Reinventing Ourselves: Contemporary Concepts of Identity in Virtual Worlds

Reinventing Ourselves: Contemporary Concepts of Identity in Virtual Worlds
Author: Anna Peachey
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2011-07-07
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0857293613

The proposed book explores the theme of identity, specifically as applied to its role and development in virtual worlds. Following the introduction, it is divided into four sections: identities, avatars and the relationship between them; factors that support the development of identity in virtual worlds; managing multiple identities across different environments and creating an online identity for a physical world purpose.

New Opportunities for Artistic Practice in Virtual Worlds

New Opportunities for Artistic Practice in Virtual Worlds
Author: Doyle, Denise
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2015-06-26
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1466683856

Although virtual worlds continue to grow in popularity, a substantial amount of research is needed to determine best practices in virtual spaces. The artistic community is one field where virtual worlds can be utilized to the greatest effect. New Opportunities for Artistic Practice in Virtual Worlds provides a coherent account of artistic practices in virtual worlds and considers the contribution the Second Life platform has made in a historical, theoretical, and critical context within the fields of art and technology. This volume is intended for both artists and scholars in the areas of digital art, art and technology, media arts history, virtual worlds, and games studies, as well as a broader academic audience who are interested in the philosophical implications of virtual spaces.

Social Virtual Worlds and Their Places

Social Virtual Worlds and Their Places
Author: Merrill L. Johnson
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2022-06-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9811686262

This book provides a foundational look at social virtual worlds from the geographer’s perspective. How can the geographer’s craft be applied to social virtual worlds? This question is addressed through careful analysis of what social virtual worlds are, how interest in these worlds has waxed and waned during the twenty-first century, and the meaning of their concocted spaces. Examining one of the key features of the social virtual world, the avatar, the book focuses on its user's motivations and identity choices. The book draws on the geographical understanding of place to examine where avatars live, work, and roam, and describes how virtual-world places resemble and diverge from actual-world places. A mixed-methods survey conducted in Second Life adds additional breadth to the discussion, whilst a series of vignettes gives extra life to the subject matter. This original exploration of the content and meaning of social virtual worlds is an essential resource for geographers, and for anyone interested in the virtual world experience.

Understanding Learning in Virtual Worlds

Understanding Learning in Virtual Worlds
Author: Mark Childs
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2013-08-27
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1447153707

Since the publication of the companion volume Researching Learning in Virtual Worlds in 2010, there has been a growth not only in the range and number of educational initiatives taking place in virtual worlds, but also in the depth of analysis of the nature of that education. Understanding Learning in Virtual Worlds reflects those changes through a collection of chapters that are extended versions of research presented at the second Researching Learning in Virtual Environments conference (ReLIVE 11), an international conference hosted by the Open University UK. Included in this book are chapters that explore the philosophical and methodological underpinnings of understanding learning in virtual worlds, identify and analyse the factors that support learning in these environments, and present case studies that demonstrate some of the various ways in which virtual worlds can be applied to facilitate learning and teaching. The links between learning in a virtual world and learning in the physical world are made apparent throughout, and the authors reveal how understanding learning in one informs the other. Understanding Learning in Virtual Worlds is an important book not only to those who teach in virtual worlds, but to anyone for whom understanding learning, in all its forms, is of interest.

Handbook of Imagination and Culture

Handbook of Imagination and Culture
Author: Tania Zittoun
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2018
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0190468718

Imagination allows individuals and groups to think beyond the here-and-now, to envisage alternatives, to create parallel worlds, and to mentally travel through time. Imagination is both extremely personal (for example, people imagine unique futures for themselves) and deeply social, as our imagination is fed with media and other shared representations. As a result, imagination occupies a central position within the life of mind and society. Expanding the boundaries of disciplinary approaches, the Handbook of Imagination and Culture expertly illustrates this core role of imagination in the development of children, adolescents, adults, and older persons today. Bringing together leading scholars in sociocultural psychology and neighboring disciplines from around the world, this edited volume guides readers towards a much deeper understanding of the conditions of imagining, its resources, its constraints, and the consequences it has on different groups of people in different domains of society. Summarily, this Handbook places imagination at the center, and offers readers new ways to examine old questions regarding the possibility of change, development, and innovation in modern society.

Recent Advances in Applying Identity and Society Awareness to Virtual Learning

Recent Advances in Applying Identity and Society Awareness to Virtual Learning
Author: Stricker, Andrew G.
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2019-06-14
Genre: Education
ISBN: 152259681X

Online and virtual learning has developed into an essential aspect of learning technologies. A transdisciplinary perspective is needed to evaluate the interplay between social awareness and online virtual environments. Recent Advances in Applying Identity and Society Awareness to Virtual Learning is a critical academic publication that provides a robust examination of the social aspects of virtual learning by providing groundbreaking research on the use of 3D design thinking and cognitive apprenticeship in virtual learning spaces for team science, transdisciplinarity, idea incubation, and curation. It also identifies new patterns, methods, and practices for virtual learning using enhanced educational technology that leverages artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to integrate 3D immersive environments, augmented reality, games, simulations, and wearable technology, while also evaluating the impact of culture, community, and society on lifelong learning and self-determinism to address critical problems in education, such as STEM. Focusing on a broad range of topics including learning spaces, cloud computing, and organizational strategy, this publication is ideal for professionals, researchers, educators, and administrators.

Ethics in the Virtual World

Ethics in the Virtual World
Author: Garry Young
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2014-09-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317547233

Ethics in the Virtual World examines the gamer's enactment of taboo activities in the context of both traditional and contemporary philosophical approaches to morality. The book argues that it is more productive to consider what individuals are able to cope with psychologically than to determine whether a virtual act or representation is necessarily good or bad. The book raises pertinent questions about one of the most rapidly expanding leisure pursuits in western culture: should virtual enactments warrant moral interest? Should there be a limit to what can be enacted or represented within these games? Or, is it all just a game?

Revisiting the Self

Revisiting the Self
Author: Charalambos Tsekeris
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2017-10-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317357892

Who am I? Or, even more curiously, who are you? These are questions about the self – that aspect of who we are that we believe defines, or at least describes, each of us. The self is not merely an internal creation, however. Family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances all contribute to who we are, and more importantly, they help to shape who we think we are. In this innovative and thought-provoking book, the various social aspects of the self and its construction are imaginatively explored. Such explorations can seem abstractly academic, but they carry great significance. Knowledge of how the self is constructed has many implications for most social processes, for example, understanding the volatility of the notion of self that can provide the basis for terrorist radicalisation, can generate destructive suicidal tendencies, or can foment aggressive national identities. This interdisciplinary collection is relevant not only for theoretical and methodological elaborations, but also for more practical considerations. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Social Science, and two articles from Self and Identity.