Creating Your Online Identity

Branding vs. Anonymity

When you decide to take your courses and your presence online, you start developing an online identity and an online persona. Some people don't mind a public or even branded online identity/persona. In fact, they foster it:

See http://juliaparra.com

It's important to have an online presence and an online persona in order to develop a thriving learning community and feel successful as a student and as a teacher. However many people do not feel comfortable with their pictures and real identity being freely available on the web. Thus, it's a good time to reflect on how public you want your online identity/persona. Bethany is fostering a near-pseudo identity with her TekTrekker moniker. I say near-pseudo because her first name is scattered throughout the blog.

So, depending on your attitude about the Internet, we recommend that you consider your online identity. If you want to brand yourself, use your real name. If you do not trust the Internet, consider a pseudo-identity, a way to interact with us and each other online yet remain somewhat anonymous.

Creating Your Pseudo-Identity

First, ponder a fake name that is unique and doesn't identify you. For example, a pseudo-identity that I might have considered is desertjewel.

Second, create a temporary email account in order to create a long-term pseudonym email. TipMonkey recommends the Mailinator and has many more suggestions.

Third, set up your pseudonym email account. Gmail is our recommendation. Hopefully, your pseudonym idea hasn't been used by someone else. This is where you might have to make adjustments to our chosen pseudonym.

Fourth, create an avatar for your online picture. Yahoo! Avatars is a fun still image avatar. Voki is great for your audio/video avatar. If you have a Second Life character, you can take a picture of yourself in Second Life and use that.

More about avatars - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(virtual_reality)

Then, use your pseudonym and avatar image whenever you are asked to post something online.