The Utilization of Online Mediation in Japan From the Perspective of Affordance

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to elicit the features of online mediation with the affordance lens. The concept of affordance was used to capture the mutual dependency between web system Zoom and the users. To obtain data, mediation role plays were conducted twice with two sets of three participants. After the role plays, focus group discussions and individual interviews were conducted. All of the mediation role plays and interviews were recorded with Zoom and used for analysis. The different affordance of devices and Zoom functions for each participant were found. In addition, it was found that all of the participants in the mediation role plays relied heavily on auditory sensory and the flow of the mediation converged at the end. Thus, it was concluded e-mediation with Zoom afforded auditory sensory rather than visual sensory of each participant and this feature is proposed as useful for educational purpose in Japan.