Blended Identities: Identity Work, Equity and Marginalization in Blended Learning. (February 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Heikoop, Will
• Is Part Of: E-Learning and digital media. Volume 10:Number 1(2013)
• Page Start: 53
• Page End: 67
• Publication Date: 2013-02
• Subjects: Internet in education -- Periodicals; Computer-assisted instruction -- Periodicals; Education -- Computer network resources -- Periodicals; Educational technology -- Periodicals; Distance education -- Periodicals; 371.33405
• DOI: 10.2304/elea.2013.10.1.53
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2042-7530

Abstract

This article is a theoretical study of the self-presentation strategies employed by higher education students online; it examines student identity work via profile information and avatars in a blended learning environment delivered through social networking sites and virtual worlds. It argues that students are faced with difficult choices when having to present an online self to a group that has physical contact with each other. A virtual self that is accurate, ideal or drastically different from the offline self will be met with various methods of exclusion or marginalization according to dominant offline norms and expectations as well as online notions of strangeness and inauthenticity. This study demonstrates that in blended learning the issues students face with offline marginalization according to how identity is performed and read are, at best, equally represented online with an uncritical self-representation and, at worst, compounded online when critical self-representation is met with resistance.