Talk:Sarah Huston
You did a documenting specific concerns you had with the Evolver software. There is a lot of description of the limitations and issues you had with the software, but I felt there could been more written about the choices you made and how they affected resulting avatar. The idea to compare and contrast female and male (fantasy) avatars was good but it wasn't talked about much. It would been interesting to know if your decision making or the process you went through when creating an avatar of yourself vs. creating a male avatar of your friend.
I liked that you also played around with the clone feature and commented on its limitations. I too had problems with finding a suitable picture and when I found one it accepted, the program was stuck on processing the image (never finished).
By connecting the research study to your own experience with Evolver, you do a good job of utilizing outside sources. It was also refreshing to see your honest opinion of avatars. While you say don't "understand the point of making or using them[avatars]", you summarize the research study well and explain some core reasons of other people's reasons for using avatars.
Overall, you did a thorough job reflecting on your experience and talking about the issues of identity in online environments. The organization of the reflection could benefit from the use of headings and separation in sections as it would make it easier to follow.
-Manual Didi Moco Sonrizete Colesterol Novalgina Mufumbbbbo Cardenas
1. To begin with your use of outside sources, I loved the quote you used from nickyee.com and I think it really rings true (it immediately made me think of my own avatar and if my fantasy avatar fit into me being introverted or extroverted). But both of your external sources really just talk about avatars in general. I don't think you pulled those sources in to actually ground your work. It's more like you use that quote and then go off on how you don't think any avatar matters and don't understand the point of them. Although this is how you feel, I think you could find a better way to tie these sources into what you want to say, or possibly find a better source that parallels your thoughts about avatars (possibly expand on why you feel changing yourself physically is preferred to using an avatar).
2. In terms of your reflection, I'm impressed that you feel you adequately portrayed yourself in terms of hair and clothes because so many others had problems with this. For your fantasy avatar, I don't feel like you totally justified why you used your male friend to do it (I do see that you wanted to compared the creation process with male and female, why did you keep it as your friend?). Other than that you hit on a lot of problems you found in the Evolver software and it's limitations. It was also interesting that you went through many different attempts to make a self portrait and I feel that process is reflected well in your writing.
-Ronny Bennett
