These "semiotic domains" could be a science laboratory, so the learner "thinks and acts" as a scientist; or a kitchen, so the learner "thinks and acts" as a chef. In the realm of the video game, the player either has to construct their character from scratch if it is a role playing game (RPG) or they adopt the identity of the game's main protagonist, be it Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Max Payne or Lara Croft; so the "semiotic domains" become a fantastical and improbable world; the rain strewn streets of New York; or an archaeological dig somewhere in the mountains of Peru.

This is where Gee (2007, pp. 48-51) presents his fascinating “tripartite” perspective to identity where three complex and interrelating identities are at play: “real-world” (as “played by” the individual themselves and are imbued with a variety of competing/complementary identities); “virtual” (as “played out” by the individual’s alter-ego or “avatar” which can be seen as aspirational identities that befit a particular role); and “projective” (as “played towards” being a certain type of person / role based upon the individual’s own dispositions). Gee articulates this “tripartite” of identities in the following way:

• student as scientist (real-world identity)
• student as scientist (virtual identity)
• student as scientist (projective identity)

Gee introduces another concept, that of the "psychosocial moratorium" (2007, p, 59), which was first introduced by psychologist Erik Erickson,  which has been used to describe the suspension of responsibility and accountability that allows players to explore alternate identities without the repercussions and dangers that one might face in real life; i.e. a player as a neurosurgeon performing brain surgery.

Gee (2007, pp. 53-54) suggests that the relationship of "player as virtual character" is a powerful one as it:

"...transcends identification with characters in novels or movies, for instance, because it is both active (the player actually does things) and reflexive, in the sense that once the player has made some choices about the virtual character, the virtual character is now developed in a way that sets certain parameters about what the player can now do."

The above statement reminds me of "The Hero with a Thousand Faces"; Campbell's (1993) seminal work featuring the journey of the archetypal hero that can be found in most world mythologies and has been a device adopted by many storytellers including J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" triology and George Lucas' "Star Wars" franchise. Each deals with a "rite of passage" - for the learner, this could be interpreted as a "learning footprint" or "learning trajectory" - that would ultimately result in some kind of sacrifice - for the learner, this could mean supplanting previously held beliefs or knowledge or letting go of some kind of redundant idenity - that would lead to some kind of transformation - again, for the learner, this could mean the assimilation of new beliefs or knowledge or acquiring a new identity.

Blinka (2008) offers an interesting insight between the relationship of the player and their avatar; Blinka's (2008) paper seems to suggest that the younger the player, the more they identify themselves as the avatar and that for all age groups daydreaming and emotional feelings towards their avatar, was found to be important.

In the "Cultural Models" chapter, Gee introduces the idea that players can also play the "bad guy" as well as the "good guy" which means adopting the identity of the "other"; this shadowy arch-nemesis. He states (Gee, 2007, p. 158) that:

"...far more interactively that you could in any novel or movie, you would have experienced the 'other' from the inside ...  since the cultural models built into the game are not yours, you would be able to reflect on them in a more overtly conscious way..."

Depending on the role of the "other", for some of us, this role-reversal may actually be a real eye opener or may take us down very uncomfortable and threatening avenues of inquiry and experience. Uncomfortable questions may be asked of our identities - a real "looking glass" moment that is reflected back to us in all of its most uncomfortable, uncompromising and unflinching reality.

References

Blinka, L. (2008). The Relationship of Players to Their Avatars in MMORPGs: Differences between Adolescents, Emerging Adults and Adults. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace. 2(1). [online]. Available at: http://cyberpsychology.eu/view.php?cisloclanku=2008060901&article=5 [Accessed 19 March 2009]

Campbell, J. (1993). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Fontana Press.

Gee, J.P. (2007). What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy (Revised and Updated Edition). New York, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Suler, J. (2002). Identity Management in Cyberspace. The Psychology of Cyberspace. [onlne]. Available at: http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/identitymanage.html [Accessed 19 March 2009]

Suler, J. (2004). Personality Types in Cyberspace. The Psychology of Cyberspace. [onlne]. Available at: http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/persontypes.html [Accessed 19 March 2009]

Suler, J. (2007). The Psychology of Avatars and Graphical Space in Multimedia Chat Communities. The Psychology of Cyberspace. [onlne]. Available at: http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/psyav.html [Accessed 19 March 2009]

I didn't get too far when I was approached by Dagma Kiranov (a.k.a. Iris Bosa) who had also popped up late into SL. After about 20 minutes typing messages between eachother - that strange typing motion that the avatar undertakes to inform the other user(s) that they are typing has been likened to "stroking the cat", Iris added her own metaphor by suggesting, given Wray's costume, that it looked like I was "playing the piano" - Iris asked "can I change my voice?". This struck me as an odd comment to make until I realised that she was talking about the speech feature within SL that was added several months ago. I plugged in my microphone headset and began to talk to Iris, like one does with Skype and presumably using the same kind of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology that Skype uses. It became clear what her question meant.

In Second Life, and indeed in other virtual worlds, the user invests a lot of time and effort to create their avatar and their "virtual" identity in a way that they want to be seen and perceived by other users within that shared world. One was able to further enhance that identity with the kinds of words and phrases that they used to talk to one another. In my mind's ear, I can "hear" Wray talking with a deep, rich, urbane voice, not too dissimilar to that of Christopher Lee's voice. But of course, the experience that the other user gets is not that of Wray sounding like Christopher Lee, they get Wray sounding very Kentish and not terribly deep, rich or urbane - you could almost hear the record scratch at that moment as reality breaks into the virtual world and these whole persona and identity that you have carefully created begins to unravel before your eyes.

Whilst there has been a lot of work in identity in terms of roles, gender, sexuality, demographic variables; I am not so sure whether any has been done on voice as an identity construct in terms of accent, dialect, pitch, etc. The inclusion of the speech feature within SL is a very interesting addition to the software's capabilities, but I wonder if it will have a detrimental effect on one's virtual presence and identity?

I certainly know from my own research into e-portfolios how difficult it is for people to agree on an overarching definition. You only have to read the raging debate that is going on with the JISC CETIS Portfolio SIG on their wiki and JISCmail sites to know what I am talking about.

The use of meaningful metaphors to make sense of one's own e-portfolio is both powerful and compelling. Barrett (2004) reels off a list that includes mirror; story; journey and campfire. On Jen Ross' blog, she is developing a "mask" metaphor, which I am sure Goffman (1959) would appreciate and even Acker (2005) alludes to it as a "digital representation of self on characteristics of interest to a community". This, somewhat, reminds me of an early incarnation of my website that used "hat" imagery to denote the "wearing of hats" that I have had to put on in both my personal and professional lives. Curiously enough, Sir John Mills, the actor, spoke of not being able to be in character until he wore the "right kind of shoes". Identity is a funny old game as Jimmy Greaves would have said if he were a philosopher and not a footballer.

My personal e-portfolio at work (see embedded picture) uses the "acorn" to denote growth and development. The "branches" indicating all the work, experiences and achievements that you can see; the "roots" indicate all the stuff that you can't see and may need to dig deeper to find out more. When talking to staff about e-portfolios, I have used the image of a "rucksack". The rucksuck is synonymous with journeys and travelling as well as being a means to store stuff. Inside the TARDIS-like zippers and pockets of the rucksack are things you want to keep and present. Each different zipper or pocket of the rucksack provides a different representation to different audiences / viewers.

I was particularly enamoured with Barrett and Carney's (2005) tale of the John Godfrey Saxe poem: "The Blind Men and the Elephant", which in itself is based upon an Indian fable. I was so enamoured with it, in fact, that I e-mailed by colleagues around the office about it today. I liked the notion that the e-portfolio becomes a very different beast when different people look upon it; a bit like Schrödinger's Cat, whereby the poor, old hapless moggy would be isolated from any external interferences; to know whether the cat was alive, dead, or simply not there meant that the observer would have to "look inside the box" to find out, thus interfering with the experiment and, in turn, becoming entangled with the experiment itself.

So for me, at least, the e-portfolio is transformed into a fabulous beast: a quantum chimera. How it reveals itself to you largely depends on how you wish to view it and from which angle you are viewing it from.

References

Acker, S., (2005). Overcoming Obstacles to Authentic ePortfolio Assessment. Campus Technology [online]. Available at: http://campustechnology.com/articles/40147/ [Accessed 08 October 2007]

Barrett, H., (2004). Metaphors for Portfolios. electronicportfolios.org [online]. Available at: http://electronicportfolios.com/metaphors.html [Accessed 08 October 2007] 

Barrett, H. & Carney, J., (2005). Conflicting Paradigms and Competing Purposes in Electronic Portfolio Development. Educational Assessment.

Goffman, E., (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin Books.

McAlpine, M., (2005). e-Portfolio and Digital Identity: Some Issues for Discussion. e-Learning. 2(4).

Stefani, L., Mason, R. & Pegler, C., (2007). The Educational Potential of e-Portfolios. London: Routledge.

We start this post with a quote from William Shakespeare's play "As You Like It", which conjures up the image of acting a part in front of others. This will become more apparent later on in the post. Week 3 starts off the first "real" readings for the course; principally, Feenberg's (1989) text. It's an interesting, if somewhat archaic, article that occasionally reads like a social science essay with the names of Goffman (a favourite of mine!) and Derrida being bandied around. Feenberg starts off his argument by saying that meeting in our culture are best conducted face-to-face.

"This physical presence is supposed to be the guarantor of authenticity: you can look your interlocutor in the eye and search for tacit signs of truthfulness or falsehood, where context and tone permit a subtler interpretation of the spoken word."

What about those who can't speak and rely on sign language? As Sian Bayne points out during the Skype instant messaging discussion (which, incidently was enormous fun) this evening: signers have a "physical presence". Indeed they do, and whilst sign language is a very expressive language, it cannot delineate the nuances of the spoken word in terms of tone - though this may be achieved by the strength of the expression and sign. Feenberg introduces the notion of "communication anxiety" with a line that particularly resonated with me:

 "Communicating on-line involves a minor but real personal risk, and a response - any response - is generally interpreted as a success while silence means failure."

How many times have I been on MSN Messenger talking to someone, for them to suddenly stop talking for a while, and there's me panicking that I might have said something to upset them? Well, plenty enough thank you! When they do finally get back to me, it turns out their modem has timed out (don't you just love it??) or they have been on the phone to someone (what?? remember me??).

The "cold medium" (Wegerif, 1998) of online communication precipitates what McInnerney and Roberts (2004) describes as "isolation"; without that instant feedback, without that acknowledgement, we feel unnerved and isolated, a bit like walking in thick fog at night.

Fear not, Salmon (2002) offers a solution to this rather thorny isolation problem with her "5 steps" to successfully learning online; and in doing so, building a community of learners who can support each other along the way. Salmon's approach is enormously popular with educators and course developers alike; and is probably the most (and overly) used model in Higher Education today. Not everyone is happy with this model; and with a just a whiff of handbags at dawn; Pam Moule (2007) steps up to the plate to "challenge" Gilly Salmon. Moule claims that Salmon's model "neglects" the variety of e-learning approaches that are available as well as the range of learning theories that are now around. She cites a number of studies that have demonstrated where this model fall down, namely: that it doesn't support a blended approach very well (Chowcat, 2005); it failed to take in the different learning styles (Lisewski & Joyce 2003); dispute over achieveable levels of socialisation (Jones & Peachy, 2005); and so on. The debate continues.

Feenberg comes on to the "management of identity" (identity is an interest of mine) which includes some quotes from Erving Goffman, cue "As You Like It". This is probably the weakest and least coherent argument in Feenberg's essay. As I suggested in the instant messaging chat this evening; Feenberg would have been better off using Goffman's arguments that within Western society an organised group of individuals perform in one of two ways: formal and informal.  When the group is “backstage”, they tend to let their “masks slip”, they are more informal and relaxed towards each other, perhaps using first name, having a joke, or smoking, etc.  But when the group is “on stage”, the masks are put back on, and a more formal and respectful air is adopted towards another group of people. We can take these theatrical metaphors of "backstage" to mean online and for "on stage" to mean offline, i.e. face-to-face.

McInnerney & Roberts (2004) continue this theatrical theme by introducing a "forming stage" which they describe as "a warm up period, designed to assist the formation of a 'sense of community'". During this period, participants would use the informal setting to get to know each others writing styles, online personalities and to learn how to develop a "digital identity" that is unique and recognisable to them.

And so ends "Volume 1" of my week 3 reflections...until next time...well, tomorrow actually!

References

Feenberg, A., (1989). The written world: On the the theory and practice of computer conferencing. In: Mason, R. & Kaye, A. (eds) Mindweave: communication, computers and distance learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press. pp. 22-39.

Goffman, E., (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin Books.

Herring, S., (2004). Slouching towards the ordinary: current trends in computer-mediated communication. New Media & Society. 6(1), 26-36. 

Kreijns, K., Kirschner, P.A. & Jochems, W., (2003). Identifying the pitfalls for social interaction in computer-supported collaborative learning environments: a review of the research. Computers in Human Behavior. 19, 335-353.

McInnerney, J.M. & Roberts, T.S., (2004). Online Learning Social Interaction and the Creation of a Sense of Community. Educational Technology & Society. 7(3), 73-81.

Moule, P., (2007). Challenging the five-stage model for e-learning: a new approach. ALT-J: Research in Teaching and Learning. 15(1), 37-50.

Salmon, G., (2002). e-tivities: the key to active online learning. London: RoutledgeFalmer

Wegerif, R., (1998). The Social Dimensions of Asynchronous Learning Environments. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. 2(1)

My rather basic knowledge of SL, at the time, amounted to the fact that people were, apparently, making a lot of money out of it and there were a number of news stories concerning some rather seedy and sordid going ons. I've never been a great one for computer games, favouring board games and role-playing games like "Call of Cthulhu", so it never really registered on my radar.

However, Gilly Salmon's enthusiasm for her subject is highly contagious - so much so that it should come with a Government Health Warning - and as a result I created myself a Second Life account and Wray Bourne was born. The basic avatar mechanics of moving, flying and teleporting I had got the hang of quite quickly. I even bought Wray some new clothes. In many ways, Wray was created to represent my ideal self (Bessiere, Fleming Seay & Kiesler, 2007), largely inspired by my love for all things gothic and, in part, by the characters that have appeared in Anne Rice's novels.

I wasn't really much interested in the shops and night clubs that permeated this rich and beguiling metaverse; and by the time I got online to visit those "islands" of education and learning, there was hardly anyone to talk to about their experiences. But last night (19-09-07), I got to talk to some of my classmates around the campfire which was utterly brilliant whilst sipping some virtual champagne (I much prefer the First Life version tank you!). I am so looking forward to those sessions taking place in Second Life and exploring those potential teaching and learning opportunities that could come from that experience.

Whilst I accept that SL isn't, strictly speaking, a computer game; it is a world full of addictive possibilities in the form of avatar relationships; making money; building objects and magnificient virtual architectures and ecosystems (the detail that has gone into designing and coding of the ducks and the fish in Holyrood Park is pure poetry in animation); gambling and avatar sex. My use of the word "addictive" is a cautionary concern for people losing a grip on their "First Life" identities. Dreyfus (2001) and Turkle (1997) have had plenty to say about digital identities and how malleable they can be.

It's not only the educationalists getting excited by the opportunities that can be afforded by SL, but the sociologists, psychologists and the tax man are getting very excited by it to!

Whilst SL is rather computer resource and bandwidth heavy, I do note that MetaPlace is going to release some free tools that will allow everyone to create their own virtual world and, so they say, it requires no programming expertise whatsoever. So runs the news item:

"In contrast, Metaplace is entirely web based and connections can be made between all of the different worlds.

'We modelled this on the web,' said Mr Koster. 'You can think about each world being a webpage and every object within in it is a link.'

Users can create the worlds using different methods.

People with no programming background can use the graphical interface and choose worlds from a number of templates, such as a shop or a puzzle game.

They can also clone worlds developed by other Metaplace users.

More competent visitors to the site can build a world from scratch using the tool's own programming language known as metamarkup.

The language is 'platform agnostic', according to Mr Koster, which means that it can be used to create worlds which can run on anything from a powerful PC to a mobile handset."

I can't wait...

References

Fildes, J., (2007), Virtual worlds opened up to all [online]. London: BBC. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/6193462.stm [Accessed 20 September 2007]  

BBC News, (2006), Online gamers addicted says study [online]. London: BBC. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/6193462.stm [Accessed 20 September 2007]

Bessiere, K., Fleming Seay, A. & Kiesler, S., (2007). The Ideal Elf: Identity Exploration in World of Warcraft. CyberPsychology & Behavior [online], 10(4).  Available at: http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cpb.2007.9994 [Accessed 20 September 2007]

Dreyfus, H.L., (2001). On the Internet. London: Routledge

Turkle, S., (1997). Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. London: Phoenix