (1986). Group processes in computer-mediated communication. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 37, 157-187.
Skinner, M. E. (1990). The effects of computer-based instruction on the achievement of college students as a function of achievement status and mode of presentation. Computers in Human Behavior, 6, 351-360.
Sproull, L. & Kiesler, S. (1986). Reducing social context cues: Electronic mail in organizational communication. Management Science, 32(11), 1492-1512.
Suchman, L. A. (1987). Plans and situated actions: The problem of human-machine communication. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
ten Have, Paul. (1991). Talk and institution: A reconsideration of the “asymmetry” of doctor-patient interaction. In Boden, D. & D. H. Zimmerman (Eds.), Talk & social structure: Studies in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (pp. 138-163). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Walther, J. B. (1992). Interpersonal effects in computer-mediated interaction: A relational perspective. Communication Research, 9(1), 52-90.
Walther, J. B. & Burgoon, J. K. (1992). Relational communication in computer-mediated interaction. Human Communication Research, 19(1), 50-88.
Watson, D. R. (1992). Ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and education: An overview. International Review of Education, 38(3), 257-274.
Weeks, P. A. D. (1985). Error-correction techniques and sequences in instructional settings: Toward a comparative framework. Human Studies, 8, 195-233.
West, C. & Zimmerman, D. H. (1982). Conversation analysis. In Scherer, J. & Ekman, P. (Eds.), Handbook of Nonverbal Communication (pp. 506-541). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Whalen, J., Zimmerman, D. H., & Whalen, M. (1988). When words fail: A single case analysis. Social Problems, 35, 335-62.
Wilson, T. P. & Zimmerman, D. H. (1986). The structure of silence between turns in two-party conversation. Discourse Processes, 9, 375-390.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Garcia, A., Jacobs, J.B. The Interactional Organization of Computer Mediated Communication in the College Classroom. Qualitative Sociology 21, 299–317 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022146620473
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022146620473