Identities: personal, learner, institutional, etc. JISC CETIS Enterprise SIG Simon Grant JISC 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: ) 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!