Space implies a place or a location.  I know that when I sit down to my computer and interact with someone asynchronously, they are not located on or in my computer screen.  I could imagine them in their home or some template of home that resides within my imagination, but they may be shopping or at work, or... anywhere.  I could imagine them sitting at their computer at the time they wrote a message to me, but the message is not in their space, it is in mine.  The electronic signals have been transported.  Is the message I have in front of me our space, my space, or an appearance of a space?  What is the experience of space and how does it effect my sense of relationship?

        Space comes from the root word speis (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989) and denotes time and distance.   When I think of space, I think of a specific physical place like a room confined and concrete.  I could measure the distance and how long it takes me to pace around the room.  However, I think of a space in terms of the whole.  Does my sense of space require time and distance?  Are they necessary for me to spatially orient myself?  Does the asynchronous nature of computer environments affect my spatial orientation and how does that effect my ability to relate to others in this environment?

        Time and distance imply measurement.  One of the definitions of space is “void or empty” or a measurement of no time or distance.  A computer screen is a doorway into a space, but where-are-you is beyond the immediacy of my screen.   If my computer screen is blank, it appears to be part of an odd paradox.  It is either a void and empty space and/or it contains all possibility of space undistinguished.  The Buddhists believe emptiness is not being without, but as containing all.  Once I fill my screen with words,  sounds and pictures, I have chosen to distinguish and my attention is focused on specifics--part of the whole.

        Virtual space seems to be created by the appearance of time and distance.  Appearance is defined by Onions as "becoming visible; apparent form; semblance; apparition" (1969, p. 44).  Appearance is visual and implies unreality.  I can be fooled by appearances, deceived visually.  What I see is only partial, a semblance.  Someone could see an apparition while others standing next to them would not.  What role does the imagination have in guiding our perception of appearances?  Are appearances part of the imagination making sense of a deluge of information that is the whole?  Are sensual cues snags for our attention? How is time and distance measured in virtual space?  How do I know I am somewhere?  What does that somewhere look like--appear like?  How can I make a virtual space familiar and “real” to my students?