Hello there and welcome back. We're continuing module 4 and our focus on technology, one of the key dynamics of group communication. Last time we reviewed several practical issues, we should always keep in mind as we utilize technology in groups to enhance our interactions and help we accomplish our work. Now let’s consider several conceptual issues for technology in group communication. Issues that are a bit more abstract but equally important for using technology effectively in our groups. After all, we know that technology is never just a neutral tool of information transmission, something we simply use in our groups with no broader social consequences or implications for our interactions for each other. No, every technology is designed with underlying assumptions about information, knowledge and nature of human interaction. Every technology enables certain things while constraining others, and trade-offs are made by people who could create this technologies as they decide what certain technologies should, and shouldn't do. So rather than just evaluating the practical functionality of group communication technologies, we should take a step back and think critically about the underlying conceptual issues that also should inform our decisions about how to incorporate and utilize technology in our groups. In particular, I think there are five related conceptual issues that are relevant for any group communication technology, social presence, embodiment, technological determinism, technological optimism, and agency. And because these issues are more abstract, there's no direct applications that apply to all groups in the same way. It's more about being mindful of these conceptual issues, and allowing them to influence our thinking about technology and group communication. See if we can develop a sufficient understanding of these conceptual issues, we'll be much better at using technology in our groups to enhance our communication. So let's get started. First, is the issue of social presence. Most of the time we incorporate extra technology in our groups, it's to accommodate people who are not present with the rest of the group. Or because no one is present, everyone in the group is located somewhere else. Sometimes it's because people simply can not be present for a variety of reasons. Other time we simply prefer the convenience of our virtual connection instead of the hassle of meeting in the specific location. But we also know that presents matters. It has big impact on our communication, how we interactive each other, how we interpret and understand each other. And so we need to consider the social presence that various technologies enable or constrain, and figure out ways to build more social presence into our interactions when they are mediated by technology. When your group does a conference call for example, people may technically be on the call, but are they really present? Perhaps a video conference would be better, because it increases the social presence of your interactions. Or consider some of the things we discussed a couple lessons ago, like telepresence robots and virtual reality. That can enhance the social presence of group members who are not physically present with everyone else. I think about social presence all the time when I utilize technology to mediate my interactions with other people. For example, I often teach an online class in the summer here at the University of Colorado. I create animated videos to deliver much of the class content, but I also include brief videos of myself at the beginning and at the end of each lesson to increase the feeling of social presence for the students. And I'm very active on our class discussion board. Again reminding students that I'm here even if they can't see me. My online class lacks the face to face interaction of a normal class, so I have to find ways to increase the social presence among myself and the students, so we can communicate at a higher level, not just exchange information. Let me give you another example. Have you ever done an online chat session with a customer service representative for some problem you're trying to resolve? If you have, did any of your experiences involve a customer service representative who had a picture of themselves visible on your chat screen? If so, I bet you noticed a change in the way you interacted with that person compared to a faceless person that almost seemed like a robot. Social presence changes the nature of interaction for both good and bad. Much of the time, we need to consider how to enhance social presence when we use technology to mediate our group communication. Though there may be times when we want to limit social presence, to maintain more symbolic distance from other people. Whatever the case, social presence is an important conceptual issue we need to consider with technology and group communication. Similarly, we need to consider the conceptual issue of embodiment. The blessing and the curse of technology is that it enables us to connect disembody our interactions with other group members. That can be tremendously convenient, especially for relatively straightforward interactions, but it also tempts us to equate communication with mere information transmission. That as long as we use technology to properly transmit information to other people, we've done our job. But we know there's so much more to communication then just information transmission. The body itself is absolutely critical for how we understand and connect with each other. Bodily features like facial expressions, the look in our eyes, our tone of voice, our physical posture, our physiological reactions. These are all central to how we interact and relate with each other. The process of social construction. Can your group afford to be without these crucial aspects of human communication? If not, how can you incorporate certain technologies to increase the embodiment of your interactions? Perhaps you need to include more enhanced video capabilities in your virtual meetings. Or maybe hologram technology could improve the embodiment of your interactions. Even little things, like emojis or avatars, can help augment the way our bodies are involved in our group communication. I do this, I used a program to create an avatar of myself, to help enhance the embodiment of my communication with other people. Not bad. Even though I'm not physically present, this technology helps embody my communication. I can easily add these images to text messages, emails or teleconferencing profiles. Of course these images are not equivalent to my physical body, but they do help convey more information than just written or spoken words. So as we incorporate technology into our groups, let's be sure to consider the important issue of embodiment and how important physical bodies and bodily representations are to our group communication. Next, we need to be careful about technological determinism. We know that technology can enable tremendous opportunities, to interact with each other. And that technology can also constrain those interactions. But we want to be careful not to become too reductionist in our thinking about technology. That we reduce our understanding of human interaction to simply what technology enables or constrains. Technological determinism is the idea that technology controls or determines the nature of our humanity, who we are as a society. Now in groups, this means we get stuck thinking that we can only do what our technology allows us to do, and that the value of our group is directly related to the quality or functionality of our technology. And this can limit our capacity for our group and our ability to interact with each other in meaningful ways. Yes, technology can be limiting. Just ask anyone who wasn't able to participate on a conference call or get the projector to work for their presentation because of a technology glitch. But there is also an important degree of humanity that transcends our technology and that exist apart from technology. You and your group are more than just the technology you use. Now conversely, we also don't want to get caught up with the idea of technological optimism. This is the idea that technology will solve all our problem, that there's no end to what a group can accomplish if we can just get the right technology. Yes, technology can help us do wonderful things, but technological optimism is misplaced faith in the power of technology to overcome all our challenges, complications and difficulties. And that solutions and breakthroughs must come from some technological advancement. I certainly don't need to remind you about all the unintended consequences that technology has brought to our society. And I'm sure you've experienced plenty of situations where fancy new technologies have turned out to be much more hassle than they are worth. But people get caught up in technological optimism all the time, chasing the latest technologies for their own sake rather than thinking critically about how certain technologies will help or hinder their groups. So we don't want to lean to far towards towards either extreme. Either technological determinism or technological optimism. We don't want to be too fatalist about technology that we can only do whatever technology will let us do. Nor do we want to be too naive or overly confident about the power of technology to solve our problems. Instead, let's take more of a middle position, something we could call Technological Realism. Recognizing that technology can do wonderful things and greatly enhance our group communication and our overall group work. But also realize that technology has limitations that constrain our possibilities and sometimes restrict what we can reasonably accomplish in a given situation. Finally, we need to consider the conceptual issue of agency. As we incorporate technology in our groups to facilitate our communication. Agency is a word that scholars like to use to describe the capacity that people have to act on their own, to function independently and make their own free choices. Now one of the mistakes we often make is thinking that technology is just a neutral tool, something that exists completely independent of us that we simply use to accomplish what we want in a given situation. But it's not quite that simple. Technology often uses us, as much as we use it. And what seems like our independent actions, our agency, are actually wrapped up in the design and functionality of the technology itself. Technology may not determine our actions and decisions, but it sure does influence them. Technology enables and constrains what is possible in various circumstances. Technology complicates our understanding of human agency, calling into question exactly who or what is acting in a given situation and who or what is really in control. It's not an either or. Either humans act on their own and use technology or technology is really in control, but rather a complicated mix of both. Of human action creating technologies that in turn act back upon us and shape our subsequent behaviors. What does all this mean for group communication? The issue here is how we ascribe meaning and responsibility to our group members in various situations. Do we make the mistake of affording too much agency to individual people? Assuming they should be in complete control of their circumstances. Or do we differ all responsibility to technology, and people are just dupes within the system. Hopefully somewhere in the middle. Human action and intentionality are real and important concepts. But this agency is always shaped by broader factors, especially technology. I'll have much more to say about this issue of agency in our next lesson. But for now, let's be mindful of how our conceptions of human action and choice affect how we think. Okay, that's an overview of several conceptual issues we need to consider for technology and group communication. Social presence, embodiment, technological determinism, technological optimism and agency. Again, since these issues are more abstract, there's not necessarily a direct practical application for your group, they will play out differently for each group and each situation. But they are the kinds of things that need to be on our mind. Because they provide the conceptual foundation for any practical actions we take with any kind of technology. How we think about technology influences how we use technology. Next up, we'll conclude module 4 with a lesson on the fascinating concept of sociomateriality. This involves cutting edge thinking about the entanglement of social and material factors that constitute our experiences with technology and group communication. I look forward to seeing you there.
