Identities:

personal, learner, institutional, etc.

JISC CETIS Enterprise SIG2007-04-20

Simon GrantJISC CETIS Portfolio SIG etc.

A few questions around identity

What is the connection between: identity, as in identity cards identity, as in identity crisis?

(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Erikson ) What is so difficult to grasp about personal identity? Identity is often linked to privacy

why do people get so worked up about privacy? A possible way of beginning to answer:

personal information is linked to identity and privacy

Personal information and comfort

What do you feel comfortable or uncomfortable with, about what personal information is known about you by various different groups of people?

What kinds of information are comfort-sensitive? (discuss...) Data Protection acts are relevant but unenlightening

This is a start, but doesn't help a great deal to define identity

Consequential knowledge

If people know some things, what else can they find out or work out? e.g. if people can “identify” you: but what does this mean? it may imply using identifiers to query databases

What might happen if the wrong people knew what they shouldn't?

This is more like a plausible connection between identity and privacy, and seems to be the kind of thing people (rightly) worry about

Institutional identity

meaning, your identity with the institution: a suitable starting point for the Enterprise SIG?

Identifying you on (institutional) databases: student number staff number ULN? customer number name, address, etc.

What information can be found through those IDs? Particularly in an HEI with little personal contact, is

identity just what is held on the databases?

Approach from another angle

What do you want (or expect) people / institutions / organisations to know you as?

Let's call this “consensual identity” Different information relevant to different groups

systems like Facebook, and good e-portfolio systems, allow users to selectively reveal or hide information from different people or groups of people.

Facebook also asks, how do you know this person? This reminds us of the significance of the context of

relationships to identity and self-presentation.

The basis of consensual identity

Who are these groups of people? What are you happy with them knowing about you?

what you expect them to know, and that's OK with you what you would like them to know and take into account this is quite likely to differ with different groups

Note: some people appear in more than one group or context one location (e.g. university) has many possible groups of

people where consensual identity may differ: peer groups (class mates, club / society members, etc.) academic staff and tutors administrators

Clues to identity distinctions

In different situations, or with different people: your different physical appearance

clothing; grooming / cosmetic; posture the different ways you speak

language, accent, tone vocabulary; quantity

particular behaviour what you do with your own clothes / body what you do to others what you eat / drink, and how

emotional approach or response

Fleshing out

Start from any particular clue that applies to you, think of typical, familiar situation where this applies

Fill in the other variables in this kind of situation Who are the people involved? To get you started, think of e.g.

football match CETIS SIG meeting; team meeting job interview

More examples of your own?

Piecing together

If you can flesh out familiar scenarios like this, probably you will be able to consider, for each one what information about you is relevant to this situation?

what are people likely to know about you? what do others want to know about you? what would you like to put across about yourself?

what information about you may be a threat? what is your role in this situation?

what rules govern your behaviour? what are the predominant or preferred values in this

situation? (that takes rather more reflection and insight)

Consolidation

If you can fill in clues and answer questions coherently, there may be a familiar set of situations with the same or similar answers

Think of this as relating to one of your identities your identity (in this context) covers

the personal sense of “who you are” in this context the set of information noted as “consensual identity” how you “come across” in that context

Let's call the set of situations which relate to the same identity an "identity context"

Things to reflect on

How many different identity contexts do you think you have?

How are they articulated and structured? Different people manage their identities in different

ways you can't assume that other people have just one identity

for each one of yours Role of skills and competencies across identity

contexts - do they transfer?

Institutional identity

Institutions probably don't distinguish between different identity contexts

For them, there is normally assumed to be one context: you as student you as staff member problems can arise when you are both!

Institutional systems have a good reason to start distinguishing between identity contexts how many different roles / identities may there be? distinguish identities from “principal” / individual

Learner identity

What information is relevant to me as a learner? in the learner role? (whatever those terms may mean...)

How do I feel “as a learner”? How do I come across as a learner?

Personal identity

Potentially highly diverse information management requirement

It would be really nice if portfolio tools (and personal information management tools more generally) helped to organise information along identity context lines

What I'd like from smart systems

to know what information who is holding about me more easily and cheaply than through Data Protection legislation

to know who is given my information from a database, and when

to be able to organise my life information into easily managed chunks which mirror my chosen identity contexts

not to waste time filling in forms with anything that I've typed in before

Answering the questions?

What is the connection between: identity, as in identity cards identity, as in identity crisis?

What is so difficult to grasp about personal identity? Why do people get so worked up about privacy?

The question which intrigues me

How do identities develop and change though time? Erik Erikson

seems to treat identity as a single thing Perry: Intellectual and Ethical Development

doesn't use the concept of identity much Goffman & Jourard

more about end points others?

I haven't come across anyone who has convincingly dealt with both development and multiplicity of identities

Future

We (CETIS, Portfolio SIG, CRA) are considering a one-day conference on identity in the autumn

Please let us know about your support for such an event what issues you would like to cover

Stay in touch with me or the Portfolio SIG Help develop the theory, to inform

development of portfolio and PIM tools institutional records strategy

Thanks!