Missed opportunities on Webkinz when developmental abilities are not considered

Abstract

Webkinz World is a popular virtual world for elementary school-aged children, attracting millions of unique visitors per month. Despite its popularity, research has yet to explore how Webkinz World connects to children's emerging abilities or influences their cognitive and social development. Using in-depth observation and content analysis, this study examined the activities and educational affordances of the site using a developmental perspective. Results show that while Webkinz World has the potential to support learning, many of the activities require sophisticated cognitive and social skills with which children often struggle. Specifically, we focus on how class-inclusion tasks and the use of multiple perspectives are embedded throughout Webkinz World without offering feedback, scaffolding, or guidance to support children's skills in these domains. While this popular site is a self-proclaimed “educational tool,” this study found that many educational opportunities were missed from the failure to consider developmental abilities of the target-aged users.