Avatars

In today's culture, avatar has 3 different meanings.  Most recently, and for the most people, Avatar refers to the blockbuster James Cameron movie. For those of us who used to enjoy cartoons, Avatar refers to the animated Nickelodeon series.  My wild guess is that most people who used to enjoy the Avatar cartoon series also recognize avatar as a word used in the gaming community.  In the gaming community, an avatar is a representation of yourself used in a game or online community. More often than not, the player can earn points or buy customizations for these virtual characters.  Some people choose to make their avatar similar to themselves, while others use their avatars as alter egos, such as the girl in the article who plays as a guy.  Using an avatar as an alter ego allows the creator to have qualities they might not otherwise have, such as super strength.  Avatars allow their creators to create customizations essential to the environment they're in, especially in game settings.  In Call of Duty, players don't create full avatars; the general player looks the same, but the creator can choose weapons, camouflage, and face paint.  In other games, customization of avatars allows players to easily identify themselves and others.  If avatars weren't customizable, everyone would look alike.

Using avatars in the classroom..... that's an interesting application I've never thought about.  I guess avatars could be used to have a semi anonymous online discussion, or do anything online with a degree of anonymity, if the right medium is chosen.