Identity Games

«Identity Games»

CAN WE USE IDENTITY CHANGES TO IMPROVE

TEACHING AND LEARNING?Marcus Birkenkrahe

HWR Berlin / Berlin School of Economics and Lawmsb @ hwr-berlin.de

Identity Games

1 Virtual Life

Virtual environments suggest the re/creation of your "profile"

Facebook, Twitter, MUVEs, Forums, Moodle...

A profile is the outward face of an identity. A profile doesn't exhaust your identity.Few people can resist to re-present themselves when offered the chance.

Identity Games

2 Effects of Virtuality

Community building (networking)

Equality (Internet & dogs)

Self-expression (image cultivation)

Identity Games

3 Learning

You don't just learn "stuff", you also learn things about yourself.

The things you (really) learn about yourself become part of your identity.

Your identity as a learner becomes part of your learning experience.

Your learner identity can be helpful or hindering to your learning "stuff".

Identity Games

4 Example

Take yourself:

When you look at your avatar as it is right now:

what message are you sending about yourself as a learner?

Identity Games

5 Teaching

You don't just teach "stuff", you also model identity.

The things you (really) teach infuence your students' identities.

Your identity as a teacher becomes part of your teaching performance.

Your teacher identity can be helpful or hindering to your teaching.

Identity Games

6 Example

Take me ;-)

When you look at my avatar as a teacher's avatar:

what message am I sending about me as a teacher?

Identity Games

7 Where can we take this?

Experiment: I asked my Second Life students a number of questions about their choice of avatar and their experiences with identity change.

Did not say "appearance" but "identity" to leave them a choice.

Did not create a standard survey but began discussing with them.

Identity Games

8 Questions I

1. Communication: If you did pick our identity in Second Life consciously, what identity did you choose and what did you want to communicate with it?

2. Expectation: Whether you picked your identity in Second Life consciously or not: what do you think others will think of you when they see you?

3. Resonance: Did anybody else ever commented on your identity in Second Life? What did they say about it as far as you remember (or how did they behave)?

Identity Games

Answer: „Communication“

«Indeed I chose my aviator consciously. I decided to take an Indian related woman who is wearing a sari (or saree - the Indian traditional dress for women). I was looking for something which is not the usual avatar as I am a kind of person who likes to slip into different roles whenever possible. As second life is a perfect chance to try out something different while emphasizing on a specific character of myself, I was looking for something which doesnt look alike myself in reality. In my case I'd chosen something personal, as I studied two semesters in Pune, India. Hence, I have a quite strong connection to that place and wanted to show that to everybody. In that way people could associate even faster that I am the girl who was in India. I constantly reminded them of India, which was my purpose in a way. But I would rather state it as a subliminal message, as I didnt want to convince anybody for India, but rather show that I really liked it there and that I am proud to got the chance spending a year at that place. So in a way, I communicated my pride, my experiences and my connection to that place as my avatar obviously looked like an Indian woman.»

Identity Games

Answer: „Expectations“

«My avatar was robot from standard collection of avatars. Others would probably think that im boring or lazy or have no sense of beauty or imagine myself an Iron Man from the fairy-tale and in search of real heart.»

Identity Games

9 Questions II

4. Reorientation: If you could pick absolutely ANY identity in Second Life, which one would you pick and why?

5. Reflection: does your identity in Second Life in any way refect your identity in real life (privately or professionally)?

6. Changes: did you ever change your identity in the course of your life so far (either personally or professionally)? What were the results? Did you get what you expected?

Identity Games

Answer: „Reflection“

«I picked a school bus on second life, without really thinking too much about it to be honest, but I think I did so because I did not want to choose a human shape. Maybe it refects me somewhat in the sense that it is rather American, which at heart, I sort of am, and also it is full of life and always moving.»

Identity Games

10 Questions III

7. Teaching: what do you think about my appearance in Second Life as a winged centaur?

8. Learning: did the possibility of changing your identity in Second Life add to your learning experience, subtract from it or was it irrelevant? Why?

9. Transference: If you were a teacher, which identity would you pick for yourself?

Identity Games

Answer: „Transference“

«The avatar of a teacher should depend on the relationship you already have with your students. Depending on educational necessity you probably would choose different avatars.»

Identity Games

11 Let's Discuss!

Where could I, where could we take all this?>> Talk at VWBPE 2012

Let's discuss!

(And thanks for listening)