Body Presence

Faces bring with them a certain amount of expression - and, in doing so, can also cast meaning onto the words being said. Without facial expression/interaction, it would make sense that words themselves would take on more meaning. There is a sense (whether illusory or not), on the other hand, that accountability decreases with the disappearance of facial interactivity. Given this physical disassociation and the diminished sense of accountability, words actually take on more or less meaning depending on the receiver - the reader, the "face" on the other side of the screen.
Richard Rushton, in "What Can a Face Do?" notes that it is intuition which rules the reading of facial expression, not interpretation of "certain preformed codes to the markings one sees expressed on a face . . ."
We could see this, in a way, through the way the first class played out on Tuesday. Although there was, through the projected screen, the "presence" of a professor, there was no physical presence. As such, we lost the ability to intuit what was wanted from us based on body language or facial expressions. We instead had to rely solely on our readings of the words on the screen. That what was taken from this depended on the receiver was immediately obvious - some may have left right away, content with finding out that class was cancelled, some may have waited nervously until the very end, anxious that it may all have been a trick and some would have taken the screen at it's word and followed it to the letter.