Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Nonverbal interaction influential
factors
Constrained in a CVE to
Environmental conditions
the fixed-features of the scenario
the semi-fixed features of the scenario
Physical characteristics the users' avatars
appearance
body movements
Behaviors of communicators according to the CVE purpose
Table 2. Conditions of the nonverbal interaction factors in a CVE
Specifically
for a CVE for learning
, the
environmental conditions
will most likely to be
constrained by the domain to be taught and the selected pedagogical strategy. The
pedagogical strategy will determine the session configuration, like a theme of discussion,
solving a problem or accomplishing a task.
Consistent with Collaborative Learning theories the participants' interaction should be
implied in the CVE, and recommendable for learning purposes can be to solve a problem
through the accomplishment of a task; considering that one of their main advantages is the
spacial space with shared objects they offer. Within the CVE, the entities on it with the
faculty of being manipulated by the users, the semi-fixed features, will take part of their
verbal and nonverbal interchange on being the means to the accomplishment of the task.
As mentioned, the
physical characteristics
of the communicators in a computer-generated
environment are determined by his/her avatar's stipulations. The avatar appearance in a
learning scenario may represent the apprentices' role. For example, if a firefighter will be
trained, his/her avatar will be most likely to use the firefighter's uniform to distinguish
him/her from other users.
In order to accomplish the learning purpose in the CVE, the apprentices will control their
avatars to communicate, navigate and modify the environment. For that, the mainly related
areas of NVC are:
Paralinguistics
that comprises all non-linguistic characteristics related to speech like the
selected language, the tone of voice, or the voice inflexions, among others.
Proxemics,
the analyses of the chosen body distance and angle during interaction (Guye-
Vuillème et al., 1998).
And
Kinesics,
the study of what is called “body language”, all body movements except
physical contact, which includes gestures, postural shifts and movements of some parts of
the body like hands, head or trunk (Argyle, 1990).
As of the
behaviors of communicators
in a virtual learning scenario, of special interest should
be those related to collaborative interaction, that is, those behaviors that transmit something
about how the group members collaborate in order to achieve the common goal; and they
will be consistent with the nonverbal behavior carried out for the service-task function
(Patterson, 1983).
The nonverbal behavior in collaborative interaction is expected to be mainly intended for
the accomplishment of the task. Following the Miles L. Patterson (1983) Sequential
Functional Model for nonverbal exchange, people's interaction behavior is the consequence
