INVESTIGATING THE INFLUENCE OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED INTERACTION, MODALITY AND 3D ANIMATION ON WORK SETTINGS AND STEM EDUCATION: A CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF EDUCATIONAL YOUTUBE CHANNELS
Authors: Singh Shriya 
Published: June 2024

Social connection in our environment is increasingly being mediated by technology. And modern technologies affect our attempts to communicate. "Are we evolving into tech-savvy conversationalists, or is technology itself evolving into a more conversational entity?" was the question that was posed by Ian Hutchby in his book Conversation and technology: From the telephone to the Internet. He concentrated on four examples: telephones, workplace computerized expert systems, speech-based public inquiry systems, and multi-user Internet spaces. Contemporary theory and empirical studies in conversation analysis, ethnomethodology, and the social creation of technology are all incorporated into Conversation and Technology. Hutchby contends that while we ourselves are shapers of both the cultural and interactional properties of these technologies, technological media can profoundly shape the ways in which we interact. His original contributions to each of these fields supported this claim. The book started out by looking at various theoretical stances on this problem. Truly, the time has arrived for us to develop a new appreciation of the relationship between human communication and technology. While embracing online communication technologies can never replicate the in-person conversations, it has been found that avoiding communication has also become much easier now, lower social engagement on video meetings being not just a product of network limitations is a plausible argument today. There are teams, groups, companies, regions, countries, and many more types and levels of culture that may be important to comprehending how low engagement in online meetings could be a social practice. However, notwithstanding these restrictions, it has been speculated that it is very likely true for some subset of any community that low engagement can be a social decision, not merely a reaction to limits but also an exploitable social resource on the basis of those limitations. Although most video meeting services and meeting gurus would certainly disagree with this decision, it does have its own design ramifications. The point of the matter is that we need to understand which method of communication (text, sound, visual, emoticons) could be a better option for different tasks such as learning, allotting assignments, giving directions, and more. The digitization of education has transformed the teaching and learning of STEM concepts, with computer-mediated interaction and 3D animation playing a crucial role in enhancing educational experiences. This paper investigates the impact of computer-mediated interaction and 3D animation on STEM education through a comprehensive case study of ten prominent educational YouTube channels from diverse cultural backgrounds. The channels studied include Professor of How, Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell, TED-Ed, The Infographics Show, CrashCourse, MinutePhysics, CGP Grey, India In Pixels by Ashris, OverSimplified, and Veritasium. These channels employ various strategies, such as gamification, visual storytelling, and interactive elements, to engage learners and facilitate understanding of STEM concepts.