Evolution of discourses along human-computer interaction throughout computer game based teaching technology: The compentency building process of an individual

Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming (MMOG) technology facilitates interactions between participants, each represented in a Virtual World environment by an Avatar. We examine student discourse recorded during a marketing case study exercise in the Virtual World, Second Life. Swiss and Australian university students collaborated `in-world´ from their geographically remote locations with discourse only through four distinct types of communication tools, Text, Voice, Visual and what we identify as `Transcendent´. Discourse analysis highlights the contribution of each form of interaction as student engagement builds. Exchanges between faculty and student and between students were captured in chat logs. There were three phases, Training, Task and Report. Ethnographic analysis [1] [2] of the text data and semiotic analysis [3] of the visual data show that discourses evolve through each phase of the game and each tool makes a distinctive contribution (Table 1). This study´s contribution is in the recognition that participants who competently progress through each phase, arrive at Phase 3, where their awareness of the human-computer interface is transcended and they show signs of being fully immersed in the activity.