Random Thoughts

Avatar Chat…what's next?

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So techszewski who will be joining our team here next year sent me a link last week that I’m just not getting to.

The homepage alone is enough to scare most people:

Chat in 3D Avatar mode? MSN Messenger is so Web 1.0 after seeing this. You create an avatar that can chat with these little chat bubbles floating above your head. You create your avatar, who gets his/her own room to invite people into to chat.

So here is yet another avatar I have. In Web 1.0 you were crazy if you had more than one e-mail address. People still look at me like I’m crazy because I have 6 e-mail addresses. However, I have a feeling that soon people will be counting the number of avatars you have. With online games, Second Life, Chatting, I’m sure Skype will have one soon too!

I haven’t spent must time in here yet, but am a little worried at who the audience is this is aimed and the choice of avatars you have to choose from. Of course they are all “Hot Babes” or “Cool Dudes”. Some of the pictures just on the homepage have me feeling uneasy about this one, and when you sign up for an account there is no age limit that I saw, so this is open chat.

All the more reason we need to be teaching Internet Safety in our classrooms. About 50% of our 3rd and 4th graders said they use MSN messenger…could this be next?

If it is….what do we do? How do we teach them to be safe? Who’s job is to to make sure they are safe?

I’m worried about this one…fun, new, different, you look great, get to met “Hot looking Babes”, you get your own room…all of this adds up to an attractive looking IM program for  pre-teens and teens. I’m just worried because you never know who could be on the other end of that handsome looking man. I mean who’s really behind the sun glasses?

[tags]IM, avatar, 3D[/tags]

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I started blogging in 2005 and found it such a powerful way to reflect and share my thinking about technology, this generation, and how we prepare students for their future not our past.

6 Comments

  1. Pingback: U Tech Tips: Tech Tips for Educators

  2. You know I was just thinking about this very topic when I stumbled upon your site. I recently joined imvu and I’ll admit even after three or four years rebelling against the instant messaging because I don’t know who the heck is really on the other end of the messaging window and even at twenty two it still unnerves me to no end. I found that I was almost easily sucked into the whole creating your own avatar thing. I joined and spend three hours on the imvu creating my own little ‘world’. And in just the first few days of chatting I passed by quite a few kids–and by kids I mean 13-17. The site does mention that to join you need to be 18 or older, but since when has that mattered on the net.

    Anyway, just putting my two cents in.

  3. I have been on this site IMVU, and I must say, it ROCKS!
    I have been a member for about 5 months now and it is so addicting.
    If you love ordinary messengers, you will surely find IMVU to be much more exciting.
    If you ever want to chat with me on IMVU, my username is porcelaindo11.

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