The professional avatar? haha

 

SL is providing the opportunity to use 3 dimensional representations of data and one of these representations is clothing and appearances. I divide different perspective of professional avatars to 4 main groups:

1. Those who believe they “don’t need”: because they just what to focus in the content of their interaction such as those educators that you will see with newbies cloths after a year
2. Those who think “SL is Real life”: they think that they should look like them self’s or professional,  having the same values as RL
3. Those who would like to stay in “moderation”: believing that SL in not RL and they can be as creative as they want but considering being tolerable by other people they interact with.
4. Those who believe that “what you see is just lines of code not me standing naked”: how can possible do anything they wish.

You may wonder which group I belong… the answer is GROUP 3

I have tried different ways to deal with students as professional avatar and I found that it’s important to know the audience. Based on the students I would look different so that they will be comfortable with their teacher. I examined what I’ve learnt in two different scenarios which both were a success for me.

Experience 1: last year I had to present SL to some of university lecturers and staff most of them never played computer games or SL. for them seeing some bit odd could force them to thing this is a stupid gave and never try it back again. At that time, i decided to make Viki not exactly look like Anna but have some kind of relation between them. I decided to wear jeans with boots in RL and even designed a university T-shirt with Viki’s big picture at the back. On the other hand, Viki had the same style black hair, the same T-shirt, jeans and boots. Everyone was almost amazed by the similarities that they could see, that this is not a “world of warcraft” kind of thing and everyone was feeling OK with Viki. after a while when they got used to Viki, the whole story changes and that was when I started triggering the excitement part of discovering what you can be within their minds so I changes things to be different from me but still pleasant.

Experience 2: on the other hand, for teaching those who are in-world only or those how have some ideas about computer games but not much of an interest in SL, I decided not to look like myself and show them something that they say “wow” or even “interesting”. The main key for teaching them was to show “what more I can do here” and motivate them to continue using SL. for that reason, Viki ended up being Barbie like girl with a blue hair, kind of cold face, natural skin girl. For them feeling that you can still be acceptable with blue hair and a cold face as a friendly person were a big step and a motivation to explore what else can be there.

Considering that I usually deal with newbies, while the approach might be different but there are some points that will stay as principles for all sections such as:

• Viki wouldn’t look like her best so that they will not feel bad and being in a reachable step for them to have as goal.
• She would be as human like avatars because it a far too much for a newbies to be comfortable with a bunny or a dragon
• She would refer to her first step to comfort others about the things that might not go well in first steps
• She would not wear things or attach scripted things to her that might distract students (there is already enough distraction in SL)

There is something regarding teaching in SL which i thing is REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT:

Before you start teaching things in SL you should teach them first about the reality of living a second life if they don’t already know it…

I have faced many people that are trying to make a RL out of SL but that is not going to work. Keeping things real in educational environments will misguide them to the idea that whole SL is like that… NO, thats not the reality… reality is that you will see dragons, rabbits and naked people…

If teachers are not going to make sure that students know all the facts about the environment that they are going to use, students might end up confused even disgusted from what they will see in SL specially with articles being published in BBC and other newspapers these days.

 

Some Q & A:

Q: Do you think avatar appearance is an important aspect of educational activities that are being undertaken in Second Life?

A: yes, it is an important aspects because in most of the cases that what others will see as the person. This can come to help to increase the relationships however it should not become as the major problem or a standard way to dress up for professional purposes.

 

Q: What does appearance say about us in a teaching situation in Second Life – to what degree is it the same as real-life?

A: I believe it reveals about thier creativity first and sometimes even it reveals how risky people they are while likes it back to not being affiar of trying new things even if they might be rejected

 

Q: What is an appropriate professional avatar appearance for education?

A: For me, there is no such a concept as “professional appearance”, you might be more effecting in a red ballroom dress than in a gray suit.

 

Q: Does your avatar have a professional appearance for educational contexts? Yes, no? Why?

A: NO, because i believe in it but that doesn’t mean that I will not consider my students and what will make them feel good (but I’m sure wearing a gray suit will not even make Viki feel OK)

 

Q: Is there any appearance you would never use to teach in Second Life and why?

A: I will prefer not to teach naked, because of don’t have people to get divorce 

 

Q: The ability to change avatar appearance could be described as an affordance of Second Life. How can the ability to alter avatar appearance be used as a teaching tool?

A: changing appearances can help teachers to express their ideas, viewpoints and even imaginations. It can help them to make a point of things with wearing the right thing and most important of all motivate their students.