A continuation from yesterday's entry.

The previous entry points to a powerful example of how a virtual identity can affect the “real” one.  It offers the insight that if a System is designed well to draw a real world identity in- that respective identity can affect real world choices and conscience. 

This extends to an educational foreground as well.  Imagine a student’s moral code, self-esteem, and motivation for success being transferred into the virtual identity of a scientist in a laboratory; where the actions as the scientist significantly affect these areas in the “real” student.  A high transfer rate to the scientist identity may occur if the System engages the user in similar ways that the Mass Effect System does for me.  

It is not unreasonable to extend then that if the “real” identity is deeply affected by the virtual one, the amount of learning from that experience will be increased.  Therefore, the key appears to be, designing Systems that tie students to virtual identities.  It’s worth finally adding that, as in the example of the scientist identity, virtual identities are not and should not be constrained to the development of “edutainment”.  As J.P. Gee might support, the medium of virtual Systems is just one possible path to developing meaningful virtual identities in students.    

- Controller 22789JK7

 

(Ladies discussing the idiocy of a tic-tac-toe trivia game)