Social Media Avatars as New Technological Identity in Distance Learning

Abstract

In the world of increasing technological development and social media revolution students are expected to be extremely motivated. However, a great number of them remain unmotivated, especially in the distance learning process. We conducted a survey at ICT College, Belgrade involving 265 students aged 19-22 regarding student motivation. Our goal was to make distance learning more motivating for students. Being aware and excluding the indisputable social, financial or psychological reasons for decreasing motivation of students in the learning process, our survey revealed that a means of communication itself can influence motivation. We started from the premise that digital life is part of everyday life and that students enjoy it. Therefore, we wanted to exploit the fact that almost all students are social media users. The survey revealed that students suggested Instagram should be used in both learning and distance learning processes. Another interesting conclusion is that students like avatars and suggest that all students should create their avatars and then gather to communicate in a virtual world together with their teachers, which would make lessons and communication much more fun and effective. Finally, according to the surveyed students’ suggestions, we suggest creation of completely new technological identity – social media avatars as the next generation of distance learning trainees.