Virtual body: implications for identity, interaction and didactics

This study is based on research developed in the theoretical framework of the cognitive sciences and pedagogy that assign an essential value to the “body” for knowledge and comprehension.The relevance of the body and the concept of embodiment, or the act of “embodying,” is present in many theories in the field of pedagogical sciences. If the environments and tools provided by the Internet are characterized by a synthesis between action and symbols in which representation has a primary value for the user because of the “disappearance” of the body in the communication flow, we can assume that virtual worlds are characterized by a new involvement of the body with an absence of mediation between the user and the medium. With the advent of virtual worlds, the body regains its status and expresses its meanings/values in virtual interactions: the physicality of the body is substituted by the avatar.