Book Review: Taking Things at Face Value: The Psychology of Media Response: The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television and New Media like Real People and Places

Abstract

Problem 1: You are a designer of online courses who has been asked to develop lectures for the Web. These lectures could be either streaming video, static images with high quality audio, or some compromise between the two. Bandwidth restrictions suggest that you have to make some difficult decisions between the video and audio features of the lectures in areas such as availability, quality of image and sound, and download times. What are the psychological effects of different combinations of video and audio? How would you decide what to use?Problem 2: You are a software designer who has just completed creating a software simulation for creating tessellations. Like any good designer, you want user feedback about your product. You create a survey that pops up when the student has completed working on the last problem. How sure are you that the results you receive will be candid and honest?The problems raised above are just two examples of the kinds of decisions that designers of educational software face on a daily basis. In the age of media integration, understanding the psychology of people's interaction with media is an important goal. Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass offer a new perspective on the psychology of interacting with media in their book entitled: The Media Equation:How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places. This book, which is a culmination of over a decade of media research, does not directly deal with issues related to education and learning. That said, we believe it has much to contribute to research and practice in the field of educational 219  2002, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.