Mike Bloomenfeld writes, in LO2368
> Would you both care to comment on the teaching and learning ability of
> non-text or visual communication?
> It is my understanding that a wide range of information is more easily
> assimilated using pictorial or diagramatic means.
There is data that suggests that in excess of 85% of all
interpersonal communication is analog, and not digital
(that is, non-verbally). The research is speculative,
but seems to be close to the mark in my experience.
However, this means things like tonality, and posture
shifts, and gestures, and scents, etc. It does not
mean some international symbol set (one of the hardest
problems is designing some semiotic signal that can
represent "Hazardous nuclear waste" across all known
cultures, and for at least 10,000 years in the future).
So, "pictorial or diagramatic means" all rely on some
shared syntax and semantics...and if no one's there to
teach you those, they'll probably not even be noticed.
(What if, for instance, some ancient race found a way
to encode their messages to the future in the pattern
of bark growing on trees? Would we even know a message
exists?)
> Is it true that the eye captures more data than the other senses?
The sense of touch has bandwidth of 6 - 40 bits per
second (by various estimates and experiments). Sound
can convey about 3000-6000 bps. Visual acuity is
in the range of 5,000,000 - 10,000,000 bps. (That's
why, for instance, radio demands a 10,000 Hz band for
each transmitter on AM, and television requires about
5,500,000 Hz each.)
> Are we getting beyond the old audio-visual tutorial methods with the new
> multimedia technologies?
Probably not. Human evolve more slowly than technology.
> Does the quality of graphic information have a great deal of effect on how
> people respond?
Advertisers suggest their ROI is directly related to
graphics, so I'd say the anecdotal info supports that
position, but I know of no concrete data.
> How does the way something is designed have do with participation?
Ah, that's a whole field in itself...much beyond this brief
e-mail. I can say that participation depends on motivation
and interest (witness this mail-list!); in modern corporations,
that means having to deal with reward systems, and coping
with how these kinds of systems need to include human ways
to interact (i.e., approximating or delivering face-to-face).
I think we'll see more variety of sensory information in our
communication world in the future...as I wrote long ago,
"Words are Not Enough."
--
Carol Anne Ogdin "If we fixed a hangnail the way our
Deep Woods Technology, Inc. government fixed the economy, we'd
CAOgdin @ DeepWoods.com slam a car door on it."
--Cullen Hightower