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Unit
Seven: Identity Construction in Cyberspace - What you must
realize in order to construct and manage an effective course
Unit Overview
This unit discusses the psychological
processes occurring in e-learning, with special emphasis on socialization
processes, both positive and negative. This unit discusses
processes occurring in an Internet environment, and it suggests
underlying reasons. It also asks the designers and administrators
of e-learning programs to take a look at the underlying ethical
issues, and to view learning in light of the process of development
of "the whole person" not simply as the acquisition of knowledge
and facts.
Unit Objectives
At the end of this unit, one will be able to:
· Discuss the process of identity construction and transformation
in an online course;
· Develop effective strategies for creating an effective learning
community;
· Manage socialization processes occurring in e-learning;
· Develop a protocol for effective mentoring in an e-learning
environment.
Psychological Consequences
of the Identity Meltdown that Occurs in E-Interactions
In the virtual world, individuals
often craft identities in isolation and they project it into cyberspace.
They are not constrained by the reality checks of the group, and
their socialization process is utterly different than in a regular
community or cohort group. This is potentially liberating,
but also potentially isolating.
Each person, as he or she learns to interact with people, develops
identity-construction techniques as a part of the socialization
process. What are these identity-construction techniques?
Where are they used? Many times, the identity construction
techniques are used to cope in a world that is often critical
and absolute in its insistence upon conformity.
For the average person in a group environment where there is social
interaction, the identity-construction process occurs via clothing,
gestures, vocabulary, activities, humor, narrative and story-telling.
In short, it is a living theater, and the participants and successful
group members become skillful actors.
For the unfortunate ones who are not necessarily adept at acting
or at picking up cues, or who lack the resources (physical, financial,
or emotional) to participate in this kind of socialization, there
are consequences to pay for social ineptitude. They are
often ostracized or marginalized. For others who are chronically
"a beat behind" when it comes to assessing the strategies used
by others to modify behavior in order to conform to the dominant
ethos, the ability to create a virtual identity in cyberspace
becomes very appealing.
Needless to say, cyber identity-creation can become an addiction,
particularly as the new "cyber-persona" meets with positive reception
to others who believe and respond to the alter ego / virtual identity
as though it were real. The positive reinforcement found
in this activity exerts a strong pull on a naturally introverted
person, and when it is coupled with the cognitive/kinaesthetic
"rewards" found in the Internet via sensory stimulation, there
is no doubt that the individual will be tempted to retreat even
further from the "real" world.
For that reason, in ideal conditions, a student in an online course
should have group interactions with people where socialization
processes are occurring. This can occur either via workplace
interactions or in community activities. There should be
a requirement to integrate online activities with in-person activities,
in order to close the separation between what can become a fantasy
persona and one's real self.
It is important to realize that often the person who is "one beat
behind" in being able to asses the steps necessary to mold himself
or herself into the dominant ethos is usually a person who has
"issues" (to use a term in common parlance). In other words,
their social rejection has not occurred without some degree of
psychic pain. If the individual has been punished or subjected
to verbal or physical abuse, there could be a latent desire for
avenging oneself. And, if the rejection or social ostracization
has occurred due to physical appearances, it is quite likely that
the individual will create a cyber-persona that possesses the
attributes that he or she wishes to have. As a strategy
for personal empowerment, building a cyber-persona can be ultimately
futile, and the identity is complex and contradictory when one
desires to operate as an all-powerful, all-knowing presence who
is simultaneously "cool" and indifferent to "cool," who possesses
both an omnipresent in-your-face visual presence and an ability
to be absolutely invisible.
The proliferation of individuals displaying these psychological
characteristics (to varying degrees) is a natural outgrowth of
the availability of the Internet, and the ease by which one creates
a persona and is able to act out unacknowledged desires.
Needless to say, the identity-construction elements, and the virtual-travel
abilities (including invading the spaces of others), are most
appealing to those who do not flourish in traditional social settings.
Ironically, those who are most talented in the cyber-world are
the least likely to be comfortable with a guide or mentor.
But, they are the ones who need them most. It is imperative
that society find ways to provide them with a trusted personal
mentor and guide because the damage that misguided identity construction
and cyber-travel (hacking, etc.) can do can be quite extensive,
with far-reaching consequences.
The trusted mentor-guide presence is more important than ever
given the times and current socio-economic situation of global
interconnectedness. On a personal level, individuals are
likely to have dysfunctional attitudes toward their identity-creation
activities in our current setting of fragmenting family structures,
eroding communities, disappearing support systems, and increasing
isolation.
The mentor-guide in an Internet-based course is a grounding presence,
and any person who decides to assume this role will have to be
aware that the safety and seeming anonymity of the Internet may
give rise to more trust and dependence than the mentor has been
prepared for. The learner may project his/her own problems
onto the mentor, become dependent, confess personal issues, and
become emotionally cathected. Ironically, this can occur
without either having any idea of the real appearance of the other.
Usually they have never met each other in person and never will.
However frightening this prospect is, it is necessary to look
at it as an indication of the positive effects that Internet-based
courses can have, if they establish a strong mentor-learner relationship
in a safe, guiding environment. The mentor and learner can
come to experience the Internet as critical elements in an increasingly
inter-dependent (rather than independent) world, which teaches,
models, and reinforces mutual caring, compassion, and respect.
The fostering of a positive environment for identity-creation
and guided socialization (via the Internet) is very important
for successful navigation in a world increasingly focused on appearances
and first impressions, where long-term commitments have been supplanted
by short-term relationships based on performance and/or convenience,
and where human frailty is made invisible or is consumed / cannibalized
so that the strong survive.
The online learner exists in a world that mediates itself between
the "real" (where the people he/she interacts with are successful
actors in the roles accepted by the community), and the "virtual"
(where the identities she interacts with have successfully created
identities that represent their deepest desires of who / what
they would like to be in the world).
Both worlds require adaptation and socialization. One can
use the virtual world / Internet to provide:
a) positive guidance via a mentor
b) increased self-awareness on the part of the learner which allows
him or her to contemplate
i) what he/she would do if empowered
ii) how she appears in the mirror-space created by the Internet;
for the first time she is able to look deeply and see what he
or she would like to be, how
to be that entity, when
the persona is appealing, who the created persona would like to
interact with (and how), and what the persona wants to do at various
times and places.
Such self-knowledge could be a lamp in a dark existence, and could
help deal with deeper issues. Not only can the guide-mentor
relationship create better citizens, with equipped with new skills
and strategies for living in a rapidly changing world, it can
also address the problems and underlying factors that give rise
to cyber-criminals. Further, the mentor can guide the student
to an awareness that can allow her or him to remove the barriers
that have been blocking his or progress. This will give
learners a new opportunity to develop a vision of themselves or
of where they want to be, and to guide themselves to a new understanding
of how, and when to take steps along a path to a better existence.
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