The Idea of Avatars

The last week readings made me realize that I can be less open minded when in comes to pedagogy and learning activities. I initially disliked the idea of virtual  games which I discussed previously, and I stand firmly against the idea of avatars.

To me  language learning it meant to support a more productive lifestyle. Why create random characters and chat anonymously about silly stuff when you can find your favorite idol in your field of interest and have a meaningful conversation with them using Twitter as an example.

Another thing is that avatars promote the idea of hiding how you really are, a behavior that might be very appealing to  less confident individuals. Learning a whole new language and discovering new cultures should highlight confidence and enable individuals to stand out and speak up. As educators, I feel like we should guide learners and mentor them in the later direction. This supports a never ending journey of learning,  not a delusional mere language exchange activity.

The paper "Me, Myself and I: The Role of Interactional Context on Self-presentation through Avatars" mentions something about avatars having special feeling for each other, and I couldn't  disagree with the morale in stronger. We should encourage people to communicate with other REAL people, and learning another language can get them a new set of friends for life. If listening to a song can change one’s life, what about spending hours hiding behind a cartoon figure talking under the shelter of anonymity? I believe that studies should cover the long term negative effects of that of self confidence and representations. Learning a language enables people to present themselves in new ways to new audience;  it is not meant to enforce the idea of invisibility.

Major side effects:

According to (Warburton, 2009), it is not easy to join communities in such games, and without lots of shared interested and goals, there would be" little conversation". This makes such games no longer a momentum in language learning unless learners are asked to fully emerge in such acts until they find plenty to discuss. The later suggestion doesn't sound appealing. 

Those games contain some inappropriate content, and users are allowed to chat freely about sexual content, thus teachers may be held responsible there.

Virtual infidelity  has already resulted in a real-world husband and wife seeking divorce in the real-world after the wife witnessed her husband’s avatar engaging in a virtual affair with another avatar. The couple have already obtained a virtual divorce(Furber, 2009).

The damage may break families not only harm people on individual levels. Stuff like "virtual infidelity" brings our attention the the ethics applied in such worlds. Are those merely games? When each avatar is a manifestation of a real person, should they be considered as real people?   

Users main motive is socializing, yet they would spend over 20 hours per week hiding behind computer screens (Furber, 2009). This looks more like isolation. Another drawback mentioned in this paper is that individuals may display extreme attachment to their avatars especially once they make some enhancements and still believe that they resemble them. 

Most discussions on the ethics of virtual worlds focus on the issues of whether actions within virtual worlds are significant, the nature of the wrongness and the status of harmful actions within virtual worlds, and punishment.
The moral wrongness is a whole new issue! Is it ok to be a murderer there?   

I will conclude with this question from (Furber, 2009).

What reasons could anyone have to believe that it is wrong to murder, rape, torture or rob virtual human characters in virtual reality?

I personally have no answer to that for such codes should be established across cultures and countries.  

Side effects on young learners according to "The Positive and Negative Effects of Video Games":

This article showcases some of the effects on young learners such as violence, bad language, attention issues, lack of social skills, impulsiveness and health issues. Those can vary from obesity to seizures. 

video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r-OGGmARbI

To conclude, this video clearly justifies all concerns regarding such games. It shows extreme bad language, racism, inappropriate clothes and generally unacceptable ethics especially within educational means and standards.

References:

"The Positive and Negative Effects of Video Games." Raise Smart Kid. 9 Aug. 2015. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
Furber, Musa. "Ethics & Virtual Worlds: Second Life as a Case Study."Ethics & Virtual Worlds: Second Life as a Case Study. 2009. Web. 
Warburton, Steven. "Second Life in Higher Education: Assessing the Potential for and the Barriers to Deploying Virtual Worlds in Learning and Teaching." British Journal of Educational Technology: 414-26.Vasalou, Asimina, and Adam N. Joinson. "Me, Myself and I: The Role of Interactional Context on Self-presentation through Avatars." Computers in Human Behavior (2009): 510-20.