Friday, September 7, 2007
Online Identity
This was a post I created for the students in our Online Teaching and Learning Graduate Certificate program and I thought it might be relevant here as well. At least it's something to consider::
Branding vs. Pseudonymity
When you decide to take your courses and your presence online, you start developing an online identity and an online persona. Some people don't mind a public or even branded online identity/persona. In fact, they foster it:
See http://juliaparra.com
It's important to have an online presence and an online persona in order to develop a thriving learning community and feel successful as a student and as a teacher.However, many people do not feel comfortable with their pictures and real identity being freely available on the web. Thus, it's a good time to reflect on how public you want your online identity/persona to be. My friend, Bethany is fostering a near-pseudo identity with her TekTrekker moniker. I say near-pseudo because her first name is scattered throughout the blog.
So, depending on your attitude about the Internet, we recommend that you consider your online identity. If you want to brand yourself, use your real name. If you do not trust the Internet, consider a pseudo-identity, a way to interact with us and each other online yet remain somewhat anonymous.
Creating Your Pseudo-Identity
First, ponder a fake name that is unique and doesn't identify you. For example, a pseudo-identity that I might have considered is desertjewel.
Second, set up your pseudonym email account. Gmail is our recommendation as they no longer require a secondary email account. Hopefully, your pseudonym idea hasn't been used by someone else. This is where you might have to make adjustments to your chosen pseudonym.
Third, create an avatar for your online picture. Yahoo Avatars is a fun still image avatar. Voki is great for your audio/video avatar. If you have a Second Life character, you can take a picture of yourself in Second Life and use that.
More about avatars - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(virtual_reality)
Last, use your pseudonym and avatar image whenever you are asked to post something online.
Resources for Further Exploration
Why You May Need an Online Persona
Your Online Persona
Developing Your Online Persona
Taking Care of Your Internet Persona
Managing Your Online Persona Becomes a Key Career Skill
Online Identity
The Brand Called You
Personal Branding
What do you think about your online identity?
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8 comments:
Julz, one online ID becomes very important in a virtual enviornment. The printed word, video or pix become the medium by which the other online learners draw conclusions about you and your persona. Emotion is for all practical purposes, in the sense of face to face absent.
Joey
julz was here.
I feel that we need an online presence or persona but we need to be careful as to who we give access too. I like to try (I say try becuase somethings this is tricky!) to keep my information safe. I do use my name-this is probably something I shouldn't do. I have started using my first and middle name so most people will not know who I am unless you are really close to me.
Sandy
We have to be careful because there are identity thieves and other people out there in cyberspace that we don't want to know and don't want them to have our personal info. I post with my first name. Even though I have a personal website with my first and last name, it only leads to a separate site e-mail and because I haven't become famous yet, then I hardly get any e-mail there at all. With students, it's very important that we transfer this info to them to be careful and not give out personal info online.
AIM Mail (AOL) has an interesting feature. Once you subscribe to their mail, you cab acquire an AIM phone number for your cell phone, above and beyond what your provider assigns. This phone number can be called by other parties or yourself and it leaves a voice mail message in your AOL email. This is niceness because you can give other "strangers" this number and keep your identity top secret. For example a young lady at college can give potential suitors this number and then screen them upon being called. I know you can do the same with caller ID, pero this number is not connected to your account/billing.
Julz,
Like Vicki, I am posting using my first name (for now). Your article about developing an online persona makes sense. I'll have to ponder what online moniker to use... Online safety is important and as a newbie to blogging I want to learn as much as possible about all the issues concerning this environment.
Rose
I haven't really considered my online persona simply because I haven't delved into social networking. I think it is something very important to consider. Like most of you, I have been using my first name and I feel pretty safe with that. My concern is our bios we created in moodle. That isn't accessible to the public, right? That has lots of personal info, so will our teacher portfolios.
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