Video Games in the Classroom?

Video/Computer games, and those who play them, are increasingly a topic of research across a range of academic fields including media studies, sociology and education. It is no longer automatically assumed that gamers are the stereotypical 80s male teenager, sitting alone in the dark. As well, it is no longer assumed that games require a limited set of hand-eye coordinations and rapid response skills. Instead, there is a rich and growing knowledge base around the complex blends of skills, knowledge and social practices involved in interactions with video/computer games. This growing awareness and interest can be seen in this online discussion run by The Chronicle.

New textual landscapes - Victoria Carrington

In the 1950s, Harold Innes (1950, 1951) noted that changes in communicationstechnologies alter the structure of thoughts, the character of symbols and the nature of community. That is, changes in the ways in which we are able to communicateimpact what we think about, the tools we use to think, and the context in which we do this thinking, in effect changes how we see ourselves in the world and the waysin which that world operates. Importantly, Innes (1951) also described a link between the emergence of new communications technologies and the capacity forindividuals and groups to engage with and potentially reshape dominant discourses. In this chapter, I suggest that these shifts and the challenges created bythem are not the exclusive domain of adults. In fact, the more far-reaching consequences of changes in communications technologies are to be seen in theirimpact on children.

Read more...

Texts and literacies of the Shi Jinrui - Victoria Carrington

In post-industrial societies saturated with the multimodal texts of consumer culture--film, computer games, interactive toys, SMS, email, the internet, television, DVDs—young people are developing literacy skills and knowledge in and for a worldsignificantly changed from that of their parents and educators. Given this context, this paper seeks to demonstrate the necessity of rethinking and extending traditionalnotions of text and literacy and, considering the social and cultural implications of such a shift.

Read more...