Virtual Educational Environment As The Online Identity Formation Meaning And Value

Abstract

The article discusses modern studies on virtual educational environment influence on online identity. The authors present the results of a pilot survey on virtual educational environment influence on modern person’s values. The necessity of specific principles consideration in virtual educational environment construction as well as the necessity to make the implementation of the ability to manage the online identity formation with valuable and meaningful are proved. The correlation between terms “environment”, “social and cultural environment”, “virtual environment”, “educational environment” and “virtual educational environment” is presented. The article concludes that it is necessary to develop key research focuses such as studying virtual educational environment possibilities in online identity formation, virtual educational environment content construction, determining new meanings and values that influence students’ personal online identity formation. Person’s virtual identity construction factors, most often appearing due to dissatisfaction with certain real identity traits or due to identity crisis as a real socialization compensation as well as extra opportunities for self-expression and maximum personal fulfilment, are described. The approaches to structure and details of online identity phenomenon are considered. Online identity is defined as multicomponent entity, representing a set of components of a person’s network image that reflect the real aspects of a person and ensure the integrity and identity of the person in the process of Internet interaction.