Shadowboxing Digital Ghosts

So I was at a fair in Puyallup, Washington. In doing a basic walk-around to see what to sample, I noticed two people wearing full head-gear. They had some attachments to their arms and were jabbing at unseen fighters or adversaries in the hot afternoon, a few years ago. They seemed and were oblivious to the crowd around them. They reminded me of how people sometimes sing to themselves while wearing earbuds...and maybe rendering something out-of-tune for the world while they were buoyed by the music and voices in their ears.

This disconnect has always been an element of my mental construct of telepresence.

Parasocial Relationships

In media studies, people may form parasocial relationships with flickering images in a darkened movie theatre. Their imaginations can build whole relationships, dramas and lives with individuals they've never met. This all has spawned a whole security industry around public figures. More shadowboxing.

Conveying the Digital "Who"

Telepresence refers to how an individual's personality and self come through in the online classroom space. Given the importance of mutual trust and relationship in learning, an instructor's telepresence may affect how learners interact with him/her. Telepresence may be conveyed in the following ways:

• through self-revealing (in "autobios," photos, and other digital means)
• through interaction in the online classroom
• through lectures (print, audio, audio/video, and other)

Autobios may be formal or informal. Instructors sometimes include photos of themselves in a casual non-classroom setting to appear more approachable. Others emphasize their professional standing and will show themselves in the field, at the lectern or in a lab. Lectures may be written like colloquial conversations or textbooks.

Students view an instructor's telepresence as how he/she wants to relate to the learners. Often, professors have to make the first move.

Some research I've read suggests that it makes sense to consciously and explicitly build this construct.

Where the Phenomena of Telepresence Originates

According to Gordon M. Mair, telepresence as a phenomena (not a term) comes from a sci fi story published in 1952 titled "Bridge" by James Blish: "Blish tells the story of a construction worker who is physically present on a base on one of Jupiter's moons. He uses a 'helmet' and control panel to be vicariously present on the 'surface' of Jupiter where he is involved in building an ice bridge. He experiences the forces, pressures, winds, and sound through the sensors on the construction vehicle that he remotely controls. The fact that his helmet allows him to feel as though he is present on Jupiter would put his system into the category of 'telepresence' although this term was not used in the story." (Mair, 1997, p. 118)

The Almost Full Sensory Telepresence Build

Mair continues with a section on how people sense the presence of others through the use of the senses:

Sight 70% Hearing 20% Smell 5% Touch 4% Taste 1%

Digital space limits some of the ways that the above senses may be engaged, which is probably a good thing. That said, having a more organized approach to the building of a digital self may help one be more effective online.

Mair, G.M. (1997). Telepresence - The technology and its economic and social implications. IEEE. 118 - 124.