Identities and Abilities Group 1 SU 09

From WikEd

What has the advent of the Internet and international use of technology done to us as people?

How has it affected our identities and our abilities as individuals and in relationships, both globally and glocally?

What does that mean for the field of education and schooling?

Identities and abilities pose both great opportunities and great challenges.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Education Policy Studies 415 XM Summer 2009

Dr. Nick Burbules, Professor

Heather Greenhalgh-Spencer, Co-instructor

Authors:

Aaron Aves, Camille Davidson, Erik Bostrom, Greg Johnson

Jamie Butzen, Jamie Page, Milo Dodson & Pam Olivito

Contents 1 Identities and Abilities: Introduction 1.1 Introduction: Purpose, What is Identity and Ability? 1.2 Implications of Technology on Identity and Ability 1.3 Implications for Education and Beyond 2 Identities and Abilities in the Context of Self 2.1 Postmodern Knowing? First things first: What is postmodern? 2.2 Sherry Turkle: Postmodern Knowing 2.3 Identities: Alternate, False or a Different Version? 2.4 Abilities and Disabilities 2.5 Virtual: The Opposite of Real? 2.6 Embodiment and Human Identity, Intelligence 2.7 Transcending our Bodies 2.8 Cyborg Theory 3 Identities and Abilities in the Context of Relationships 3.1 Types of Online Communication 3.2 Embodiment and Human Interaction 3.3 Relationships 3.4 The Issue of Trust 3.5 Respect: Thick and Thin 4 Identities and Abilities in the Wider Context of Globalization 4.1 Transcending Differences 4.2 Transcending Space and Time 4.3 Implications for Youth 4.4 The Internet and Global Communities 4.5 Glocalization 5 Identities and Abilities: Conclusion 6 References 7 Links

Identities and Abilities: Introduction

Introduction: Purpose, What is Identity and Ability?

This site will attempt to take a look into the very interesting and always changing topics of identity and ability, what they are, and how they are affected by and affect society's ever-changing technologies. The site will investigate identity and ability both in the traditional definitions of the terms, as well as how technology and the internet have changed these ideas and possible future changes that may occur within these topics.

Identity, in the traditional sense of the term, has commonly been defined as having a distinguishing character or personality, or a certain individuality, as well as the condition of oneself, or a sense of self. All of these aspects of the basic definition have strong implications when comparing and contrasting how they relate to the changing landscape of technology. An individual could develop an identity or sense of self as becoming a part of their culture, and practicing cultural traditions that help define that sense of self. Or, an individual might have a strong characteristic or personality trait that they have developed over their lifetime that has helped in shaping who they are in regard to their gender or sexual orientation. A different individual may become a strong individual and have high self-esteem because of their upbringing and family background and how it has shaped their individuality.

As Dick Hardt presents in the above video, identity can simply be "who you are," and he goes on to share a variety of ways one could distinguish themselves and create their identity. It might be your age, sex, culture, family, where you live, where you work, and/or what you enjoy doing. Identity could also be what one says about themself, and what others say about an individual. Identity could be presented and conveyed verbally in the form of an introduction, it could be on paper in the form of a photo or government ID, and in many cases requires trust and a reputation that this identity is true and correct. Despite having a goal of creating and promoting a product, Dick Hardt does convey numerous (and some obvious) ideas about what identity is and how it will be changing in the future.

Ability is also a term that has a traditional definition, but has changed in some fashion over the past couple of decades. Ability is typically when an individual has a certain degree of intelligence, or an aptitude, competence, skill or talent in a specific area or topic. Traditionally these abilities have been defined by the real world, our physical world. We might do well academically, be musical or athletic, have an artistic flair or be a charismatic speaker. As we explore different online media, environments and communities our real world abilities may not purely transfer to these online worlds. Real world abilities gain or lose importance in these new contexts and new and different abilities come into play as well. Thus, the able may find themselves challenged and the disabled enabled.

Implications of Technology on Identity and Ability

With the implementation of new technology over the last couple of decades, the definitions of identity and ability have shifted with these new developments. With the advent of the Internet and the personal computer becoming commonplace, the way individuals go about defining their identity has changed as well. Personal communication has changed, and online interaction is now a common, and sometimes preferred way of interacting. Individuals now are not only creating identity in their everyday life, but are also creating identities within the online environments they are participating in. A user must now have a digital or online ID in order to create online personas or interact over the Internet. Whether one is registering on a website, sending an email, chatting over IM, creating a username, playing games or MUDS, creating avatars, or posting pictures, there are countless opportunities for one to create a new identity, or shift an existing one to the web.

On the web, more often than not these identities are created on trust and it is very difficult to actually prove a person's identity, according to Hardt. Many aspects of an identity can be falsified and altered in some ways, and because the web is such a new and powerful medium, users can create new identities or interact in new and exciting ways. Because of these new ways to interact and communicate, the definition of identity now has to be shifted to include these forms as individuals are no longer only themselves in everyday life, but they are themselves, and others, on the Internet.

With creating an identity on the web comes the opportunity to change who you are or the characteristics and behaviors you take on. You could be someone entirely different, or just someone with slightly different abilities. You may choose to simply change your name or career, withhold information about yourself or create an avatar or image that does not resemble you. Someone who may be disabled in real life may act and carry on as if they are not disabled in the online world. Another reason the definition of ability must shift with these changing technologies is because more and more people are required to be able to not only use a computer, but also have knowledge of how to get online, send an email, create online accounts and so on. These are all new and often necessary abilities. The ability to work online and communicate with others is almost to the point where it is a necessary requirement, not just a luxury or hobby. Thus, someone who has been the accountant or secretary for a company may or may not transition well to the use of technology for those tasks. If I am an accountant who has difficulty using a spreadsheet, my ability in terms of job skills has changed.

Implications for Education and Beyond

Widespread use of web and online communication has changed the way people interact with one another, as well as the traditional definition of identity and ability. The classroom has also felt the effects of these new technologies and new ways of creating technologies. Educators must learn new skills and teach students who not only feel comfortable with technology but who also have grown up with it. Technology integration is often blended into the traditional classroom and in some cases change towards more student centered instruction is taking place because of it. Online classes rely on students creating and maintaining an online account, picture, persona and so on and relationships with the teacher and classmate are built on these simple online profiles. There are many ways students can interact online through use or participation in study groups, message boards, games, wikis, blogs and virtual worlds. Many of these new technologies are showing exciting promise for the classroom.

With the new ideas and definitions of identity and ability, combined with great possibilities in personal and educational technologies, this site hopes to address a number of these ideas. The advent of the Internet and technology has and will continue to change how we interact with others in and out of our social groups. We are constantly altering and creating new identities and abilities, and in return are shifting our relationships and individuality. Education and career fields will also feel the effects of these new trends and technologies. They will soon find themselves in the middle of a number of new ways to interact as well as dealing with newly formed personalities and identities. The opportunities and challenges posed by these topics will be addressed in a variety of manners throughout this site.

This site takes a look at the self, its relation to the real life, and the opportunity for alternate and virtual forms of the self. In some cases the online versions of self become the dominant versions, and can lead to changes in the person's real life, as opposed to solely online. The Internet also provides an option to show or hide disabilities from the online world, which the real world does not allow. A person could be free from these disabilities, fears or shyness, and can be a completely different person if they so choose. This site will also deal with intelligence created through new technologies, artificial intelligence, and even issues of identity relating to embodiment and cyborg theories.

Human interaction, both in the traditional sense and online has changed drastically. Portions of this site will study forms of online communication and how one would develop an identity in each of these forms. With this new territory comes a focus on the issues of trust, truth, and respect, as one might never know who physically is on the other side of the computer screen, requiring a great deal of trust. Online communication can challenge our concepts of trust and respect, yet users often agree to an unwritten rule where they will not forge their identity, or breech someone's faith, even though the web presents so many opportunities to do so. Lastly, the site will discuss ways that online communication, and issues of identity are commonplace worldwide and how issues like cultural differences and similarities are greatly influenced by the Internet and its users.

Identities and Abilities in the Context of Self

Postmodern Knowing? First things first: What is postmodern?

Sherry Turkle (1995) in Life on the Screen states, "A decade ago, Fredric Jameson wrote a classic article on the meaning of postmodernism. He included in his characterization of postmodernism the precedence of surface over depth, of simulation over the 'real', of play over seriousness, many of the same qualities that characterize the new computer aesthetic" (p. 44). This tedsaidit video places postmodernism squarely in today's culture of technology and asks Fredric Jameson's questions of a decade ago. Is online becoming more real than real? Is simulation overtaking the real? Are we alone online in a surface lacking depth? And we might add: Is this video more play than it is serious?

Sherry Turkle: Postmodern Knowing

Sherry Turkle (MIT, no date), Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT, is also the current director of the MIT initiative on Technology and Self. She wrote Psychoanalytic Politics: Jacques Lacan and Freud's French Revolution, The Second Self: Computer and the Human Spirit and Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (in which she addresses postmodernism). As such, her work is a good starting place for this discussion of identities and abilities in terms of the relationship between self and technology.

For the postmodernist theorists described in Transparency Now's "Surface, Surface Everywhere..." summary (no date) of Turkle's Life on the Screen, the different facets of our lives are nothing more than different windows that can be maximized or minimized. As we balance our daily activities, we are essentially completing the same task as an individual at a computer interchanging between different programs, determining how they are displayed on his or her monitor. For those that interact in MUDs, real life, or “RL” in the vernacular, is just another window that we can bring to the surface or minimize to our taskbars at will. MUDs allow players from various locations to interact in the same world by typing a description of what they are doing, which serves as their side of the conversation. These descriptions are then responded to by other players on their screens, and so the conversation continues. Imagine a world where teens and tweens could live out their social networking sites’ status updates?! Holy MUD, Batman!

As the author points out, players could potentially spend an enormous amount of time each day constructing a life that is much more detailed, and to them, much more interesting, than the lives they live in physical reality. “We can thus see one of the essential characteristics of this new culture, which acts as if it is trying to transcend the limits of existence by creating simulations that seem real and by making reality more like a simulation” (Turkle, Transparency Now, no date).

Sherry Turkle writes that the role-playing games (RPG's) created on MUDs provide participants with the ability to choose their characteristics and actions in the context of the game and thereby acquire a working knowledge of the postmodern theory of knowing. The entire game is text-based, with imaginary characters representing the players as in a story that is being written during the game. And, same as in a story, their knowledge of the environment is based only on what they can read about it, while their proposed actions within that environment are typed out for the other players to see. Through this interface, Turkle claims that the RPG players are evaluating the game in the same way that postmodern thinkers see reality itself.

According to postmodern philosophy, reality either has no underlying meaning, or its meaning cannot be known to us. It follows that our only recourse is to study things just as far as we are able, which leaves us with a very shallow, surface knowledge of our reality. And according to postmodernism, any individual interpretation would be equally as legitimate as any other. A player's understanding of the simulated game world would be very much like this, making reality's realness a moot point when its truth value is perceived as equal to that of a simulation.

Turkle makes a connection between this conception of reality and the virtual one inhabited by RPG players through the way each of them are viewed by their respective participants. The postmodernist claims to understand reality only through surface meanings and nothing deeper, while the RPG player has only their simplistic text-based world on which to base their decisions. It is by applying similarly simplistic principles to real life (or RL in the parlance of our times) that the RPG player can gain a postmodern understanding of knowledge and the self. For example, the characters acted out by the players are described by a set of unrelated characteristics, which in turn can be applied to their understanding of self in RL. When they are able to act out decisions according to the disparate personality traits of a character in a game, it becomes acceptable to deal with their own conception of identity as a set of characteristics without a unified self. This leads them to accept the aspects of their personality that do not necessarily comply with what they expect from themselves and to suspend belief in reality, approaching it in a way similar to the reality of the games they play.

In relation to ability, postmodern philosophy applies to the MUD through the understanding of knowledge outlined above. Players in a MUD are very limited in their awareness of their surroundings in the game world, just as they have no immediate knowledge of the other players and their abilities. As a result, each individual player is free to express themselves however they wish and to act within the game world in ways unavailable to them in the real world. Physical ability in RL is therefore not a deciding factor of status or stigma in a MUD. However, since the only way to communicate is through typing, it follows that one's vocabulary and their ability to type would take on the potential for baseless judgment and stereotyping that physical ability (speech included) would normally have, since it is the first, most recognizable characteristic of someone when you meet them in the MUD environment. So individuals in the MUD will not be under the same limitations as in RL, but new limitations exist to be considered, and ability in those areas will determine the way an individual is perceived and carries themselves.

Turkle (1995) raises questions as she reflects on the fact that we are spending more time socializing using technology (on the screen) than face to face, as we participate or use email, mailing lists, bulletin boards and interest groups. She asks: "What will computer-mediated communication do to our commitment to other people? Will it satisfy our needs for connection and social participation, or will it further undermine fragile relationships? What kind of responsibility and accountability will we assume for our virtual actions" (p. 178)? Whether we agree with the ideas presented in postmodern knowing or not, these are questions that need to be answered and perhaps even responded to in terms of holding onto our humanness, our sense of a central, moral self. The idea of postmodern knowing brings into question whether our true self is one of unity (unifying) or fluid and diverse and fragmented. What holds us together as one being, or is that not necessary in today's society? Turkle writes of our diverse identities and abilities in a positive light. She states, "The open communication (between various aspects of our selves) encourages an attitude of respect for the many within us and the many within others. As we sense our inner diversity we come to know our limitations. We understand that we do not and cannot know things completely, not the outside world and not ourselves. Today's heightened consciousness of incompleteness may predispose us to join with others. The historian of science Donna Haraway equates a 'split and contradictory self' with a 'knowing self'. She is optimistic about its possibilities: 'The knowing self is partial in all its guises, never finished, who, simply there and original; it is always constructed and stitched together imperfectly; and therefore able to join with another, to see together without claiming to be another'" (p. 261).

Robert Jay Lifton, Wikimedia Creative Commons License

We will take a closer look at Haraway as well as the idea of embodiment as that glue that keeps us unified as one self in later sections of this site. But before concluding this section, let's look at what Robert Jay Lifton (Turkle, 1995) has to say about a unitary view of self, as some of us see hope and wisdom in it. In The Protean Self Lifton sees the idea of a fragmented self as dangerous, a "fluidity lacking in moral content and sustainable inner form". A healthy protean self is capable of "fluid transformations but is grounded in coherence and a moral outlook. It is multiple but integrated. You can have a sense of self without being one self" (p. 259). Certainly we must come to grips with the fact that we are in fact dealing with multiple identities and abilities. How we unify them, make sense of them, hold on to morals and values, hold on to our humanness is critical to us and to our society.

Identities: Alternate, False or a Different Version?

Dr. Nicholas Burbules, professor of educational policy studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, wrote "Like a version: Playing with Online Identities", the inspiration for this section of our web page. With Thomas A. Callister Jr., associate professor and chair of the Department of Education at Whitman College in Washington State, they together authored many articles (such as "Public spaces and cyberspace: Issues of credibility in educational technologies", "Who lives here? Access to and credibility within cyberspace" and "Misinformation, malinformation, messed-up information, and mostly useless information: How to avoid getting tangled up in the 'Net'" and the book Watch IT: The Risks and Promises of Information Technologies for Education). Together they address social realities and the new environments shaped by the Internet. Their look at identities and abilities in that context provide much insight, and Burbules' "Like a Version" brings some sense to our look at postmodernism, embodiment and the many surfaces we traverse in this age of technology.

Burbules (2002), in "Like a version: Playing with Online Identities", writes of Dreyfus who argues that online interactions will never be able to, and should not be able to replace face to face interpersonal activities and relationships. He looks at Dreyfus' writing in On the Internet as an argument with Turkle's postmodern ideas presented in Life on the Screen. Burbules (2002) writes, “We don’t lose our bodily identities when we act anonymously...but the relative anonymity of online interaction can suppress the effects of prejudice or discrimination.” Instead of making shallow judgments of others’ appearances, online interaction calls for interpretation of content, almost ignoring to the physical source of origin. However, this is not to say that judgments are in anyway removed from cyberspace. The content we share with others can also be reason for others to make an ill informed decision of the speaker’s social value. Even then, in instances where we must create a virtual representation of ourselves, we do so with the understanding that others can and will form opinions about us. It is not that judgments will cease to exist, but rather, the manner in which they are formed can be altered.

With this being said, what then is the role of avatars in terms of our identities? Are they an extension of our personality, or do they let us escape from real life? Can they possibly be a more accurate representation of our “true” personality, without real world judgments? Students are experimenting with their own identity and concept(s) of self through the creation and use of avatars in Teen Second Life. Teachers then can explore a variety of questions with students. Why did you choose certain avatar characteristics? How does this relate to you yourself? Are you and your avatar alike or different? Did the media or your friends influence your decision(s)? Beyond the physical, as those avatars interact with others, deeper questions about identity and self can be explored. Online chats in their new personas can be saved and later used as topics of discussion. Students share differently and often more openly online than in person. Library Media Specialist Peggy Sheehy for example stated, "These online chats were nothing short of profound," she says. "I remember the hairs on my arms going up when I saw kids commenting about the need to rethink what beauty is." As students reveal and explore new aspects of themselves, they re-invent themselves as they examine and explore different sides of themselves, their identities and abilities as well.

If nothing else, we should not conceptualize the relationship between virtual reality and physical reality as a perfect dichotomy. Instead, there is a between that creates a more accurate relationship along a continuum. People participate in online interactions for particular reasons, and see “specific advantages to such interactions.” Because these differ from traditional, physical reality interactions does not mean that they are necessarily any less valuable for these individuals.

by Cayusa, Flickr Creative Commons License

Are these different online identities of our selves our real true identity? Some would consider our alternate identities false, as they do not represent in total our real life identities. Yet others contend our online identities are simply different versions of ourselves. Suler (2002) clearly describes our online dilemma: "Who are you in cyberspace? Am I the same John Suler I am in-person or someone a bit different? One of the interesting things about the internet is the opportunity if offers people to present themselves in a variety of different ways. You can alter your style of being just slightly or indulge in wild experiments with your identity by changing your age, history, personality, physical appearance, even your gender. The username you choose, the details you do or don't indicate about yourself, the information presented on your personal web page, the persona or avatar you assume in an online community - all are important aspects of how people manage their identity in cyberspace. Identity is a very complex aspect of human nature." We all have various aspects of our personalities in real life (child, parent, student, employee, neighbor, friend) which we integrate into a whole person in our physical identity. Some of those aspects of ourselves are positive, while others are negative. Sometimes we present our real selves and at other times present a more fantasy based side of ourselves. Certainly online we have that opportunity. We may be in control of how we present ourselves or not, such as when role playing and taking on a specific identity. In real life we express ourselves through our clothing, hobbies and body language. Online we may do so through avatar choice, emoticons and graphics. All of these complex interactions can make one stop and wonder just who are we really?

Miller and Mather (1998) write about this possibility of an alternate or altered new version of our identity presented simply though the content of our home page (or today our Facebook, My Space, Flickr, blog or wiki pages). They state, "There has been considerable research on the social aspects of electronic communication, including the implications for identity, but most of that research has focused on interactive communication in newsgroups, chat rooms, MUDs and MOOs, where the communication is text based and intended to be interactive (Danet,1996; Turkle 1995). Less attention has been paid to the WWW as a social phenomenon, though Erickson (1996) has identified the development of a 'social hypertext', and Chandler (1997) and one of us (Miller, 1995) have considered the implications of, to use Chandler's phrase, 'writing oneself in hyperspace'." People's identities and sense of self are presented on these pages through not only text but hyperlinks and photos, and thus provide an opportunity to explore multiple personas. Some of the personas created on these pages are aspects of a person that they would not usually share in the course of real life. Some exaggerate aspects or at least emphasize some portions of their lives more than others. They present what they want themselves to be and, in a sense, create a new version of themselves.

This between can be seen in the debate of the challenges and opportunities of online or distance learning. What some see as an advantage, others see as a hindrance. As we participate in an online course environment, communication rules and opportunities (or the lack of) are changed; they are different than those we follow in real life. Because of that, we reveal a different side of ourselves. Some might say we are presenting a false self in those circumstances, or at least a partial self, while others would say we are presenting more of ourselves to others, an aspect that is not seen in real life. In that sense, we present a more complete picture of ourselves online, or is it instead a different version?

Instruction that is totally online provides challenges on an instructor/student relationship level. Many believe that online we cannot see the real, true identities of participants, that a large gap in the ability to communicate effectively exists. "Professor Ibbs quickly learned there is an art to Internet instruction. 'When you are teaching in a conventional sense, you can read the faces of the students and know whether your message in getting across or if perhaps you have to amplify a bit more,' he says. 'You don't have that opportunity on the Internet. That has required me to change'" (Savoye, 2001). In this case, Professor Ibbs kept a scorecard next to him, keeping track of student participation and noting when a student was absent in the sense of not communicating. This might mean a student was not grasping a particular concept. Peterson (2000) agrees and states of the traditional classroom vs. an online one, "If, for instance, students appear inattentive, puzzled or bored, the professor may see that it is time to alter the subject matter or the delivery manner." Peterson (2000) speaks of shortcomings and vulnerabilities of online education and states "that communication tends to be less effective than it is for traditional classroom instruction" and goes on to state that communication experts "write that spoken messages can convey five times as much impact as written messages. In communicating, approximately 10% of understanding derives from words used by the source, while 40% is derived from the way in which it is spoken—inflections, pauses, speed and other variables, and approximately 50% is carried by body language." Peterson concludes from this that online education is very restricted in its use of communication. Though online education has changed since this article was written, the fact remains that in the great majority of online courses (a few using virtual worlds where avatars can convey a few of these lost nuances) continue to be unable to convey messages through the way verbal communication is conveyed and use of body language. Peterson goes on to add that in a face-to-face classroom, instructors and students can sense and see the enthusiasm for a topic and feed off of each others' excitement in the topic. Further, "many Internet course instructors report boredom and lack of enthusiasm with their teaching assignments." As well, business skills honed through collaborative work such as "learning teamwork, leadership and speaking skills in the process" are difficult to teach in an online environment. (Peterson, 2000) Much of the college or university experience comes from relationships with other people and organizations on campus. Peterson (2000) concludes these thoughts by stating, "In short, online courses probably have a place in the offerings of most institutions. But it should be recognized that the core competency lies in traditional courses, and these should not be cannibalized by online offerings. Otherwise, students, the educational institution, employers and society at large will be shortchanged" in terms of the impact relationships have in learning.

Challenges faced by online students include a need to feel validated as a real life person other than their online posts,contributions and the identity those depict. Professor Ibbs' students (Savoye, 2001) stated that one reason for their program's success "was the administrators' awareness of the need for sheer humanity" in a totally online educational environment. The course, for instance, began with team building exercises and purely social forums were available throughout the courses. While some would say this does not replace or compensate for lack of real life interactions and relationships, others feel they do and even bring an added dimension that is lacking in real life.

Heubeck (2008) believes online education provides many positive opportunities as students assume online course identities. She states it enriches "the learning experience by presenting global perspectives in online discussion groups and chat rooms." Regent University in Virginia, for example, has students from all U.S. states and 56 countries (including U.S. military all over the world) enrolled in online courses. Dr. Michael Frank (Heubeck, 2008) finds relationships and richness in online teaching "both the ability to watch students think as they answer questions and my ability to respond thoughtfully -greatly enhanced." He believes online education provides the opportunity for students to provide thoughtful, substantive contributions as they do not have to respond immediately in a face-to-face setting, but have more time to ponder their responses. He also feels students cannot hide in online education, like the traditional classroom student who slumps in his/her chair in the back of the room (Heubeck, 2008). In this case, online education gives students a chance to better clarify themselves and their identities as they carefully post responses. Many students echo that from their own perspective. They state they share more of themselves during online coursework than they would in a face-to-face classroom situation. Aine Swanson, speaking of five online Blackboard courses he experienced, believes "he is more likely to chime in during online class discussions, because he's less nervous about the reactions of students sitting nearby" (Adams, 2009). One must wonder then, if the ability to better communicate in openness and clarity presents not simply a clearer picture of our true selves, but a different version of ourselves as we discover online what we would not in real life.

The story of Sister Furong reveals another aspect of the issue of identity and the Internet. In this case, a person's presentation of themselves through the use of the Internet resulted in turn in an actual change in their daily, real life identity. Her internet persona became her real life persona. She began as someone who took three tries at the country's college entrance system before getting into college (Wikipedia: Shi Hengxia, 2009). She is now, if not a success, certainly a celebrity and her life and identity is changed because of the Internet. How could this happen? The Internet provides opportunities for us to disclose ourselves to others in a relatively new way. Our identity, our self awareness and concept of self comes from the feedback of others. In real life, we come face to face with this feedback, but on the Internet we can choose to ignore what we do not want to recognize. As well, the Internet is a venue where many, many more people can see us (although we don't make eye contact) and give feedback, mostly through text based types of media. In Sister Furong's case, she began by presenting herself on university bulletin boards as beautiful and intelligent. Her images and video spread through Chinese cyberspace as she presented herself as a great dancer with a sexy appearance. While most of her feed back was negative (stating she was ordinary looking, an attention seeker and called her dancing strange movements), she ignored their feedback and continued on. Some saw her as brave and confident and even thought her dancing was good. Then she completed the cycle but moving from the Internet back to real life. She was hired for commercial events (mostly in the United States), did a Broadway fashion show, auto shows and even hosted a charitable event. Thus, she went from an ordinary person to a celebrity solely because of the platform of the Internet. This was not simply a virtual identity change. This identity transformation landed squarely back in real life.

Abilities and Disabilities

What of Sister Furong's abilities? Certainly her identity changed because of her online experiences, both in her perception of herself and how others perceive her. Did her abilites change as well because of her online experiences? Did the online environment bring out abilities that the real world did not? Do varying opportunities thus bring varying abilities to fruition? We believe they do.

Take something as simple as an online class. As we saw in the previous section, some of us who would not readily speak out and participate in a traditional classroom, will do so in an online environment. There, physical presence does not intimidate and time is available to collect thoughts, write and then rewrite them. Certainly in that circumstance our ability to participate and communicate is changed. This can be even more dramatic for those with disabilities. Imagine you are hearing impaired. You are in a traditional classroom. You struggle to hear and understand the content of the lesson at hand. You are also marked as different. Your disability is obvious and it separates you from others in the class. Now imagine you're in an online classroom. Much of what you do is text based. Auditory material does not have to be heard in a classroom setting. There is time and opportunity to get and understand that content literally without others in the course even knowing you did so differently than the rest of the class. You are no different to your classmates than anyone else in your class. Your disability in a real sense disappears. Your abilities change.

Thus for some, an online environment gives them a chance to be seen as who they truly are, not by their physical appearance and abilities, but beyond them. Savoye (2001) provides a good example of this. As a PhD candidate in distance education with a master's degree in counseling, Karen Al-Ashkar worked closely with Professor Ibbs' students (Savoye, 2001). She was involved with designing the University of Wisconsin's two-year Master of Engineering in Professional Practice (MEPP) program and chaired the admissions committee. She worked closely with students to assure they felt that human side of relationships while attending online courses. In the article, she references the "sense of community the program fostered by the ability of cyberspace to blur social, economic, ethnic, and other divides". One student, for example, had a disability from birth that meant he could not grip a pen, so from early on he used computers to write. Al-Ashkar writes, "His parents came up to me at commencement...and his mother had tears in her eyes. She said he'd told them that for the first time in his entire academic life he felt like every other student. He wasn't singled out because he had to use special equipment." Clearly in this case, online/distance learning meant a more normal relationship between student/instructor and student/student. Clearly in this case and for this student, in a real sense his disability disappeared.

FEZ Rutherford's 2nDisability in Second Life

The variety of such stories is virtually limitless as one ponders the types and various levels of disabilities, from physical disabilities to learning disabilities to social phobias. Cassidy (2007) presents examples of how Second Life, a virtual world inhabited by avatars, assists not only the disabled, but the fully abled in understanding and empathizing with those with disabilities. In Flying with Disability in Second Life, Cassidy (2007) uses wheelchair bound Niels Schuddeboom, quadriplegic David Wallace and cerebral palsy sufferer Simon Stevens to demonstrate the power of virtual worlds for those with disabilities. Niels states, "'Perhaps the most profound difference I have experienced is that people have treated me differently' he said. 'In real life, due to my wheelchair and lack of physical coordination, people often regard me as intellectually as well as physically disabled.'" In Second Life, Niels holds a camera, takes photos and creates movies; activities he cannot do in real life. In the Netherlands, those with disabilities do not routinely hold jobs; in Second Life Niels runs his own company. David shares that while there are a variety of weird looking people in Second Life, everyone he's met has gotten along and been accepting of others. Simon dances at Wheelies, a night club in Second Life. FEZ Rutherford's blog, 2ndDisability (see photo directly above), helps others step into the shoes of the disabled, including different forms blindness and cerebral palsy. Cassidy (2007) concludes with, "Others imagine that virtual reality will begin to play an important role in banishing the loneliness, isolation and depression that is all too often part of ageing as well as playing a big role for people either living with diseases that make them housebound or with permanent disabilities."

Tools or helps for those with various disabilities that hamper their use of computers and technology are available. While in the past, expensive programs helped the visually impaired magnify computer screens and read text to them, free tools are now available. For instance, the advent of Windows XP included a free text reader as well as a magnifying tool and an on-screen keyboard in their Accessibility section of its Accessories. Free text readers such as Read Please and Natural Reader can be downloaded and more advanced versions can be purchased. This type of software can also help those with learning disabilities and limited reading ability. While not free, those who need writing helps can find applications such as Co-Writer, Write Outloud, Read Outloud and Wordmaker from Don Johnston that are often used for special ed students in the classroom. Boardmaker from Mayer Johnson helps educators and others working with special ed children to create symbol based communication books designed specifically for one person in mind. The examples could go on and on...

Is the Internet then instant Nirvana for those with disabilities? No, not always. This You Tube video about Bruce Sexton illustrates the fact that, while technology use can erase some disabilities, those creating technology need to take those with real life disabilities into account instead of simply aiming for the abled. Bruce's criticism of sites where previously mentioned text readers do not function correctly is just such an example. Following up on Bruce's law suit against Target (National Federation...), the National Federation of the Blind reached an agreement with Target. As part of that agreement, their web site was to be fully accessible to the blind by February 28, 2009. While we could not find any indication of that on Target's web site, we were able to read various pages using Window's text reader.

It seems to us that each environment we encounter, whether it be in the real world or a virtual online one, presents its own unique opportunities and challenges for all of us - disabled or not. In the real world, perhaps we're a physically fit active person. Yet in Second Life we may struggle to manipulate our avatar, gesture appropriately and move about effortlessly. Or, in the real world perhaps we're in a wheelchair with limited mobility, yet in Second Life we may move, gesture and interact easily and flawlessly. In a sense, this calls into question the definition of a disability. Is one's ability or disability defined totally by the real world? Perhaps we'll need to take another look as online experiences become more and more the everyday norm. We can foresee a time when terms such as RLdisability (Real Life), OLdisability (OnLine) or VWdisability (Virtual World) may be common place and necessary. Whatever terms we use, technology is opening up new worlds for all of us.

Virtual: The Opposite of Real?

On the surface, one might automatically assume that yes, virtual is the opposite of real. A look at the traditional definition of virtual would most likely lead one to not actual or imagined, while many dictionaries have added a digital version of the word. In light of our current discussion of identities and abilities, however, it becomes clear that (at least for many, ourselves included) virtual is not the opposite of real. For many, the virtual is a very real place or surface to inhabit and explore. The virtual affects our lives in the real world. For Sister Furong it certainly did. For those with disabilities, the virtual can hold great importance as well. What does research have to say on the subject?

Ovsiannikov and Monakhov (2007) do not see the virtual as the opposite of real. In fact, they state that virtual is real enough to be "loaded with ethical rules" and containing good and evil. They do not totally equate it with real reality however, as they describe the virtual as a social reality where people are immersed and psychologically involved. They believe educators need to guide students educationally while addressing ethical issues in a different, virtual reality where good and evil exist. Students shape their beliefs and morals in terms of their identities and personalities as they interact in these virtual worlds. Virtual Reality poses critical issues and "should be the object of special study". Virtual reality is a new kind of "social reality; when immersing themselves, people become psychologically involved and experience a range of emotions. This kind of reality, like ordinary reality, is also loaded with ethical rules. In this virtual reality, just as in ordinary reality, there is good and evil, there are ethical rules" (Ovsiannikov, 2007). This is a new pedagogical situation and educators need to be certain to develop ways to manage it to help students develop the positive qualities of their personalities.

Burbules and Callister (2000, Watch IT) state, "the term actual might be helpful here, precisely because it blurs the real/virtual distinction". The aspects of our personalities and personhood that we present to others vary depending on our environment or community. This is true in real life and in online or virtual environments. We filter and choose what aspects of ourselves to reveal or present to others. We are different at home, at work, with our friends, with our parents, at church and in various online communities. When we are online, our identities change because of the community we are participating in, as our identities change because of our friendships, family and work. Burbules and Callister (2000, Watch IT) write, "The idea that a person is more 'real' or more themselves when they are acting in one context than in another elides a number of much deeper issues about the ways in which all social interactions are mediated. The belief that some communities are 'real' and others 'virtual' ignores what is 'virtual' (imagined) about all communities and what is 'real' even about online communities - as real as any community can be." Thus actual is a much better description of all these communities of participation than real or virtual.

Educationally, the virtual can make actual experiences for students. Winn (2001) believes that virtual reality has the potential to greatly benefit student learning and discusses current virtual reality models that could be used successfully in educational settings. Winn points out the benefit of virtual reality in the sense that it allows users to become directly involved with their task rather than being in a passive role where they are simply taking information in. In education, the “tasks” at hand may involve students exploring complex phenomena through different identities. Winn cites various examples of how student attitudes and identities are being transformed through virtual reality in educational situations. Among the most interesting of these examples, at George Mason University, students are deepening their understanding of Newton’s laws of motion by using virtual reality to “become a ball” and then experiencing them firsthand (Winn). Using the University of Illinois at Chicago’s virtual gardens, young children become gardeners who engage in specific tasks and activities to care for plants and keep them alive and healthy (Winn). Perhaps the most interesting example that Winn discusses are the virtual gorillas at Zoo Atlanta, where visitors to the zoo first observe the live gorillas, and then “become gorillas” using virtual reality. According to Allison et al. (1997), when the students become gorillas, they experiment using different gestures and sounds with the other virtual gorillas and measure their reactions and behavior and adjust them accordingly. This experience helps students develop knowledge beyond being able to make a description of the gorillas to understanding of the ways that different variables affect their behavior and actions. Winn (2001) gives an example of this scenario by discussing how the virtual gorillas are programmed to react in a realistic manner to a young child who would come up to their cage and bother them! Winn briefly discusses augmented reality, a newer form of virtual reality that can superimpose virtual objects into the user’s view of the actual world. With this technology, it has become possible for characters in books to “come alive” and act out the story that the user is reading (Winn). According to Shelton (2002), MagicBook was the first example of a virtual book where the reader was completely immersed in environment and characters so that he/she could become a virtual object within the virtual environment of the story. Winn (2001) discusses another augmented reality project at the University of Washington, which will allow students to “pick up” a map and examine the three-dimensional topography, land cover, water flow etc. of the area. In short, augmented reality has the potential to affect student attitudes and identities by allowing them to more easily relate abstract concepts to actual environments.

Embodiment and Human Identity, Intelligence

"The concrete (embodiment) is not a step towards anything: it is how we arrive and where we stay."
Hayles (1999), quoting Francisco J. Varela (p.157), seals our grounding in embodiment stating "sensing and acting...is essential to living cognition".

The above video interview of Dreyfus gives the story behind how he became involved in the issue of embodiment and through what means, thus providing a context for his beliefs discussed in the following paragraph. Growing up in a small rural community and dealing with dyslexia, he was encouraged to go to Harvard because of his participation in a high school debate team. Dreyfus avoided subjects where reading would be essential (due to his dyslexia) and set out thinking he would be a scientist, but soon moved to philosophy. There he strugged to find the question, the interesting topic/passion that would lead him on an intellectual journey. It took a while. It finally happened while teaching at MIT. The students were coming over to his classroom from the robot lab where they were working on artificial intelligence, comparing their lab to his philosophy class. This caught his interest and his passion was discovered. Dreyfus didn't agree with them; intelligence is more than just following rules. Intelligence cannot be separated from the body. This was a perfect fit with his philosophical journey from Pascal who discarded Descarte's beliefs. The mind is not good and the body bad; we are not essentially mind. We are essentially bodies and minds and we have this conflict, this struggle to get all of what it means to be human together. Thus, Dreyfus came to the body; the reason why he predicted artificial intelligence would fail; embodiment in terms of technology. Without the body, relevance slips through our fingers. Let's take a closer look now at what Dreyfus himself has to say through his writing about what computer can't do.

Hubert L. Dreyfus (Dreyfus, 1972) believes the limitation of computers is not limited by what computers can do, but that they are limited because they have no body. People perceive first as a whole, and then if necessary in parts. We experience, know and see situations in their entirety through our entire bodies, not simply our mind. Computers do not, but know by looking at details and pieces, and therefore are limited. It is therefore our bodies that use computers or technology that bring ourselves to it. Thus, Descartes concept of a pure mind as a distinct thing separate from the body cannot be. Dreyfus states, "In thinking that the body can be dispensed with, these thinkers again follow the tradition, which from Plato to Descartes has thought of the body as getting in the way of intelligence and reason, rather than being in any way indispensable for it" (147). Dreyfus quotes Polanyi as writing, "While we rely on a tool or a probe, these are not handled as external objects...they remain on our side...forming part of ourselves, the operating persons. We pour ourselves out into them and assimilate them as parts of our existence. We accept them existentially by dwelling in them" (164). Dreyfus goes on to prove this idea by showing one can perform physical tasks without in any way appealing to the principles of physics or geometry. The act of touching something is learned by doing it, repeating it, to get it right. We use no rules. Humans are capable of "remembering, refining, and reorganizing these somewhat indeterminate motor schemata" (165). Dreyfus then quotes Piaget as coming to the conclusion, "The specific nature of operations...depends on the fact that they never exist in a discontinuous state...A single operation could not be an operation because the peculiarity of operations is that they form systems. Here we may well protest vigorously against logical atomism...a grievous hindrance to the psychology of thought." So, while we pour ourselves into technologies and they become a part of us, our entirety depends upon our bodies, upon embodiment.

On the Internet (2009) takes Dreyfus beyond artificial intelligence into the debate about whether we can leave our bodies behind as we traverse the Internet. Again he believes the body is essential, as Maurice Merleau-Ponty's philosphy proclaims that we cannot simply perceive the world, we must engage the world through our bodies. In his above interview Dreyfus speaks of a student, Samuel Todes who wrote Body and World (which Dreyfus published). Todes stresses the body has structure, a front and a back; we move forward better than we move backwards. Dreyfus believes this is the next stage we'll need to pay attention to. Until computers can have bodies enough like ours and feelings like ours, technology will never be complete without our bodies. Dreyfus ends the video discussion with the thought that embodiment in a way has already come to and met the Internet. He believes embodiment is creeping into the Internet through technologies such as Skype where the body enters in above and beyond simply text. Technology is not becoming the body or replacing it. Technology is recognizing its importance and bringing it into the technology mix. The Dreyfus video interview itself does the same; it brings true, real bodies to the Internet and makes better meaning and sense of it all.

Transcending our Bodies

The idea of transcending our bodies stands in contrast to the previous section's topic of embodiment. If indeed technology allows us to transcend our bodies, then our color or race, sex or gender, our bodily physical appearance no longer matters. It is unseen; we transcend it. Boler (2007) speaks of the hope of transcending our bodies. She writes, "Rather, their expressed desire to transcend the body appears to reflect a yearning to change how we think about, experience and envision social identities. The hopes reflect a desire to challenge static notions of identity, engage fluidity and break down traditional binaries" (male/female, black/white, rich/poor, heterosexual/homosexual) (p. 149). Boler (2007) tempers these hopes with actualities, which include the idea that online users refer to or ask each other about "markers such as age, sex and location to make sense of online communication". We look for these social markers or cues, using them to connect online identities with real life identities.

The idea of transcending our bodies is not new. Meditation and various religions look toward the spiritual or the mind to move beyond the limitations of our bodies. The idea that it can be done through and with technology, however is a new way to view this concept. Perhaps as online communication becomes more routine, we will ask less and less for those physical markers such as age, sex and race. Yet it seems to us that, with the advent of multimedia, video and 3D virtual worlds those markers are here to stay. Certainly video brings the physical presence squarely back into play. In terms of virtual worlds, however, the markers remain but can be false or not the same as those of the real world. In Second Life a white male can be a black female and the fountain of youth is available for use as well. Even beyond that, some look to technology as a medium where one can upload their mind and truly transcend their body.

Hans Moravec (1997) of Carnegie Mellon University disagrees with Dreyfus and his thoughts on embodiment. Moravec believes that it is simply a matter of time before computers become capable of replicating the human mind. When computers develop enough power, they will eventually reach human performance. He writes of "epic battles between world chess champion Garry Kasparov and IBM's Deep Blue (computer) in 1996 and 1997." Deep Blue gave Kasparov a good competition but Kasparov eventually resigned early in the final game. "Several times during both matches, Kasparov reported signs of mind in the machine. At times in the second tournament, he worried there might be humans behind the scenes, feeding Deep Blue strategic insights!" The team that built Deep Blue claims no intelligence is in it, just databases and the ability to look ahead at possible moves. Moravec believes, however, that presented as a whole, as Kasparov saw in the quality of Deep Blue, an impression of intelligence emerges. Moravec predicts, "The visceral sense of a thinking presence in machinery will become increasingly widespread. When the highest peaks are covered, there will be machines than can interact as intelligently as any human on any subject. The presence of minds in machines will then become self-evident" (Moravec, 1997).

Moravec's (1995) Bodies, Robots, Minds article about robots begins with the word "bodies"! In a sense, moving away from simply uploading our minds to a computer and moving towards a physical representation of an actual physical body, makes one wonder. Does this not in a sense recognize the importance of embodiment rather than its unnecessary-ness? Moravec (1995) recognizes how very complex and difficult it is to move about space, manipulate objects and gather data. He states, "I've estimated that it would take a billion computations per second, like an average supercomputer, to do the job of the human retina. By extrapolation, it will take the power of ten thousand supercomputers or a million personal computers to emulate a whole brain." Moravec (1995) goes on to write, "I feel that the fastest progress on the hardest problems will come from a third approach, the newer field of robotics, the construction of systems that must see and move in the physical world." His look at the future is where he loses us and leaves the realm of the believable. Moravec sees within four robot generations, a pure and higher intelligence learning and growing and communicating throughout the universe, eons beyond our biological bodies. Our biological brains will have been transplanted into the digital. It seems contradictory to us that Moravec moves toward a machine with a body (a robot) to gather and process the way our actual bodies do, then suddenly moves away from its necessity. A brain in a machine would not be us. It would simply be a digital replica of a portion of our body, disembodied from our true self that integrates and pulls together everything that makes up our being; that makes us who we are.

Which leads us back to a fascinating question. Can technology combine artificial intelligence with a body, a robot body, and create the total digital human? Creators of Kismet (pictured above), the world's first sociable robot, believe so. Kismet was created in the late 1990's and has auditory, visual and expressive systems. Thus, he can interact socially, demonstrating simulated human emotion. While clearly a machine, Kismet also calls to us as human. In person, Kismet uses facial expressions including use of his ears, eyebrows, eyelids, lips, jaw and head. Kismet also moves other parts if his body and vocalizes. What would Dreyfus think? What do you think? Personally, I'm still with Dreyfus. Kismet is intriguing and fun to think about, but our bodies are composed of much more than the current component parts of Kismet. Even if scientists could manage to give Kismet all of our component parts, how does one breathe life and soul into a machine?

Cyborg Theory

	"The machine is not an it to be animated, worshipped, and dominated. The machine is us, our processes, an aspect of our embodiment" (Haraway, 1991).

Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline (telecult, 2008) coined the term cyborg in 1960, stating that it would be more logical to change a man's bodily functions to function in extraterrestrial environments rather than create an earthly environment for them in space. The cybernetic aspects of adapting a man to such an environment would thus lead to the creation of a cyborg. Donna Haraway (1991) used their concept of cyborg in her idea of cyborg theory introducted in her Cyborg Manifesto to criticize the traditional notion of feminism and give birth to a postmodern feminism that would free us from traditional ideas of feminism, gender and politics. In the above video clip, Haraway finds others' use of the term cyborg maddening as it has been used to describe almost anything about the joining of man and machine. While that is the context in which it will be used here, we do want to note that Haraway intended it in a much different context. Her manifesto was written for the Socialist Review and addressed the future of socialist feminism in the 1980's. Haraway's use of cyborg was a metaphor (or as she describes it as "a joke in a way") used as a political challenge to feminists. We apologize here in advance to Haraway, as our use will undoubtedly stray from her initial usage and intent. We hope the video clip will serve to present her more accurately and in that way honor her intent and her work. Clynes and Kline as well had no such intentions for its use when they coined the term cyborg in 1960.

Examining this portion of Donna Haraway's description (1991) of a cyborg, we see "the difference between machine and organism" as being "thoroughly blurred; mind, body, and tool are on very intimate terms." In other words, man and technology become one as the machine/technology becomes an extension of the human. As Gregory Bateson puts the question to his graduate students, is a blind man's cane "a part of the man" (Hayles, 1999, p. 84)? We would answer yes, just as a hearing aide becomes an essential part of a hearing impaired person, as a skilled carpenter's tools become one with him as he works, and as many of us might feel incomplete or at a loss without their cell phone, calendar or other electronic device.

In the same sense, interactions between people and computers/technology have become more and more complex. They provide an ever increasing number of important uses that we in turn have come more and more to rely upon as essential, even an essential part of our selves or the selves we have come to believe we are with them. People thus become cyborgs as computers/technology become extensions of themselves. In a different sense of cyborg, this technology can be a physical part of ourselves (and less of an extension of ourselves), as in the case of a pace maker or Kevin Warwick's implant. Warwick, during two hour plus surgery, had a one hundred electrode array implanted in the median nerve in his left arm. With it Warwick has controlled an electric wheelchair, an intelligent artificial hand and even communicated through it with his wife in terms of an artificial sensation. (see Warwick video below) It can also be more fluid and less clear cut as our online experiences reshape our identities and we in essence join with the computer in a back and forth, give and take that changes us, our identities, our lives and expands the variety of communities in which we exist. Many variations of thought exist on the topic of Cyborg Theory. They all converge as technology meets and joins with us, affecting both our identities and our abilities. All in a very real sense make us cyborgs.

Chislenko (1999) takes us from today's realities and speculates on the future. He states, "There are different ways to look at what currently exists, what constitutes an identity, and what is being augmented." He also sees the blurring of physical elements of people, with their bodies, tools, and ideas. He believes physical bodies with the same function cannot combine successfully, "therefore functional bodies specialize". We are limited in our individual physical and functional abilities. "So we need to extend our memory and intelligence as well, which is what we are trying to do now with the information technology" (Chislenko, 1999). Humans and their interface with attachments becomes increasingly abstract, whether interfacing with basic tools or technology. As we evolve and augment our self, our identities evolve as well. And if human rules of social interaction depend on a permanent identity, then society becomes in trouble when those identities change (Chislenko, 1999). Society is then faced with many questions. Chislenko (1999) takes this to the extreme when he concludes Technology as extension of human functional architecture with "In the most distant future that I can envision, intelligent entities will be extremely fluid and highly independent from the physical substrate of the world." Charles Platt suggested to call them infomorphs. although this term assumes at least some functional identity. In the real post-human future the identities may completely dissolve, and "the world will represent a mix of a superliquid economy, cyberspace anarchy and distributed Artificial Intelligence. To current humans, it may look like crazy functional soup."

We do not share Chislenko's (1999) vision for the future where "identities may completely dissolve". Our bodies with all of its senses, various parts and abilities tie all of our current sides and personalities together as one being. It will continue to do so in the future, managing and integrating all of our identities, abilities and experiences, as we evolve and change as we interact and make choices within varying communities. We do, however, believe technology will become more and more entwined with our daily existence and much of it will become so common place as to become transparent to us. We can easily envision each of us having multiple identities through various technology uses just as we now present a different face or identity as well as varying abilities to the world at work than at home and than in social situations. As we become involved with multiple online communities, in each we might easily present different cyber-sides of our selves. Along with those various identities would also come varying abilities, as we would have differiing strengths in a virtual world than in the You Tube community than in real world, etcetera. Our cyberselves, identities and abilities, will only be limited by the variety of communities we choose to participate in.

Chislenko (1999) brought up a point that does ring very true to us. Society will indeed be in trouble (and already is) as a system of laws and morals created for a person with one identity must deal with scenarios that include ever changing identities in cyberspace. How do we deal with cyber crime? Is it punishable in the real world? Should it be dealt with in the virtual world? Should it not be dealt with at all, as we are doing no more that playing a game online? What do we do with Mr. Bungle of My Tiny Life who commited multiple cyber rapes in the living room of a long standing online community of LambdaMOO, stunning the community members and throwing their community into turmoil? Should he be banished from their online community? Punished in real life? Not punished at all? And do we even know who he is - really - in real life? And does it matter? These questions are being raised in online communities as incidents of lawlessness and lesser crimes occur online. Some spill into our real lives as we bank and shop online. Many do not as they occur online and thus impact only those online with them. Yet, if we bring parts of ourselves to these online communities, as we believe we do, then justice needs to be had so civil, safe online communities can exist. As cyborgs, our real true embodied self is affected when an online identity is harmed or wronged. We believe the impact of such crime online should be dealt with online, certainly not ignored. We also believe the ripple effects into our real lives need to be dealt with as well.

Just how perfectly can man merge with machine? Can we download our consciousness to the machine and thus the machine become us? Do we then no longer need our bodies? N. Katherine Hayles (1999) takes a look at this through an interesting scenario. She places you in a room with two computer terminals. You are communicating with two entities in another room. You must decide which is male and which is female; this is the Turing test. She goes on to state that nearly four decades later, "Hans Moravec proposed that human identity is essentially an informational pattern rather than an embodied enaction." He imagines a scenario where human consciousness is downloaded to a computer. The Maravec test then becomes "that machines can become the repository of human consciousness—that machines can, for all practical purposes, become human beings. You are the cyborg, and the cyborg is you." Hayles (1999) does not go that far, but believes it is the "enacted and represented bodies" brought into conjunction with technology that connect them. We agree. Hayles (1999) states, "The important intervention comes...when the test (Turing or Moravec) puts you into a cybernetic circuit that splices your will, desire, and perception into a distributed cognitive system in which represented bodies are joined with enacted bodies through mutating and flexible machine interfaces." Hayles (1999) states at that point you have already become posthuman, as you already assume or view informational pattern over material instantiation, consciousness as a minor slideshow - not the whole show, the body as just another prostheses to learn to manipulate thus manipulating other prostheses is a natural continuation of that process, and the human being can be "seamlessly articulated with intelligent machines. In the posthuman, there are no essential differences or absolute demarcations between bodily existence and computer simulation, cybernetic mechanism and biological organism, robot teleology and human goals" (p. 3). We are one with the machine, as boundaries blur and man merges with machine.

Burbules and Callister (2000, Watch IT) relate Cyborg Theory to the issues of surveillance and privacy, an important consideration in today's society. They write: "As people accept the inevitability of being observed and recorded, their habits change; they change" (p. 126). "Moreover, the 'we' who choose are partly defined by such technologies as well. We are, as Haraway says, cyborgs, humans with a technologically constituted identity" (p. 130). But let's back up a bit. Don’t we decide whether we want to provide information about ourselves online and set out browsers to accept cookies or not, or at least warn us before we do? Aren’t we in control? Burbules and Callister (2000, Watch IT) say not really, and they make a good case to the contrary. Information is gathered online without our knowing or actual specific consent and new ways of doing so are constantly being developed. The Internet has become about business, and business is about gathering information about you and then presenting to you what they will. In fact, they predict your choices and preferences before you actually make them. Choices as well are not true choices. If you choose not to participate because of surveillance (or any other reason), then you often have to give up the technology or activity entirely, as there is no freedom to participate without that surveillance. Thus, you are affected either way, participate or not. You have no choice to be neutral. In schools the situation is much more blatant. Content is filtered, not just for students but often staff. Acceptable Use Policies proclaim email is not private, hard drives and history track our usage and software itself tracks our identities (logins), where we’ve been and what we’ve done. So, we are observed, tracked, and as we are aware of that, we change our behavior subtly and as that behavior becomes habit we are changed. Burbules and Callister (2000, Watch IT) conclude that “once people begin to ‘be’ online, there is an intrinsic sense in which their identity changes precisely because they are using this technology. What they do, what they like and care about, how they spend their time, who they know, and so on, are all changed from that moment on. When these activities themselves involve online interactions and experiences, there comes an inevitable fusion between the ‘offline’ and ‘online’ dimensions of their being. They become, in Donna Haraway’s famous formulation, ‘cyborgs’” (p. 167).

Not everyone sees the advent of cyborgs in a purely positive light. Davion (1999) believes we need to pay close attention to the kinds of technology we identify with or become one with, as identifying with a technology may cause us to want to or be more likely to actually use it. Thus, identifying with a technology with potential for harm can actually lead us towards negative use. Davion (1999) uses Truman's bombing of Japan as an example of cyborgs "caught up in an identification with the bomb that caused them to want to use it." While seemingly far fetched at first glance, she puts forth convincing arguments. She quotes William Lawrence who was present at the secret New Mexico bomb demonstration as writing, "It was as though the earth had opened and the skies had split. One felt as though one were present at the moment of creation when God said: let there be light...to me...the spectacle meant the birth of a new world." Later on the plane that held the Nagasaki bomb Lawrence states, "And here I am. I am destiny...a mere mortal...suddenly has the knowledge which has been given to him, a sense-you might say-of divinity." Secretary of War, Henry Stimson noted "a great change...had been produced in my own psychology" while Truman said, "Byrnes and myself seemed to be walking on air". Thus, there was a sense of merger and loss of boundaries between person and machine/bomb, a "transcendent blending of self and weapon...based on its actual manifestation" (Davion, 1999). While an extreme example, there is much truth to it. Technologies are becoming more and more prevalent as well as more and more powerful. With that comes great potential for good and for harm. A incredible danger then becomes our inability to manage and use technology wisely, safely and for the general good. Certainly power can corrupt. We must stay vigilant.

As we debate the decision, and weigh the good vs. the evil, the incredible power is clearly evident to all.

Shabot (2006) takes a final step and suggests we move beyond the concept of cyborgs to that of grotesque bodies, referring to the commentaries on grotesque bodies of Mikhail Bakhtin. She uses the term disembodied cyborgs and writes that "the grotesque body does not present the dangers of a reinforcement of the old categories...the grotesque body does not make possible a return to the Cartesian frame, with its clear danger of losing one more time the embodied subject". In a sense, Shabot's proposal of grotesque bodies takes Haraway's limited cyborg blurring of boundaries between man/animal and machine further, in a much broader sense, as she proposes the blurring of boundaries between ourselves and the rest of the world, not simply technology, while keeping the meat to our bodies. If technology can and does become an extension of ourselves, integrated into our being and identity, then cannot other aspects of the world around us? "It is precisely our situation as embodied subjects that connects us ineluctably with other subjects, objects, and the world as a whole...we are basically ambiguous: we are subjects and objects at the same time, 'touching’ and ‘touched’, ‘sentient’ and ‘sensible'...We are fleshed subjects, who relate to the world, to objects and other subjects, by way of our embodied subjectivities, through our carnal eroticism and sexuality, through our ineludible fleshed existence...we 'blend' with, and compose, a common situation – an intersubjectivity". Thus the grotesque bodies theory in a sense encompasses the man/machine blending and enlarges that blending to other aspects of the world in which we live. Thus we return to the skilled carpenter's tools and the blind man's cane.

If we accept Cyborg Theory and the idea that "the machine is us" (Haraway, 1991), just what does this mean in the context of education? First, technology then takes on a very important significance, as it is not simply an external albeit powerful tool to be used. It is in fact a part of us, a part of our identity, a part of our very being. As such, it takes on primary importance as it is an integral part of the learner we are instructing. It must be addressed and considered. It cannot be simply brought out to use when it is convenient or it adds to the instruction or when it is computer lab time. It must be considered as we consider the child learner, as a part of their being, and as such these beings are the very reason for our profession. As well, we need to address the philosophical and moral side of technology, which is in fact a part of us, as we do character education in our schools. This begins with ethical use and cyber-etiquette but moves beyond into much more complex issues and scenarios. Online education also must be looked at through a new lens or perspective. It becomes a natural way to educate; a perfect fit instead of what some see as lacking in areas such as content and the ability to communicate in a face-to-face manner. Online education becomes the natural way to express our cyborg selves. Just as the machine side and the human side of our cyber/cyborg selves combine and interact to create new versions of ourselves, our identities and our abilities, so do educational opportunities, the traditional and the online sides of education thus combine, interact and create a new version of education. And while they are different, yet they are the same. This interaction is well expressed in Burbules and Callister (2000, Universities) statements:

    "Online environments encourage certain kinds of interactions and discourage others (so do classrooms); 
    online environments feel comfortable and safe for certain participants and alienating for others (so do
    classrooms); online environments are well suited for certain kinds of teacher-student interactions and 
    not for others (so are classrooms); online environments allow for the reflective study and evaluation 
    of certain kinds of student contributions, at the cost of missing out entirely on others (so do classrooms);
    online environments stimulate enthusiasm and the eagerness to work harder for some students, and create 
    dismay or boredom for others (so do classrooms). As noted earlier, the irony is that it is often just 
    those students who have not thrived in the traditional college or university classroom setting who stand 
    to benefit the most from online innovations" (Section V).

Finally, we must then also seriously consider the ways we limit technology use in schools today. When we filter content, create board policy that forbids the use of cell phones and ipods, and do not have enough money in our budgets to purchase adequate equipment (both in quality and quantity) for our student population, are we not amputating our students and then expecting them to learn as if they were whole? We are asking them to learn without an integral part of themselves and then proclaiming we have educated them in a manner fit for productive, good citizenship as life long learners. Yet we have not fit them for or addressed a portion of their cyborg selves that is evident in practically every aspect of life outside of education and schooling.

Identities and Abilities in the Context of Relationships

Types of Online Communication

The New Media Consortium (2007) released a paper discussing the evolution of online communication in advance of a virtual conference on the topic. This document carefully explains the ever-changing nature of online communication and encourages reflection and discussion on how attitudes and identities are changing with new developments in online communication. In the introduction of the paper, the reader is struck by the New Media Consortium’s premise that not only has technology played a role in how we communicate, but that the ways humans think and talk about communication are also changing. According to the New Media Consortium, communication has significantly changed over the past twenty years. Email has become a common form of communication and along with it communication is shorter and more frequent, compared to when people used to rely on letters to communicate (New Media Consortium). With email, communication can easily both be initiated and reciprocated within the same day. In regards to email, our attitudes toward communication have changed considerably. Many people today would be shocked to learn of someone who did not have an email address. Many people also expect that answering emails will be a part of their daily routine.

The New Media Consortium points out another form of communication that is even faster than email: instant messaging. With instant messaging, messages are shorter and the nature of the communication is more informal and conversational (New Media Consortium). With this form of communication, human attitudes have changed in the sense that it is now socially acceptable to pay only partial attention to the person you are conversing with. People may do homework, pay bills, play online games, chat with other friends, and engage in a multitude of other activities while they are having a conversation via instant messenger and this is perfectly acceptable. Furthermore, newer broadcast technologies, such as Twitter have changed human attitudes in that it is socially acceptable to quickly scope out what people are doing as we are inclined. The New Media Consortium goes so far as to explain Twitter as social prioreception, which means that Twitter can tell us where others in our community are and give a feeling of human connectedness without directly communicating with others. This begs the question of whether our attitudes and identities are changing as we feel a sense of connectedness without direct communication.

The New Media Consortium also discusses how attitudes have changed in the sense of how much time one should expect to spend communicating. Many people may see the action of sending a letter as an inefficient means of communication because it may take days for a letter to reach the recipient. Email, however, generally comes with an attitude that it can be responded to within hours, while an instant message can responded to within minutes. The New Media Consortium gives the example of a person writing a letter- who will be expected to sit down and devote more time to responding than writing an email. In regards to instant messaging, people expect that a person may drift in and out of being focused on the conversation at hand. Clearly, our attitudes of what is acceptable and preferred in terms of communication are ever changing!

Along with discussing communication, the New Media Consortium also discusses how virtual worlds are changing communication; in other words, new technologies are allowing individuals to “see” the individual as they hear their voice or read their text when they are engaging in online communication. Of course, this experience cannot replace face-to-face communication for many people but it does give a more personal element to the communication at hand because one’s identity feels more actual during communication when their text or voice is matched with their face. Furthermore, it is interesting to consider how online communication affects our attitudes and identities in the sense of how we are understood and understand others. In other words, how do we understand and interpret what people really mean online and vice versa? Smileys ☺ are one example that the New Media Consortium discusses as a way to give meaning to people’s thoughts and intentions. However, smileys can’t be the only way that people can give meaning to their online communication. ☺

How is online communication affecting and changing attitudes and identities? The New Media Consortium calls the Internet the third place (the first two are home and work) where people communicate with friends and provide expressions of themselves. Technologies such as Skype can give us the sense of talking on the phone, while seeing our conversational partner over the computer! Blogs allow people to convey their thoughts and emotions to a large audience and receive feedback in the same way. In terms of networking with others and expressing oneself, social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace and virtual environments, such as Second Life and World of Warcraft give people ways to represent ourselves by creating a profile or an avatar (New Media Consortium). These sites also give us different ways to communicate using text, our voices, message boards, etc. These sites allow us to keep in touch with people who we might not choose to normally communicate with and to meet new friends (New Media Consortium). Furthermore, sites like YouTube and Flickr allow us to share, browse, express our opinions, and create popular culture by using photos (in the case of Flickr) and television, movies, music videos and more!

One of the most important points that the New Media Consortium conveys is that online communication is changing our attitudes and identities by allowing us to create quicker ties to a wider group of people. An example that comes to mind is our parents and their college friends; when they graduated, they might visit a couple times a year and talk on the phone every once in awhile, as well as send holiday cards with yearly updates about their lives and families. Instant messaging, emailing, and social networking sites have allowed us to stay in contact with many college and high school friends on a daily basis!

What about online communication in the field of education? Can it really positively impact identity or ability in education? Listen to the story of Abel Real in the above video. Technology in education coupled with online communication tools drastically and incredibly changed his abilities and his identity. He speaks to you in a suit and tie from East Carolina University where he is enrolled in a pediatric nursing program. His destiny was to be a high school drop out and succumb to a poverty stricken family and community heavily involved in drug trafficking. Technology connected him beyond his troubled home to teachers and classmates. Technology connected him, isolated and hopeless in Green County, to the rest of the world. Technology connected him to a promising, new life with new abilities and a new identity.

How has the evolution of online communication affected the identities and attitudes of today’s students?

Consider this YouTube video discussing who students are today: Digital Learners.

Gilbert Valdez, Ph.D. is the director of North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium and co-director of North Central Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Consortium (NCEMSC). According to Valdez (2005), technology is a catalyst for both learning and teaching. Valdez discusses how educational technology, particularly computers have grown to play a part in the daily lives of many people. According to Valdez, “it is incomprehensible that anyone today would argue that banks, hospitals, or any industry should use less technology.” With this argument, a question follows, particularly from the viewpoints of today’s children and young adults: Why should schools be any different? In the lives of many children and young adults, online communication tremendously affects their relationships with friends and family, as well as their roles as students (Valdez).

Valdez discusses how teaching is changing, and along with these changes are contradictory expectations. According to Valdez, today’s teachers are expected to foster abstract and critical thinking among their students but are instead often measured by their students’ proficiency at passing tests that have nothing to do with these skills. Today’s teachers are also expected to teach students to be problem-solvers who connect knowledge across different domains. Instead, they often find themselves having to teach irrelevant and isolated skills and information to their students (Valdez). Lastly, teachers are expected to meet the needs of individual students, but face pressure to prepare students for standardized assessments that are the primary measure of student success (Valdez). As such, there is a problem: education must shift from teaching isolated skills and information to fostering learners who are critical thinkers and confident problem solvers. Technology can help this shift to become reality!

For today’s Digital Learners, the desire to “do”, “create”, and “share” is inherent as online communication plays a significant role in their daily lives. Valdez cites The Pew Internet and American Life project, done by Levin & Arafeh (2002). This project confirms that teenagers do indeed use the Internet extensively. According to Levin and Arafeh (2002), about 17 million students, ages 12–17, use the Internet for school work; this number represents approximately 94% of people in this age bracket. Consider this quote portraying the positive influence of online communication on student learning:

"[Students] complete their schoolwork more quickly; they are less likely to get stymied by material they don't understand; their papers and projects are more likely to draw upon up-to-date sources and state-of-the-art knowledge; and, they are better at juggling their school assignments and extracurricular activities when they use the Internet" (Levin & Arafeh, 2002, p. ii).

However, Levin and Arafeh (2002) found a disconnect between how students feel in terms of using the Internet for school and for their personal lives. At home, students use the Internet to communicate, specifically to create and maintain relationships (Levin and Arafeh). In other words, their use of the Internet at home is a part of their daily lives. At school, many students felt that their Internet assignments were not engaging or relevant to their lives (Levin and Arafeh). Many students were frustrated by a general lack of knowledge regarding technology among their teachers (Levin and Arafeh). They were also frustrated by difficulties with access because of a lack of quality systems along with an excess of filtering systems (Levin and Arafeh). The heart of the problem in this study is that the online communication that engages and plays a significant role in the lives of young people is often not present in their educational experiences.

It appears that online communication plays a significant role in who many young people are and how they approach learning. Online communication has incredible potential to engage students and foster complex problem solving and critical thinking. With increased awareness and attention to student attitudes and identities regarding online communication, teachers can foster deeper and stronger learning, while engaging students in experiences that are relevant and meaningful to their daily lives.

Embodiment and Human Interaction

Sherry Turkle (left) and Eric Paulos (right): Creative Commons Flickr Photos by jeanbaptisteparis and Etech respectively

Just as our physical bodies, our embodiment, is vital to our selves, our identities and our abilities, our physical bodies are also important in our relationships. They are vital not just in a traditional sense of a physical relationship but in the other aspects as well. When we relate to others, we read their body language and respond in kind. We watch for signs that what they are saying to us matches what their body is telling us. In terms of friendships, long distance ones can be difficult to maintain. Why? Because we lack the physical proximity during communication. Our bodies are important in our relationships with others.

Sherry Turkle (1995) looks at relationship in the light of technology. She writes of "identity-transforming relationships" on the Internet; "new spaces" that change the way we think, our identities and the form of our communities. As users interact with others online they are "constructing new selves through social interaction", playing with our identities and trying new ones as they interact with other such users. Virtual lives become real and users give equal status to their virtual lives as their real life. "..some go so far as to challenge the idea of giving any priority to RL at all. ...'why grant such superior status to the self that has the body when the selves that don't have bodies are able to have different kinds of experiences?'" (p. 14). Turkle (1995) tempers this with caution that our online experiences may seem to be something they are not. Virtuality can make "denatured and artificial experiences seem real" (p. 236), the Disneyland effect, or make the fake more compelling than the real. She writes of Josh who finds online relationships much more fulfilling than those of his real life. He lives in a "terrible part of town" in a "rat hole of an apartment" and works in a "dead end job". Online he has friends and "something to offer". He programs on MUDs, is a specialist at building virtual cafes, is a programming consultant of sorts for less experienced players and rents rooms online to other players. Turkle writes that Josh as well as Thomas and Tanya believe that in their virtual social life, they "feel most like themselves" (p. 240). Turkle brings us back to the idea of the importance of embodiment in the real vs. virtual when she speaks of how a virtual experience can be so compelling that we think we have experienced more than we actually have. She writes, "Many of the people I interviewed claimed that virtual gender-swapping enabled them to understand what it's like to be a person of the other gender, and I have no doubt that this is true, at least in part. But as I listened to this boast, my mind often traveled to my own experiences of living in a woman's body. These include worry about physical vulnerability, fears of unwanted pregnancy and of infertility, fine-tuned decisions about how much make-up to wear to a job interview, and the difficulty of giving a professional seminar while doubled over with monthly cramps. To a certain extent, knowledge is inherently experiential, based on the physicality that we each experience differently" (p. 238). Turkle (1995) ends on a cautionary note. It is easy to get lost in virtual worlds, communities and relationships there, even become "imprisoned by the screens". Cyberspace and all it holds is not to be taken lightly; "our experiences there are serious play". We need to understand the dynamics at work, seek to understand our many sided selves and relationships, and use them to enrich the real (pp. 268-269).

Certainly we (our identities and abilities) change and evolve as we relate to others both in the real world and online. Online we can experiment with different aspects of our selves and even escape reality for a while as our thoughts and senses are pulled into the experiences of an online community. Yet in reality we return to our bodies and our real world selves. Perhaps changed and perhaps refreshed or renewed, still however tied to and grounded in the reality of the real world. If it were possible to remain there in virtual space, I believe we would be incomplete and inevitably feel a tug or pull towards the embodied real. Let's take a look at just such a fictional scenario.

Transparency Now's summary "Surface, Surface Everywhere..." of Sherry Turkle's Life on the Screen refers to Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars (1956) where reality will, one day, merge or become indistinguishable as a result of the progress of science and technology. While certainly that is an apt description of the inhabitants of Diaspar (where machines project images that become the contents of their room, their city and even their bodies are cyborgs, more machine-like in some respects than man-like) and their relationships with others (that most often are not in person but again a projection of their self), this science fiction novel tempers the attraction of such a life with the inhabitants of Lys. The people of Lys, while making use of technology when necessary and having abandoned speech (except in the young) for telepathy, stubbornly cling to the importance of some aspects of the body. Unlike the inhabitants of Diaspar, those of Lys give birth and die, grow their own food naturally, often walk from place to place and enjoy animals. Those of Diaspar, compared to it, seem somehow lacking, even in their state of immortal perfection. The people of Lys, their relationships and experiences, are richer, more meaningful, more human and more real. In Lys, Alvin discovers what it is to be/have a friend, comes to know what it means to interact with children and what is lacking in love relationships in Diaspar. In short, he learns what it is to be in relationship in a physical body (Clarke, 1956).

Dreyfus and others stand firmly on the side of embodiment, even in the virtual. First, Dreyfus properly cautions that online interactions cannot and should not replace other, more familiar human activities and relationships - particularly in the contexts of teaching, learning, and interpersonal communication (Burbules, 2002). Burbules (2002) states Dreyfus blames "the Internet for robbing our lives of meaning and authentic human interaction" but does acknowledge the "usefulness of the Internet so long as its use is bounded by an affirmation of our embodied selves". Dreyfus (1993) speaks to the important role of the human body in intelligent behavior in his book "What Computers Can't Do" and his "What Computers Still Can't Do" sequel. Body parts and its whole are interdependent. We perceive as a whole, not just as a mind or brain/nervous system. Dreyfus (1972 and 1993) writes, "The human perceiver must be understood in different terms than his nervous system" (P. 160 1972 & p. 248 1993). We use prior experience and bodily feedback to perceive, organize and process an experience (1993). Thus, the human bodily element is essential in interpersonal communication and relationships. In his book On the Internet, Dreyfus (2009) takes this a step further. He speaks of "telepresence as absence" and states that the body is a "source of our grip on reality and thus the "loss of embodied coping in telepresence would lead to the loss of a sense of the reality of people and things" (p. 7). While E. M. Forster (The Machine Stops) envisioned a time when people would no longer need to leave their rooms to keep in touch with the world electronically, we now have actually arrived at this stage of our culture and found it wanting. Carnegie-Mellon and Stanford researchers were "shocked by their findings" that studies indicate people on the Internet feel isolated and even depressed. They speak of "limited online relationships" where people are less likely to "understand the context for conversation" and refer to electronic communications as "different in kind" and "diminished in strength". Dreyfus (2009) refers to roboticists John Canny and Eric Paulos at Berkeley's studies stating they "suggest that a holistic sense of embodied interaction may well be crucial to everyday human encounters, and that this intercorporiality, as Merleau-Ponty calls it, cannot be captured by adding together 3D images, stereo sound, remote robot control and so forth" (pp. 56-57). We need physical presence/contact in our relationships with others, even in a virtual environment.

Virtual environments? A look at virtual relationships would not be complete without exploring those made in Second Life, a virtual online world where people can be whoever/whatever they desire as avatars, and explore whatever personality or identity they desire. Not only are relationships to be had there, but showers and weddings and even virtual sex. While some casual users see it as a game or entertainment, many others put much into their experience and their relationships. Virtual Worlds, Real Emotions: Relationships in Second Life illustrates not only the power and reality of these virtual relationships, but also the pull of the physical body or embodiment in these relationships. The article speaks of Nina & Sean, Sharon & Nigel, Latte & Benelli and Avatars SeasonedRed Halfpint & Darrius Beresford who all have serious relationships in Second Life. In fact, they're married there. And all have sooner or later felt the need to meet in real life. Latte & Benelli are married to others in real life, though they are friends both in and out of Second Life. The other couples are all married or engaged in real life. Dareth Denimore, a sociology student at Cambridge University in the UK just finished a survey on relationships in Second Life. He states that "the common goal of people who are in an online relationship are mostly looking to move them offline." Relationship calls for embodiment.

What of the world of chat, devoid in a sense of bodies? Waskul & Douglass (1997) studied self and relationships in online chat environments and tend towards disembodiment where bodily presence is not necessary at all. They state that while online, one does not have a physical form; there is no such thing as body in the sense that we inhabit it. Fleeting electronic images are all that exist and thus our cyberselves are disembodied. These identities are many and fluid; they may resemble our embodied self or not. They state that the self is a "continuous product of a meaning-conferring process that emerges in the course of social interaction" (p. 388). As cyberselves are situated and disembodied, they will always differ from our embodied day-to-day real life selves. Waskul & Douglass (1997) see this as a paradox as they found in their study that what participants liked best about their online selves was the freedom to be whoever they wish, yet that very same freedom was often a source of frustration as they interacted with others. Of themselves they state: "The anonymity...allows a certain freedom of expression." "You can be anything." "It enables me to play out fantasies." "It allows me to make dreams one step closer to reality." "I can stretch the truth...no inhibitions." Of others, however, they state: "...people often misrepresent themselves and turn out to be vastly different than their profile and their behavior online". "Many people are not what they claim to be" (p. 389).

We disagree with Waskul and Douglass (1997). We believe that even in a chat text-based environment, we seek out embodiment. That's why Waskul and Douglass discovered their paradox. We need to place the online identities we meet firmly in a real body and we want their online persona to match the one in real life. We feel betrayed when we discover the man we were talking to is really a woman or the architect we met is really in the construction business. If you have ever been in a chat room, you will also know that a common thread exists where participants are asked to reveal their name, age, sex, location and occupation. Why is this a common recurring topic? Because we need to ground virtual identities that we are in relationship with to their embodied, real selves.

This debate has great implications for the field of education. If, as some believe, we can have complete virtual relationships in varied communities on the Internet and those relationships are just as important or real as those offline, then online education is as valid and valuable as the traditional offline classroom with classmates and instructors in the flesh. This would not necessarily mean that teachers would become obsolete, but that they would have a variety of venues or communities in which to educate, all of potentially equal though in some ways unique import. If however, like Dreyfus, we believe relationships are not total or complete without our physical bodies, then the virtual is put squarely in its place as supplemental but not central in the arena of education. If we take more of a middle ground and acknowledge the value of both types of relationships that while different (bringing forth various aspects of our identities and our abilities), combined there is potential for greater diversity and thus greater depth and variety to our relationships and educational understanding, then educators can maximize both the power the physical brings to relationships and education as well as the unique and valuable types of relationships the virtual offers. If, after all, the purpose of education is grounded in an embodied real life, preparing to be in it as moral, productive, information seeking citizens, then staying embodied while online, with one foot in reality, while exploring our various and multiple selves in relationship with others is vital.

Relationships

by 10ckergn0me, Flickr Creative Commons License

Whether you believe that embodiment remains centrally important and grounds or roots us as we explore the various surfaces or environments online, certainly we can agree that Web 2.0 brought interaction to the Internet. We no longer simply log on to read static web pages. Whether real-time synchronous (chat, videoconferencing, virtual worlds such as Second Life) or asynchronous (email, forums, wikis, blogs), we are in relationship online. Interaction may be social/entertainment or information/work related. It can take the form of text, sound, images, video, or an combination. Interactions may be one-time meetings, short term or long term relationships. You may be interacting online with your next door neighbor, a family member in the other room, or someone across the globe.

Relationships are as varied as the people involved and the context in which they meet. Family relationships, social relationships, close friends and acquaintances, Facebook friends and friends of friends, fellow chat members and avatar relationships in virtual worlds, online relationships and offline relationships, relationships with colleagues and teacher student relationships... Place yourself in any two of these. You, your identity and your abilities, are not the same. Situations and environments bring different contexts and opportunities.

It is the same online. In each context and interaction, we bring different aspects of ourselves to that relationship. While true in real life, the situation becomes more varied online. While chatting online, we can't be seen. Our physical appearance no longer is a matter of fact (in the sense it can be undeniably verified). In just about any context online, our physical location is not a known fact. Any time we meet someone new, we have a fresh identity slate to write upon. The new environments present varied situations where we may excel or not. Some of us write well. (or not.) Some of us are artistic and creative. (or not.) Second Life skills come naturally to us. (or not.) Some of us are expert gamers. (or not.) The possibilities and potential combinations of various identities and abilities add up quickly; then put them in relationship and they multiply.

As educators we need to not only be aware of the many facets of being in relationship online, but to bring their positive power and potential to the classroom. Burbules and Callister (2000, Watch) write, "...even their term 'medium' is insufficient, if it connotes a mere path or channel through which something (such as information) is transmitted. Here a space is an environment in which things happen, where people act and interact. This suggests that a richer way of conceiving of the role of technologies in education is not as a 'delivery system' through which teachers 'provide' information and learners 'access' it. Rather, it is to think of these technologies themselves as a potential collaborative space, a place where teaching and learning activities can happen. These collaborations can bring together people who cannot possibly interact in face-to-face ways; or can bring together people in a way that cannot be accommodated in face-to-face encounters." Burbules and Callister (2000, Universities) provide a perfect example and write, "Faculty should not romanticize the reality of the classroom as experienced by many students, especially undergraduates. Auditoriums with a thousand students, faculty lecturing from behind a podium on stage, discussion sections run by earnest but often inexperienced teaching assistants, office hours that afford a brief interview with a preoccupied or impatient professor, are not so clearly superior to their online equivalents."

Huge Lecture Theatre! by teddY-riseD, Flickr Creative Common License

Thus in terms of relationships, online courses can alleviate some of the problems of university face to face classes, increasing and deepening student-student and student-faculty relationships. Burbules and Callister (2000, Universities) later elaborate on relationship possibilities by stating that online environments can be places "where disparate students from diverse locations and backgrounds, even internationally, can engage one another in learning activities; where collaborative projects can be developed; where communities of inquiry can grow and thrive". So while clearly online interaction is missing the face to face communication of body language and physical presence, there are also clear advantages for relationship making online. Finally, Burbules and Callister (2000, University) write:

      "Online environments encourage certain kinds of interactions and discourage others (so do classrooms);
      online environments feel comfortable and safe for certain participants and alienating for others 
      (so do classrooms); online environments are well suited for certain kinds of teacher-student 
      interactions and not for others (so are classrooms); online environments allow for the reflective 	
      study and evaluation of certain kinds of student contributions, at the cost of missing out entirely 
      on others (so do classrooms); online environments stimulate enthusiasm and the eagerness to work 
      harder for some students, and create dismay or boredom for others (so do classrooms). As noted 
      earlier, the irony is that it is often just those students who have not thrived in the traditional 
      college or university classroom setting who stand to benefit the most from online innovations."

At the same time, on-campus, real-time, face-to-face instruction accomplishes things that online teaching cannot. The very negatives that concern some prospective students – relocating from home and family, living in a strange, new community, dealing with the myriad interpersonal pleasures and frustrations that accompany living together in proximity with others who are different – are part of the very opportunities for learning that the on-campus experience provides. Moreover, the smaller, more intimate, and one-to-one teaching opportunities made possible in on-campus environments (and, generally speaking, more typical of smaller colleges and campuses than larger ones) cannot simply be replaced by online equivalents.

These interactions, these relationships, become like pebbles dropped in a pond as the impact is seen in ever widening circles. Ovsiannikov and Monakhov (2007) begin with the student teacher relationship, then move to the wider context of those relationships in society and finally the even wider context of how those relationships affect their country in a global context. Thus what we begin in the classroom eventually, through relationships, has global implications.

Ovsiannikov and Monakhov (2007) believe the now broken relationship between student and teacher can be regained through learning about and being socialized in the use of the Internet. They look at the impact of the Internet and Internet use on a variety of relationships. They believe that teaching students to use the internet well and in a moral way not only shapes the identity of the student but the relationship of the student and future adult citizen to others in society as well. They see the Internet as having "great potential and information" or the potential to "doom (society) to steady decline and backwardness". The teacher student relationship is critical. Ovsiannikov and Monakhov (2007) write that teachers have lost the respect of their students and that it can be regained by learning about and being socialized in use of the Internet. Teachers can then better understand and relate, point out intolerance and be better able to "influence the children". In essence, socialization in the Internet can change the very identities of teachers and make them able to better relate to and teach their students (thus changing their identities and future abilities) in an atmosphere of respect that positively affects the future of country and society.

Ovsiannikov and Monakhov (2007) see great potential for Internet use in education as well as individuals and their relationships in society as a whole, if educators recognize and harness that power. Socialization is a key issue in this equation for them, and educators play an essential role as they need to modernize and model this use and socialization. Education as well as big business play a vital social role. Ovsiannikov and Monakhov (2007) state, "A system of education also should be seen as an ideological institution: it produces the ideas, socially significant ideals, world view positions, and hopes that go together to make up the future society as a whole and the destiny of individuals." Ovsiannikov and Monakhov go on to state that changes in education depend on schoolteachers and come to three conclusions. Any positive changes in education must come from schoolteachers, innovative changes come from modernization of content and instrumental modernization ("having to do with changes in the material base, the technical tools of instruction, and pedagogical techniques" (Ovsiannikov, 2007)), and the most promising instrumental modernization is the system of Internet communication. The authors go on to state that any educational system that does not recognize and harness the power of the Internet is "doomed to steady decline and backwardness". The mechanisms of socialization are lacking as students use the Internet, which carries great potential and information but also those that are harmful both morally and pedagogically.

Ovsiannikov and Monakhov (2007) see failure to socialize students on Internet use not simply as lacking, but having the potential to negatively impact individuals and their relationships in society. "Processes by which adolescents assimilate the Internet culture have not yet been studied adequately" (Ovsiannikov, 2007). As students become pressured to utilize the overwhelming amount of information available on the Internet, they seek relief in "flash games and shootouts, pop music, cartoons, films that have nothing to do with spirit or reason, and corrupting pornography". Ovsiannikov and Monakhov state "He is not being socialized; he becomes a modern philistine" and charge that educators are doing nothing to teach students how to navigate this culture. Instead they are upping the pressure for students to seek even more overwhelming information and in effect making students "more savage". The fact that many students know much more about navigating the Internet than teachers makes this situation much more grave. As teachers then lose status and respect from their students, the teacher role model for students' social development as well as the teacher/student relationship erode. Teachers cannot teach proper socialization in use of the Internet if they do not experience that Internet socialization process themselves. If students do not get the opportunity to learn good Internet and socialization practices, they lose out on the opportunities of social mobility via good information use of the Internet. Thus, good and early socialization in the use of the Internet "improves the youngster’s chances of acquiring a good education and achieving success in life" (Ovsiannikov, 2007).

Ovsiannikov and Monakhov (2007) believe the acquisition of Internet use socialization skills goes beyond the individual and relationships to global significance. Globally, the acquisition of these skills by member of society determines whether a country as a whole is able to compete. Education needs a well structured system of Internet use that is woven into the fabric of instruction and through experience and expertise of educators. Through training and use of good Internet socialization skills, teachers can regain status and respect as well as bring these skills and insights to their students and the country as a whole. Ovsiannikov and Monakhov (2007) state of a study of teachers trained on Internet use in Russia, "Teachers who have gone through the training in the system of Internet education are more critical in regard to themselves and their colleagues. They are much more likely to point out cases of intolerance on the socioeconomic as well as the ideological level." As well, teachers traditionally are aware of the importance of "feelings and the ability to influence the children". Through Internet use training and experience, educators can continue to do so in their relationships with students as their roles change to that of partnership along with the heightened qualities of knowledgeability and the ability to solve problems. As for students, the role of Internet education is important in the area of cultural education. Ovsiannikov and Monakhov (2007) write that "by making use of the Internet, students can become acquainted with the treasures of world culture and expand their intellectual horizon."

Contrast in education and relationships: A traditional classroom on the left compared to one in which students are using Skype to communicate with a classroom in Australia

While we don't believe the Internet is a magic bullet that can take aim at the problems of education and fix them, we do believe quality use of the Internet in education along with changes towards a more student centered classroom can build better relationships between student and teacher. Certainly what we do as educators and the relationships we foster will affect our students as they become adults and move into their future role in society, their country and the global community. As the above pictures illustrate, the traditional classroom where each student interacts with the teacher (in a lopsided exchange of sorts) must give way to one where students are in relationship with each other (near and far); where we harness the potential of the internet for educational change. While other factors outside education will have their impact as well, we cannot ignore our responsibility as educators. Change is difficult, yet as educators we need to be willing to learn, evolve and adapt. We agree with Ovsiannikov and Monakhov (2007) when they state that those who do not recognize and harness the power of the Internet are "doomed to steady decline and backwardness". The Internet we can all agree is here to stay. Certainly it will continue to change and evolve, but all of us, including educators, need to utilize its power. One such power is in the area of relationship, which has the potential to connect us in so many ways and to help shape (and hopefully better) not only our identities but our abilities (personally and educationally) as well as we interact locally, nationally and globally.

The Issue of Trust

The more one delves into the world of the Internet, the more trust one is asked to place in the hands of the bodiless world of cyberspace. Trust that only you are accessing your personal accounts, trusting sites with your personal information, trusting that others are who they say they are, trust in the accuracy of information. Trust is a necessary element to life on the Internet, but encompasses many different levels and categories of trust. When determining who and what to trust, one must think of the correlated risk. Just as important as what are you trusting to others and who are the others you are entrusting, are the questions of what are the consequences of misplaced trust? If someone is not who they say they are, if information is not what it seems, who reaps the consequences? Who reaps the benefits?

Trusting People

The Internet allows us to connect with people all over the world in a variety of different ways. You can chat on an IM site, reconnect with old friends or connect with new friends on Myspace or Facebook, learn and collaborate with people from all over the world on Moodle, even marry someone you have never met face-to-face on Second Life, like the couples mentioned above. But without face-to-face contact, there is no way to verify someone’s true identity. Users can choose to reveal their true identity, a portion of their identity, or even what they might feel is their alter identity, which to them may be just as real as their physical self. Sherry Turkle states that online users who develop identities through online role-playing games “come to see that they can be many selves and that none of those characters is any less real than what they think is their true self—all are there to be played out and explored” (as cited in Sanes). So if someone presents you with an identity other than their true physical being identity, it can be argued that this is not a false identity, but rather another version of themselves. We believe Sherry Turkle’s arguments have some validity; however, one must be cognizant of online predators. The younger generation, which creates many friendships online, must be educated to analyze every relationship before completely entrusting them, especially when they choose to bring their online world into their physical world.

Online users must be wary when trusting people online while, simultaneously, using others to determine what information and sites to trust on the Internet. In the new era of Web 2.0, online collaboration allows conversations to happen among people worlds away. These conversations help online users evaluate and synthesize information into “actionable knowledge.” Communities are formed in which information is discussed and assessed; credibility is then determined not by the creator, nor by the reader, but by a community engaged in a conversation regarding the information (Lankes, 2008, p. 114). Many of today’s youth are involved in these conversations, seeking out tools and more information to allow them to contribute to discussions, evaluations, and creations of knowledge. The Internet is not “simply wide-scale and one-way distribution of information”, but on-going collaboration among users in determining trust. Content providers recognize the reliance on such dialogues to determine trust and, thus, feel increased “pressure for community input on their content” (Lankes, p. 113). Increasingly, web sites will be much more interactive, inviting comments (and even criticism) in hopes of gaining the trust of visitors and a reputation as a reliable source of information or products.

So what is it about our physical presence face-to-face that enables us to determine our level of trust for another? How is that different than meeting someone online? Do we even need the same level of trust online if we are not bodily present and thus not physically vulnerable? Hubert Dreyfus (2001) believes bodily presence plays an important role in trust between people. It begins right after birth when we are held, safe and protected, in our mother's arms and continues to impact us throughout our life. Trust is two sided; on the one hand we are ready for flight away from something dangerous or not trusted and on the other hand in the closest aspect of trust we return to that warm nearness of another safe, trusted body. When we trust someone we make ourselves vulnerable to them. Dreyfus writes of online trust, "There is no doubt that telepresence can provide some sense of trust, but it seems to be a much-attenated sense." He ends by putting online trust somewhere between real life trust relationships and total isolation (Dreyfus, 2001).

Trusting Information

Dr. David Lankes, Creative Commons Licensed Flickr Photo by sridgway

In Trusting the Internet: New Approaches to Credibility Tools David Lankes (2008) argues that new tools and approaches must be created and utilized in order to determine credibility on the Internet. He states “Society may soon be at this inflection point in terms of how people, and particularly youth, identify reliable information, abandoning traditional methods of determining credibility that are based on authority and hierarchy for digital tools and new network approaches” (p. 101). A new approach, Lankes states, is needed due to the increased use and reliance on the Internet. For young people credibility is especially important because the quality of online services and tools can have a direct impact on their learning (p. 102). With Web 2.0 and networking tools, such as Wikipedia, blogs, podcasts, social networking, etc., there is no higher authority to verify information is correct and people are who they claim to be. At the same time, these open sources give anyone the ability to post anything they want, including false information and false identities. Someone may claim to be of a higher authority in giving authentication, but, without the ability to verify their claim or identity, their claim becomes mere opinion. The Internet also takes away the ability to verify the credibility of objects in a physical sense as well. When one makes purchases online “physical examination and testing…is gone, or is at least greatly diminished. No more can one audit a physical inventory prior to purchase” (Lankes, p. 103). This has led to a “reliability approach” to credibility (Lankes, p. 101). Lankes describes the difference between the two approaches: “If an authority approach is exemplified by believing that a given news anchor will give a credible answer, then switching from news station to news station looking for commonalities in the same story exemplifies a reliability approach” (p. 109). Through this approach, users gain credibility not by a declaration of authority over a particular subject, but by consistently providing accurate information. “Experts are not simply people with the most experience, but people who have the longest track record in using their experience successfully” (Lankes, p. 109). This new approach does not come without its drawbacks. Some search engines, such as Google, determine the relevance of sites not by their content or accuracy, but by a “link-popularity metric”. This idea that popularity equals credibility can “be dangerous or at least disadvantageous to students’ learning” (Lankes, p. 106). If users are not properly educated, they may assume credibility and not take into consideration the actual content of the sites. It is imperative that educators make students aware of this fact and arm them with the appropriate tools to analyze the credibility of a website.

The ability to analyze websites is especially imperative when viewing open source sites, such as Wikipedia. Collaborative editing on such sites means anyone is able to add to and edit content, regardless of their knowledge and experiences (or lack thereof). Everyone has equal status as experts. In the Cult of the Amateur, Andrew Keen warns of the “consequences of a world in which the lines between fact and opinion, informed expertise and amateurish speculation are willfully blurred.” Keen sees these open source documents as disintegrating credibility on the Internet and thinks they will eventually restrict, rather than expand, our choices (as cited in Kakutani, 2007). Lankes remains a bit more positive. While acknowledging that users must be educated on how open source documents are created so that they are “cognizant that contributors and their contributions may be biased, uniformed, or outdated and should evaluate the information accordingly”, he recognizes that through combined collaboration Wikipedia is capable of producing credible information (p. 106). We tend to agree more with Lankes in that we recognize the power of collaboration. We also acknowledge that Web 2.0, and all of its collaborative capabilities (blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc.), is here to stay so we must be proactive in educating the net generation on how to navigate the Internet effectively. Youth especially, whose reliance on the Internet is ever-increasing, must be taught the ability to identify credible and reliable sources on the Internet. Already, some institutions are recognizing this need. West Point requires all students to go through training that includes fact validation (Glenn, 2008, p. 15). The ability to educate youth regarding Internet credibility poses a serious problem for developing countries. Often what little monetary resources are available are spent on the network infrastructure alone and little to no money is left for tech support and teacher training. Without teachers understanding credibility and reliability on the Internet, students are left in the dark when it comes to such issues of credibility of the web and plagiarism (Wright, 2009, p. 15). While there are an increasing number of organizations attempting to address these issues in developing countries, much work needs to be done to increase technology resources and education in developing and emerging nations.

Another aspect of credibility Internet users must be aware of are technical elements, often invisible to users. The media used to access information can affect the perception of credibility, as well as the online environment itself. Infrastructures, such as routers and protocols, are invisible to the user but have the capability to block traffic to and from certain sites without users’ knowledge. The online environment, such as load time for Web sites and the design of sites, can also impact the perception of credibility. One example of this nearly invisible technology are spam filters. Schools especially rely heavily on filters to block inappropriate content for students. Such filters are based on opaque and propriety formulas; emails can be discarded before ever being viewed and access to websites can be denied. Lankes argues that spam filters provide protection from inappropriate content, but they can also have the “unintended consequence of inadequately preparing youth for the digital world they may encounter outside the school environment. Blocking young people’s exposure to information that may not be credible is probably not the best strategy for teaching students to identify and defend themselves against such information, which they will almost certainly encounter at some point in their lives” (Lankes, p. 105). As Nick Burbules pointed out in an online lecture (June 16, 2009), how do you teach youth by keeping them away from the technology? Students need to make mistakes and learn—it is like teaching someone to drive by giving them a car and keys, but not teaching them to drive or the rules of the road.

This leads into the question of who should have the ability to determine what and when filtering software should be used. Should this decision be left up to individuals? families? higher authorities, such as schools and governments? According to an article posted on msnbc.com (2009), recently a law was passed in China that requires Internet filtering software to be packaged with all computers sold after July 1, 2009. The software is intended to block violence and pornography only, but opponents of the software are more wary of government interference. Such software could easily be set to block certain key words put in search engines and even certain web sites. Opponents are worried about government using the software to block legitimate web sites that may oppose government views. Already there are complaints that the software blocks legitimate discussions of homosexuality. Homosexuality support groups have voiced their concern that those seeking to identify with others will be prevented from doing so, especially since many of these individuals wish to keep their anonymity, thus are unable to seek out support groups within their physical communities. Such government restriction brings to light serious issues of who should be entrusted with the ability to filter and restrict sites.

Respect: Thick and Thin

Some authors deal with the issue of respect in online communication by putting it in a philosophical context. Pudner (2007) for example, relies on Kunzman's treatment of Kant's categorical imperative that "we are morally obliged to view other persons as 'noumena' - rational authors of choice and action - instead of 'phenomena' that are part of the world's 'furniture'" (p. 2). Pudner then borrows Kunzman’s terms of thick and thin respect to explore the limitations of online communication in light of this imperative.

Thin Respect

As Pudner explains it, “thin” respect is universal. It is a respect for others that “demands an appreciation… of their dignity as equal members of humanity.” Specific knowledge of the other is not needed here, as this is a blanket form of respect that one can apply equally to all with whom he or she interacts.

Thick Respect

“Thick” respect is particular. It extends this appreciation for dignity to a more complete appreciation of the individual. As a result, the more a person's full identity is needed for a particular interaction to have meaning, the more thick the respect needs to be for the interaction to have meaning. Pudner explains that, “According to Kunzman, it is the other’s ethical framework, informed by a particular, organic personal narrative, and communicative of what he or she has determined to be worthwhile in pursuing life projects, that focuses thick respect” (p. 3).

If we accept this notion that “thick” respect requires an understanding of another’s particular ethical framework narrative, the question worth exploring here, is: how does online communication affect our likelihood of developing “thick” respect for those with whom we interact?

Background

Before exploring Pudner’s answer to this question, though, it is worth noting that both Kunzman and Pudner put significant weight on an individual's abiltiy to understand, something that is almost impossible to measure in any objective sense. This form of idealizing the act of communication by defining its purest forms in the context of what an individual understands is closely linked to how Sidorkin (2004), Freire (1970), and many others have conceptualized the notion of dialogue in educational settings. In this parallel, dialogic interaction is conceptually akin to Kunzman's thick respect. Sidorkin is perhaps the most extreme in this regard, arguing that "we are truly human only when we are in a dialogical relation with another” (p. 11). As he further explains it, “A person of dialogical integrity values his or her partner in dialogue above all” (p. 64), and therefore, any conversation that puts the content discussed above the partner in conversation is monological (arguably more akin to thin respect), a form of communication that should be understood merely as a means toward eventual dialogic ends. Burbules' "Theory and Research on Teaching as Dialogue" recognizes the problems with creating sharp divisions between the dialogic and the monologic, or thick respect and thin respect. According to Burbulus, "there are forms of dialogue, and their usefulness in educational settings will depend on the relation between forms of communicative interaction." By relying on a similar, more functional notion of respect, Pudner aims to carve out a space for understanding the ethical responsibility we have toward one another in a form of communication that Kant never could have considered: Computer Mediated Communication (CMC).

Pudner is fully aware of the problem that is exposed by working with two extreme definitions of respect in CMC. It is perhaps out of an effort to find a middle ground that she concludes there is little difference between achieving “absolute understanding” and simply making a “good faith” effort to understand another’s ethical framework narrative. According to her account, since there is no way for any one person to know the extent to which any other person is authentically engaged in trying to understand them, there is little practical difference between an absolute, deeply sincere effort, and one that merely constitutes “good faith.” With this very practical approach to the issue, Pudner is thus able to best situate her argument to tackle the contemporary challenge of CMC.

Computer Mediated Communication

So back to the question of how online communication affects this ethical requirement to understand one another, Pudner argues that “the depth and breadth of first-person disclosure to which the respecting agent can apply his or her good faith efforts... is dramatically increased through the widespread practice of computer-mediated communication (CMC).” This expanded possibility for disclosure, then, would seem to enhance the capacity of relationships to exhibit signs of respect, both thick and thin. To determine the extent to which this is true, Pudner finds it useful to distinguish between different types of CMC:

• Type I CMC: “the sender and the receiver know who each other are… and each intends to communicate with that particular, identified other.” • Type II CMC: “includes that between particular but unidentified others, such as IM and chat, where users adopt screen names that typically fail to correspond to their real names.” • Type III CMC: “from an identified party to nonparticular others” • Type IV CMC: “refers to communication between an unidentified party to particular unidentified others”

As Pudner explores this issue, she finds that there are advantages and disadvantages to each of these forms of communication, all of which have lasting implications on both the messages being sent, and the identity of those conveying and receiving them. A brief review of these advantages and disadvantages follows:

Advantages to CMC

1. A release from constraints of time and location. (People can communicate across great distances and at times that are convenient to all). 2. An emotional buffer can be created whereby challenging and sensitive issues can be broached in more "reflective, open, and forthright" ways than are often possible in face to face communication (p. 6). 3. Sender and receiver have much greater "control over the substance and tone of the communication" (p. 7).

Disadvantages to CMC

1. There is an increased likelihood that "sender and receiver are engaging in parallel soliloquy instead of communication" (p. 7) causing a misunderstanding of the message. 2. There is an increased likelihood that sender and/or receiver could be misidentified. Pudner provides a compelling narrative of "Jack and Jill" to illustrate this point. The two meet online as high school students from neighboring towns. After much dialogue, which seems to constitute thick respect, they agree to meet. Jill is surprised to find at this meeting that Jack is really a middle-aged man named Eugene.

The simple act of "identifying" yourself or another is not "simple"...

To what extent is thick respect possible in CMC?

Despite the advantages detailed above, the problems of message and identity indeterminacy in online communication cause the notion of thick respect to fall by the wayside. Because we can't ever be certain to whom we are really communicating in CMC, Pudner argues that we cannot even make a good faith effort at understanding the other's ethical framework. In her words, "If I am correct, the notion of thick respect, which relies on particularity for both its object and its normative ground, paradoxically seems to vanish into cyberspace just when it is needed most" (p. 12). In this way, Pudner finds that CMC necessarily operates outside of Kant's imperative. We cannot be ethically obligated to see others as noumena if the form of communication we have to interact with them necessarily denies this type of other even existing. Pudner implies here, that counter to Kant's imperative, we must view others as phenomena in CMC: part of the world's furniture.

Some authors completely reject Pudner's premise that Kant is an appropriate foundation for understanding CMC. Dwight (2007) states plainly that "I just cannot comprehend how Immanuel Kant's moral imperatives predicated on a highly structured cosmology will ever work in the nebulous realm of the Net" (p. 282). Referencing "Cool Hand Luke", Dwight sees this as a simple failure to communicate between a modernist view of ethical responsibility, and a postmodernist world that rebuffs all such attempts to be so ethically categorized.

Regardless of where one comes down in this epistemological debate, we would be remiss to suggest that education is only possible in realms that foster thick respect, authentic dialogue, or a deep understanding of one's particular ethical framework between two independent beings. After all, all of these conceptions of communication outlined above ignore the most essential form of communication that is necessary for knowing, thinking, or learning: education with oneself. In Pudner's example, we find it odd that the thick respect that Jill may come to understand about herself through her experience with Jack is all but neglected in Pudner's treatment. Certainly Jack may have represented a very dangerous physical threat to Jill, but this reality is irrelevant to the task of determining the extent to which one can benefit educationally from CMC. When one understands that the internet, and all that are on it are mere tools to be used for whatever purposes its users see fit, the issues become somewhat more clear. Message and identity indeterminacy are not 21st century inventions. Nor is remote communication. From an educational perspective, the capacity to experiment with other selves online can increase a user's empathy just as much as it may harm it. We would argue, therefore, that it is precisely the amount of dialogue with oneself that the user engages in that makes the difference.

Identities and Abilities in the Wider Context of Globalization

Transcending Differences

Technologies and networks facilitate the delocalization of traditional power structures within a global frame. This shift usually incorporates the discourse of the body creation as well. Our bodies are constructs in which individuals as well as social perceptions and projections, reality and fiction fuse together. Mojica (2007) argues that this phenomenon has also emerged in representations of cyberspace even though the Internet is advertised as a place in which traditional distinctions and imbalances in power between individuals have been supposedly removed. Even though online identities can be created to the desire of the user, there is some doubt within society of the representation of reality and highly editable and generative images online. Boler (2007) believes the idea of transcending differences is part of the hype of marketing discourses selling technology in our culture. In a Cartesian version of mind and body in terms of technology, the claim is that online we leave our bodies and our differences behind, transcending them as issues such as race and gender disappear. Boler (2007) writes, "The classic MCI commercial proclaims:‘There is no race. There is no gender. There are no infirmities. There are only minds’. Pure and unsullied communication can take place regardless of embodied differences" (p.145). Boler (2007) calls these claims hype and contrasts them with actuality; actuality where advertisers emphasize differences to sell the idea that they will disappear (online) and where people online assume everyone with whom they communicate is exactly like them (and far from different). She uses the example of young children from Louisiana and New York communicating online as pen pals. When they received a photograph in Louisiana of their pen pals in New York they "expressed shock" and asked, "Where are the brothers?", having assumed they were "black like them" (p. 146). Boler (2007) tempers this somewhat with hopes to "reflect a desire to challenge static notions of identity, engage fluidity and break down traditional binaries" (p. 149). One such hope is in the ability online to assume different identities. One can be any gender or race and have any ability, and with each new interaction online we can adopt a different persona. The Internet also provides a type of shield and may allow students who are struggling with issues of racial identity to be more comfortable exploring the ways a multiracial identity can be asserted (Gasser, 2008). The importance of a safe environment for exploring identity has been noted for the gay male community as well. Burleson (2005) wrote, "If the fear of public exploration of sexuality is too great, the Internet allows for a safer way for those dealing with their sexual identity". The same may be true for many people who go online to connect with others who have shared common experiences instead of risking embarrassment in face-to-face situations. We agree that by playing with identities and trying out different roles, we can not only transcend some of these differences but learn lessons to take with us back into real life.

The above graphics are examples of what the numerous possibilities of an online identity. At the core is your physical/mental self and our online identity is an extension of you. There is an online outlet for most aspects of real life that reflect the “real” you. With so many outlets to the identity, it becomes increasingly difficult to have any kind of on-line interaction without revealing some part of yourself. Burbules and Callister (2000, Watch IT) temper the ideal of transcending differences such as gender, race, age and location with the thought that we bring those aspects of ourselves online, although they are not as visible. They write (of the Internet being a place in which age, gender, race, and so on do not matter), "This appears to be true, if you can only tell these things about a person on the Internet if they choose to disclose them. But this appearance obscures important issues: that whether or not people choose to represent their identities, these remain present in the ways that they think, act, and express themselves online (sometimes these qualities may be more apparent to others than the actors think)" (p. 169). They take it a step further as well, stating that certain races, age, etc. may not be online at all, excluded from access to the Internet whether by location, socioeconomic level, language or such, and thus not participating in this ideal transcending of differences. Both points ring true. While our gender or race or locale may not be clearly proclaimed by our physical bodies (in a specific location), certainly we bring those background experiences to our communication and interaction. As well, physical access indeed excludes individuals, pockets and entire groups of people. Gasser (2008) focused her research on how multiracial students shaped their identities online. She found that since the inception of its widespread use in the mid-1990s, the Internet has had a tremendous impact on the lives of students. Their use of technology not only assists them on campus, but may also partially define the student experience of this generation. The Internet is a place where students investigate future careers, find sources for research papers, submit work to be checked for plagiarism, interact with professors outside class using course management portals, or take entire classes exclusively online. In their free time, many students use the Internet to express themselves creatively, share their beliefs, engage in dialogue with others, and define (and redefine) themselves (Gasser, 2008).

For some, however, that transcendence of differences is real. Norman Coombs (Transcending, no date), a blind history professor, writes of his first experiences with a computer (and a speech synthesizer) and his realizations as to its power for those with disabilities. He writes of his interaction with a deaf student (after receiving three days straight of email questions from her and commenting to her on that fact), "The mail stated that this was the first time in her life that she had been able to talk with a teacher without a third party intervening between them. Not only was she deaf, but I am blind. The technology enabled us to transcend a double sensory barrier." Coombs volunteered to be one of the first to lead an online course and pioneered as well as championed technology use in higher education. Because of his disability, he was one of the first to realize the power of technology, for those with disabilities and those without as well. As a result of his teaching online he states, "an African American student commented that he liked the online discussion because he felt he was being judged by what he said rather than by his looks. He felt that no one cared whether he was male, female, Black, White, Red, Yellow, Deaf or Blind." He writes of the opportunities for the disabled through use of voice recognition software, switches, "a sip-and-puff device which can be used to send Morse code to the computer", audio transcription, captioned video and magnification software. Certainly in these cases online technology is transcending differences of abilities.

Yablon (2007) writes of the great global potential of Internet use towards the healing of cultural divides. An after school peace education program in Israel was formed in the hopes of "establishing positive relationships between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs." As many such programs had not had a lasting impact, "The idea behind Feeling Close from a Distance was to capitalize on the ease with which young people communicated openly on the Internet and turn the Internet into an innovative means to establish positive relationships between Israeli Jewish and Arab students" (Yablon, 2007). They emphasize personal responsibility in the peace building process. Using John Dewey's works and beliefs of society, democracy and communication, they designed programs to "change misperceptions, mistrust, fear, and hate", reduce tension and "enhance equality between ethnic groups", and experiencing tranquility. Internet use allows participants to feel safe and be on their home turf as they reach out to better understand each other. Face-to-face meetings at the start and the end of the program put a personal face on the interactions. Besides providing needed information about each other, personal relationships were formed and provided an important aspect of the lasting impact of such a program. Yablon (2007) states, "For this program, it provided the base for a meaningful interaction while affording a sufficient feeling of safety for a personal disclosure and intergroup contact." Morozov (2009) writes how the Internet can also be used to unite individual cultures that have been broken up by history. The Assyrians-a predominantly Christian group whose ancient homeland is now divided between Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey-is an example how technology can be used to transcend national cultures to unite a historical cultute.. Forging a common Assyrian identity in the pre-Internet age was nearly impossible, as Assyrians are scattered around the globe and many of their new homelands don't provide the right conditions for preserving their culture. Today, regardless of where they are based, Assyrians passionately follow the ups and downs of Assyriska Föreningen, a football club from Sweden that is the closest Assyrians have ever gotten to a national football team. They get regular news updates from sites including Assyrian Voice, their closest equivalent to a national newspaper. The rich tradition of Assyrian music is well represented on YouTube. Assyrian politicians running in local Swedish elections enjoy support of Assyrians in California. As Assyrians and other ethnicities are poised to discover, rebuilding their nation in cyberspace might not be impossible after all (Morozov, 2009).

Transcending Space and Time

"We can thus see one of the essential characteristics of this new culture, which acts as if it is trying to transcend the limits of existence by creating simulations that seem real and by making reality more like a simulation" Ken Sanes, (http://transparencynow.com).

"The Internet is seen as one of the central engines to the growth of a 'global' context, spanning particular locations of space and time, fostering human relations that inhere always and only within that environment, not as a substitute for 'real, face-to-face interaction,' but as the only environment in which such relations can exist at all" (Burbules and Callister, 2000 Watch IT, pp. 4-5).

The Internet has become a portal to a world where one can sit and visit with friends in Istanbul, Paris, Los Angeles, New York City, all the while never leaving the comfort of their home, alas, their desk chair, in their own tiny home town. Where one is from, their background, their travel experiences, or lack thereof, make no difference in the amount of people you can meet in one evening. On the Internet, the restraints of time and place are removed. To see someone half a world away one no longer needs to call a travel agent, book a flight, drive to the airport, wait in line for hours, take a 12-hour flight, wait in line again to claim baggage, get in a taxi, and finally arrive on the doorstep of a friend. Now one simply accesses Skype and is instantly at the doorstep of a friend. No lines, no waiting, and, even more, no major expenses. The ability to transcend time and place has major impacts on our youth, including their ability to effectively communicate and get along in the world, and on the future of education, both formal and informal.

This takes us back to the philosophy of Hubert Dreyfus. Although the Internet allows us to transcend both space and time, are these experiences meaningful and relevant? According to Dreyfus, they are not. Dreyfus, in his interview with Harry Kreisler (2005), states "in cyberspace...without our embodied ability to grasp meaning, relevance slips through our non-existent fingers." Although Dreyfus admits tools, such as Skype and other programs that allow users to talk to each other via the Internet, can be very useful, he claims this is only because they have a "hint of the body in the voice--not fully, but beginning to be." Without the body, without face-to-face contact where one can read body language and interpret the tones in a voice, our experiences are not real, not relevant. With our experience learning from others, collaborating with small groups, communicating with distant friends and relatives, and even strangers, all on the Internet, we have to disagree with Dreyfus's arguments. What we have learned through online courses, through the collaboration and dialogues with others has transferred over in many ways to our "real" lives. Being able to connect with friends and family through the Internet has improved our relationships with those in our physical world. Connecting and talking with strangers has improved our understanding of the world by increasing our knowledge of events around the world and of different cultures. As Nicholas Burbules (2002) points out in Like a Version: Playing with Online Identities "the online world is not a lack of context; it is a different context." So while the context of interacting with others online is much different than the context of interacting with others face-to-face, this doesn't make one experience more meaningful and relevant than the other; instead it is the quality, not the context, of the interaction that determines its relevance.

Burbules and Callister (2000, Watch IT) would have us look again at the concept of transcending space. They look at the idea of cyberspace becoming a cyberplace. What makes a space (such as a house) a place (a home)? It is people's use of the space, recurring use that makes it familiar, paths that are worn, areas that become social or private, use that defines that space and redefines it as a place. Internet spaces can become places in the same sense. The Internet contains online communities, discussion groups and virtual worlds, spaces that become places where people with similar political views or hobbies or business interests meet. It's spaces and places overlap and merge; we become a part of many places on the Internet, as we do in real life belonging to places where we work and live and play. Thus, is being in spaces or places online that different than being in a real life place? Howard Rheingold (Burbules and Callister, 2000, Watch IT) believes that "when we go online 'we leave our bodies behind,' there are good reasons to think that a kinesthetic sense of movement and location persists even when users are moving through online spaces". Rheingold also speaks to what we do online compared to what we do in real life. He writes (Burbules and Callister, 2000, Watch IT, p. 168) "People in virtual communities use words on screens to exchange pleasantries and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, conduct commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play games, flirt, create a little high art and a lot of idle talk. People in virtual communities do just about everything people do in real life, but we leave our bodies behind." All communication is mediated by something (technology or otherwise); it is filtered by interpretations and social conventions. Thus the line between real spaces/places and online spaces/places blurs (pp. 172-175).

Howard Rheingold, Creative Commons License Flickr Photo by Joi

Implications for Youth

The Internet is very fast-paced and is ever changing. As Ken Sanes states on his website, transparencynow.com, the Internet makes life seem like a "television program in which we frequently change channels to keep from getting bored. The universe becomes a metaphysical theme park--cosmic Disney." When these youth, used to surfing the Internet and continually transcending space and time in the comfort of their rooms, come to school they are required to be in the here and now. Some researchers suggest attending to one task is very difficult for these students because they are used to attending to multiple tasks at once. Having the attention span to attend to one specific topic for an extended period of time is difficult because they are used to jumping, or surfing, from topic to the next very quickly. This creates students who teachers describe as having “5D relationships to schools. They are dissatisfied, disengaged, disaffected, disrespectful, and disruptive” (Kenway and Bullen, p 1). On the Internet, the ability to transcend space means boredom is virtually eliminated. When one finds an activity or conversation boring, a simple click of the mouse and you can move on to a new activity, a new conversation. Users are able to peruse through the world of the Internet seeking out only what interests them. On the Internet “young people are offered identities as pleasure seeking, self-indulgent, autonomous…youth are encouraged to live only in the present.” (Kenway and Bullen, 2001, page 8). Another problem Kenway and Bullen recognize is that the Internet encourages youth to “delight in the impertinent and the forbidden, and to transgress adult codes” (page 8). The Internet encourages a transcendence of time for the younger generation—to take part in a world where there is no adult governing where they go, what they do, and what they say—as if they are already competent adults ready to make rational decisions. For some mature youth this lawless Internet entices them not into forbidden worlds, but enables them to practice their mature decision-making abilities. For many, these forbidden worlds are all too enticing and they are quickly sucked in. This “grown-up world, far from being somewhere children are permitted to graduate only when they have jumped through a fixed course of education hoops, now appears to be morphing into the image of the Net Generation—fluid and hybrid” (Bagnall, 2000, p.24). In contrast, school is often a place where students are unable to escape the mundane routines of schoolwork, the seemingly boring lectures many feel are irrelevant to their daily lives, and the rules set by grown-ups that just don’t seem to understand. “School education is constructed as old-fashioned, puritanical, drab and over-disciplined a place where, dreadfully or ridiculously, children must be governed by others or be self-restrained.” (Kenway and Bullen, p.9). Thus, the identities of youth are greatly impacted by the Internet, yet schools and educators are often asking youth to check their identity at the door.

We can focus on the cause of this change in youthful identities of today’s generation, however, the Internet is here to stay and our youthful generation will continually be exposed to cyberspace and all its glorious wonders. Kenway and Bullen argue that education systems have disregarded “who the young are and might become” and that not much attempt has been made to “understand what contemporary globalising times in all their complexity mean for the construction of youthful identities and the implications of such constructions for schools’ full range of educational purposes” (p. 2). As students are given the opportunities to see and interact with various people, cultures, and events around the world on a daily basis, we cannot expect this to not change their identities. Instead of trying to pull them away from this world and the consequential identity they are forming, we should pull this world into our educational systems. Michael Furdyk, co-founder of TakingITGlobal, www.tigweb.org, recognizes this change in youth. Furdyk says there has been a decline in enthusiasm and enjoyment in education and believes that if “we engage our students in global issues, and connect them with schools around the world, so they can understand their place in the world and the privileges they have, we could really turn around this engagement issue” (“Global Ambassador”, p.13). In order to accomplish this, Furdyk believes we must do a better job of supporting and training our teachers on issues of technology and allow teachers to let go of the traditional role of the classroom. “The traditional role, where the teacher is the expert in the classroom…you have to let go of that and be comfortable with the fact that students are incredibly technology-literate. Teachers can leverage that and let the students support them. That allows teachers to do what they’re trained for, facilitating the process of learning in a way that’s truly interactive” (“Global Ambassador”, p. 12).

Many proponents of Web 2.0 tools that allow us to connect on a global level believe the ability to participate in conversations, collaborative projects, evaluations of online knowledge, and so on, contribute to a more open-minded and globally aware society. We agree that through the Web users can gain a deeper understanding and respect of people worlds away they might never otherwise come across in their lifetime. Not only are individuals in the working world and higher education institutions recognizing the benefits of connecting with others around the world, so are primary and secondary educational institutions. One such educational institute that is recognizing this growing need in order to enable students to create global connections with others around the world is the International Baccalaureate (IB) schools. Currently, two projects, virtual community and stakeholder gateway, are being developed and launched by IB teams around the world. Described as “Moodle meets Facebook” the aim of the projects is to make collaboration and online sharing of information to be “an integral part of every IB World School’s curriculum” (“Connecting up the wide world of the IB”, 2009). Queensland Academy for Health Sciences (QAHS) in Southport, Australia has created a school in which “the cursor really has replaced the chalk”. Students at QAHS have transcendence of space and time routinely built into their daily routines; students participate in “online conferences, share experiences through podcasts and vodcasts, compile wikis, make blog posts and cast votes in online polls.” The tools of Web 2.0 are shaping the identity of our youth so it is imperative that schools incorporate these tools and become “Schools 2.0” in order to keep students engaged. QAHS truly is a "School 2.0!"

This first video, Web 2.0 in Education gives an brief insight into the use of Web 2.0 tools in education. This second video is a newscast regarding Queensland Academy for Health Sciences (QAHS).

While some might say having such technology in school only encourages off-task behavior, plagiarism, and cheating, recent research shows the benefits far outweigh the pitfalls of bringing online technology into the classroom. Students who had the capability to collaborate and connect with others around the world, and to make use of multimedia tools were much more engaged and “found it easier to express themselves at a higher level and also found tasks more satisfying. Partly, this is because they have more tools at their disposal. But also, for today’s students, technology isn’t an “add-on”; it’s part of a language they’ve grown up speaking, so it comes naturally to them in the classroom” (“School 2.0", 2009) Also argued in the article “School 2.0” is the effectiveness of online collaboration. Diana Debenetti, a history teacher at Colegio Santa Brigida in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has a class blog based on WebQuests. Debenetti believes that technology that creates a community, not limited by physical proximity, “encourages students to think outside the limits of traditional evaluation, and understand that knowledge gets richer when it includes multiple contributions” (as cited in “School 2.0”, p. 18).

Distance and Online Education

“We are at the beginning of the era of transnational higher education, in which academic institutions from one country operate in another, academic programs are jointly offered by universities from different countries, and higher education is delivered through distance technologies” (Altbach, 2004, p. 7).

The ability to transcend space and time has huge implications for both formal and informal education. Distance and online education capabilities allow students from all over the world to come together to learn and collaborate in a virtual classroom. Opponent views of such a bodiless world of cyberspace have been discussed above and are equally relevant and arguable in the context of education. Dreyfus and other opponents would make arguments regarding the relevance and value of education that eliminates face-to-face interaction, stating that without the physical classroom the quality of education is diminished. We counter this by questioning whether the quality of education should be judged by the format in which it is delivered—shouldn’t, instead, judgment be based upon the content of course material, by the knowledge, experience, and ability of the instructor to guide students in collaborating and learning from one another? Just as there certainly are physical classrooms that lack such qualities, there are virtual classrooms that possess all of these qualities. For some students the on-campus courses are seen as high-pressure and uncomfortable; these students find it difficult to contribute thoughts and ideas. The anonymity of online learning actually increases their engagement and performance, thus adding to their overall educational experience and, because of their willingness to contribute more, is more beneficial to others (Burbules & Callister, 2000). Burbules and Callister feel it is important to note that these students “are not necessarily people lacking the ability to perform well [in on-campus courses], but those who because of their cultural difference, their social class background, their insecurity, their lack of facility with the English language, their age, and so on, cannot see themselves as part of the comfortable community of learners on campus that colleges and universities aspire to maintain” (2000, sec 1). The ability for students to attend class without having the physical limits (and expenses) of time, travel, and lodging, provides an opportunity to expand their education, an opportunity they might not otherwise have. For these students “what is lost in terms of spontaneity and immediate face-to-face interaction may be, for them, more than compensated by the convenience (and perhaps lower cost) of such course offerings. For such students the alternative is not the full, rich experience of on-campus, real-time, face-to-face instruction—the alternative is not taking these courses or programs at all” (Burbules & Callister, 2000, sec 1). While for some learners online education is the only alternative, for other learners it is the preferred method of education. These learners feel the online community they form provides them with opportunities to connect with other learners around the world they might never come in contact with, allows more freedom in expressing themselves due to the anonymity of the virtual classroom, and is more convenient as it does not limit them to a space and time.

Boler (2007) speaks to education as she discusses the hypes, hopes and realities of using technology to transcend space and place. She paints the hype as college students "happily seated outdoors on a campus looking at a laptop screen together" and the concept of "creating a classroom from an entire world...with the promise that staff as well as students will be connected via the internet at all places and times" (p. 147). This blends in with Boler's (2007) hopes of "digital worlds where we connect across differences of national and geographic boundaries...a post-geographical world...a world less defined by violent boundaries of nations or segregated communities" (p. 152), and even harkens it to postmodern thoughts of "our desire to escape the limitation of our bodies and the ills of our society (Fisher, 1997:122)" (p. 153). In her discussion of actualities, Boler however returns to the previously discussed (Identities and Abilities in the Context of Self: Transcending Bodies section) human need to ask/find out about markers of age, sex, race and location. Whether blending technology into the traditional classroom or conducting courses entirely online (distance learning), Boler's ideas are food for thought as we navigate real life vs. or with online identities and abilities of both staff and students alike.

The transcendence of space and time allows a new type of learning community to be formed—one based on mutual interests and concerns of individuals, but not limited to only members who can arrive at a designated, physical place at a set time. Nicholas Burbules (2006) refers to such networks as “self-educating communities” and states that one of their most striking features “is an overt commitment to sharing information, initiating newcomers, and extending their collective knowledge through such processes as shared problem-solving, experimentation, and independent inquiry” ( p. 1). Members of these communities are devoted to educating others, as well as enhancing their own understanding of a particular topic of interest. Different from other sorts of communities compromised of members who share and interact with a variety of different topics of interest, self-educating communities identify with each other through one exclusive topic. Thus, interactions between members of such communities are often intense because of the decontextaulized manner of the conversations and the lack of dialogue regarding other issues and topics. Conversations and arguments revolve around one specific topic and rarely stray from the topic of interest. This “obsessive preoccupation with a specific topic that matters a great deal to the members of the community” creates a strong allegiance to the community; members are committed to enhancing the overall knowledge of the group, without being concerned with personal recognition or profit. These self-educating communities use a variety of Web 2.0 tools (wikis, blogs, web-rings, Facebook, etc.), but their goal is the same: to connect with others around the world, without the restrictions of space or time, and in order to enhance the knowledge of and understanding of a topic for all its members. Burbules identifies some issues associated with self-educating communities that one must be cautious of including shared assumptions that may act to reinforce and strengthen prejudices and misconceptions; the need to recruit new members to a community, yet the reluctance sometimes to accept new members with open arms; the anonymity that, while some may find liberating, others may feel alienates them and are less inclined to express their views; and the ease at which information can be “plucked out of an original context and either propagated in a misleading way, or taken without attribution from its original source” (p. 10). We agree that, more importantly, are the aspects of self-educating communities that have the positive effects of bringing people together, educating others, and building a sense of accomplishment and pride among its members. Burbules argues that the dynamics of self-educating communities “can elicit more intense and open-ended commitments to independent and shared learning” and that because of the “ongoing dynamic of participation in the group, through processes of discussion, debate, and information-sharing…education happens. In self-educating communities, the roles of teacher and student may be fluid; most or all participants may regard themselves as students of the ongoing subject matter, and each as a potential learner as well as a potential teacher” (p. 15). Thus, self-educating communities can have a major impact on formal, informal and nonformal education of students and members, especially in the “context of lifelong, lifewide education involving adult learners” (p. 16-17).

We do recognize that the best pedagogical approaches to learning involve collaboration and building upon a community of learners, rather than an authority or hierarchical figure simply disseminating knowledge to a group of learners. Even through online courses collaboration among group members is essential, and achievable. Through Web 2.0 tools, students have the capability to use synchronous methods, such as Elluminate or instant messenger services, or asynchronous methods, such as forums, wikis, or blogs, to have continuous discussions, collaborate on group projects, and to build of sense of community. Cameron, Morgan, Williams, and Kostelecky (2009) argue that group work is especially important for online students. They state, “Particularly for online students, group work has been found to enhance a sense of community, thereby contributing to increased learning and satisfaction.” Cameron, Morgan, Williams, and Kostelecky warn that online instructors “need to be aware of the challenges” that arise in creating a sense of community among students. They argue that instructors need to take the time to create social tasks that allow students to build an identity as a member of the class before delving into the content of the course. While some students and instructors may view such social tasks as unneeded, they state that students in classes where this important step is skipped often in groups focus primarily on simply completing group projects and lose the opportunity to communicate with, get to know, and learn from team members. Cameron, Morgan, Williams, and Kostelecky argue that these students are missing out on opportunities to enhance their overall learning experience and are more likely to feel dissatisfied with the context of the online learning environment.

Digital Divide

“There are many reasons for growth [of distance education] but none is as compelling as the hunger of learning felt by those who have been denied it for generations” (Dhanarajan, as cited in Wright, Dhanarajan & Reju, 2009, p. 2).

When discussing the digital divide, it is imperative for one to understand that the digital divide is not a set line between the have’s and the have not’s—it is not a simple matter of physical technology. “The biggest divide we have is not a hardware divide so much as one of understanding and ability” (“Global ambassador, 2009, p.12). There are many different programs that attempt to provide the developing world with computers and even Internet access, but without training and education on how to use the technology, the Internet loses its capability to offer people opportunities to learn and grow.

Many developing countries lack the necessary funds to provide quality technology and education. Wright, Dhanarajan, and Reju argue that in such countries money is better spent on quality teachers and on encouraging school attendance. They state, “Effective teachers, whether they meet with students face-to-face or via a videoconferencing system or prepare online course material, are still the key ingredient in any educational system” (p. 2). Quality teachers are essential to any education system; however, we argue here that technology is essential to expanding ones opportunities and creating a globally aware society. Hopefully, there is a recognition that quality teachers and technology go hand-in-hand. Organizations need to step in and step up to provide developing nations with the capability, the opportunity, to have both: quality teachers incorporating technology into curriculum and pedagogical approaches. The Global Development Learning Network (GDLN, www.gdln.org/) is one such program that is working to help create such an educational system in developing nations. GDLN allows individuals and teams to connect with one another in order to share knowledge regarding the best way to offer distance and online learning opportunities to students.

There is also a need, both in developing and developed countries, to address instructors who may be reluctant to incorporate technology into their curriculum. “Faculty members used to teaching in one way may be loath to invest the time to learn new methods, and may lack the budget for needed support” (Glenn, 2008, p.4). Wright, Dhanarajan, and Reju concur with this statement and expand it further to include not only teachers, but those in charge of managing the educational system. This is most often found in developing countries where those involved in the decision making process themselves have limited or no experience with technology and are, thus, unable to make sound decisions regarding distance and online education (p. 5). Again, it is imperative that initiatives and programs are developed to help build an understanding of the importance of the Internet and the opportunities it brings to a nation and its citizens and to provide training to instructors and decision-makers on how to use technology in education. As Wright, Dhanarajan and Reju point out, “for those in developing and emerging nations, distance education is the promise of a better life” (p. 18).

While it is important to understand the need for training in order to close the digital divide between developed and developing nations, this is not to say technology limits are not prevalent in developing nations. Without appropriate technology, there is no need to have training on how to make the most of it; without training, the usefulness of the technology is severely limited—quite the conundrum! Web 2.0 tools provide an immense range of opportunities to learn, collaborate, and reach out to others. Unfortunately, it is these tools that require the most bandwidth in order to function. In many developing nations they lack the needed infrastructure that provides adequate bandwidth to allow participation in Web 2.0 tools. As we discussed previously, it is these tools that allow one to maximize their experience and engagement in online courses. Hilary Perraton, author of Open and Distance Learning in the Developing World, 2nd Edition, argues that online education is often used “to offer a shadow of education while withholding its substance. It is an inefficient but cheap way of containing educational demand without meeting it” (as cited in Wright, Dhanarajan, Reju, 2009, p. 12). It is precisely because of the inability to make use of Web 2.0 tools, thus the inability to collaborate, engage in meaningful interaction, and build a sense of community and online identities, in order to promote higher order and critical thinking skills that online education receives such criticism. One program that attempts to address the issue of students being prevented from accessing educational materials due to poor bandwidth is the eGranary Digital Library, managed by the University of Iowa. Downloadable to a computer network, this allows students to access thousands of education materials and even some websites without the need for access to the Internet (Wright, Dhanarajan, Reju, p. 17).

Mobile phone technology is also rapidly advancing in developing and emerging nations. Due to the fact they are relatively inexpensive, their ease of use, and wireless capabilities, mobile phone are quickly becoming the technology of choice in these nations. Wright, Dhanarajan, and Reju predict that “a time will come when the phones are used not just for communicating, conducting financial affairs, and performing administrative tasks, but also for in-depth learning and assessment” (p. 18). Below is a video highlighting the increase of mobile phone use in developing countries.

Another challenge faced by developing countries is the availability, or lack thereof, of online educational programs that are geared toward the needs and traditions of their students. Often these programs are being offered by a developed nation and the classes, curriculum and instructional methods are "simply exported in tact” with little effort made to adapt programs to fit its students and their abilities and identities as citizens of their nation (Altbach, p.8). This has created a perception among citizens of developing nations that online courses push a “westernized” way of thinking, creating a notion that online education is of lesser value and quality than education received in a physical classroom. As online education becomes more prevalent, as there becomes more online institutions in which students can choose from, one would predict that these institutions will be forced to take on a higher quality, to begin to adapt to the needs of students, as they are competing more with other institutes. Unfortunately, this higher quality may lead to higher cost. As Burbules and Callister point out, online programs must decide whether to maintain low cost and high volume of participants, or provide a higher costing education with fewer students able to participate. This will result in “new stratifications of prestige, popularity, cost, and (therefore) educational access and opportunities” (2000, section V). We then question whether developing nations will be any better off as online education continues to grow. Will their choices continue to be ones of low quality? Will this new age of online education really help to improve their opportunities and place in life?

The Internet and Global Communities

You Tube... A Community?

If you've read much of this web page or are a regular Internet user you are already aware of the many types and forms of community available on the Internet. Certainly the members of You Tube (in the above video) believe You Tube is a community. Perhaps you instant message with co-workers, have a Facebook page, upload your photos to Flickr and bookmarks to Del icio us, belong to a Google Group or even have an avatar and presence in Second Life. Thus you are most likely already a member of a variety of online communities. But stop and think about them. Do they expand your knowledge and understanding of others globally? Perhaps not. Using IM with your co-workers doesn't expand your real life community. Your Facebook page connects you to people you already know as well as their friends and friends of their friends, yet chances are high few of them are that different from you in a global community kind of way. And many of those Facebook type friends are distant weak connections at best. Your photo stream or bookmarks perhaps follow familiar paths of interests you hold and you use others' tags that show they have the same interests as you to explore new sites and photos. Yet if you are mostly using common interests or tags to share and collaborate, you are still within a community of your own thoughts and interests, not expanding yourself through new global connections. What about that Google Group you belong to? Perhaps its a group of dog lovers or photo buffs. Again, your connections are around a common interest. Perhaps there's hope for global connectedness in Second Life. Certainly there you will see some variety! Yet many of the identities you'll meet are real people who have chosen a very different persona than themselves to become online as their avatar. Certainly some aspects of global thought and culture will come through, but it's a bit of a stretch to say that texting or speaking in Second Life to a large insect avatar for example is going to create any large global cum ba ya. Looked at in this light, chances are you may extend your personal global reach a bit, but nothing stunning that would carry a good impact. We tend to surf for sites and info that are of interest to us and don't tend to simply wander into uncharted territory.

Now think about the fact that most of the Internet is in English. That in itself is limiting. Some believe it's not a good thing, yet in a way a common language is needed for any global meeting or expansion of ties and understanding to occur. Why English? Partly because of the widespread global use of that language but also partly because most computers originated in the United States and the keyboard characters reflected that fact. After English usage on the Internet next (in order) comes Chinese (20.3%) then Spanish, Japanese, French and Portuguese, German, Arabic, Russian and Korean with much smaller percentages. Internet user statistics, however are much different with "41% of the world's Internet users...(being)...based in Asia, 25% in Europe, 16% in North America, 11% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 3% in Africa, 3% in the Middle East and 1% in Australia". (2009, Internet)

But let's back up a bit. What are some philosophical definitions of community? Howard Rheingold (2009, Virtual) believes that "virtual communities form 'when people carry on public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships.'" John Dewey (Burbules and Callister, 2000, Watch IT) however, in his concept of a Great Community, added a second type of community, one in contrast to the first commonly held notion of community "based on proximity, relative homogeneity, and familiarity" (p, 154). Dewey's challenge was form bonds that break out of that notion of proximity, homogeneity and familiarity to a broader global community. While Dewey looked at this idea in the context of citizenship in a modern nation-state, it certainly speaks to the idea of global communities forged via the Internet. This community is based on "broader civic obligations and a sense of common interest" where we move beyond the familiar to the unfamiliar, homogeneity to heterogeneity and self interest to a more global interest in the common good.

Burbules and Callister (2000, Watch IT) discuss the conditions of community and look at Internet communities through the lens of those perspectives and aspects, and in the context of education as well. They shed light on the complexity of communities and community building and help us understand that the ideal of one big global family, free from differences and prejudice, where we all join hands in peace and understanding is not the reality of the Internet. One condition for community is the fact that they are all mediated, not to different degrees but in alternative forms. Gestures and rituals facilitate cooperation and understanding both face to face and during other forms of mediation. The Internet is one such form with pros and cons, as are all mediated environments. Certainly the Internet allows for a wide variety of mediation in communities, from chat to multimedia to virtual worlds. Social practices are a part of this and varying identities emerge. Online mediated aspects of community allow for fluid or flexible identities and abilities to emerge. Another aspect of community is political. While the Internet at first glance may seem entirely open, free and not political, that is not the case. David Shenk (Burbules and Callister, 2000 Watch IT, p. 170) believe "Cyberspace is Republican...Cyberspace is not politically neutral. It favors the political ideals of libertarian, free-market Republicans: a highly decentralized, deregulated society with little common discourse and minimal public infrastructure". A paradox then is that, to protect our children for example, we filter out that which is different, that which truly makes the Internet global, and limit participation to the tried and true, safe and familiar. The third condition of community (Burbules and Callister, 2000 Watch IT, p. 172-175) is that of space and place. As we discussed earlier in the page's section on Transcending Space and Time, the Internet is a space which, through use becomes a place. We identify our presence with the @ sign and carve out communities in places we frequent and become familiar with. From these perspectives, the Internet does constitute an educational community. Not in the sense of one community, but of many. Burbules and Callister (2000, Watch IT, p. 175) use the idea of the Internet being a metacommunity, in the sense that the Internet allows spaces to carve our place of community and also is that place where community and communication happens. As educators, we need to look for places of plurality, not simply homogeneity, keeping in mind issues of commercialism, privacy/safety, and access. We need to be aware of the constant state of flux of the Internet and both its positive as well as its negative sides. Thus, we believe the Internet offers real, actual communities, communities that vary and overlap but offer wide possibilities for global interaction as well.

Glocalization

Asterix the Gaul from France and Ronald McDonald in Thailand

Just what is glocalization? While a combination of the terms globalization and localization, it is not a straight "mix" of the two, but rather a local adaptation of the global aspect of whatever is "being" glocalized. First used by Japanese economists in the late 1980's in the Harvard Business Review, the term is most often seen in the context of business. The term developed from Dochakuka and was a way to describe how goods and services were produced and distributed within criteria of a given locale (Zoran, 2007). Search CIO (Raimi, 2003) states, "Glocalization is a term that was invented in order to emphasize that the globalization of a product is more likely to succeed when the product or service is adapted specifically to each locality or culture it is marketed in." In glocalization then, we take the global issue or product, look at it in a local perspective and make or note adaptations or changes that make sense in that particular environment. Zoran also mentions that glocalization is when an individual, group or community is able to "think globally and act locally."

When companies seek out to create a type of information and communication technology (ICT), they must now consider the global and cultural aspects that their product will be associated with (Young, 2008). Products now not only have to be both generic and culture-neutral to be a globalized product everyone can use, but when distribution occurs, a more culture-specific approach must be taken into consideration to be successful. Cultural considerations that a company might have to consider could be language, customs, traditions, environment, and so on. Product makers must also consider eliminating culture specific metaphors, acronyms, jokes and idioms, and gender-specific references- unless of course they are applicable to the culture or country they are creating the product for.

In addition to just ICTs and human and computer interaction, more generally the world is fast becoming "glocalized." There is so much more information and cultural knowledge at our fingertips that now much more should be taken into consideration as new technologies emerge and new forms of communication become popular. Products, advertisements, websites and so on all need to be created with a sensitivity to who they are targeting and the cultures and locales that will be making use of them. Another way to bridge the gap among cultures is the tool of using symbols and representative images that members of all cultures are aware of and make use of. Being visually and culturally literate are both of equal importance in today's world, and the Internet and glocalization are all helping individuals become literate day in and day out.

A major example of a product and company that is recognizable worldwide would be McDonald's. McDonald's for instance is certainly globalized, yet in different locations the menu may differ slightly to better appeal to local culinary preferences (while in Germany we had to ask for ketchup as mayo was assumed the condiment of choice) (Zoran, 2007). Other variations would have McDonald's serving more vegetarian options, chicken burgers in place of pork and beef products in India and even having some McDonald's deliver food. Some developments have even gone as far as making sure food preparation was in vegetarian only oils, that it was prepared separately from meat products, and the Big Mac being renamed to the Maharaja Burger (Kumar). In France, Ronald McDonald was replaced with a popular cartoon character, Asterix the Gaul (Raimi, 2003). The same idea of glocalization could be for Spiderman being altered from Peter Parker to be named Pavitra Prabhakar and wear a loincloth to appeal to the Indian comic readers (Kumar).

Another example of glocalization in the modern world is the "Wal-Martization" of the globe (Matusitz 2009). Wal-Mart is now a global institution with over 4000 U.S. stores and 3000 abroad, including a large number within China. However, many of the stores and practices had to be adjusted in China in order to cater to the different cultures and areas within the country. Wal-Mart represents the "philosophy of 'faster, better, cheaper' and 'bigger, more global, standardized' shopping" and this philosophy holds true as its practices spread worldwide (2009). In order to cater to the huge population of China there are even varieties on the store itself- now including supercenters, discount centers and even Wal-Mart markets. Glocalization of Wal-Mart in china includes a variety of examples starting with the store itself. Shelf heights are lower, the store is more spread out, and shopping bags have even gotten smaller in size because of the more frequent trips to the store the Chinese make and the smaller quantities and living quarters many individuals have. Also, many products are out in the open because in some parts of China shoppers want to test the merchandise for freshness or correct operation before buying. In addition, because of the desire to buy extremely fresh foods, instead of frozen fish for example, Wal-Marts in China have fish, shrimp, lobster and even turtle and frog tanks for consumers to choose and catch their own meals (2009). Some Wal-Marts even have take-out food areas, and air soccer games in their electronics department so shoppers can watch in the comfort of the air conditioning while they shop. This glocalization does not come without problems however. Many locales do not care for these major brands to become part of their landscape, especially because some have been known to hurt their economy. In addition, there have been fights for years with trade unions, rumors of these mega-stores polluting the local environments and overworking their employees to gain as much profit as possible.

With the advent of various forms of technology and the Internet there have been many new developments and increases in regard to globalizing and glocalization. Consalvo writes about how video games and consoles have become glocalized over the years. She discusses how Japanese and American cultures and corporations have to work together to create products that will be successful in both cultural arenas. In her opening argument and example she discusses how a very popular game (and later movie) called Final Fantasy included a blond-haired and blue-eyed hero, as well as a pseudo-traditionally dressed Japanese character (Consalvo 2006). The combination of cultures and styles will help appeal to members of both cultures, as well as to those who are fascinated with the opposite culture. Along these same lines, Asian and American influences exist elsewhere such as in Disney influences in Japanese games, anime influences in things like Pokeman, Spirited Away, and other graphic novels (2006). A somewhat less global, but still glocalized idea is that of artists also changing their styles and themes to adjust to their audiences (Zoran, 2007). To some degree, artists might consider either downplaying or playing up their geopolitical themes or making their worldly appeal greater by catering to a more general or homogeneous audience.

With the web and Internet come many opportunities for people to glocalize products and relate and change their identity to tie in with the surrounding culture. An example of the web fostering glocalization would be when there are services provided locally but are on a global scale. One website to demonstrate this technique would be Craigslist, where there are classified ads and personal communication opportunities all centrally located, but divided up by nation, city and even language to cater to specific locales. In addition to Craigslist, socializing and websites dedicated to social networking and dating can be adjusted to both local and long distance communication and relationships (absoluteastronomy.com). More generally, websites that are just translated into local languages, or when products are shifted slightly to match with local customs could be examples of glocalization.

Glocalization does not come without its problems or critics. As mentioned prior, global powers like McDonalds or Wal-Mart might be adjusted to fit with the local culture, but they still might not be a welcomed addition to the cultural landscape. Along with not being welcomed, they also might prove to be detrimental to the economic or environmental well being of the area. Another critique of glocalization is that in some cases it can contribute to a loss of local identity and culture. Children have more and more access to TV and Internet and are seeing these worldwide influences. Children's programs are now accessible in almost any country via cable, satellite or Internet, in their native language or otherwise via dubbing or closed captioning (Moran 2006). Nickelodeon and Disney are famous for being a global presence, and other programs are also available to viewers. One promising difference is that of Sesame Street (or Barrio Sesamo). Rather than just dubbing over it in Spanish, when this program made the jump to Spanish television, it was also recreated with Spanish themes, and altered to fit with the local culture and values of Spain (2006).

There is a call to glocalization in education, particularly in terms of language. While some warn the Internet has become a form of cultural imperialism (bringing Western education to other countries), many others cite the need for local languages to be considered for use. Toure (2008) writes of this cultural imperialism by stating the Internet is used "to force feed western values and world views to the rest of the world, similar to how Western education was imposed on Africa after colonisation". A summary (Rhedding-Jones, 2002, ERIC #EJ770468) of "English Elsewhere: Glocalization, Assessment and Ethics" describes the call to glocalization as the paper "considers how Englishes elsewhere (Norway having been addressed earlier) might vary within given contexts of difference and today's complex immigrations and diasporas. This would call for a reflexive reshaping of the evaluation of English in non-Anglo locations. Specifically, it would request that local differences be recognized by teachers and examiners as concrete manifestations of new forms of globalization or glocalization. In these ways, students and teachers would act more as agents of globalization than as its objects." Bayer's (2007) review of Imagining Multilingual Schools: Languages in Education and Glocalization points out that "only 13% of the world’s children are lucky to receive primary education in their native language". Instead of speaking of these children in terms of being English deficient, we must meet them locally in their native language. Bayer (2007) speaks of such an initiative and writes, "The ‘language awareness project’ carried out by parents and teachers in a primary school in Alsace, France introduced 18 languages and their associated cultures to children between the ages of six to nine years. The objective was to develop an ‘alternative model’ of language education to transform the traditional monolingual habitus to a multilingual orientation so as to empower speakers of minority languages." Education needs to heed this warning and call to change. We need to address the issue of language locally as well as other cultural aspects, truly glocalizing education.

Identities and Abilities: Conclusion

There is little doubt that our advanced technology has greatly enhanced our ability to experiment with new identities and abilities than before possible. Through Facebook, MUDs, MySpace and the more transformative technologies represented by cyborg theory, the ability to present alternate, virtual versions of ourselves is finding ever new ground for expression. Running through all of the sections detailed above, is the implicit question: “what effect does this virtual reality have on our actual, embodied reality?”

While some suggest that we should not conceptualize the relationship between virtual reality and physical reality as a perfect dichotomy, implying that the above question is somewhat misleading, there is little doubt that computer technology has caused us to push the boundaries of self-definition to extreme ends. Whether transcending actual, embodied disabilities in virtual worlds, or fully realizing an online persona as the Sister Furong story illustrates, there is little doubt that virtual experiences have the potential to greatly alter our experiences, and by extension, who we become. It is this concept that is at the heart of cyborg theory, and that serves as a fitting summary for the effect of computer technology on our definition of humanity: there is no difference between the self that exists through computer technology and the one exists independent of it. Once exposed to CMC, it forever alters who we are: identity and abilities alike.

This shift from a Cartesian notion of the self to one that is crafted as a function of our bodies and through the various technologies that we create to assist those bodies causes us to ask questions that we would never consider otherwise: Is one's ability or disability defined totally by the real world? Are traditional notions of respect and human to human interaction possible in a world dominated by computer based technology? Perhaps most interestingly, this shift forces us to question the notion of identity itself. Should identity be considerd a fixed concept that is at all times one thing and another? At the very least, we have compelling evidence that a reasonable answer to this question is, in fact, no. One is capable of having a variety of identities all of which are intimately linked to the manner by which they are expressed.

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Links

Cyborg Professor Kevin Warwick

Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto Pgs. 149-181

My Tiny Life, Crime and Passion in a Virtual World

Second Life

Teen Second Life

Wikipedia Entry on Ability

Wikipedia Entry on Cyborg Theory

Wikipedia Entry on Dreyfus, Hubert

Wikipedia Entry on Identity

You Tube video 1st personal and transpersonal consciousness Francisco Varela on Embodiment

You Tube video Avatars (Representing Self Online)

You Tube video Controlling video games with your mind (BBC News Report)

You Tube video Conversations with History: Hubert Dreyfus

You Tube video Cyborg Life: Kevin Warwick

You Tube video Donna Haraway - European Graduate School 2000 1/9

You Tube video Ethnography in Second Life - Resistance is Futile!

You Tube video The Future of Learning: How Technology is Transforming Public Schools: Abel Real

You Tube video Ideas in the Making - MIT Museum (Kismet the Robot)

You Tube video Identity 2.0 Keynote (Dick Hardt, Founder of Sxip)

You Tube video The Infamous Anniversary of US' Dropping the A Bomb

You Tube video Internet Access for the Blind (CBS News)

You Tube video Internet and Identity - Research Project - Chinese Internet Celebrity Sister Furong

You Tube video IRobotAssist: Assistive Web Browsing

You Tube video N. Katherine Hayles - Interviewed by Stacey Cochran

You Tube video New Technology Helps Disabled

You Tube video Ovation TV | Arthur C. Clarke, The Man Who Saw the Future

You Tube video The Post Postmodern Condition

You Tube video Second Life Wedding Movie

You Tube video A Vision of K-12 Students Today

You Tube video Web 2.0 in Education

You Tube video YouTube - What Defines a Community?