A Virtual Learning World for Urban Tweens to Experience Possible Selves

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): POSSIBLY ME DIGISODES: Adolescence is a crucial period of transition between childhood and adulthood, with teens following more uncertain and complex paths based on gender, race, ethnicity, social class, and geography (Furstenberg et al., 2006 and Osgood et al., 2005). Youth residing in urban environments face persistent personal and institutional challenges, such as violence, broken family structures, poverty and under-resourced schools that complicate their paths to adulthood. The passage to adulthood is varied based on a complex web of factors, which include social, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Research studies have established that growing up in poverty and living in low-income neighborhoods can seriously threaten a teen's successful passage to adulthood (Guldi, Page, and Stevens, 2007; Osgood et al., 2005). Researchers have uncovered very separate and unequal pathways to adulthood for teens-one for the haves , one for the have-nots ,