When I created my avatar in Second Life I built it to look as much like me as possible.  This was a good indication of what I thought about myself.  It showed me that there are certain expectations that society has for females so I tried to conform to these standards.  i think this correlates to what Horsley talks about in his quote.  When men are on the Web and they want to create a persona for themselves this can sometimes become vexing for them because they feel a certain need to  build up a persona that  is suitable and accepted by society.  They may feel some sort of “uncertainty and even anxiety” because if their persona is not what is socially acceptable they may not want to put themselves out there.  Once men become ok with themselves and comfortable revealing their true self they will gain a greater level of self-awareness.  Once people see what society expects of them and how they are perceived in that society they can reflect on what them unique and the more time they spend in a particular space they will feel more comfortable revealing themselves.  This will in a way  give people a sense of personal freedom because they will not be so worried about what others think as much and they can just focus on themselves and become who they want to be.

In What it is, Part One: Mario, The Sims and World of Warcraft, he establishes what avatars are and how they can vary depending on the game type.  I think he makes a lot of good points and I agree with him that in each game, the avatars are completely different because they are set up to do different things.  Mario and Luigi are basic avatars and I feel like they are basic because anyone can play the game and it may be more geared towards younger generations.  The Simms avatars are a little more complex because they can do more things and interact with other players.  Meadows then makes the claim that the World of Warcraft avatars are the most complex because the  player can control what they do.  They may be complex but I have also read, in a part in the course pack that they weren’t as complex because you could only choose from certain features and not necessarily customize them to a players wants.  I think it just depends on what you want to accomplish which should determine which avatar is the most complex.  I also thought it was interesting how he broke down that the most complex avatars had the least amount of players.

In What it is Part Two: The Three White Girls from YouTube Meadows looks at the social aspects of avatars and how they can both be on the border of fact and fiction. He comments on how three girls from YouTube broadcast themselves but in actuality they are not themselves but acting as sort of “imposters” because they aren’t these people but are personified as such.  An avatar is a representation of something and these girls in a sense are avatars because they represent a type of person who could exist, but are made up.  I think Meadows makes a valid point to say that these are avatars.

In What it is, Part Three: A Point of View, Meadows points out the purpose of point of view when it pertains to avatars.  This refers to the way people perceive avatars and to what extent the players are involved.  there are first-person dimensions, like that in shooter games such as Halo.  I haven’t played Halo, but I think that this dimension is good because the player can connect with the avatar because they see everything from their angle and it becomes more real.  I also like the use of second-person avatar where the player in a sense “hovers” above the avatar and we can see what they are doing and control it.  I have played World of Warcraft a little and started with  the Simms and I think ti’s good to be able to see the characters and in these games you can give them different camera angles and change the perspectives.

In What it is, Part Four: A Simple Character, Meadows talks about how avatars are just really a simple character because they really only have a profile and a name or a picture.  The complexity of the avatar comes from the people who establish these.  They are responsible for their intentions, actions, and personalities.  Avatars are building blocks for people to express themselves.  Avatars allow people to become different people or personalities, and serve as a way of communicating throughout the cyberspace.

This course would be set up so the students would come to class and learn the material about the different stages of development and the different ways a child could develop, but then there would also be a virtual reality component, where the students would create an avatar of a child, in some virtual space, and then throughout the semester, watch their avatar grow and develop.  As they see changes in their avatar, they can comment on how this relates to what we are learning in class.  They will also keep some form of a journal, keeping track of what their avatar accomplishes.  The students could access this virtual space when they wanted, so continuous learning could be taking place outside of the classroom.  In this course it would be very interesting and a great experience for the students to see first-hand the different stages of children as they grow up. Lecturing them about the physical changes or the mental capacities at each age can only go so far, but giving the students a chance to become a 3 year old or a 6 month old would allow them to feel what it’s like. Robbins-Bell also  talks about identity and the students could choose to be a different gender, giving them a much different perspective on the world.

This course would be set up so the students learn the different stages of development, but they would also be held accountable for the interactive components as well.  The students will have different “quests” they can perform to test the capabilities of the avatar they chose.  This would show them the limitations of children, but also how much children learn at an early age.

Giving the students a chance to express themselves will allow them to become more involved, but the hands-on experience will also help the material stick.  This virtual reality space will allow the students to track their progress and see the progression of the children instead of just reading about it in a textbook. To make this course even more engaging, there shouldn’t be much limitation on the avatar.  the only real limitation that I would set for the students and their avatars, would be that they  could only start out at a certain age.  There would be some sort of cap put on the ages, so the students can see the development of younger children because in the first couple years of a child’s life so much happens developmentally, and I would want the students to see that.  By giving the students as much choice as possible to create their child, they can have more experiences and see more in depth how children learn and grow.  Also, with there being a wide area network, the students can be put in real life situations and see how they handle themselves.   At the end of the course the students could see how far their children have come and I think that it would improve their grades on the examinations, because they can reference their avatars and remember how they grew over the course of the semester.  This experience will make learning so much more interactive and give students the chance to see the growth and development of children into adolescents.

At the Wikipedia site I found it very easy to use and the about us section was quite extensive, listing their main purposes and strong points about the website, but they even mentioned some of their downfalls, which I thought was good to point out.  Wikipedia is set up for many different languages, so there is limited cultural or lingusitic bias.  There are many articles on the site givng participants access to pretty much any question they have.  Each site is then linked with other sites, so the reader can quickly gain access to more information.  The only downside to Wikipedia is that anyone with access to the Internet can go and change information on the sites simply by clicking edit page.  Even though there are superior editors who monitor what is being changed, with the copious amount of articles, it is hard to keep track of each article.  This then makes Wikipedia susceptible to having incorrect information put on their site.  Overall, Wikipedia is a quick way to find out information.

Socialtext is the other site I visited.  I thought that this site was a little harder to look around in.  Socialtext’s main goal is for people and organizations to share information and collaborate on their findings.  It did look as though this site was more focused towards organizations and businesses and not necessarily to the individual. It also focused a lot on change and an organization’s attempt to keep up with the times.  Socialtext also incorporates a little of Wikipedia in that they use Wiki Workspaces which allows a group to edit pages, but only authorized users can view these pages.  This makes it more secure and less likely to have incorrect information displayed.

Each site works to collaboratively work together to inform the public and allow the public a space to gain more knowledge and keep up with change.  In my opinion, I think that Wikipedia is easier to use because it is more straightforward and it doesn’t cost anything.  This makes it ideal for anyone, from students to adults.  Socialtext does have a free trial, but then one must pay for it, which could be okay for a business or organization, but not as accommodating to an individual or younger person.  Wikipedia allows for quick acces to many articles, and general information when people are looking to broaden their knowledge.

Links to these sites: Wikipedia, Socialtext

Wikipedia's Main Page

Socialtext's About Us Section