Tween Avatars: What do online personas convey about their makers?

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McCue, C. (2008). Tween Avatars: What do online personas convey about their makers?. In K. McFerrin et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2008 (pp. 3067-3072). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/27698.

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Conference Information

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (SITE) 2008
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
March 3, 2008
ISBN 1-880094-64-9
  Karen McFerrin, Roberta Weber, Roger Carlsen & Dee Anna Willis
AACE

More Information on SITE
Table of Contents

Author

Camille McCue, The Alexander Dawson School, USA

Abstract

Within online communities, students can employ alternate personas, or "avatars," to represent themselves. In the classroom, avatar-building provides educators a concrete representation of the abstractions of how students "see themselves" - especially elusive tweens. This paper reports on qualitative, action research conducted with a fourth-grade class as they constructed their own avatars. Research questions included: How do tweens represent themselves - in real or fantasy avatar formats? Is there relationship between tween gender or personality type and his/her avatar? Findings show that 93% of the participants created Real or Modified Self avatars. No link was shown between extroversion/introversion tendencies and avatar types. All male students situated their avatars in career-based environments; females situated their avatars in nature, travel or home environments. Replication of this study may allow other educators to capitalize on the avatar-construction process as a vehicle for tapping into students' affective states and guiding some aspects of classroom instruction.

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