Seeing the Way They Are in the Way They IM: Case Studies of Instant Messaging in Taiwanese Fifth Graders' Lives
Huang, Wanju
This item is only available for download by members of the University of Illinois community. Students, faculty, and staff at the U of I may log in with your NetID and password to view the item. If you are trying to access an Illinois-restricted dissertation or thesis, you can request a copy through your library's Inter-Library Loan office or purchase a copy directly from ProQuest.
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/80142
Description
Title
Seeing the Way They Are in the Way They IM: Case Studies of Instant Messaging in Taiwanese Fifth Graders' Lives
Author(s)
Huang, Wanju
Issue Date
2010
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Witz, Klaus
Department of Study
Curriculum and Instruction
Discipline
Curriculum and Instruction
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Speech Communication
Language
eng
Abstract
"To capture the nature of the child's IMing experience and how it is related to other aspects in the larger image of the child, I adopted the ""participant as ally---essentialist portraiture approach"" research methodology, which argues that a researcher's task is not just to understand the investigated phenomenon but also to explore how the investigated phenomenon ties into the other aspects of the participant's life. The primary research data are in-depth interviews with five 11-year-old children, each of whom had three to four 40-minute interviews. I conducted hour-long interviews with the children's parents, and their homeroom and computer teachers to obtain a richer understanding of these children. The research findings suggest there were immediate effects of the computer education on the children's Internet activities. In the computer class the fourth grade students were taught how to use Yahoo! Messenger. I observed the use of Yahoo! Messenger among these students and their peers immediately after this class. IMing quickly became an afterschool activity and their primary Internet activity. My second discovery is that each child's own strong and distinct identity was apparent in the ways they each used IMing. Who the child was in the real world was never left behind when he or she IMed. Further, the images of the child's family, parents, and peer groups were also reflected in the essence and nature of the child. The third research finding indicates that Yahoo! Messenger was a social tool assisting these children in maintaining their offline friendships (and online friendships for three of them). Nevertheless, in their perceptions of genuine personal relationships, in-person contact was considered indispensable. These research findings were possible to achieve because the spirit of the essentialist portraiture research methodology puts the participant in a caring relationship with the researcher and yields a more holistic image of the participant. All five participants in this study noticed and commented favorably on the relationship they felt with me."
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
