Moving toward expertise

Well, now I've chosen a topic and it is, to me anyway (and, luckily to some of you too), a fascinating topic. I've chattered on about avatars and Second Life and perceived realities, but now it's time for me to get serious. So for the next few blog postings I'll be setting the groundwork for my research. Let's start with the funny story I mentioned last time:

I had an online class a few years ago and had a student named Pat (yes, reminiscent of the old Pat joke from SNL of years ago... I don't actually remember if the name was Pat or Kim or Chris but it was one of those names that went with either males or females so I'll use Pat now). Pat was a great student and emailed me often. But the style of writing seemed like that of a young girl so, in my mind, Pat was a pretty, blonde, woman, about 19 years old, maybe a year out of high school. One assignment in the class (Web Authoring) was to create a splash page for a Website of the student's choice. Pat's site was about a small furniture store and the picture of the owner on the page was of an older, chubby, bald man. Pat said this was Pat's workplace. I assumed Pat was an office manager or secretary for the man. Anway, after the semester was over, Pat asked me to write a letter of recommendation for a position doing free-lance Web design. I wrote Pat a glowing recommendation including sentences like, "She is a very conscientious student and her work was always on time and completed with great attention to detail" or "I am sure she will give 110% to any project she is involved in" and so on...

Needless to say, by now you all guessed the punch line. Pat wrote to thank me for the excellent letter of recommendation but added, "I'm actually a 57-year-old bald fat man. My picture was on the Website I handed in."

That experience really made me think about how we (teachers) perceive our students. I know that, had I known that Pat was really a 57-year-old man, some of my emails to him would have been written differently. Nothing bad -- but I, as an older woman, would have different expectations from an older man than I would from a very young girl/woman. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Not sure. Maybe this semester's research will help me find out.

In the meantime, what actually is an avatar? Here's a definition:

An avatar is a computer user's representation of himself/herself or alter ego, whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games, a two-dimensional icon (picture) used on Internet forums and other communities, or a text construct found on early systems such as MUDs. It is an “object” representing the embodiment of the user. The term "avatar" can also refer to the personality connected with the screen name, or handle, of an Internet user.

Now that I know what one is, I can start to learn how avatars are used and, eventually, how they can be used to improve student-teacher and student-student interaction in online classes or even in traditional classrooms.