Missed opportunities on Webkinz when developmental abilities are not considered

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.

► Webkinz World is a very popular virtual world for elementary school-aged children.
► This study assessed the educational and social affordances qualitatively.
► The site requires complicated cognitive and social skills for young children.
► Few of the activities offer feedback or guidance to support children's skills in specific domains.
► As such, many educational opportunities for children are missed on this popular site.