Language students today have grown up with a plethora of technology tools at their fingertips, which has in some cases earned them the title of "digital native". 'Students' high use of technology outside the classroom has led teachers and researchers to believe that technology could be highly effective for language learners when used appropriately. Yet little is known about how students actually react to technology-based tools for language learning purposes. This study seeks to not only understand student attitudes toward technology in general, but also to see how those attitudes might affect student attitudes toward online language learning tools in a social media context. Using a design-based research approach, we implemented a curriculum that utilizes a social networking environment in which students could consume authentic language samples and practice using the language in a controlled environment. Through the analysis of pre and post surveys, it was discovered that age was the most significant predictor of student attitudes toward technology, but that the extent to which students use technology proves to be a more significant predictor when other variables are factored in. Furthermore, it was discovered that general attitudes toward technology do affect the ways in which students will react to a technology-based curriculum. Nevertheless, the way in which a curriculum is presented can be a stronger factor in predicting how the curriculum will be received.

Program för video-medierad kommunikation (VMK) såsom Zoom används ofta för digitala möten och anställningsintervjuer. Tekniska störningar i ljud och bild är vanligt förekommande vid VMK, men effekten av tekniska störningar vid bedömningar av individer är i stort sett okänd. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka detta kunskapsgap, utifrån frågeställningen: Är tekniska störningar under VMK relaterat till mindre positiva omdömen om individer? En hypotes ställdes upp: (H1) Individer som bedöms via VMK kommer bedömas mindre positivt när tekniska störningar förekommer i ljud och bild, jämfört med när tekniska störningar inte förekommer. En webbaserad experimentell metodansats brukades, där högskolestuderande (N = 60) fick se en två minuter lång film av en fiktiv jobbkandidat, och sedan bedöma dennes kompetens, intelligens, anställningsbarhet, etcetera. Två filmer fördelades slumpmässigt till respondenterna, varav en redigerats för att ge utseendet avtekniska störningar i ljud och bild. Kontrollgruppen (n = 33) fick se den icke-manipulerade filmversionen, och experimentgruppen (n = 27) den manipulerade versionen. Data analyserades med oberoende t-test och ANCOVA. Egenkonstruerade frågor inspirerade av Baker m.fl. (2020) och Schroeder och Epley (2015) brukades för att mäta bedömningar och Mini-IPIP6 för att kunna kontrollera för personlighet. Resultaten visade att kandidaten bedömdes mindre positivt (d = 0.46, p = .10) när tekniska störningar förekom, jämfört med när de inte gjorde det, vilket ligger i linje med H1. När övriga variabler kontrollerats för framträdde att merparten av förklarad varians i bedömningar förklarades av kön, välvillighet och självrapporterad uppmärksamhet. Praktiska implikationer för rekryteringar diskuteras. / Programs for video-mediated communication (VMC) such as Zoom are commonly used for digital meetings and job interviews. Technical difficulties frequently occur in VMC, but its effect for assessments of others is largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate this knowledge gap, and to answer the question: Are technical difficulties related to less positive assessments of others? It is hypothesised that individuals who are assessed via VMC will receive less positive assessments when technical difficulties are present, as compared to when they aren’t (H1). A digital experiment was conducted, where university students (N = 60) were shown a two-minute video of a fictitious job candidate. Two versions of the same video were randomly assigned to the respondents, one of which had been edited to give the appearance of technical difficulties with disturbances and distortions in sound and video. The control group (n = 33) was shown the unmanipulated video version, and the experiment group (n = 27) the manipulated version. The respondents assessed the job candidate on qualities such as competency, intelligence, hireability, etcetera, using survey items inspired by Baker et al. (2020), and Schroeder and Epley (2015). Data were analyzed using an independent samples t-test, and the instrument Mini-IPIP6 was used so that personality could be controlled for using ANCOVA. Results showed that assessments of the candidate were less positive (d = 0.46, p = .10) when technical difficulties were present, confirming H1. Results from an ANCOVA showed that gender, agreeableness, and selfreported attention were significant predictors of assessments and predicted the outcome better than technical difficulties. Implications for practice are discussed.

Two common problems in Remote Guidance applications include the remote guides lack of direct control over their view into the worker’s physical environment and the difficulties that arise with trying to place virtual 3D objects in a real 3D environment,via a moving, shaky, 2D image.The first issue can be called a lack of remote spatial awareness, the guide can see only what the worker enables them to see. In the worst case the guide is rendered blind to the task environment while the worker is unable to use their device. A common occurrence is tasks that require both hands.The second issue arises from the inherent difficulty present in trying to correctly place a 3D object using only a limited perspective. Camera shake and unreliable tracking of the physical environment being depicted only further add to this problem. Studies show that 3D annotations make for much more effective means of communication, especially in 3D task environments. Allowing the guide some measure of control over their own view has also been shown to improve the guides ability to aid their partner. This paper investigates a method of Remote Guidance where the task of environment tracking and object placement are separated. A prototype application is developed and tested against a baseline 2D-annotation Remote Guidance tool. The study finds the prototype to be an effective way of placing virtual 3D objects in a remote environment. Experimental results show that communication is indeed made better by the inclusion of 3D objects into Remote Guidance. This comes at the cost of a slight increase in the timetaken to complete a task as the complexity of the 3D tool is greater than the 2D one. Unfortunately, the experiment performed fails to properly account for remote spatial awareness.

MySpace is a type of "social networking" website where people meet, socialize, and create friendships. The way MySpace members, particularly younger individuals, interact online underscores the changing nature of mass media. Media system dependency states that individuals become reliant on media in their daily life because of fundamental human goals. This reliance, termed a dependency, leads to repeated use. Media system dependency was applied in the current study to explain how and why individuals became habitual MySpace users. To attain results a survey was administered to a convenience sampling of 401 adult undergraduates at the University of Central Florida. Members reported MySpace dependency had a moderate correlation to MySpace use, and they actively used the website an average of 1.3 hours of use per day. Results indicated members use MySpace to primarily satisfy play and interaction orientation dependencies. MySpace use was found to have a correlation with number of MySpace friends. "Number of friends created" in turn had a correlation with MySpace dependency, as people returned to interact with their friends. Individual factors were also found to be a source of influence in MySpace dependency. These individual factors were demographics, psychological factors related to use of the Internet, and psychological factors related to use of MySpace. Factors related to MySpace, extroversion and self-disclosure, were positively correlated with intensity of dependency. The influence of factors related to the Internet was partly supported; computer self-efficacy was not significantly related to MySpace dependency, while computer anxiety was significantly related to MySpace dependency. Speed of connection to the Internet and available time to use the Internet were not related to MySpace dependency. Additionally, significant differences were found between genders in overall dependency, extroversion, self-disclosure, computer anxiety, and computer self-efficacy. These findings provide evidence that MySpace members were little, if at all, constrained by factors related to use of the Internet, but were attracted to the websites for similar reasons as real-life relationships. Finally, MySpace is just one of the large number of online resources that are predominantly social, such as email, message boards, and online chat. This study found that through a "technology cluster" MySpace members use these other social innovations more frequently than non-members. However, members also used significantly more non-social innovations, which may indicate that MySpace members are part of a larger technology cluster than anticipated or perhaps are in the same category of innovation adopter.

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which selected communication tools used by teachers who teach online are positively perceived by their students in improving feelings of self-efficacy and motivation, and which tools may be perceived to be significantly more effective than the others. Students from the Florida Virtual School, a leader in online course delivery for grades 6-12, were surveyed to find their perceptions about how their teachers' use of email, Instant Messaging, chat, the telephone, discussion area, whiteboard, and assignment feedback affected their motivation and success in an online high school course. Correlations were done to discover if there were any significant relationships between variables that relate to teacher interaction and motivation. In addition, distributions of student responses to survey questions about digital communication tools and demographics were examined. It was found that there is a high degree of correlation between frequency of teachers' use of digital communication tools and student's perception of their level of motivation. It was also found that the digital communication tools most frequently used by teachers in communicating with their students were email, the telephone, and assignment feedback, and that the students found these same tools the most helpful in their learning. In addition, no significant demographic differences were found in students' perception of teacher's use of tools to enhance learning and motivation in their courses except in the number of previous online courses taken. These findings can help direct online high school teachers in their selection of digital tools used to communicate with their students.

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This paper aimed to examine the use of emojis and emoticons in Twitter data. Therefore, the study utilized Twitter data on how emojis and emoticons were used in English in the Curators of Sweden project by Swedish individuals. Moreover, considering the fast and technology-filled world humans live in, new terms and concepts have emerged, such as CMC, a computer-mediated communication, namely, a form of communication or information conveyed through a digital and virtual mechanism, known in the postmodern world today as social media. Furthermore, the study showcased how individuals of both sexes use emojis and emoticons provided on Twitter to express themselves as a new form of virtual emotional language while also considering gender differences. The results of the study indicate that emojis and emoticons have been used extensively in Twitter data and play a huge role in expressing feelings and emotions in Twitter communication. While emojis and emoticons were used more frequently by females than males. The findings of this paper indicated the importance of ample space that social media, namely Twitter and its set of provided emojis and emoticons, occupy in lives. Thus, modern communication tools manifested in the virtual language emojis and emoticons, which in their role supported emotional communication. / nej

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