Chapter 15 Question #2

I find it quite fascinating how certain factors such as anonymity, number of people and proximity between people influence participation in computer-mediated communication. For instance, this class is an excellent example of a CMC because our whole course is taught completely online and we do not have any physical contact with the professor and/or classmates. I believe that CMC classes such as this one promote and almost always require more participation than the standard face to face classrooms. For example, I've noticed that in my FTF classrooms, there is always two or three people who always participate or answer questions that the professors ask the whole class. A lot of students (sometimes including myself) will hardly ever speak up unless called upon. Some reasons could be due to communication apprehension or simply lack of interest in the subject matter. On the other hand, the use of the Internet gives us a little more freedom of expression in the sense that we can say pretty much whatever we want without facing the confrontation in person. The anonymity element is that we are solely known as our user name such as "jprado" and not a physical being. Our participation is also influenced by our freedom to post whenever we have the time (whether it be 3 in th afternoon or 3 A.M.). Finally, our proximity to the group plays a role in the fact that we can all be enrolled in the same course but can live several miles apart. For instance, I live in Hollister which is about 45 miles from SJSU. This makes it difficult for me to attend school during the week so I try to find as many online classes as possible. Another example, my brother lives in Folsom and works 40 hours a week but is currently working on his MBA at Sacramento State through online courses. So because many students live far from campus and other students, many of us feel the need to participate more than we would in FTF settings because it is our only connection to peers.