Visual Stereotypes and Virtual Pedagogical Agents

The paper deals with the use of visual stereotypes in virtual pedagogical agents and its potential impact in digital learning environments. An analysis of the concept of visual stereotypes is followed by a discussion of affordances and drawbacks as to their use in the context of traditional media. Next, the paper explores whether virtual pedagogical characters introduce anything novel with regard to the use of visual stereotypes – as compared both to real life interaction between humans and to the use of visual stereotypes in traditional non-interactive media such as magazines, film, television and video. It is proposed that novel affordances, as well as novel drawbacks, indeed are being introduced with the use of visual stereotypes in virtual characters. The conclusion of the paper is that knowledge on these matters can be useful both for developers of educational systems and for educators in enabling them to strengthen some pedagogical settings and activities