HOW CAN IDENTITY AFFECT THE WAY WE LEARN AND SHOULD THE EDUCATION SYSTEM INCORPORATE VIRTUAL ONLINE METHODS OF TEACHING IN THE FUTURE?

IDENTITY AND EDUCATION

Presence and Embodiment- Mark Childs

Key to learning within a virtual world

“Users’ mental model of themselves inside the virtual world” Biocca, 2007

“The experience (of) the body as what I am. I experience my body as me. Not the experience of the body as a thing that belongs to me.” Carruthers, 2009

“The resistance to learning in virtual world is informed by values students’ hold with technology” Childs, 2010

MY EXPERIENCES WITH EMBODIMENT

Me My Avatar

Hair Colour: Blonde

Hair Colour: Pink

Body Shape: Average

Body Shape: Overweight

Dress Sense: Casual, quite mainstream

Dress Sense: Gothic, tight black cat-suit with weapon attached to hand

Eye Colour: Blue Eye Colour: Red

IF WE LOOK LIKE OUR AVATARS DO WE FEEL A GREATER SENSE OF EMBODIMENT?

CURRENT TRENDS

• Cypris Village in

Second Life

• English learning

community

• Non Profit

organisation- 450

members

CYPRIS VILLAGE PRACTICE & HANGMAN GAME

CYPRIS VILLAGE LECTURE AREA

CYPRIS VILLAGE GAME AREA

PAST INTO CURRENT TRENDS

FUTURE VIEWS“Todays average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games.” Prensky, 2001.

“Digital immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age) are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language” Prensky, 2001

How do we adapt learning for digital natives?

DR. TONY O’DRISCOLL 7 SENSIBILITIES OF VIRTUAL WORLDS (2007)

Architecture:3D internet, students building a house in Second Life.

Science:“Magic Molecule maker”Caffeine molecule.

DR. TONY O’DRISCOLL, 2007

DETERMINISTIC VIEWS

• Prensky and

O’Driscoll’s views

ignore the social and

cultural issues

• Technological

determinism- not all

students are as

“digitally native” as

Prensky assumes

ACCESSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY• My computer often

struggled with

Second Life’s

graphics

• Pictures would not

load

• Distorted buildings

• Affected learning

experience

GRAPHICS CREATING BARRIERS

LINKING THESE IDEAS TO IDENTITY

FINAL THOUGHTS

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