EDUCATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDS - How Identity and Presence Affect Users' Experience - Brill
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EUN WON WHANG (CHERRYBERRY GERSTORT), KONA TAYLOR
(MADISON POPPY) AND TIMOTHY CASH (TJ MILEV)
4. EDUCATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDS
How Identity and Presence Affect Users’ Experience
Virtual reality is the technology, discourse, and dream in which Second Life
rests. Technologically, virtual reality is defined as: a technology that convinces
the participant that he or she is actually in another place by substituting the
primary sensory input with data received and produced by a computer … The
“as-if” quality of virtuality becomes a pragmatic reality when the virtual
world becomes a workspace and the user identifies with the virtual body and
feels a sense of belonging to a virtual community. (Jones, 2005, p. 1)
INTRODUCTION
In today’s world identity is multiple, fragmented, and in relation to the Internet,
oftentimes illusory. The Internet has become the new “third space” for many, and
has taken the place of the corner café or coffee house where people would normally go
in their free time to relax (e.g., see Oldenburg, 1999; Steinkuehler & Williams,
2006). The first space is a person’s home life and the second space is a person’s
work place. The third space is separate from these first two spaces in that the third
spaces are informal social spaces where people go to spend their free time and also
involves a sense of community and togetherness. Previously, third spaces have
included bookstores, coffeehouses, or café; however, this new third space of the
Internet is so accelerated, varied, and at times even chimerical compared to the
original third space (and especially compared to the first [home] and second [work]
spaces), that identity is left fragile and even fragmented. Previously, identity was
thought to be relatively fixed in association to an established and frequently
recognizable other. But in today’s Internet world where the other is often un-
recognizable and free from crystallized norms and roles, the rendering of a traditional
understanding of identity in this context is relatively meaningless. As a result of
interaction in the Internet third space, an individual can be who she or he chooses,
and who she or he chooses to be (i.e., their identity) can be changed on a whim,
which is the opposite of what is possible in the other spaces of home and work.
One type of place within the third space where this concept of identity is constantly
constructed and reconstructed based on an individual’s relationship with this third
space is virtual worlds. While the use of virtual worlds started out for entertainment
purposes (e.g., chat spaces or other social networking applications), educators have
begun to realize the educational potential of virtual worlds for learning. Virtual
S. Tettegah and C. Calongne (eds.), Identity, Learning and Support in Virtual Environments, 33–41.
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WHANG, TAYLOR AND CASH
worlds provide people with access to, “parts of the real world that are too expensive,
complicated, or dangerous for them except through computer simulations, and to
worlds of imagination where they can play with social and physical reality in new
ways” (Shaffer, 2006, p. 11). Recognizing these possibilities, educators have begun
to focus more on the use of virtual worlds for educational purposes. Yet, to fully
reap the educational benefits of this new third space it is important to better
understand how identity and presence affects user’s experiences within these
worlds. For the purposes of this chapter, presence in virtual worlds and their impact
on the educational use of the virtual world, especially Second Life are going to be
examined.
VIRTUAL WORLDS
Presence in Virtual Worlds
Presence of oneself in a virtual world is directly related to sense of realism
experienced within that environment. Bailenson and Balscovich (2004) used the
term ‘copresence’ to express the idea of social presence in virtual worlds. For
Bailenson and Balscovich, “Social presence reflects the degree to which people
respond socially towards an avatar [An individual’s virtual representation of
themselves] during interaction, compared to the degree to which they respond to
normal physical humans” (p. 8). Realistic or not, the existence or absence of
presence is of great significance to the user in virtual worlds. Yee (2006) found that
the presence of avatars makes the virtual world more visually realistic for the
players and/or users. Likewise, Guadagno, Blascovich, Bailenson, and McCall
(2006) were able to show that people are more responsive to social presence within
virtual worlds when avatars and objects within that world behave and interact
realistically. Capin, Pandzic, Thalmann, and Thalmann (1998) further illustrated
that “Even with limited sensory information, a virtual human frame that reflects the
activities of the user, can be constructed in the virtual world; and this increases the
sense of presence in this virtual world (p. 2).”
As avatars and environments within these virtual worlds become more immersive
due to their ability to alter and control what avatars look like, where they live, and
who they interact with, the sense of presence also increases. Vice versa, as the
sense of presence increases, so do the individual’s immersion and their attachment
to their “virtual” identity. For individuals who extensively participate in these
virtual environments, it would be meaningless to draw a line between the real
world and the virtual world. These virtual worlds are becoming an extension of
people’s life space. Individuals, via their avatars, get married and/or sometimes
then divorced, build friendships that often extend beyond the virtual world, hang
out and socialize, network with other likeminded people, and sometimes even go to
school! Extensions of self afford feeling of happiness, joy, sorrow, grief, love, and
jealousy while existing, interacting, and sharing these emotions with other avatars
in the virtual world.
In other words, individuals are now truly ‘living’ their lives in the third space of
virtual worlds. Yet, what is implied by this is that the users are experiencing a great
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sense of “presence” within these virtual worlds that is then allowing for the trans-
parency between their real and virtual lives. Without this sense of presence, users
would not feel as connected to or as immersed within these virtual reality
environments. In effect, a disconnection would be created between their perceived
identity and their interactions in the virtual world. This would also impact the
educational value of virtual worlds because if students did not feel like a part of the
virtual world, then they would not react to situations or others realistically. Thus,
given the previous research that has shown the importance of avatars and users’
sense of presence, it is vital to look at how avatars influence presence and in turn
immersion in virtual worlds, and how this affects identity.
Avatars and Their Influence on Presence
In the third space of the Internet, avatars are used as a form each individual creates
to represent themselves to others within a virtual world. In real life, “extreme self-
transformations are expensive (e.g., cosmetic surgery) and difficult to perform (e.g.,
gender reassignment surgery)”, yet “nowhere is self-representation more flexible
and simple to transform than in virtual environments where users can choose or
customize their own avatars” (Yee & Bailenson, 2007, p. 271). One of the first
tasks when an individual enters a virtual world for the first time is to create an
avatar, which is the chance for the person to invent or even reinvent his or her own
identity.
Some virtual worlds allow individuals to use their own picture or other personal
image files, but most worlds provide a human-like avatar as a prototype. In
general, people tend to stay with this humanoid representation, making changes to
gender, race, shape, body or facial figures. Yet, some change their avatars into
completely different creations, such as cartoon like characters, animals, or other
inanimate beings. From all of these options individuals are given when creating
their avatars, the most important element an avatar provide is the “means by which
an individual represents him or herself – a physical and located person/object – to
others in the virtual environment and community” (Chan & Vorderer, 2006, p. 86).
Thus, the process of making such decision requires one to think of their own choice
of identity – whether they would keep their real world traits or choose completely
different options from their own.
The ability to create one’s avatar and in essence “identity” within virtual worlds
is what helps to create a greater sense of presence and immersion within that world
due to the connection individuals feel towards their avatar. Furthermore, the
importance of an individual’s avatar is evident by the fact that people not only
spend time creating the physical characteristics of their avatars, but also spend real
world money (converted over to virtual world money) to buy skin, hair, eyes, clothes,
and a multitude of other accessories to enhance their virtual representations. In
addition, some people even create multiple avatars to depict different aspects of
their personality or to suit certain moods, just like many people creating multiple
e-mail accounts for different purposes (personal, work, shopping, etc.). Since
avatars are a means by which individuals represent themselves in a virtual space to
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others, it is understandable why they would spend such great effort to personalize
this artificial image. It is also not too surprising to find out how the interactions of
avatars in a virtual world, especially in Second Life, are becoming so serious and
similar to the real world of our first and second spaces.
Exploring Avatar Creation and Identity in Second Life
Second Life (http://secondlife.com) will be used as an example to better explain the
creation and appeal of avatars because of the focus educators have placed on
creating educational environments within this world. Second Life is a three
dimensional virtual world categorized as a social simulation game. People help to
develop and participate in (what they perceive as) a utopian society. In most cases,
societies and living patterns in Second Life do not deviate far from that of the real
world. In Second Life, when a user logs on, the avatar is simultaneously presented
in virtual world. When the user logs off the avatar disappears from virtual world,
but other objects or avatars still logged on continue to function.
At first, Second Life provided only two different prototypes, each representing
male and female as an option for users to choose. Currently, they provide more
options for the users – six female and six male representations. Among those
options, some are featuring humanoid looks while some are animal-like looks. You
can check out these different options during registration process in Second Life
web page (http://secondlife.com).
There are many different ways to personalize an avatar. As one can see from
Figure 1, Second Life provides an abundance of ways to shape one’s avatar. This
abundance of shaping features is the reason why it is so hard to find two identical
avatars, unless people intend to do so. Figure 1 also shows the multiple options
individuals have to choose from when creating an avatar. For example, body parts
are divided into four different categories of shape, skin, hair, and eyes, yet each
category is subcategorized into several other options. Each category allows users to
precisely control the look of their avatar by providing scroll bars that can be
adjusted with almost infinitesimal degrees of change.
In addition, an avatar can alter its physical appearance as many times as the
owner wishes by drastically changing its body parts with a few small clicks of the
mouse. Figure 2 is showing how one avatar can be transformed into many different
looks. This avatar first started with the very left-side look. The second look is her
wearing darker skin on a modified body shape. Although her face is not clearly
shown, she has been modified to look more like an Asian female. The third picture
now displays different hair color with different skin tone and outfits, which she got
for free while travelling around in Second Life. The fourth one, still the same
avatar, is wearing bridesmaid dress with different hair style. As one can see from
Figure 2, Cherryberry crossed the racial line several times with just a few mouse
clicks.
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Figure 1. List of modification that can be made to an avatar (shown: Cherryberry).
Figure 2. Variations on one avatar in Second Life (shown: Cherryberry Gerstort).
Other than just avatar appearance, other features within Second Life that
contribute to user’s identity are the ways they can physically interact and express
themselves. Avatars can communicate through text and voice, walk around, fly,
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run, and dance just to name a few. Yet, the most common instrument used to
interact with other avatars is text. Interestingly, while in many instances textual
communication limits the ability of interaction with one another. This limitation
was the catalyst for the creation of certain terminology to express simple feelings
or behaviors. For instance, LOL (Laugh Out Loud) is used to express that they are
laughing in reality and to convey that sense of human emotion to the other avatars
around them. Asterisks (*) are used to express behaviors (e.g. *yawning*) or to
simply correct typing errors. In addition, with the knowledge of scripting or with
money to buy “motions”, avatars can have a repertoire of various motions. Such
motions are expressed through the body of avatars when the user selects and clicks
the corresponding action from a list or the user can setup shortcut keys for often
used motions. However, this delays the spontaneous emotions that are required in
normal human behavior, so people tend to rely more on textual expressions.
Presence and Education in SecondLife
One of the reasons why the virtual world of Second Life has become so successful
is its realistic environment, avatars, and complex avatar to avatar interactions,
which have greatly increased users’ sense of presence and immersion within the
world. Within Second Life, users can go shopping for any number of items to outfit
themselves or their homes. They can interact with other avatars in clubs, restaurants,
and amusement parks, as well as join any number of groups dedicated to such
pursuits as having fun, discussing politics, or even religion. Thus, Second Life
really does offer up a “third space” to its residents by creating a unique place that
offers anything they could find in “real life,” and if something isn’t in Second Life
you can always create it!
The importance of identity and presence in Second Life is based on the value
educators place on realistic interactions among group of people. Just like using
simulations to gain realistic experiences, the more transference of learning from the
real world to the virtual world may occur. Within the virtual world of Second Life,
students have the opportunity to practice skills such as “media and computer
literacy, cognitive skills such as problem solving and spatial awareness, and social
skills such as the ability to collaborate” just to name a few (Linderoth et al., 2004,
pp. 157–158). Even with the very basic experience of using a virtual sandbox
(which allows users to design and create anything they want) or changing the
appearance of their avatars has the potential of providing students with chances to
practice basic math, literacy, technology, or art skills. The more realistic these
virtual world interactions are, the more meaningful the learning will be for the
student and the more likely to transfer their knowledge and skills to the real world.
Another major opportunity Second Life affords, as it relates to education, is that
it offers students and educators, particularly but not exclusively involved in distance
education, a different and possibly better way to communicate than currently existing
electronic course management systems offer. The sense of presence based on a 3D
space allows for a different type of communication through synchronous avatar
interactions, which is quite a different experience than synchronous communication
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in a traditional instant messaging. The rules of interaction among users chatting in
Second Life can be different. For instance, Second Life allows users to select
scripted emotions, such as laughing, that can replace acronyms like LOL. A user’s
decision to employ scripted emotions as well as being able to put a face to the
person they are interacting with represents a significant change in communication
in comparison to traditional instant messaging.
In conjunction with the communication affordances Second Life provides, is the
construction of community and collaboration. For instance, many researchers that
analyze synchronous communication conclude that this type of communication
affords great opportunities for community building. Second Life currently appears
to enhance the ability to not only build community through its communication tools,
but also provides users with opportunities to collaborate, and as a result, learn. In
order to sense one’s presence in the virtual world, the person must go through a
process of sensing another person’s presence. With the sense of co-presence, when
participating in a collaborative study or project, teaching and learning will become
more meaningful and realistic compared to other online or distance learning systems.
Again focusing on how understanding presence in virtual worlds as tied to realism is
a key component in the educational opportunities that Second Life may afford.
CONCLUSION
Virtual worlds are no longer the metaverse (Stephenson, 1992) dreams of science
fiction writers and are becoming a common if not normal third space for individuals
to interact online with other people. Advancements in technology, larger selection
of games, and virtual reality environments that look and feel more like the real world,
further enhance the appeal of virtual worlds to society. Recent research conducted
on behalf of the U.S. Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee indicated
that when given the chance approximately forty-four percent of respondents would
rather have their avatar look similar to the way they look in “real” life (Reuters, 2008),
thus adding to the seemingly importance of realistic virtual environments and avatars.
Yet, virtual worlds can be utilized as a tool not only for their pleasure and escape,
but for its educational and therapeutic values. Sensing presence and immersion in
virtual worlds can increase potential of users’ identity establishment in these worlds.
Establishing one’s identity within virtual worlds may imply existence of various
personalities, appearances, behaviors, thoughts, life styles, and so on, just like the
world we are physically living in. Users’ sense of identity in virtual worlds may imply
serious and down-to-earth relationships and interactions in these worlds which
eventually may imitate the world we live in. The more realistically people view the
environment they are interacting in, the more seriously and realistically they will
behave.
Likewise, the more realistically they behave the more potential is created for
education. If students are behaving and responding in virtual worlds much like they
behave in real life, educators can harness these virtual worlds for learning experiences
that would not have been possible otherwise. Paradoxically, the fact that virtual
worlds are not truly “real” also has tremendous educational potential. For instance,
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the existing paradox between real and imaginary that virtual worlds afford allows
for creativity at levels that might not be possible in a more traditional educational
setting. Identity, presence, and realities mix with imagination in virtual worlds to
create amazing educational opportunities.
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Eun Won Whang
Curriculum & Instruction,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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Kona Taylor
Curriculum & Instruction,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Timothy Cash
Curriculum & Instruction,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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