Comments on: Should a cop ever say to you “Sir (or Ma’am), please identify yourself…” http://theoreticaljunk.com/2008/02/should-a-cop-ever-say-to-you-sir-or-maam-please-identify-yourself/ A blog exploring the use of Web 2.0 in community-building, the teaching & learning process, and summer camps… Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:11:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: DONNA MARION DENOBLE http://theoreticaljunk.com/2008/02/should-a-cop-ever-say-to-you-sir-or-maam-please-identify-yourself/comment-page-1/#comment-14 DONNA MARION DENOBLE Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:59:09 +0000 http://rubywahoo.com/2008/02/should-a-cop-ever-say-to-you-sir-or-maam-please-identify-yourself/#comment-14 Why yes, I face the identity dichotomy every day. In the teaching community I was thought of as a leader in the field, and in academia, a member of the novitiate in the research community. Multiple personality disorder comes to mind as I struggle to shelve the old person practitioner "filters" as I view new concepts, while trying to give birth to the infant researcher struggling to emerge from the womb. Identity is a fleeting thing, hard to pin down, and drives what we believe about ourselves and about what we can do. Perhaps multiple identities on the web are not really that much different than the integrated selves we are in daily life. It is easier to separate them in virtual reality and compartmentalize oneself. In real life we are who we are, and although we appear not to be what others want us to be, maybe we are indeed so... As teachers or teacher educators, or camp directors, it takes all of the identities to work together in integrated mode to perform the multitude of tasks required to help learners actualize. How do we develop these identities in teacher candidates and how do we teach them when to integrate and how much? Where does the identity with experience fit among the multitudes of research articles? How can we expect teachers to use these new technologies if they perceive their identity as a techno-phobe, and possess all the related feelings, attitudes and beliefs about self in that way? Should we, as early adopters, help other teachers to form an identity that ecologically fits with the Web 2.0 environment? As Scott would say, "I'm just sayin" Why yes, I face the identity dichotomy every day. In the teaching community I was thought of as a leader in the field, and in academia, a member of the novitiate in the research community. Multiple personality disorder comes to mind as I struggle to shelve the old person practitioner “filters” as I view new concepts, while trying to give birth to the infant researcher struggling to emerge from the womb. Identity is a fleeting thing, hard to pin down, and drives what we believe about ourselves and about what we can do. Perhaps multiple identities on the web are not really that much different than the integrated selves we are in daily life. It is easier to separate them in virtual reality and compartmentalize oneself. In real life we are who we are, and although we appear not to be what others want us to be, maybe we are indeed so…
As teachers or teacher educators, or camp directors, it takes all of the identities to work together in integrated mode to perform the multitude of tasks required to help learners actualize.

How do we develop these identities in teacher candidates and how do we teach them when to integrate and how much? Where does the identity with experience fit among the multitudes of research articles? How can we expect teachers to use these new technologies if they perceive their identity as a techno-phobe, and possess all the related feelings, attitudes and beliefs about self in that way? Should we, as early adopters, help other teachers to form an identity that ecologically fits with the Web 2.0 environment?

As Scott would say, “I’m just sayin”

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