The Communication Center as a Transcendent Physical and Virtual Space

Practical solutions are needed to ensure that communication centers remain viable resources for the 21st century student (Nair, 2011). In order to preserve the communication center's status as a necessary campus space, and to increase its influence beyond a single physical location, technology must be employed as a means to enhance student communication skills. This paper proposes utilizing virtual reality, augmented reality, and wearable technology as solutions to common concerns facing communication centers as they seek to increase the public speaking and general multimodal communication skills of students. To guide the potential usage of the aforementioned technologies, and as a lens through which their effects can be better understood, cognitive theory of multimedia learning and digital literacy are applied here.