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- Title
Changing the Face of Higher Education: Digital Image Manipulation and Avatars in Identity Management.
- Authors
Oravec, Jo Ann
- Abstract
Face-to-face classroom interaction in higher education contexts incorporates various aspects of personal appearance in its visual dimensions. The advent of online delivery of education (such as utilization of internet platforms including Blackboard and Desire2Learn as well as social media) is creating new spheres of intellectual communication along with new forms of representation of individuals, including selfies and manipulated photographs. For example, the growing popularity of avatars in higher education provides a new spectrum of representational choices for individuals. This article discusses issues involving personal image modifications in higher education and their implications for intellectual interaction and policy development as well as the monitoring of cheating and student impersonation. The ability to choose avatars with which to associate oneself or to alter one's image digitally can be construed as liberating affordances and well within the spirit of creative higher education. Many of the narratives concerning the personal choices of image or avatar reflect themes of freedom, possibility, and the exploration of self-identity, although others lament the amount of time invested in these choices. However, use of manipulated images and avatars rather than less heavily modified human faces for interaction can also serve to increase the real-world invisibility of many disenfranchised individuals and decrease awareness of their life circumstances in ways that ultimately are more escapist and confining than life enhancing.
- Subjects
AVATARS (Virtual reality); SOCIAL media in education; DIGITAL images; HIGHER education; LOCAL delivery services; STUDENT cheating; FACE
- Publication
Ubiquitous Learning: An International Journal, 2020, Vol 13, Issue 2, p1
- ISSN
1835-9795
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.18848/1835-9795/CGP/v13i02/1-14