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Is this true? I don't think the virtual environment is really a safe place, but compare to real society, it is a ground for experiment.

"Safe" is not really a word that I would use to describe my Seond Life experience. But I guess I didn't dye my hair blue in real life so that means that the virtual is a safe space to try things out. I wonder how the virtual and the real might be interconnected in the lives of young people. Is the ultimate goal to inform idenity construction in the "real" self? Is there such thing as a "real" self in this info-tech world? I relate more and more to the idea of a networked self.

I like your networked self in your comic. I agree that "real" is questionable. In other words, identity is not fixed. We perform identity every second. We even perform it differently when using differnt avatars. (Like what Karen mentioned above).

1. I believe that Second Life limits the appearance of avatars, but I still think Second Life participants are empowered because they get to make decisions about their image portrayal within these limitations. Avatar creation empowers the user because it allows them to participate in what Nakamura (2002) calls "identity tourism". Social networking sites allow users to experiment with the creation of alternative or multiple identities. Identity tourism can be harmful and disempowering to marginal individuals because of stereotypical portrayals of gender, race, class, etc.

Yes, there is a certain limitation of avatar creation, especially for people who are new to it and don't have a lot of skills to create their avatars. I agree with "identity tourism" in SL. People can change their avatars anytime they want. They can switch gender, like what was discribed in the article. This can be an activity for students to experience differnt identities, but often time, stereotypical identities are performed.

I believe the user is empowered in avatar construction. The user had full choice on what the avatar will look like, body shape, and what they will wear. There are many options to create a number of different identities. I also believe that it disempowers the user as well. Even though there are various options, there are limitations that keep the user from reaching certain identities.

I think that to really explore this, students should not be limited to creating their avatars in Second Life. Second Life has a certain "look" or aesthetic that may not appeal to every student. Voki is one other option. Ashley, I agree about the feeling of empowerment. And this connects back to our Web2.0 definitions from the first week!!

yes, I agree. Second Life has very steep learning curve. And SL is only one of the virtual worlds. The research in the article also use "There." However, each program has it own aesthetic limitation. SL is consider one of the most opened program. That's also why the research described in the article use it. My own experience was that I also don't like it at the beginning after I first tried it. I didn't go back for a few months.

I also agree with Ashley's opinion that users are empowered in avatar construction. In addition to creating avatars' appearances, users can provide even voice and control avatars' behaviors.

2. I think that there are both potentials and limitations to using avatars in art education. An environment such as Second Life can be a site of learning and could be an example of an approach to art education, because individuals can influence and challenge socially constructed notions of beauty and stereotypes through visual representation. Avatars allow individuals to "play" with various identities and experience encounters with others based on their visual appearance and personality. I believe that Second Life may be risky to use in K-12 art education, because of the anonymity and availability of adult content.

Second Life is now limited to age 18 and older. There is a Teen Second Life for teens, and there are a lot of restrictions for adults to go into Teen Second Life. Educators who wants to work with teens, need to have background checked.... But in an interview with the founder of Second Life, he said that in the furture, they will merge the two worlds together. What can be foreseen is that there will be a lot of work need to be done inorder to bring teens in to Second Life.

I believe the limitations of avatar creation in art education is that students may not be able to create what they want. The program allows for a lot of different options for the user to manipulate, but it is still difficult to achieve what you want. Students could use avatar creation to help relate to a particular identity or creation of a new identity. This type of "play" can be used as a exploration and have students examine their own personal views on identity and any possible stereotypes.

Based on my experience of designing an avatar, it was true. I could also experience stereotyping, prejudice, and preferential treatment from other avatars' responses to me, especially when I made my avatar ugly and bizarre. Although people know that an avatar' looking might not be same to that in RL, it still seems to be applied in the SL.

3. I found it difficult to construct an avatar that looked exactly like me or like an older individual. I ended up settling with what I had, but didn't create my desired outcomes. I believe that is a limitation to Second Life. Although, creating an avatar that looks exactly like yourself is most likely not what participants of Second Life are interested in. I found it very difficult to avoid offensive dialogue in the comic strip because your comic strip characters were assuming identity based on stereotypical beliefs about personal appearance.

It is interesting that you created a female with blond hair (I assume it's the representation of you) and another one has gray hair to represent an older person. It seems hair is one of the important thing people care and identity with. A professor talked about the experience working with students who are new to SL says that the first thing most people want to change after they go in to Second Life is their avatar's hair. The dialogue might not be what we want in educating people, but it might represent the real situation in a dialogue in Second Life. There was a time when I use my old avatar (see my comic) in a public space in Second Life, someone used a script on me and make me to say I am a trash (I forget the exact word, but something like that). These stereotypical identites are hard to break, even if we don't want to be defined.

I also found it difficult to create an avatar that I thought looked like me and ended up settling for one that kinda looked like me. I think the problem lies within the limitations of the appearance options. I also had a hard time avoiding offensive identity stereotypes while creating the comic. I think this says a lot about identity and how they are perceived. Even in a virtual world stereotyping comes into play. Like the comments left on the comics, white hair usually means old since wrinkles are hard to replicate.

I had a different and a bit surprising to me response using Voki in that the comment avatar that was "given" as the base was a dog, and later I did another one and it was a blob-like shape. With these bases that I would not have chosen I played with the options and found that the limitations provided a way to get outside of ways I might have represented myself to something I would not consider a representation of me, and then when I gave my voice to the avatar my words were based on what I thought the avatar would say. The background, clothes, and character shaped what I had to said. It seemed eye-opening on how my appearance drives what I say.

One day I was wandering in Second Life and I was somehow led to get in a place called mixed martial arts arena. All male characters looked very muscular and athletic like professional fighters, and the female character had appearance like a sexy and fashionable celebrity. At that moment I was playing a female character which is in my comic story. They wondered who I am, why I am here, and how I look. It was interesting because they did not talk to me at all talking each other. I think they quickly realized that I was not a person (?) who suits for the place.

It was interesting to see how real world's typified standards of identity embody in those in virtual world. In my comic story, I tried to play those kinds of typicality.

your experience is very interesting. I'd like to hear more about others experience.

I had a similar experience with Hongkyu. For this seven event, I created two avatars. One of them is very old, short, and thin and has an angry and proud face. In order to take a picture, I entered second life with the avatar. Suddenly, one guy came up to my avatar and told her, "U make me so bored." Except the guy, anybody did not speak to her. Later, I enter the site again with the other avatar who is young, tall, and has a nice feature. This time, many guys spoke to the avatar. At that time, I thought that people have already stereotype and model. I think that it might be difficult for adolescent to escape from these stereotypes, which could be one of limitations of using avatars in art education. However, at the same time, it has potential in that art educators could use it as resources of criticizing stereotypes.

those experiences which you are treated differntly because of your look (young/old, pretty/ugly, or gender, race...) have become a way to realize that how deep-rooted is our association with appearance and how we treat differnt people differently accorading to their appearance. So, because of this fact, avatars in virtual worlds are the exaggeration of real life stereotypes. I think the potential of using avatar in education is not only for students to experience differnt identlties, but also to be critical to the this.

Even, when I unintentionally accessed a crowded place with my avatar who looked bizarre, I felt that I wanted to leave there immediately because of my appearance. What do you think of the reason? Just because of my personality?

Myoungsun, I also have similar experience. I think that it is because we feel the "danger" to be "differnt" in an unknow place.

Why do we (educators) need to sugar coat, or secretly teach subjects? Shouldn't we be innovative and work hard to make the subject matter relevant and of interest to our students wthout trying to trick them into learning?

In this process, I empowered the construction of avatar everything like sex, age, and race and then I used my avatars in Art Education field. So it was really interesting experience both creating my avatar like me and making a comic story. When I played with my avatar in Second Life, I was momentarily under the illusion that I was in a foreign country. And I was a little being scared that another myself lives in another world. I just confused real and virtual world at that time. I think this thing makes a really big limitation in education. So I believed that educators must make younger children, who cannot control themselves easily to know about difference between real and virtual world first.

Video games' advantages related to intelligent abilities or educational concepts (?)

This is my main question on using technology in art education.