Current Projects

Rhetoric of Virtual Environments:Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication in Dyadic Negotiation Processes (Current)
This project (done for my dissertation) investigates how people use verbal and non-verbal principles from orality and literacy in virtual environments. Since virtual worlds allow for a sense of embodiment, but require a more conscious effort at performing that embodiment, how does this affect verbal and non-verbal communication between two participants in a negotiation tasks with multiple outcomes? Through a quasi-experiment using the virtual environment Second Life, I investigate whether or not people use non-verbals to persuade others, and if they use gestures for interpersonal (social, emotional) or interparty (conversation markers and common ground) reasons. In addition, my study investigates whether or not intercultural aspects determine different approaches to non-verbal communication, which may play into negotiation situations. This study was conducted through the virtual world of Second Life, and may have implications for seeing how non-verbal communication may be rhetorically used when gestures and non-verbal body language are performed in virtual environments.

Virtual Behavior: Non-Anthropomorphic Communication and Interaction in Environments (Current)
This project investigates whether or not how role-playing affects communication in virtual environments. While much is known about human communication in virtual environment, not much is known about those inhabiting non-human looking avatars. While to some extent these non-human avatars retain human aspects, their persistence and ability to roleplay may have implications for the kind of communication behavior they display. In this case, what kinds of communication takes place between such avatars, and how do considerations of identity play into the communication between avatars with varying degrees of anthropomorphism?

Collaborative Virtual Environments (2004-2006)
I was involved in Dr. Clint Jeffery's NSF- funded Collaborative Virtual Environments group as part of the Education/Courseware Support and Interoperation Affinity Group. For this research, I was interested in providing collaborative learning support for students and instructors in virtual environments. A lot of this research was tied to Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), collaborative online learning, and grounded in social constructivist pedagogical theory. Dr. Jeffery and I wrote a conference paper that was accepted at the Thirty-Ninth Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science (HICSS) based on course content system of maps and tours based on a sociological framework.


Learning Games Initiative Lab (2005)
During 2005, I was involved with the learning games initiative lab as a consultant. Though much research remains to be done, video games do provide an engaging way of learning over current-traditional approaches to learning. My research is related to research in video games since it addresses issues of embodiment and learning through virtual environments.

Top