Digital identity: are students' views regarding digital representation of 'self' gendered?

Through the medium of a showcase eportfolio, the owner creates and expresses a digital ‘self’ for an external, virtual audience. As teacher education graduates realize the value of creating eportfolio views for prospective employers, questions of authentic or ethical representations of the personal and professional self are raised. This finding from our recent research with teacher education students was challenged by a conference audience in 2012 as representing a ‘typical’ female response. Consequently, in order to test the expressed assumption that females hold a more ethical approach to ‘authentic’ digital identity than males, further research has been conducted. Two focus groups, each with either male or female participants explored questions around digital identity and the (re)presentation of ‘self’. The findings will be shared in this presentation