[Studies of Human Communication in Real and Virtual Environments Planning]
By
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would first like to express my gratitude for my research supervisor, colleagues, and peers and family whose immense and constant support has been a source of continuous guidance and inspiration.
DECLARATION
I [type your full first names & surname here], declare that the following dissertation/thesis and its entire content has been an individual, unaided effort and has not been submitted or published before. Furthermore, it reflects my opinion and take on the topic and is does not represent the opinion of the University.
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1
Background1
Rationale1
Aims and Objectives2
Research Questions2
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW4
Types of Communication4
The Systemic Theory of Communication4
The Foundations of Systems Theory Communication5
Axioms of Communication6
The Impossibility of Not Communicating7
Levels of Content and Relationship Communication8
The Score of the Sequence of Events9
Circularity of the Patterns of Communication11
The Symbolic Universe and Digital Communication12
The Four Major Modalities of Digital Language13
Communications Equipment in a Virtual World14
Virtual Communication15
Function and Relationship: Essence of Perception16
Virtual Worlds Defined17
Avatars Defined19
Communications in Second Life20
Education and Science in Second Life21
Science Communication Projects in Second Life22
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY24
Research Design24
Literature Search25
Keywords26
CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS27
Studies on Human Communication28
Studies of Communication33
Communication in the Virtual Environment37
Humans communicate in the real environment38
Social Virtual Worlds39
Humans interacting socially with Media39
Human mediated and machine interaction and technologies41
Obstacles in the Virtual Environment42
Second life Education and Science43
Need for Autonomous Virtual Humans44
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION47
REFERENCES48
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Background
Communication helps human being to interact with others. Humans communicate in the real environments via language, speech, and sometimes through non oral communication. Human beings also start interacting with the virtual environment. While the future of this particular virtual world remains unseen, virtual worlds as a whole will almost certainly continue to thrive. Long before the Internet existed, computer scientists working at Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Essex University in the United Kingdom used virtual worlds to communicate with each other over the Internet's predecessor, ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). During the late 1970s, these early virtual worlds were utterly text-based, functionally primitive, and only accessible to a handful of privileged individuals. Today, virtual worlds are accessible to anyone with a computer and a standard Internet connection, and they possess the graphical and functional capabilities to facilitate worldwide scientific communication, collaboration, and instruction.
Rationale
In fact, a multitude of high school teachers, university professors, scientists, and public intellectuals now use three-dimensional (3-D) virtual worlds to communicate the principles of their disciplines. When asked to describe their experience with virtual worlds, many of these professionals say that virtual world environments such as Second Life are nothing short of astounding, that virtual worlds are the wave of the future. To put it simply, many in the scientific community now believe that virtual worlds will become one of the major tools for global scientific communication and instruction in the 21st century. Today's science communicators will need to understand what exactly a modern virtual world is how individuals enter into and communicate in virtual worlds, and finally, the role that the arts and sciences have come to play in the development ...