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GAMING ECOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGIES SERIES
Bridging Literacies
with Videogames
Hannah R. Gerber and
Sandra Schamroth Abrams (Eds.)
•
•
•
Foreword by Allen Web and Robert Rozema
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Bridging Literacies with Videogames
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GAMING ECOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGIES SERIES
Volume 1
Series Editors:
Hannah R. Gerber, Sam Houston State University, USA
Sandra Schamroth Abrams, St. Johns University, USA
Editorial Advisory Board:
Thomas Apperley, University of Melbourne, Australia
Jen Scott Curwood, University of Sydney, Australia
Julia Gillen, Lancaster University, UK
Jayne Lammers, University of Rochester, USA
Jason Lee, The Pennsylvania State University, USA
Alecia Magnifico, University of New Hampshire, USA
Guy Merchant, University of Sheffield, UK
Michael K. Thomas, USA
Mark Vicars, Victoria University, Australia
Allen Webb, Western Michigan University, USA
Bronwyn Williams, University of Louisville, USA
Karen Wohlwend, Indiana University, USA
Scope:
Research suggests that a majority of today’s students play videogames on a regular
basis – five or more times per week. Research also suggests that more attention is
needed to understand and theorize the connections among multiple out-of-school
literacy practices and academic spaces. There are multiple ways that videogames
shape and inform people’s lifeworlds, and this series aims to provide an understanding
of gaming ecologies as a means to conceptualize and theorize gaming, learning, and
virtual environments.
We invite proposals that draw upon a broad range of methodological approaches
and theoretical perspectives in order to move the field forward and understand new
directions that videogames and MUVEs have in learning experiences. Books in this
series may be conceptual, theoretical, and empirical and can be edited compilations,
anthologies, single-authored and co-authored texts. We invite interested authors to
submit proposals relating to videogames and learning to
Hannah R. Gerber, hrg004@shsu.edu
or
Sandra Schamroth Abrams, abramss@stjohns.edu
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Bridging Literacies with Videogames
Edited by
Hannah R. Gerber
Sam Houston State University, Texas, USA
and
Sandra Schamroth Abrams
St. John’s University, New York, USA
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A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-94-6209-666-0 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-94-6209-667-7 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-94-6209-668-4 (e-book)
Published by: Sense Publishers,
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To my nephews, Andy, Caleb, and Gabe, who inhabit a gaming world that
spans many literacies.
-Hannah
To my husband and our children who continuously remind me of the lessons
embedded in play.
-Sandra
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Allen Webb & Robert Rozema
ix
Preface
xiii
Acknowledgements
xv
About the Contributors
xvii
Chapter Abstracts
xxi
Bridging Literacies: An Introduction
Sandra Schamroth Abrams & Hannah R. Gerber
1
Section One: (Re)Creating Worlds and Texts
1.
2.
3.
4.
Exploring Imaginary Maps: Collaborative World Building in
Creative Writing Classes
Trent Hergenrader
11
Students’ Transmedia Storytelling: Building Fantasy Fiction
Storyworlds in Videogame Design
Ryan M. Rish
29
Reader, Writer, Gamer: Online Role-Playing Games as
Literary Response
Jen Scott Curwood
53
Teaching with Club Penguin: Re-creating Children’s
School Literacy through Paratexts in the Classroom
Anne Burke
67
Section Two: Massive Multiplayer Second Language Learning
5.
Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming and English Language Learning
Jason YJ Lee & Charlotte Pass
6.
Language Games: How Gaming Communities Shape
Second-Language Literacy
Javier Corredor & Matthew Gaydos
vii
91
103
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
7.
The Transformative Power of Gaming Literacy:
What Can We Learn from Adolescent English Language
Learners’ Literacy Engagement in World of Warcraft (WoW)?
Zhuo Li, Chu-Chuan Chiu, & Maria R. Coady
129
Section Three: Videogames and Classroom Learning
8.
Reviewing the Content of Videogame Lesson Plans Available to Teachers 155
Mary Rice
9.
Collaborative Videogame and Curriculum Design for
Language and Literacy Learning
Lan Ngo, Nora A. Peterman & Susan Goldstein
171
10. Writing in Virtual Worlds: Scratch Programming as
Multimodal Composing Practice in the Language Arts Classroom
Julie Warner
187
Index
209
viii
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ALLEN WEBB & ROBERT ROZEMA
FOREWORD
In What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (2003), James
Gee extracted the strategies and principles that keep videogame players motivated to
master increasingly difficult skills and knowledge, strategies and principles that he
believed were transferable to many different learning situations. Perhaps what was
most ground-breaking about Gee’s work was not the learning strategies he found–
many were familiar–but that an academic scholar, a leading expert in linguistics and
literacy, approached videogames with a high level of respect for their complexity, their
ability to engage participants, and their educational methodology. Gee investigated
videogames as new semiotic domains–new contexts for the construction of meaning
and the practice of literacy.
Bridging Literacies in Videogames draws on Gee’s work, but goes to a different
level. The editors and authors here are thinking deeply about the intersection between
videogames and learning. But they are also interested in what happens when students
develop virtual worlds, design video games, engage in online role play in response
to real world issues, and learn language, especially English, in games that transcend
culture, class, and nationality.
Even as cultural critics blame videogames for a host of social ills—violence,
illiteracy, and antisocial behavior, to name a few—the contributors to this volume are
building bridges between the world of videogames and the world of school. Had they
been teaching in the late 1960s, the writers included here would likely be listening to
the Beatles along with their students, looking for instances of figurative language in
“Happiness is a Warm Gun,” even while all around, pastors and politicians decried
rock and roll.
But they teach today, a time when videogames may be more popular than
rock and roll. Today, nearly all adolescents play videogames. They play them on
smartphones, on media tablets, on laptop and desktop computers, and on standalone
gaming consoles such as the Xbox or PlayStation. They play them alone, with three
or four friends, or with thousands of others. They may be building intricate worlds in
Minecraft, stealing and joyriding cars in Grand Theft Auto V, completing dangerous
missions in Call of Duty, or simply wandering the vast realm of Skyrim.
And gamers themselves no longer fit a stereotype: many are indeed teenage boys,
but videogames are also increasingly popular with girls, with older people, and
with young children. Rob’s son Aidan began playing the Nintendo Wii at age five,
delighting in the whimsical worlds offered by Lego Wii games. In Lego Star Wars,
Aidan found an immersive galaxy, stocked with familiar characters and settings but
ix
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FOREWORD
open to nearly endless variation. Aidan discovered that each of the 42 levels could
be played in story mode, in which players follow plots drawn from the Star Wars
movies–Luke must rescue Princess Leia from the Death Star. But the levels can
also be played in free play mode, which allows a player to use assume the role
of any character or better still, to create an original character. What might happen
if Chewbacca went to Dagoba?, the game invited Aidan to ask. Aidan borrowed
concepts and vocabulary from the game for his other forms of narrative play. Playing
with Star Wars action figures, he would pretend to complete levels and ask me to
“click on” a character I wanted to use.
In August of 2012, Allen visited his daughter Jessica, who was teaching English
on a Fulbright to future English teachers in Brazil in a small, rural Amazonian town
many hours by bus from the nearest city. Her best students, those who had the best
English, especially the best accents and phonetics played videogames. None of their
parents spoke English. No one in their families had traveled. In a region with spotty
Internet connection, poor kids (mainly but not only boys) would play videogames
in shabby Internet cafes. There, through games, they were traveling to other parts of
the world and also interacting, carrying on online discussion in English with gamers
from all over the earth. Soon many discovered that they were doing better in their
English classes and, eventually, those Jessica was working with decided to become
English teachers.
As the contributors to this volume realize, videogames are here to stay–in
suburban homes, Brazilian cafes, and everywhere else. The titles will change, but
gaming itself will remain, its future assured by the proliferation of affordable gaming
platforms, by the exponential increase in memory processing power that drives game
development, by the massive corporate capital invested in the videogames, which
now outsell movies, and most of all, by the great appetite for new and better games.
Clearly, videogames have the potential to engage students in school. Yet a
simple desire to engage students is not the reason why Gerber, Abrams and their
contributors draw on videogames as teaching tools. Instead, as scholars of education
and experts in learning, they are interested in how literacy and culture evolve and
how students become critical thinkers, active learners, and producers of meaning
in the worlds in which they live. They are intrigued by social interaction, media
literacy, and distributed decision-making. The authors of this volume are curious
about how changes in technology and literacy practices of young people at home and
online will change their learning in school.
Not everyone is willing to build these bridges. Corporate educational reform is
calling for systematic curriculum, students and teachers held to common standards,
and standardized testing of individuals working alone. School literacy is divided into
isolated and thoroughly sequenced traditional skills and understood as close reading
of texts carefully graded by supposed levels of complexity.
All the while what is really going on is that globalization and new technologies
are changing the nature of work, play, and personal lives. Work place and home
literacies increasingly involve collaborative consumption and production of digital,
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FOREWORD
visual and multimodal texts. People change jobs, even careers, multiple times and
new careers are created at an ever-faster pace. In the post-industrial economy, work
takes place in cooperative affinity spaces, through shared knowledge, and is carried
out with new and rapidly evolving virtual tools.
Clearly, Bridging Literacies is about crossing outmoded cultural, linguistic,
and national barriers and overcoming old-fashioned, school-based, and reductive
conceptions of literacy. Instead, the authors here are interested in developing
imagination, adaptability, social connectivity, and new understandings of text,
composition, and knowledge. In short, this book is about what is really going on and
about using education to prepare young people for the world today.
xi
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PREFACE
This book came about over multiple conversations that we have had on the topic of
bridging literacies through videogaming, and, thus, fostering learning environments
steeped in literate experiences for all learners. During formal and informal meetings
at conferences, such as those sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of
English, the Literacy Research Association, and the American Educational Research
Association, we conversed about the need for comprehensive texts that provide a
wide-angle view of diverse empirical studies that address ways of bridging literacies
with videogames.
This edited volume draws together cross-cultural and global voices and
experiences, shedding light on the well-known issue of gaming and learning. We say
‘issue’ because videogaming is complicated; most games stem from complex design
systems, and they encourage ‘good’ learning (Gee, 2007); but they are deeply rooted
in an entertainment industry that has had a strong, capitalistic hold on games since
the 1970s (Abrams, 2009, in press). Thus, it comes as no surprise that, despite recent
initiatives to include videogames and game design in education (Gerber, Abrams,
Onwuegbuzie, Benge, 2014; Salen, Torres, Wolozin, Rufo-Tepper & Shapiro, 2011;
Squire, 2012; Webb, 2012), the concept of videogaming and classroom learning still
receives resistance.
One way to begin is to acknowledge videogaming as a legitimate literacy practice,
and, as noted in David Thomas, Kyle Orland, and Scott Steinberg’s The Videogame
Style Guide and Reference Manual (2007). This includes a consistent language,
beginning with the spelling of ‘videogame’ as one word. As Thomas, Orland, and
Steinberg contend, their use of videogame as one word stemmed from the desire
for and training in “clear, concise communication” (p. 8). We support the need to
develop a common and consistent language as the field of videogames and learning
moves forward. As such, we have asked our contributors to adhere to the standards
set forth by The Videogame Style Guide and Reference Manual. This edited volume,
therefore, presents a variety of international studies that use a similar language to
clearly communicate Bridging Literacies with Videogames.
REFERENCES
Abrams, S. S. (2009). A gaming frame of mind: Digital contexts and academic implications. Educational
Media International, 46(4), 335–347.
Abrams, S.S. (in press). Videogames and literacies: Historical threads and contemporary practices. In
J.Rowsell & K. Pahl (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of literacy studies. Routledge.
Gee, J. P. (2007). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York, NY: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Gerber, H. R., Abrams, S. S., Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Benge, C. L. (2014). From Mario to FIFA: What
qualitative case study research suggests about games-based learning in a U.S. classroom. Educational
Media International, 51(1), 16–34.
xiii
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PREFACE
Salen, K., Torres, R., Wolozin, L., Rufo-Tepper, R., & Shapiro, A. (2011). Quest to learn: Developing the
school of digital kids. Cambridge: MIT.
Squire, K. (2012). Video games and learning: Teaching and participatory culture in the digital age. New
York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Thomas, D., Orland, K., & Steinberg, S. (2007). The videogame style guide and reference manual.
Victoria, Australia: Powerplay Publishing.
Webb, A. (2012). (Ed.). Teaching literature in virtual worlds. New York, NY: Routledge.
xiv
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank our respective universities, Sam Houston State University
and St. John’s University, for providing us with the opportunity to focus on areas
of research that are important to explore in bridging literacies for learning. Gaming
is an important literacy practice that many people engage in on a regular basis, and
we are grateful to our universities and our colleagues for allowing us to pursue our
passion, as well as indulge us in conversations about this multifaceted topic relevant
to scholars, teachers, and policy-makers alike.
We want to thank our wonderfully dedicated acquisitions editor, Michel
Lokhorst at Sense Publishers, for his excitement about our text, and the subsequent
conversations we have had with him that allowed us to flesh out our ideas. His
prompt responses to our inquiries about the text allowed us to move forward with our
ideas. We also want to thank Jolanda Karada, our thorough production coordinator at
Sense Publishers, for guiding us through the production process and answering our
questions throughout the process.
Additionally, we want to thank all of our contributors, for without them the book
would not be possible. Their insightful chapters truly add a layer to rethinking the
multiple ways that literacies can be bridged through and with gaming in order to
enrich and engage learning experiences for all. It was a pleasure working with each
of them. We also want to thank our external reviewers who took time to thoroughly
review each of the chapter submissions and provide valuable feedback and ideas
for each of our contributors to consider during their revision process. Thank you to
James Bucky Carter, Xiaojun Chen, Thor Gibbins, Kellie Gobert, Erica Holan, Aliya
Holmes, Victor Malo-Juvera, Lisa Kwoka, Kimberly LaPrairie, Tom Liam Lynch,
Shannon Mortimore, Dodie Neimeyer, Justin D. Olmanson, Debra P. Price, Robert
Rozema, Carolyn Stufft, and Michael K. Thomas.
We also want to thank Allen Webb and Robert Rozema for their thoughtprovoking and insightful foreword that encourages us to reconceptualize learning
in light of contemporary modes and practices. We hope their contribution, and that
of the authors of this volume, will inspire new perspectives and discussions about
ongoing shifts in literacy and learning.
xv
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ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
EDITORS
Hannah R. Gerber, Ph. D. is an Assistant Professor of Digital Literacies and
Epistemologies in the Department of Language, Literacy, and Special Populations in
the College of Education at Sam Houston State University.
Her research focuses on the ecologies and pedagogies afforded through
videogaming practices among adolescents, considering both the affordances and
constraints that the medium of the videogame, and the related practices, have on
students' independent and often unsancationed literacy practices. She has conducted
various qualitative and mixed research studies to understand these spaces, and
the phenomena these spaces afford, including qualitative case studies of diverse
adolescent male gamers, an ethnographic study of an urban public library videogaming
program, case studies of in-service teachers' conceptualization and understanding of
the videogame as both a pedagogical tool and pervasive and ubiquitous technology,
and has studied the implementation of the impact that a commercial-off-the-shelf
videogame curriculum had on at-risk students' literacy practices. She considers
herself a youth advocate, broadly interested in building and creating a world where
young people feel safe and have the ability and freedom to explore their interests
with guidance from their peers and caring adults. She is interested in global youth
and engages in methods to examine the impact that technologies and new literacies
have in pushing us toward change to create a world where young people can freely
explore their interests for all youth: from the Arab Spring to her backyard.
Her recent research has appeared in Educational Media International, English
Journal, The ALAN Review, and SIGNAL Journal. She currently serves as a
columnist for VOYA Magazine, focusing on integrating videogaming into public
and school library programs. Her forthcoming books include, Game Night at the
Library: It’s More than Just Play (VOYA) with Sandra Schamroth Abrams. Along
with Sandra Scharmroth Abrams, Jen Scott Curwood, and Alecia Magnifico, Gerber
is co-authoring the forthcoming book, Qualitative Methods for Researching Online
Learning (SAGE).
Sandra Schamroth Abrams, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Adolescent
Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of
Education at St. John’s University in New York.
Her research of videogaming focuses on adolescents' identities and practices
developed, maintained, and modified in online and offline social and academic settings.
Through the close examination of power structures, gaming principles, and spatial
design, her work provides insight into agentive learning located in collaboration,
variation, iteration, and ideation. More specifically, her longitudinal ethnographic
study of videogaming in public libraries has revealed a layering of literacies deeply
xvii
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ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
rooted in the seamless movement among modalities and resources across online and
offline spaces. These discoveries of students' evolving knowledge landscapes have
informed additional qualitative and mixed methods research of adaptive resources,
adolescent learning, and technological integration. Overall, Abrams's work suggests
that the nuances of digital worlds and practices are dynamic and problematic,
disrupting convention and providing new avenues for pedagogical discovery.
Her recent work has appeared in Educational Media International, Languages
and Linguistics, Teachers College Record Yearbook, and English Journal. Her
forthcoming books include Integrating Virtual and Traditional Learning in 6-12
Classrooms: A Layered Literacies Approach to Multimodal Meaning Making
(Routledge) and, with Hannah R. Gerber, Game Night at the Library: It’s More than
Just Play (VOYA). Along with Hannah R. Gerber, Jen Scott Curwood, and Alecia
Magnifico, Abrams is co-authoring the forthcoming book, Qualitative Methods for
Researching Online Learning (SAGE).
CONTRIBUTORS
Anne Burke is an Associate Professor in Literacy Education and Early Learning
at Memorial University. She researches and writes about the evolving role of play
in children’s digital and immersive worlds, multimodality, and the growth of social
media in children’s early learning engagements. Much of her recent SSHRC research,
conducted in Canadian classrooms, has focused on play and virtual worlds developed
specifically for children, and how children’s interactions with these virtual worlds
affects their reading, writing, authoring, and social presence in and out of school.
Recent book titles include Children’s Virtual Play Worlds: Culture, Learning and
Participation ( co- edited with Jackie Marsh) Play to Learn, Assessing New Literacies:
Perspectives from the Classroom (co-edited with Roberta Hammett)
Chu-Chuan Chiu is a doctoral candidate in the School of Teaching and Learning
with a specialization in Language Arts, Reading, and Children’s Literature at the
University of Florida. She holds a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction,
with a concentration in ESOL/Bilingual Education from the University of Florida.
Her research interests center around disciplinary literacy, reading and writing
instruction, and ESOL/bilingual education.
Maria R. Coady is an Associate Professor of ESOL/Bilingual Education in the
School of Teaching and Learning at the University of Florida. Her research interests
include teacher preparation for English learners in mainstream classrooms; and
home-school-family partnerships for immigrant EL families. Dr. Coady is currently
Professor on Special Assignment for International Educational Programs in the
College of Education.
Javier Corredor has a Ph.D., on Cognitive Studies in Education from the University
of Pittsburgh. During 2010, he collaborated with the Games and Learning Society
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ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
as visiting scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he developed
the basic ideas for this chapter. Currently he works at the psychology department
of Universidad Nacional de Colombia. His work focuses on the relationship among
cognition, media and education. He is interested on the process of learning in informal
environments, and on the impact of technology on human thinking, language and
identity.
Jen Scott Curwood, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer in English education and media
studies at the University of Sydney in Australia, where she is a lead researcher in the
Sciences and Technologies of Learning Network and affiliated with the Centre for
Research on Computer-Supported Learning and Cognition. Her research focuses on
adolescent literacy, technology, and teacher professional development.
Matthew Gaydos, Ph.D., is a research scientist at the Learning Sciences Laboratory at
the National Institute of Education in Singapore. He received his Ph.D. in Curriculum
and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin – Madison where he worked with
Kurt Squire and Constance Steinkuehler as a part of the Games+Learning+Society
group.
Susan Goldstein received her master’s in TESOL at Teachers College, Columbia
University. She teaches English as a second language in the Port Washington School
Union Free School District at the secondary level. Her current interests include
supporting the academic and social needs of students with interrupted formal
education (SIFE).
Trent Hergenrader is an Assistant Professor of English at the Rochester Institute of
Technology where he teaches creative writing and literature courses, many of which
incorporate games. His fiction has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy
& Science Fiction,Realms of Fantasy, Best Horror of the Year and elsewhere,
and his work on games and writing has appeared in in the proceedings of the
Games+Learning+Society Conference 7.0 and 9.0 and in the collection Dungeons,
Dragons, and Digital Denizens: The Digital Role-Playing Game. He is co-editing a
collection entitled Creative Writing in the Digital Age to be published in 2014.
YunJoon “Jason” Lee, Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction awarded from The
Pennsylvania State University. His interests in research include sociocultural theory,
language socialization and virtual ethnography in second language development.
He focuses on second language acquisition through massively multiplayer online
games. Additionally he works with incorporating media (movies and TV dramas)
materials and technology into language learning classrooms. Over the years, he
has presented and published on second language learning related topics on online
gaming and media usage in classrooms.
Zhuo Li, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of English at the South University of
Science and Technology of China. She obtained her M.Ed. in English Education
at Georgia Southern University and Ph.D. in ESOL/Bilingual Education at the
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ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
University of Florida. Her research interests include cross-cultural communication,
multiliterate approaches to language learning, and applying educational technology
to second language acquisition and foreign language learning with a focus on English
language learning through computer games.
Lan Ngo is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School
of Education. A former English as a second language teacher, her research interests
focus on the language and literacy practices of immigrant students and English
language learners in the United States.
Charlotte Pass, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Literacy at the State University
of New York at Cortland. Her research interest lies in working with marginalized
student populations, with emphasis on second language literacy. During her career,
she has presented at numerous conferences about second language pedagogy and
has published in national and international journals, including Critical Inquiry in
Language Studies.
Nora A. Peterman is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate
School of Education. A former Reading Specialist for out of school youth, her
research interests include adolescent literacies, children’s and young adult literature,
and urban education.
Mary Rice is a doctoral student at the University of Kansas in the Curriculum and
Teaching Department. She taught junior high for 10 years and has published widely
in the areas of curriculum and adolescent literacy. Her research interests include
curriculum and literacies. Her book, Adolescent Boys’ Literate Identities was named
Publication of the Year by the Narrative SIG of the American Educational Research
Association.
Ryan M. Rish, Ph. D. is an assistant professor of English education at Kennesaw
State University where he works with pre- and in-service middle and high school
English teachers. Before joining KSU, he taught high school English in Ohio and
Tanzania.
Julie Warner, Ed.D., received her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia
University in Curriculum and Teaching with an emphasis on Literacy and CoDirector of the Coastal Savannah Writing Project. She is a Lecturer of English
at Armstrong State University. Her work engages the intersections of literacy,
computational thinking, and education for social justice.
xx
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CHAPTER ABSTRACTS
SECTION ONE: (RE)CREATING WORLDS AND TEXTS
Chapter One
Exploring Imaginary Maps: Collaborative World Building in Creative Writing Classes
Trent Hergenrader
Abstract: This chapter examines open worlds in the popular digital role-playing
games (DRPGs) Fallout 3 (2008) and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) and how they
can be used in fiction writing classrooms. Using fan-created websites as models,
students can collaboratively build a sprawling and compelling fictional world,
populated with hundreds of unique items, locations, and characters using free online
tools such as wikis and Google maps.. This approach also hones students’ technical
skills with digital tools while still addressing craft concerns typically addressed in
creative writing courses, such as character development and scene setting.
Chapter Two
Students’ Transmedia Storytelling: Building Fantasy Fiction Storyworlds in
Videogame Design
Ryan M. Rish
Abstract:This chapter provides an overview of a new media project in which high
school students developed fantasy storyworlds with writing, digital cartography,
and videogame design. A transmedia analysis of one student’s videogame demo is
detailed to provide educators with a meta-language for supporting students in new
media exploration and project development. The chapter concludes with ways this
particular world-building project involving videogame design can be adapted to
support new student roles, practices, and projects in classrooms.
Chapter Three
Reader, Writer, Gamer: Online Role-Playing Games as Literary Response
Jen Scott Curwood
Abstract: Drawing on ethnographic research of adolescent literacies related to The
Hunger Games novels, this chapter explores the nature of interest-driven reading,
writing, and gaming. The Multiliteracies framework offers insight into the ways
in which literacy is effectively shaped by available modes and semiotic resources.
The chapter offers a case study of an Australian teen and shows how she employs
Multiliteracies in order to deeply engage with literature and participate in an online
role-play game.
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CHAPTER ABSTRACTS
Chapter Four
Teaching with Club Penguin: Re-creating Children’s School Literacy through
Paratexts in the Classroom
Anne Burke
Abstract: This chapter examines the use of paratexts in an elementary classroom, and
considers how gaming literacy within Disney’s Club Penguin can complement and
support traditional language arts resource materials. Multimodal literacies and their
digital affordances as a learning framework are considered complementary when
considering the integration of paratexts in an elementary classroom. Consequently,
it was found that approaching a writing assignment within this learning framework
invited children to fluidly share skills that are of benefit in both the classroom and in
their virtual play sites. Student interest in writing the paratexts ascribed to the narrative
tales around the immersion of their penguin avatar selves, in response the chapter
discusses how concepts of multimodality invite educators to see multimodality as a
creative force in textual creation when considering the use of paratexts.
SECTION TWO–MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING
Chapter Five
Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming and English Language Learning
Jason YJ Lee and Charlotte Pass
Abstract: This chapter illustrates the use of Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
games in English language learning (ELL). Due to globalization, the importance
of English language learning has increased. This transformation is similar in U.S
educational settings because of the growing population of immigrants entering U.S.
schools and universities who invest large sums of money in English language learning
(ELL) education. However, the changing educational landscape has not adapted
adequately to fully incorporate ELL students into mainstream classrooms. In this
chapter we would like to share one strategy to provide ELL students with greater access
to the English language and to further integration, a popular online game genre: MMO.
Chapter Six
Language Games: How Gaming Communities Shape Second-Language Learning
Javier Corredor and Matthew Gaydos
This chapter explores the link between videogames and literacy through the lens of
bilingual interaction in gaming contexts. In order to achieve this goal, this research
presents a qualitative study showing how the situated nature of gaming contributes
to the development of second language proficiency in non-bilingual contexts. The
study starts by describing the structure of MMORPG’s gaming communities in LatinAmerica, the constraints those communities face, and the way they overcome those
constraints. After that, the chapter describes how the characteristics of gaming shape
social and gaming interactions in MMORPG games, defining in this way the role of
second-language written communication skills as a tool for participation. Additionally,
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CHAPTER ABSTRACTS
the study describes the characteristics of bilingual literacy in gaming communities,
showing the effects of gaming in several aspects that include code-switching,
abbreviated language, and situated meaning. The chapter also presents the learning
practices, the peer-collaboration strategies, and use of online resources that support the
development of second language literacy. Finally the chapter explores the lessons of
this research for second-language literacy and education of adolescents not exposed to
second language at home in the USA and Latin-America.
Chapter Seven
The Transformative Power of Gaming Literacy: What Can We Learn from Adolescent
English Learners’ Literacy Engagement in World of Warcraft (WoW)?
Zhuo Li, Chu-Chuan Chiu, and Maria R. Coady
Abstract: This qualitative study sought to understand how adolescent ELLs were
engaged in second language (L2) literacy practices through a popular massively
multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft (WoW).
Through an ethnographic multiple case study approach, the study found the
participants were involved in a complex process of socializing, information seeking,
strategizing, and problem solving concurrently within and around the game.
SECTION THREE–VIDEOGAMES AND CLASSROOM LEARNING
Chapter Eight
Reviewing the Content of Videogame Lesson Plans Available to Teachers
Mary Rice
Abstract: This study aimed to articulate the quantity and nature of accessible lesson
plans on the Internet for teachers. The researcher found that there were very few
readily accessible plans. The plans that did exist employed videogames as a topic with
motivational power for students and represented an emerging bifurcation in teaching
about videogames and teaching with videogames. Suggestions for increasing teacher
access to lesson plans and materials are also discussed.
Chapter Nine
Collaborative Videogame and Curriculum Design for Language and Literacy
Learning
Lan Ngo, Nora A. Peterman, and Susan Goldstein
Abstract: This chapter describes the collaboration between university researchers
and a high school English as a second language (ESL) teacher in the development
of a videogame designed to support language and literacy instruction for a specific
group of English Language Learners (ELLs). The chapter details the collaborative
nature in which an instructional unit on the topic of bullying was developed, and the
manner in which the videogame was incorporated into the objectives for learning. A
reflection on the outcomes of the project is included, as well as a discussion including
implications for extending these findings to new learning contexts.
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CHAPTER ABSTRACTS
Chapter Ten
Writing in Virtual Worlds: Scratch Programming as Multimodal Composing Practice
in the Language Arts Classroom
Julie Warner
Abstract: This chapter presents a rationale for using Scratch programming in the
English Language Arts classroom based in the connections between gaming and
literacy. Writing computer programs recruits skills that transfer to academic writing,
like planning, revision, and even grammatical knowledge. The author argues
illuminates the relationships between computational thinking and traditional as well
as 21st century literacy skills.
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SANDRA SCHAMROTH ABRAMS & HANNAH R. GERBER
BRIDGING LITERACIES
An Introduction
The concept of bridging literate practices is deeply rooted in foundational principles
of education. Dewey believed that relevant teaching incorporates what students do
outside the classroom and that “learning and thinking should emerge from the lives of
students” (Simpson, 2006, p. 93). Turn-of-the-century calls to bridge the gap between
inside and outside school practices (Alvermann, 2002; Hull & Schultz, 2003; Hynds,
1997) also were rooted in understandings of rich literate experiences outside school,
which included ‘pictorial turns’ (Hynds, 1997) and expansive understandings of
literacies that represented sociocultural meaning making. In other words, though
print text remained important (and typically privileged in school), traditional reading
and writing were not seen as the sole literate experiences in people’s lives. More than
ten years later, despite differentiated instruction and attempts to integrate authentic
experiences in the classroom, the gap between inside and outside school experiences
continues to widen, often exacerbated by rapid technological change that typically
impacts the social sector well before the academic one. When we insert videogames
into the equation, the gap feels like a chasm.
When not in school, ninety-seven percent of today’s youth play videogames
(Lenhart, et. al, 2009). McGonigal (2011) has called attention to the prolific use of
videogames worldwide, and she has estimated that youth will spend over 10,000
hours in these virtual worlds by the time they reach graduation; yet these youth
will spend far less time engaged with traditional reading and writing. It is not that
games are ‘bad’ for students; on the contrary, research has suggested that gaming
has positive cross-disciplinary implications and applications (Abrams, 2009, in
press; Gee, 2007; Gerber & Price, 2011; Steinkuehler, 2007; Squire, 2012). Further,
games have inspired student-generated texts commonly developed in commercial
and fan-driven sites (Curwood, Magnifico, & Lammers, 2013; Gerber & Price,
2011) that have also emerged in classroom spaces (Apperley & Beavis, 2011;
Beavis, Apperley, Bradford, O’Mara, & Walsh, 2009; Glazer & Hergenrader, 2014).
However, classrooms typically do not include the trial-and-error learning of games,
and “classrooms usually do not have multiple routes to participation, engaging
their students in different ways, to different levels, in different contexts” (Gee,
2004. p. 81). Nonetheless, when a curriculum centrally includes videogames, what
H. R. Gerber & S. S. Abrams (Eds.), Bridging Literacies with Videogames, 1–7.
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S. S. ABRAMS & H. R. GERBER
emerges is meaning making across domains, texts, and various resources, as well
as student-directed inquiry that is augmented by peer and teacher support (Gerber,
Abrams, Onwuegbuzie, & Benge, 2014). Although videogames can encourage
and foster student-driven learning and literacy experiences, youth often do not
see the connections that their gaming literacies have with academics (Abrams,
Gerber, & Burgess, 2012) unless gaming and games-based learning are approached
purposefully; students need multiple opportunities to make cross-literate connections
with the materials used in class (Abrams & Gerber, 2014).
Though national standards, such as the Common Core, in the United States
underscore student-driven learning, what remains is teaching that often does not
including gaming, or gaming-related practices within the curriculum. Scholars,
like Webb (2012), have attempted to bridge this gap and have created projects,
such as the Literary Worlds Project, for teachers to explore using virtual worlds as
immersive learning experiences in the field of English language arts. This includes
pairing role-playing experiences with literature, similar to Rozema’s (2012) pairing
of Brave New World and reader-response within virtual worlds. This project, among
other initiatives, such as the Quest to Learn Schools, provide student-driven gamebased experiences; however these experiences will remain few and far between in
mainstream education without extensive guidance from field experts or teachers
who understand gaming and the connections that gaming has with content and
pedagogy. Though studies have indicated that teachers desire to incorporate games
and games-based learning into English language arts classes, barriers (e.g., the lack
of resources, time for planning, and lack of peer and administrative support) make the
integration of videogames a difficult task (Gerber & Price, 2013). This underscores
the imperative for more work in this field if we hope to bridge gaming and learning
within literacy classrooms. With the 2014 New Media Consortium Horizon Report
positing that gaming will be important for creating innovative learning opportunities,
it is essential to consider multiple ways to bring gaming experiences to the forefront.
This edited compilation attempts to draw attention to these varied practices.
Bridging Literacies with Videogames brings together international studies from
established and emerging scholars in an effort to advance the discussion about
videogames and student learning. In so doing, the research corpus works to bridge
the gap between students’ out-of-school gaming lives and their in-school literacy
experiences. The range of studies include diverse populations and consider the
implications of videogames and game-related media on literacy learning inside
school, with a particular focus on students’ reading, writing, and knowledge
acquisition.
This text is divided into three sections, (Re)Creating Worlds and Texts, Massive
Multiplayer Second Language Learning, and Videogames and Classroom Learning.
Across the chapters, the authors feature their individual research, but there remains a
practical and pedagogical focus on games and learning. The first section, (Re)Creating
Worlds and Texts, addresses writing development through game-related resources.
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BRIDGING LITERACIES
In Chapter 1, Trent Hergenrader embraces the concept of environmental
storytelling (Jenkins, 2004) in his university creative writing course using free
online tools, such as wikis and Google Maps. He explores fictional, collaborative
world building through the best-selling Bethesda Game Studios games, Fallout 3
and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Hergenrader reveals that the use of digital resources
supports the development of discrete writing skills. Following Hergenrader’s work,
Chapter 2 includes another perspective of literacy development when Ryan Rish
examines collaborative fantasy and science fiction world building in a high school
English language arts class. Students explored a variety of texts and media through
the discussion and creation of fictional worlds not only using free map-making
software, AutoRealm and Terragan, but also creating demos of their worlds through
RPG Maker XP. Rish argues that this type of instruction and collaborative activity
support problem solving and learning through trial and error.
In Chapter 3, Jen Scott Curwood’s work calls attention to the role of remix in
youth’s meaning making experiences. Curwood focuses on the case of 17-year-old
Australian girl, Georgia, who used the social media site, Tumblr, to co-design a roleplaying game based on The Hunger Games trilogy. As such, Curwood posits that
the use of online role playing can “offer a powerful way for [youth] to demonstrate
their leadership, develop their literacy skills, and engage in self-directed learning.”
Following Curwood’s work, Anne Burke’s chapter also addresses game-related
writing. More specifically, in Chapter 4, Burke focuses on the literate experiences of
three Canadian elementary-aged girls who self-identify as expert players of Disney’s
virtual world, Club Penguin. Burke explores how multimodal interactions inform
the girls’ literate practices, critical thinking, and problem solving.
The next section, Massive Multiplayer Second Language Learning, includes
three chapters that examine how English language learners develop literacy skills
through and around their engagement in massive multiplayer online role playing
games (MMORPGs). First, in Chapter 5, Jason YunJoon Lee and Charlotte Pass
provide a review of literature that helps to situate the sociolinguistic aspects of
MMORPG experiences in relation second language learning in the United States.
They conclude with practical suggestions for reading, listening, speaking/presenting
(expressive language), and writing. Providing an international perspective of second
language learning, Javier Corredor and Matthew Gayados examine the sociopolitical implications of Internet-based games in Colombia. In Chapter 6, they
focus on the development of a de facto mestizo literacy, “that is, a literacy where
several hybrid sources of activity and cultural traditions are negotiated according
to pragmatic, identity and cognitive constraints. Mestizo literacies are blurring the
frontiers between first and second languages through written interactions in online
environments.” In so doing, Corredor and Gayados reveal how youth and young
adults who come from working class environments encounter informal language
learning within massively multiplayer online videogame environments, and they
suggest that second language learning should focus less on formal content transfer
and more on participation in communities and identity development.
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Returning to the study of second language learning in the United States, Zhuo Li,
Chu-Chuan Chiu, and Maria Coady examine how four male native Chinese speaking
adolescents developed second language literacy practices through their engagement
in the MMORPG, World of Warcraft. More specifically, in Chapter 7, Li, Chiu, and
Coady focus on information seeking, strategizing, problem solving, and socializing
that take place in both in-game and out-of-game online environments. As a result,
they call attention to the various Internet-supported activities and practices that
support second language learning.
Though each chapter offers ideas for practice, the third section, Videogames and
Classroom Learning, specifically focuses on videogames as pedagogical resources.
In Chapter 8, Mary Rice examines ready-made lesson plans for videogames for
teachers. Her content analysis reveals that, of the limited free lesson plans available,
more addressed teaching about videogames rather than teaching with videogames.
Further, Rice calls attention to conflicting agendas (of teachers, companies, and
academics) that seem to impact the development, dissemination, and integration
of innovative and flexible lessons. Also attending to implementation, Lan Ngo,
Susan Goldstein, and Nora Peterman underscore the student-teacher-videogame
connection in the development of critical thinking and agency in learning. Chapter
9 features the authors’ discussion of how a Gamestar Mechanic game that focused
on bullying also supported second language learners’ development of literacy skills,
such as inferences, predictions, and text connections. Not only do the authors focus
on gaming as a literacy practice, but also they suggest that videogames can act as a
scaffold and entry point for second language learning. Finally, Julie Warner’s work
in Chapter 10 provides a close look at the composition process in relation to game
development. Warner's conceptual piece focuses on the elements of Scratch, a free
videogame coding program developed by MIT, and she suggests a number of ways
the game and its multimodal features can inform the teaching of rhetoric, genre,
grammar, and revision.
ACROSS THE CHAPTERS
Throughout this volume, there are concepts explicitly or implicitly linking the
featured work. We bring these to the fore (in alphabetical order) in an effort to
support the reading of the individual chapters, as well as the corpus of findings.
Affinity Spaces: Examining social practices, Gee (2004) has suggested that
people make and share meaning making experiences in, what he calls, an
affinity space. An affinity space is based on common interest, and there are
diverse and flexible routes to participation, access, status and leadership;
“newbies and masters and everyone else share common space” and they can
contribute as much or as little as they please (p. 77). Affinity spaces are more
than just places to “hang out,” though; the knowledge sharing that exists in an
affinity space often begets remix and content transformation. Gee and Hayes
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BRIDGING LITERACIES
(2011) have provided a refined understanding of affinity spaces by focusing
on passionate affinity-based learning, which “occurs when people organize
themselves in the real world and/or via the Internet (or a virtual world) to learn
something connected to a shared endeavor, interest, or passion” (p. 69).
Multimodality: Multimodality acknowledges that meaning making involves a
number of modes, including, but not limited to, image, sound, and gesture (Kress
& Van Leeuwen, 2001). The concept of multimodalities helps to locate, identify
and clarify the many ways modes cohere and are part of socially, culturally,
and embodied meaning making; multimodal literacy includes “social practices
and configurations, of purposes, goals, aims, tasks; and of affect” (Kress, 2010,
p. 137).
Paratexts: Many times, youth will create new written or digital stories related to
existing virtual and non-virtual texts. Apperley and Walsh (2012) explain that
“the term ‘paratext’ is useful for helping teachers and practitioners familiarise
themselves with the wide-ranging print and multimodal texts that circulate in
digital gaming cultures. Digital game paratexts represent print and multimodal
texts (walkthroughs, video tutorials, fan fiction, fan art, for example) that are
easily accessible to teachers and practitioners, when digital games themselves
are not” (p. 116). Paratexts represent more than accessibility; they are examples
of youth making meaning in a variety of ways and taking ownership of their
textual experiences through a remix of images and ideas. As such, “digital game
paratexts can work as a useful segue because they conform most closely to the
textual requirements of the ‘official curriculum’ to introduce digital games into
literacy and English curricula” (Apperley & Walsh, 2012, p. 116).
Remix: “Remix means to take cultural artifacts and combine and manipulate
the into new kinds of creative blends” (Knobel & Lankshear, 2008, p. 22). It is
the combination of related and/or unrelated elements, such as genres, images
and sounds, to create a new text that is different from the original. Knobel
and Lankshear (2008) have suggested that this hybridization is limitless and,
though remix may seem like a simple way to include students’ literacies in the
classroom, it is a complex socially-situated practice that needs to be honored,
not disregarded by classroom norms.
In addition, though each author elaborates on the particular game he/she examines, we
provide brief descriptions of some of the featured games below as a guide for readers:
Club Penguin: Owned by Disney, Club Penguin is an advertisement-free virtual
play space for youth to create and play games. The site is heavily regulated in
the name of user safety.
Fallout 3: Fallout 3 is an award-winning role-play game published by Bethesda
Game Studios, and the game is set in a post-apocalyptic world in a fight for
survival. A role-playing game (RPG) is a game (digital or non-digital) in which
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S. S. ABRAMS & H. R. GERBER
the player adopts the traits of a fictitious character as he/she encounters game
play in an online or offline setting. Fallout 3 also is an open world game,
one which enables players to freely explore virtual environs. Though there is
a semblance of open exploration, there are boundaries and/or storylines that
guide players through a main quest and/or side quests.
Gamestar Mechanic: Created by E-Line media, Gamestar Mechanic is a
videogame-based community that helps to promote learning and discovery
through game design. According to the site, gamestarmechanic.com, the
program is “a game-based digital learning platform geared at 4th to 9th grade
students that is designed to teach the guiding principles of game design and
systems thinking in a highly engaging and creative environment.”
Scratch: Developed by MIT, Scratch offers a simple approach to game
building. Users insert pre-designed buttons and directives to make the avatar
move and interact with various materials in the virtual context. As noted on the
Scratch wiki (http://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/Game_Projects), Scratch can
host a number of types of game development.
Skyrim: Skyrim is an award winning game that is part of the Elder Scrolls
series (Elder Scrolls V) published by Bethesda Game Studio. It is set in the
fantasy world with orcs, elves, and trolls and, like Fallout 3, it is a open world,
role playing game.
World of Warcraft: The largest online role playing game world-wide,
Blizzard’s World of Warcraft engages players in team (guild)-based adventures
commonly known as quests. World of Warcraft is a massive multiplayer online
role playing game. As noted above, a role playing game is one in which the
player assumes the traits of the character to play the game in the fictitious
setting. A massive multiplayer role playing game (MMORPG) includes such
behavior in a game in which multiple people play together through a persistent
world, or a world that continues to thrive and time continues to elapse even
when the player is not logged on.
A NOTE ABOUT THIS EDITED VOLUME
This edited compilation brings together diverse, interrelated studies and theoretical
constructs in an effort to bridge the gap between youths’ literacies with a specific
focus on videogames. The chapters may feature the ideas and voices of the authors,
but reviewer suggestions helped to shape the overall volume. All chapters underwent
a double-blind review by two-to-three reviewers. Because videogaming is an
emerging field of study we also invoked the voices of doctoral students who are
developing their understanding of videogames through a contemporary perspective.
When doctoral students served as reviewers, the involved manuscripts also were
reviewed by two seasoned scholars, thereby enriching the feedback and process.
6
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BRIDGING LITERACIES
Overall, this volume represents a cross-section of experiences and voices from
the field as it provides research-based discussions about bridging literacies with
videogames.
REFERENCES
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Media International, 46(4), 335–347.
Abrams, S.S. (in press). Integrating virtual and traditional learning in 6–12 classrooms: A layered
literacies approach to multimodal meaning making. Routledge.
Abrams, S. S., & Gerber, H. R. (2014). Cross-literate connections: Contemporary frames for meaning
making in ELA classrooms. English Journal, 103(4), 18–24.
Abrams, S. S., Gerber, H. R., & Burgess, M. (2012). Digital worlds and shifting borders: Popular culture,
perception, and pedagogy (pp. 90–105). In B. Williams & A. Zenger (Eds.), New media literacies and
participatory popular culture across borders. London, UK: Routledge.
Apperley, T., and Walsh, C. (2012). What digital games and literacy have in common: a heuristic for
understanding pupils' gaming literacy. Literacy, 46(3), 115–122.
Apperley, T., & Beavis, C. (2011). Literacy into action: Digital games as action and text in the English and
literacy classroom. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 6(2), 130–143.
Beavis, C., Apperley, T., Bradford, C., O’Mara, J., & Walsh, C. (2009). Literacy in the digital age:
Learning from computer games. English in Education, 43(2), 162–175.
Curwood, J. S., Magnifico, A., & Lammers, J. (2013). Writing in the wild: Writers’ motivation in fanbased affinity spaces. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 56(8), 677–685.
Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. London, UK:
Routledge.
Gee, J. P., & Hayes, E. R. (2011). Language and learning in the digital age. New York, NY: Routledge.
Gerber, H. R., & Price, D. P. (2011). Twenty-first century adolescents, writing, and new media: Meeting
the challenge with game controllers. English Journal, 101(2), 68–73.
Gerber, H. R., & Price, D. P. (2013). Fighting baddies and collecting bananas: Teachers' perceptions of
game-based literacy learning. Educational Media International, 50(1), 51–62.
Gerber, H. R., Abrams, S. S., Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Benge, C. (2014). From Mario to FIFA: What
case study research suggests about games-based learning in a US classroom. Educational Media
International, 51(1), 16–34.
Glazer, K., & Hergenrader, T. (2014, June). A world filled with darkness, dungeons, and dragons: Using
analog role-playing game creation to enhance literature and writing instruction in high school
English classes. Paper presented at the Games, Learning, and Society Conference, Madison, WI.
Knobel, M., & Lankshear, C. (2008). Remix: The art and craft of endless hybridization. Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(1), 22–33.
Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. New York,
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Kress, G., & Van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary
communication. London, UK: Arnold.
Rozema, R. (2012). Building a secondary brave new world. In A. Webb (Ed.), Teaching literature in
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Webb, A.(Ed). (2012). Teaching literature in virtual worlds: Immersive learning in English studies. New
York, NY: Routledge.
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SECTION ONE
(RE)CREATING WORLDS AND TEXTS
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TRENT HERGENRADER
1. EXPLORING IMAGINARY MAPS
Collaborative World Building in Creative Writing Classes
Instructors of college-level fiction writing courses typically employ some form of
the workshop method developed at the University of Iowa in the first half of the
twentieth century. While many workshop variations exist, the basic principle is that
students produce original short stories that are read and critiqued by other members of
class and the instructor (Donnelly, 2012). Instructors often choose between textbooks
filled with writing examples, assign stories written by their favorite authors, or limit
discussion to student-produced work. Although recently the traditional creative
workshop has come under scrutiny and prominent creative writing scholars (Donnelly,
2012; Donnelly & Harper, 2012; Mayers, 2005; Ritter & Vanderslice, 2007; Wandor,
2008) have called for alternative approaches to teaching, the workshop model remains
a cornerstone of creative writing pedagogy today.
Although the reading and writing habits of students have changed dramatically in an
age of multimedia storytelling, creative writing as a discipline has been slow to adopt
new pedagogical approaches. Amato and Fleischer (2002) anticipated the proliferation
of Web 2.0 Internet technologies that encourage user-generated content and foster
the formation of virtual communities, and they suggest ways that networked writing
could reshape the way instructors and students engage with the institutional spaces
afforded by university creative writing classes. Creative writing instructors can also
look to scholarship in rhetoric and composition, where it has been argued that writing
instructors should be expanding notions of literacy and composition by broadening
the scope of texts we incorporate in our classrooms (Wysocki, Johnson-Eilola, Selfe,
& Sirc, 2004). For example, Haake (2007) argued that creative writing instructors
should incorporate varieties of texts that “speak” to our students, which include
graphic novels and non-print media such as film and videogames. For progressive
instructors of creative writing, the move is away from the kind of imitative production
of a literary text that underpins the logic of the traditional workshop model and toward
a pedagogical framework that foregrounds questions of authorship, audience, and the
historical and material conditions of creative writing in a digital age (Koehler, 2013).
If we break from using traditional print texts as models for student consumption
and production we can structure creative writing classes to hone new sets of skills
that will be crucial to students’ success in the twenty-first century, specifically those
that involve collaboration and networking. Jenkins (2009) outlined eleven such
new skills: play, performance, simulation, appropriation, multitasking, distributed
H. R. Gerber & S. S. Abrams (Eds.), Bridging Literacies with Videogames, 11–27.
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T. HERGENRADER
cognition, collective intelligence, judgment, transmedia navigation, networking, and
negotiation. Other scholars (Beach, Anson, Breuch & Swiss, 2008; Wilber, 2010)
argued that English instructors should be incorporating collaborative work through
blogs, wikis, and digital storytelling to help develop these new literacies for today’s
students; others (Black, 2008; Magnificio, Lammers, & Curwood, 2013) looked for
classroom inspiration in the Internet fan cultures surrounding popular books, films,
and games. By bringing such practices into our English classrooms, we not only
provide valuable space for students to experiment with and receive feedback on
writing using new technologies but also help them navigate the kinds of group-based
work commonly found in today’s workplaces.
With these goals in mind, I have designed experimental creative writing courses
around tabletop and digital role-playing games (RPGs). Recent research on tabletop
role-playing games (TRPGs) has been varied and far reaching, discussing issues such
as the production of narrative (Cover, 2010), their many positive social functions
(Bowman, 2010), and an analysis of the TRPG as a performance that draws from
many media (Mackay, 2001). Due in part to the explosion in popularity of online
gaming, digital role-playing games (DRPGs) have also garnered significant academic
attention in recent years (Barton, 2008; Harrigan & Waldrip-Fruin, 2010; Voorhees,
Call & Whitlock, 2012). Drawing concepts from this work, my experimental courses
have emphasized collaboration and networked writing by having students build
fictional worlds modeled after DRPGs and the participatory culture that accompanies
them (Hergenrader, 2011).
I argue that a DRPG is a multifaceted text that can be explored, examined, and
deconstructed in the context of a fiction writing course as a way to explain concepts of
narrative craft to novice fiction writers. DRPGs are hugely popular due to the number of
options they present to players and how each choice the player makes has far-reaching
consequences for his or her character. The narrative in DRPGs develops from characters
interacting with their environment, and thus movement is a key feature of the DRPG;
to put it simply, the DRPG narrative requires a detailed character moving across a
fictional space: a map. This chapter focuses on two DRPGs developed by Bethesda
Game Studios, the post-apocalyptic Fallout 3 (2008) and epic fantasy Elder Scrolls
V: Skyrim (2011), and discusses the central role their game maps play in developing
players’ understanding of their fictional worlds and their characters’ places within it.
Secondly, I show how the fan wiki sites cataloging the worlds of these games serve
as excellent models for large-scale collaborative world building projects in a creative
writing classroom. Finally, I explain how writing instructors can use wikis and Google
maps to have their students create their own sprawling, complex fictional worlds.
BEFORE YOUR FIRST STEPS: PARATEXTS AND CHARACTER
CREATION IN DRPGS
Most fiction workshops allow participants to write what they want without adhering
any shared theme. This freedom can cause problems for students unfamiliar with
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EXPLORING IMAGINARY MAPS
literary fiction, as they neither know what to write nor what to expect from other’s
writing. Players of videogames on the other hand have a strong sense of what kind of
narrative the game will provide. In our media saturated society it’s rare for a player
to receive a game in a vacuum. Through the game’s paratextual elements (Genette,
1997) —that is, the multiple and diverse texts that surround the primary text but are
not the text itself, such as its packaging, blurbs, trailers, reviews, etc.—players will
have preconceived notions of what lies in store for them (Jones, 2008), and usually
these notions are quite accurate.
What kind of experience does the DRPG promise? Typically they offer quests of
epic proportions where nothing short of the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Following the stereotypical quest narrative of fantasy literature (Mendlesohn, 2008),
the protagonist rises from obscurity to a position of immense influence where his
or her decisions impact the fate of the land. The paratexts of the DRPG set the
stage for the narrative; for example, the packaging and trailers for the epic fantasy
Skyrim prominent feature armor-clad warriors fighting dragons atop snow-covered
mountains, and the paratexts of Fallout 3 offer visions of a shattered post-apocalyptic
world full of depravity and danger. Most players are already well-acquainted with the
fantasy and post-apocalyptic genres through a variety of media, including film and
print, and they will want these games to deliver on the DRPG genre’s primary feature
of exploration. In order to save the world, players first need to come to know it.
When it comes to what your character is supposed to do DRPGs are intentionally
vague. The Skyrim instruction manual provides no explanation of the game beyond
game controls but includes in the game-case a 16-by-21-inch foldout map of the
province of Skyrim, featuring the major strongholds and a smattering of smaller
towns and geographic features (Figure 1). Even a first-time player of a DRPG will
expect to spend much of the game exploring this expansive space and learning
what else it holds. In contrast, Fallout 3 has no map included with the game but
the instruction manual, called the “Vault Dweller’s Survival Guide,” identifies
exploration as a primary task and goal in itself. The opening pages explain that the
game opens with the character’s father mysteriously fleeing from the safety of an
underground vault into the post-apocalyptic wasteland. The manual reads:
Now here’s the good news. When that giant vault door slides open and you’re
thrust into the harsh sunlight of the Capital Wasteland, you’re completely free
to make your own destiny. Follow after dear old Dad… or forget he even exists.
Head straight into the ramshackle town of Megaton, and meet its eclectic
inhabitants… or shoot first and exchange pleasantries later. (p. 2)
The paratextual elements of both games strongly indicate—implicitly in Skyrim and
explicitly in Fallout 3—that freedom and discovery will be central to game play, and
they give clues as to nature of the world and types of challenges players will face.
This understanding helps players quickly settle into a world and encourages their
exploration.
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Figure 1. Paper map included in Skyrim’s packaging. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
[Xbox 360]. (2011). Bethesda, MD: Bethesda Softworks. Copyright Bethesda Softworks.
This sense of exploration carries over to the initial character creation sequence,
which necessarily occurs at the start of the game since play cannot begin without a
customized character. Unlike most action-oriented games, the DRPG gives players
dozens of options to create a detailed, unique character. In the action game Red Dead
Redemption (Rockstar Games, 2010) for example, players assume the role of John
Marston, and every instance of John Marston has the same hairstyle, skin tones, and
physical abilities. Players may equip him with different weapons and change his
wardrobe, but he essentially remains the same character for every player and for the
duration of the game. However, the player of a DRPG is confronted with dozens of
character creation options that will dictate how the character can interact with the
world (Hergenrader, 2012). In addition to determining their character’s sex and race,
players also choose from a variety of physical skills, traits, and abilities so numerous
that it's highly unlikely that any two players would create an identical character.
DRPGs allow players to pursue whatever motivates them. In Fallout 3, the options
for the player are clear: either track down your father or explore the world as you see
fit. Skyrim opens similarly. After an opening action sequence the character can either
go to the local jarl to find out more about the sudden reappearance of dragons, or
can instead roam the province. Regardless of whether players chooses to follow the
game's central storyline or seek random adventures, they are beset by a seemingly
endless array of options. Every non-player character (NPC) the player encounters
has information, goods for bartering, or requests for help that branch from the central
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narrative and encourage further world exploration. With each encounter, players
must contemplate the goals of their character and consider how they might approach
such challenges given their character’s abilities, equipment, and skill set.
For writing instructors, the paratexts and the opening character creation
sequences of DRPGs offer much for classroom conversation. Many students read
literary texts for searching for a correct interpretation, as though the author has
buried some kernel of wisdom beneath layers of symbols and metaphors that must
be deciphered. Whereas discussions of a given print story often coalesces around a
handful of interpretations of what the plot might have meant, talking about students’
experiences playing through the opening moments of a DRPG leads to a different
kind of conversation. In my class, I used Fallout 3 as a required text and asked
students to escape the vault and find at least three new locations in the Capital
Wasteland. The assignment prompted a vigorous and wide-ranging discussion of their
initial impressions of the fictional world and the character creation strategies they
employed in order to cope with the challenges they expected to face. We discussed
the game’s powerful imagery and talked about how the graphics and audio that set
the game’s stark tone might best be translated into prose fiction; we also discussed
the players’ physiological reactions to the most intense portions of the game—for
example, the increased heart rate, sense of dread, and involuntary utterances they
experienced while creeping through the darkness of a ruined elementary school. In a
DRPG the player and character become fused in a single psychological space (Gee,
2007) and the details of the player’s physiological experiences can be transferred to
characters who experience similar stresses in a short fictional story (Hergenrader,
2012). Such discussions not only make students more critical players of games, but
they also draw students’ attention to specific craft concerns that can be translated to
other forms of media, including fiction writing.
EXPLORING THE MAP
The first mission in Fallout 3 is entitled “Escape!” and in Skyrim it is “Unbound.”
These apt titles project liberation and freedom, which is exactly what the games
offer after the character creation sequence. The starting map in Fallout 3 (Figure 2)
shows traces of the old world’s infrastructure, such as major roads and geographical
features but the majority of the map is blank. Walking downhill from the vault, the
character passes the carcasses of destroyed cars as he or she follows the broken
pavement down to the town of Springvale where there are dozens of items to interact
with: a safe the player can try to open; a propaganda-spouting robot to speak with;
ruins to be searched for much-needed food and supplies; and meeting the drug addict
Silver, who presents the player with the first of the game’s many moral dilemmas.
Springvale demonstrates that map locations serve as nodes for multiple narrative
options.
Similarly Skyrim steers, but does not force, players toward the village of
Riverwood. After the character escapes from bondage, a clearly marked trail downhill
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Figure 2. A mostly blank map depicting travel from the Vault to Springvale in Fallout
3. Adapted from Fallout 3 [Computer game], 2008, Bethesda, MD, Bethesda Softworks.
Copyright Bethesda Softworks.
leads to a path beside a rushing river. Unlike the blasted terrain of Fallout 3, Skyrim
offers a world of abundance. Characters can hunt deer, go fishing, catch butterflies,
pick flowers, and mine precious elements to name just a few possible activities. In
addition to the world’s fantastical creatures like dragons, the world presents other
more realistic dangers like bears and wolves that can be no less deadly. The player
discovers that after killing an animal, the character can harvest its meat, pelt, antlers,
and claws. For those new to DRPGs it might not be immediately clear why one
would engage in such mundane collection activities, but the player quickly finds out
through interaction with the world and its NPCs. For example, eating meat restores
health and specific plants are ingredients for powerful potions; when the character
arrives at a forge, the collected ores, gems, and pelts can be used to create weapons,
armor, and even jewelry.
Fallout 3 and Skyrim compel players to explore via what Jenkins (2004) called
“environmental storytelling” in which a game creates an immersive narrative
experience for its players in at least one of four ways: the creation of evocative spaces
that build upon our preexisting genre expectations; enacting stories, whereby a larger
narrative arc is formed by a succession of localized incidents or micronarratives;
embedded narratives, in which pieces of a larger story are distributed across a large
story space; and emergent narratives, where rather than adhering to a rigid, linear
plot, players can assemble their own personalized narratives from the materials and
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rules provided by the game. Paratexts, genre awareness, and the character creation
sequence provides strong clues to the challenges characters will have to overcome,
but much of the game’s subsequent appeal for players comes from exploring the
detail-rich landscape that provides a plethora of story-making material.
In order to cope with the vastness of these fictional worlds and the myriad options
players have when interacting with them, the game community has responded by
cataloging the elements of the fictional world—all of its people, places, and things
across all game titles in the series—in fan wiki sites such as The Fallout Wiki and The
Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP). Because of the many variables in character
creation and the vast openness of the world, players cannot share game strategies by
using walkthroughs from beginning to end of the game. Instead, players inventory
DRPGs in wikis where each character, location, and item has its own page, describing
in detail how players may interact with it. Like most wikis, each entry features dozens
of links to other entries, encouraging readers to continue clicking through pages to find
out more about the world and the different relationships between its various elements.
For example, in Fallout 3 the player can recruit Dogmeat to be a canine companion.
The Fallout Wiki page (Figure 3) lists this NPC’s statistics, location, and provides a
brief character history. The page contains links to other Fallout 3-specific elements
such as the Scrapyard and raiders, as well as connecting the character of Dogmeat
to elements present in previous titles in the game series. These fan-produced wikis
dedicated to the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series are sprawling texts in themselves that
invite readers to become more immersed in these fictional worlds even as they play.
Figure 3. The Vault wiki page for Dogmeat, an NPC in Fallout 3. Adapted from “Fallout
Wiki,” retrieved on Feb 27, 2013 from http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Dogmeat_(Fallout_3).
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EXERCISES IN MAPPING AND COLLABORATIVE WORLD BUILDING
Although students in creative writing courses will not be creating videogames, we
can still borrow concepts from environmental storytelling to have students explore
non-traditional aspects of fiction writing, including collaborative writing and
thinking more critically about their creative production. DRPGs are unique in that
they offer players many variables to adjust in order to produce different kinds of
stories. Tinkering with different pieces of story-making materials is also a hallmark
of teaching of creative writing as well; in fact, having novice writers engage in shortform experimentation is a cornerstone of conventional creative writing wisdom.
Bernays and Painter (2010) argued that “by far, exercises are the more effective
method for exploring the wonderful array of tools that every writer should have in
their writer’s toolbox” (p. xv), and Gardner (1991) stated that a small craft exercises
provide necessary practice so the writer may learn to “construct imaginary worlds—
huge thoughts made up of concrete details—so rich and complex, and so awesomely
simple, that we are astounded” (p. 36). In the opening pages of her creative writing
textbook, Burroway (2011) even referred to this process of experimentation a form of
play: “serious, strenuous, dedicated, demanding, exhilarating, enthusiastic, repeated,
perfected play” (p. 5). These creative writing instructors agree that beginning
fiction writers have much to learn about craft through exercises that emphasize
experimentation, discovery, and play.
As Turchi (2004) wrote in Maps of the Imagination, most creative endeavors
“start with a blank: a world of possibility” (p. 28). The writer generally begins with
staring at a blinking cursor on a white page, eager to fill in that space. Turchi’s
book, subtitled “The Writer as Cartographer,” uses mapmaking as a metaphor for
the creative process. I argue that creative writing instructors can take this metaphor
more literally and, using sophisticated DRPGs as a guide, have students begin
their creative endeavor by first building a world and plotting it on a map as a fivestep process: 1) metanarrative development; 2) creation of items, locations, and
characters; 3) map making; 4) world exploration; and 5) writing short narratives.
This approach combines the practice of using discrete writing exercises to focus on
craft while also emphasizing a collaborative creative process.
METANARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT
Beginning fiction writers, faced with the daunting expanse of the blank page,
can benefit from being given parameters in which their stories must fit. In my
courses, I explain to students that their writing will be part of a world that they
will collaboratively construct. In order to maintain consistency in their fictional
narratives, everyone must agree to a specific set of ground rules: a metanarrative,
or an overarching story of the setting in which all their writing will take place. In
class, we discuss dozens of world building variables, making decisions by using
a combination of oral votes and online polls to develop the world. The top-level
questions include: will the stories take place in our world or a different one? When
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will they take place in history? What is the geographic area, the climate, and the
season? Does this world contain any speculative or fantastic elements? What level
of technology exists? Through a democratic process, the class steers the world to
something that a majority of students will be interested in. From these few questions,
students could choose to build anything from a medieval epic fantasy like Skyrim
to a post-apocalyptic future of Fallout 3 or even a realistic world similar to the one
we inhabit.
With these large-scale questions answered, the class tackles more detailed and
complex questions pertaining to the society. For example, I have them make decisions
about the economic system including the distribution of wealth, levels of healthcare
and education, social structures, political structures, and modes of transport. The
differing ideas are recorded on a wiki and conflicts are resolved by vote. I steer the
class away from any potentially totalizing statements or negative stereotypes, and
instead try to add wrinkles that make the word more complicated and nuanced. This
process foregrounds what Mayers (2005) called “craft criticism,” or discussing the
social, historical, and material conditions of creative writing, both for the writer
as well as in the fictional world being represented. Unlike most creative writing
courses, the collaborative process means that the individual writer does not get to
determine how his or her fictional world operates; indeed, the world comes into
being through compromise and negotiation, and students must consider how these
various factors may or may not influence the kinds of characters they create and the
challenges they might face.
Of course, the fictional world comes into being through the written word. All
of these ideas, suggestions, conflicts, and resolutions are recorded on a basic wiki
page, often in real-time as the discussion happens in class. In addition to this, I give
students short writing assignments that require them to flesh out one or more of the
areas of the metanarrative that most interests them. While this accomplishes the
necessary task of record keeping, it’s also a low-stakes writing assignment, a warm
up where students can flex their writing muscles and receive feedback from their
peers and the instructor. Importantly, students tend to relax because the assignments
are short and they don’t need to have all the answers. Deep knowledge about the
world can only build over time as the world develops.
CREATION OF ITEMS, LOCATIONS, AND CHARACTERS
With the larger features of the world decided, world building shifts to a granular
level as students are required to create items, locations, and characters to populate
the world. Even with a medium-sized class the world builds out very quickly. In my
classes I have had approximately 20-25 students and I have each of them create ten
items, five locations, and five characters. That results in approximately 500 unique
and diverse wiki entries that students can combine and configure in endless ways in
their fiction.
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Items can be anything from the mundane to the unusual, from the common to the
very rare. Fallout 3 and Skyrim provide plenty of examples in this regard as players
find everything from chicken’s eggs to cursed weapons. The nature of the world, as
collectively determined by the class during the metanarrative discussion, dictates
the kinds of items that exist in it, and how the characters will be able to interact
with them. For example, a radio would not fit into the medieval world of Skyrim
but would make perfect sense for the post-apocalyptic Fallout 3. Creating locations
also prompts questions for classroom discussion, such as what locations would be
most important in this world and how those locations tell us something about that
culture’s values. Creating the well-rounded characters who inhabit these locations
also makes for a terrific exercise for students, especially if the instructor assigns
characters random attributes such as their race, class, gender, and age, as well as
requiring the writers to provide detailed back stories and personal histories for each
character. Ideally, any well-crafted character could be plucked from the wiki and
come to life in a story, primed with a strong personality, traits, and motivations.
Populating of the wiki is, in practice, a series of specific, interconnected, craft-driven
exercises that are low-stakes and achieve multiple purposes: they require writers to
focus on isolated issues of craft; they populate a massive shared world; and students
become more invested in the work of their peers.
MAP MAKING
Once the items, locations, and characters have been created, I have students plot
them on a map of their fictional world using Google maps. First, the class must agree
on the map’s scale, since the size of the map will determine the density of world
features. 500 wiki entries spread over a region will produce a very different map than
one that has the same number entries plotted in the borough of Manhattan. The map’s
scale also directly impacts narrative possibilities. In a world built on an expansive
map, the traversal of difficult terrain and the passage of time during travel are two
important issues; however a densely packed urban world will draw attention to the
subtle differences between city blocks, their establishments, and their residents.
Map making also opens space for critical discussions about urban planning and
the politics of space. For example I ask my students: where are the most desirable
places for commerce and personal residences, who lives there, and why them?
Such questions require them to think critically about our own surroundings and
the historical, economic, and political forces that have shaped them. Mapping also
allows instructors to talk about omissions from the fictional world, either deliberate
or otherwise. As Turchi (2004) wrote, “we need to be sure to choose our blanks,
rather than omit parts of the fictional world that seem too large or complicated or
bothersome to include” (p. 44). As instructors, we want our students to be sensitive
to the groups who historically have been “written off of the map” and resist depicting
only the most financially secure and socially mobile characters of the fictional world.
In a traditional workshop, a complete draft would usually require significant revision
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Figure 4. Post-apocalyptic Milwaukee Google map with a marker clicked revealing links
to locations and characters in the wiki. Adapted from “Post-apocalyptic Milwaukee: English
236 - Gaming, world building, and narrative,” by T. Hergenrader, (2011) retrieved on Feb
27, 2013 from http://goo.gl/maps/LLGK.
to address such critical issues brought up during a critique session, but in wiki world
building any such exclusions can quickly be remedied by editing or creating new
entries. This process of critical thinking also gives writers plenty of food for thought
before they begin writing stories based in their fiction world.
WORLD EXPLORATION
World exploration can happen in any number of ways but the most crucial aspect
is to require that students find new things in the world that they themselves did not
create and incorporate those discoveries in their writing. In my courses, students
explore their fictional world via a series of TRPG sessions. Before and after the play
sessions, I focus students’ attention on moments of decision for their characters;
based on their understanding of the characters they’re playing, why would he or
she take that particular action at that specific moment? Typically, beginning fiction
writers pose few problems for their characters as they simply respond in accordance
with whatever the plot demands. In a TRPG narrative however, the player has
limited control over the plot and must react to a rapidly developing situation that
usually features unexpected circumstances (Cover, 2010). Those choices have
repercussions, which in turn begets more choices. This helps writers “get inside the
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head” of their characters, and they learn more about how and why their characters
respond the way that they do to the challenges and obstacles the world presents as
well as experiment with different personality types (Bowman, 2010).
The well-stocked map provides plenty of story-making material even without a
TRPG component however. An instructor could randomly assign students specific
characters and require that those characters move across a portion of the map in
order to achieve some goal, perhaps even something as mundane as getting a cup
of coffee. The student could write about what and who the character encounters
during the journey, focusing on how the character would be inclined to interact with
this world, and why. Another variation would be assigning students two random
characters with two random items and having them meet in a specific location; a
third exercise would be having students write a short history of a given location and
its inhabitants. With a vast catalog of items, locations, and characters to draw from,
instructors can tailor any number of exercises that ask students to focus on specific
issues of characterization, scene setting, or other elements of craft, all while having
students interacting with each other’s writing in an engaged and meaningful way.
WRITING SHORT NARRATIVES
I cap my writing assignments at 1000 words, or vignette-length fiction, for several
reasons. First, student writing is posted to a website where readers, conditioned by short
blog entries and social media posts, typically expect shorter pieces of writing. Secondly,
as Starkey (2009) noted, “there can be no dead spots” (p. 95) in vignette-length fiction
and that “the art of fiction is, in part, the art of learning which things to include and
which to omit” (p. 96). A good vignette is saturated with characters and setting and
happens in a very condensed timeframe, a moment in time, which fits the model of
environmental storytelling very well. Jenkins (2004) called them micronarratives, or
very short stories that favor the details of spatial exploration over plot development.
Even the most tightly plotted story will likely bore readers if it does not feature a vivid
backdrop and interesting characters. Of course, once learned these craft lessons can be
transferred to more traditional short stories and longer works as well.
Vignettes also take less time to write, read, and critique, meaning a student can
write more fiction and receive prompt feedback. In many fiction writing classes,
students have the opportunity to have only one or two finished stories submitted
for critique over the course of a semester. In collaborative world building, students
complete much more writing during the metanarrative and world building phases
alone, and there is still plenty of time for students to write multiple vignettes set
in their shared world. In my course with 24 students, each wrote four, 1000-word
vignettes. In total, the class wrote roughly 96,000 words of fiction, or the length of
a typical novel. Across this novel-length work, there are hundreds of hyperlinked
connections between items, locations, and characters in what becomes a unique
collaborative writing experiment. Examples of this writing can be found at the
websites listed in the appendix.
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IMPLEMENTATION
Such a large-scale project requires a significant investment of class time, though
this will vary based on the course goals. In order to increase engagement, the project
should be student-led and the timeline should be fluid as much as possible. Major
decisions pertaining to the world occur during classroom discussion, where a range
of ideas can be explored, debated, and decided upon. Writing can take place at the
time of discussion in a campus computer lab or broken into take-home assignments.
Likewise, the class can be divided into groups to develop specific aspects of the
world; for example, one group might make the final decisions regarding the world’s
economy while another works on the political structure. The instructor should act a
facilitator during this process, allowing the students as much leeway as possible to
come to a group consensus and acting as the final arbiter in the case of disagreements.
Using wiki page templates for items, locations, and characters can be helpful and
ensures a level of consistency between entries. It can also be helpful for instructors
to assign students a certain number of entries fixed to specific categories to avoid
potential imbalances in the wiki. For example, students are apt to develop a world
with dozens of variations of weapons but with little to no variety of food or tools;
likewise several students may wish to create a famous local landmark as a location,
such as a museum, school, or ballpark. The instructor should help students think
about what aspects of the world they have overlooked or ignored and invite them to
collaborate when their interests merge. Collaborative world building is an ongoing,
recursive process that provides plenty of opportunity for lively classroom discussion.
But these are only suggestions. A project with so many variables ultimately must
be navigated and negotiated by the instructor and the students in each class. No
matter what course structure the instructor decides upon or which direction the
students choose to take, the creation of a vast fictional world requires continuous
writing, both at the collaborative and individual level. Figure 5 provides a suggested
eight-week schedule that can be tailored based on class size and course goals.
ASSESSMENT
Having students produce wiki entries as assignments allows the creative writing
instructor to consider more factors than simply the technical merit of student writing.
For example, instructors can take into account the student’s ability to add both
quality and quantity to the group project through the creation of appropriate entries
and their inclusion of links to their classmates’ pages (Beach, Anson, Breuch, &
Swiss, 2009). Instructors may also judge whether students properly used the wiki’s
other features, such as tagging pages, and whether they enhanced the content of their
pages with images, videos, or relevant outbound links. Entries may still be assessed
according to traditional craft concerns such as the use of evocative descriptions,
active sentence construction, and a consistent application of tone. No matter the
criteria used, it is crucial students understand how their work will be assessed before
the project begins.
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T. HERGENRADER
Week 1: Play and discuss a digital RPG, with specific attention paid to character
creation options, items, and locations in the world. Review online fan wikis
dedicated to the RPG and discuss the structure of wiki entries.
Week 2: Class discussion of the metanarrative aspects of a fictional world,
including details such as the genre (post-apocalypse, medieval fantasy, steampunk,
cyberpunk, etc.), governance, social structures, economy, available technology,
distribution of wealth, etc. Record all class decisions on the course wiki.
Week 3: Continue discussing the metanarrative aspects of the emerging fictional
world, create item templates for the wiki, and assign students items.
Week 4: Create location templates for the wiki, assign locations, and plot them
on a Google map. Students should create links between the location wiki entries
and the map markers.
Week 5: Create character templates for the wiki, assign characters, and place
them in locations.
Week 6: Finalize all aspects of the fictional world including the metanarrative
details, items, locations, and characters. Begin fiction writing exercises and peer
critiques.
Week 7: Continue writing exercises and peer critiques; discuss connections
between networked stories.
Week 8: Wrap up critiques. Discuss the positives and challenges of collaborative
writing practice and world building.
Figure 5. A suggested eight-week schedule with basic guidelines for building a
collaboratively created fictional world.
Another advantage of using a wiki is the transparency of peer review and revision.
Wikis include a discussion tab for each page on the site that allows readers to leave
notes, ask questions, or provide feedback on any aspect of the work. Instructors can
review and assess the student feedback provided and assess if the critiques focus
on specific aspects of craft rather than being vague statements or based solely on
opinion. In addition, wikis also include version histories for each page, showing the
time, date, and changes made to the page. This makes the revision process visible
for the students and instructor alike, as earlier drafts of the work can be compared
with later, revised versions. It also provides space for the writer to explain the
strategies employed during the revision process, providing a rationale for how he
or she handled the feedback received. In total, the wiki gives the instructor a much
more complete picture of a student’s participation in the course, which includes their
ability to maximize the features available in digital software, their contributions to a
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EXPLORING IMAGINARY MAPS
group project, the ways they incorporate peer feedback into revised writing, and the
critiques they provide others.
CONCLUSION
It is common for writing instructors to bemoan that today’s students spend far more
hours playing videogames than reading literature. Rather than viewing videogames
as the enemy, I have argued that we can instead examine what makes these games
compelling for their players and channel that interest and energy into fiction writing.
DRPGs use paratextual elements and genre awareness to promise players that a
world of open-ended adventures awaits them, and the gameplay delivers on this
promise. DRPGs produce stories for their players by having customized characters
move across a landscape teeming with narrative potential, and instructors can
translate this into creative writing exercises that not only tap into the excitement and
unpredictability of the environmental storytelling that occurs in DRPGs, but also it
aligns well with traditional creative writing craft exercises.
REFERENCES
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rip2ped/amato.htm
Barton, M. (2008). Dungeons and desktops: The history of computer role-playing games. Wellesley, MA:
A K Peters.
Beach, R., Anson, C., Breuch, L., & Swiss, T. (2008). Teaching writing using blogs, wikis, and other
digital tools. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers.
Bernays, A., & Painter, P. (2010). What if?: Writing exercises for fiction writers (3rd ed., College ed.).
Boston, MA: Longman.
Black, R. W. (2008). Adolescents and online fan fiction. New York, NY: Peter Lang Academic.
Bowman, S. L. (2010). The functions of role-playing games: How participants create community, solve
problems and explore identity. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. [Kindle version].
Burroway, J. (2011). Imaginative writing: The elements of craft (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Longman.
Cover, J. G. (2010). The creation of narrative in tabletop role-playing games. Jefferson, NC: McFarland
& Co. Publishers. [Kindle version].
Donnelly, D. (2012). Establishing creative writing studies as an academic discipline. Bristol, UK:
Multilingual Matters. [Kindle version].
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version].
Elder scrolls V: Skyrim. [Xbox 360]. (2011). Bethesda, MD: Bethesda Softworks.
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Gardner, J. (1991). Art of fiction: Notes on craft for young writers (trade paperback ed.). New York, NY:
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Haake, K. (2007). Against reading. In K. Ritter & S. Vanderslice (Eds.), Can it really be taught?: Resisting
lore in creative writing pedagogy (pp. 14–27). Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Heinemann.
Harrigan, P., & Wardrip-Fruin, N. (Eds). (2010). Second person: Role-playing and story in games and
playable media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Hergenrader, T. (2011). Gaming, world building, and narrative: Using role-playing games to teach fiction
writing. Proceedings, GLS 7.0, Games + Learning + Society conference, pp. 103–109.
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board. Unauthorized distribution will be prosecuted.
T. HERGENRADER
Hergenrader, T. (2012). From meaning to experience: Teaching fiction writing with digital RPGs. In G.
Voorhees, J. Call & K. Whitlock (Eds.), Dungeons, dragons, and digital denizens: The digital roleplaying game (pp. 304–323). New York, NY: Continuum.
Jenkins, H. (2004). Game design as narrative architecture. In N. Wardrip-Fruin & P. Harrigan (Eds.), First
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[Kindle version].
Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st
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Routledge.
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pedagogy. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Heinemann.
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Turchi, P. (2004). Maps of the imagination: The writer as cartographer. San Antonio, TX: Trinity
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digital role-playing game. New York, NY: Continuum.
Wandor, M. (2008). The author is not dead, merely somewhere else: Creative writing after theory.
Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wilber, D. (2010). iWrite: Using blogs, wikis, and digital stories in the English classroom. Portsmouth,
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applications for expanding the teaching of composition. Logan: Utah State University Press.
APPENDIX.
Website examples of incremental storytelling.
Rivertown Chronicles.
Created in the course English 236: Introductory Topics in Creative Writing –
“Gaming, World Building, and Narrative.” UW-Milwaukee, spring 2011.
Course
wiki: http://rivertown.wikispaces.com
Google map: <http:// goo.gl/maps/LLGK>
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EXPLORING IMAGINARY MAPS
Calypsis: A Hypertext Fiction.
Creative dissertation by W. Trent Hergenrader set in Rivertown.
Site: <http://www.trenthergenrader.com/calypsis>
Hellwaukee.
Created in the course English 236: Introductory Topics in Creative Writing – “Digital
Storytelling and Role-Playing.” UW-Milwaukee, spring 2013.
Course
wiki: http://hellwaukee.wikispaces.com
Google map: <http:// goo.gl/maps/ R1tQh>
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RYAN M. RISH
2. STUDENTS’ TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING
Building Fantasy Fiction Storyworlds in Videogame Design
World building is the art of creating a fictional world or universe. Authors,
moviemakers, and videogame designers build fictional worlds in which to engage
readers, viewers, and players in constructing meaning with the story they are telling.
The worlds they build must have coherent and internally consistent qualities that
help explain why the events supported within them unfold in the ways they do.
Understanding the fictional world supports the reader, viewer, or player in considering
how and why characters take action in the expected and unexpected ways they do.
In this chapter, I discuss how a teacher and high school students enrolled in an
elective English class used world building as a central concept to comprehend and
compose science fiction and fantasy storyworlds. The teacher, Josh, designed the
elective course Swords & Spaceships around a focal question: What considerations
do fantasy and science fiction authors, directors, and videogame designers make
when creating a fictional world? To engage students in the answering of this
question, Josh led his students in the reading of novels, viewing of movies, and
playing of videogames within the fantasy and science fiction genres. Concurrently,
Josh and his students engaged in the Building Worlds Project, in which they used
collaborative writing, digital cartography, and videogame design to make their own
world-building considerations as authors and designers of an original storyworld.
In particular, I draw from a larger study of Josh’s elective class to consider how the
videogame design of one of his students, Roger, serves as a compelling example of
the possibilities and potential for engaging students in new ways of studying media
and participating in media production within classrooms (Gauntlett, 2011; Jenkins,
2006; Ito, et al., 2010).
EVOLUTION OF THE BUILDING WORLDS PROJECT
Josh teaches at a rural high school situated five miles east of a small Midwestern
city. The 716 students who attended the school at the time of the study are primarily
white (96.7%). Fairly characteristic of small towns in the area, 34.7% of the high
school students were economically disadvantaged. These demographics are also
representative of the students enrolled in Josh’s elective class. The high school had
a recent history of earning the state’s highest ranking designation by meeting all
indicators and scoring 99.1 out of 120 points on the state’s performance index.
H. R. Gerber & S. S. Abrams (Eds.), Bridging Literacies with Videogames, 29–52.
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R. M. RISH
The school’s English department developed a selection of 14 English elective
classes (scheduled based on student enrollment) to address a school-wide need
for more courses for upperclassmen. The five teachers in the English department
designed these elective courses to match students’ interests with their own and
engage the students in reading and writing activity based on these shared interests.
Examples of English electives frequently scheduled among the 14 offered include:
Josh’s Swords & Spaceships, Movies & Meaning, Performance Literature, Sports
Literature, Women’s Literature, and Gothic Literature. Initially, Josh had proposed
to the English department that the electives be used to count toward the 11th and
12th grade graduation requirements for English. However, the English department
reached the consensus that the elective classes were to be offered alongside, but not
as substitutes for, the existing required English classes.
Josh’s Swords & Spaceships class is grounded in his own passion and enthusiasm
for fantasy and science fiction across multiple media, including literature, movies,
videogames, and comic books/graphic novels. Most of the students who enroll in
the class share this passion with Josh; though, among the students who enroll in his
elective class, some have particular preferences between fantasy and science fiction
and among the multiple media Josh takes up in his class. The shared passion for the
genres and the media drives their study of the texts they consider and participation in
the Building Worlds Project. Josh encourages his students to consider both the world
building of the authors, moviemakers, and videogame designers and their own world
building in the project to gain a better understanding of how stories are told within
and across the different media with which they work.
The first year Josh offered the semester-long Swords & Spaceships class, the
Building Worlds Project was an individual assignment, in which each of the 11
students enrolled in that first class created his or her own fantasy world in writing.
The second year Josh offered the course, he drew on that initial experience with the
project to change it into a collaborative, whole-class assignment housed on his class
wiki. Josh made this change because he thought the project would not only be more
sustainable across the semester if the 12 students enrolled were encouraged to share
ideas and resources, but he also considered that the collaboration was potentially
characteristic of the ways writers, moviemakers, and videogame designers work
on fantasy or science fiction franchises. That second year, after reading about his
teaching of the class in the local newspaper, I conducted a pilot study of Josh’s class,
in which I first met Josh and his student Roger (Rish & Caton, 2011).
The third year, in which I conducted the full study of Swords & Spaceships,
the enrollment increased to 22 students. Josh adjusted the Building Worlds Project
to allow four groups of students to each collaboratively build a distinct fantasy
world. Roger enrolled in the class for a second time as an independent study and
participated in one of the world-building groups, Förvanskaad. That third year,
Josh also introduced the videogame design component of the project, in addition
to the collaborative writing and digital cartography that were part of the project
from the first year. Roger and his classmates considered the affordances and
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STUDENTS’ TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING
constraints (Gibson, 1979; Kress, 2010) of novels, movies, and videogames, as well
as the paratexts (Genette, 1997; Gray, 2010) that supplement them when rendering
a storyworld. They not only considered what choices authors, moviemakers, and
videogame designers make when working within a medium but also choices made
when building a storyworld across media, e.g., novel adapted into a movie and/or
videogame. John related in an interview,
I really think there’s a lot of value in crafting a story for a videogame. You have
to think about all the things you think about when you’re writing. You have
to think about audience and how people will react to the situations you’ve set
up. You have to think about the structure and pacing of the narrative. We are
taking [these stories] we have created together, and we are adding to the body
of knowledge in a different way. (Josh, interview, November 24, 2009)
For example, Josh’s students considered how the written stories of Tolkien’s The
Lord of the Rings trilogy and related paratexts (e.g., novel cover art, map of Middle
Earth) allowed for particular understandings of the storyworld through the material
affordances of written text, fantasy art, and maps. They also considered how the
material affordances of the movies and videogames allowed for supplementary and
potentially new understandings of the storyworld.
These transmedia considerations of what different media afford and constrain
based on how people create meaning with them, informed the students’ design
decisions of the fantasy worlds they were building in their groups. The students
used a wiki to collaboratively write the history and geography of their worlds,
descriptions of characters and creatures, and stories representative of fantasy fiction.
The students incorporated found and created images into their writing to provide
visual representations of characters, creatures, and objects. They used a free map
making tool, AutoRealm, to create two dimensional maps of their world. AutoRealm
is a vector-based map drawing software designed for use with role-playing games.
The students also used the free trial version of the software Terragen to create
photorealistic, three-dimensional landscapes of their world. Terragen is modeling
software that creates film-quality renderings of landscapes. In the third offering of
the course, the students used a free, 30-day trial version of RPG Maker XP to design
a videogame demo of a part of their storyworld. RPG Maker XP is a videogame
engine that allows you to create role-playing videogames similar to the original Final
Fantasy video games. The students used RPG Maker XP to create maps to navigate,
character interaction and dialogue to consider, and turn-based battle sequences to
play. RPG Maker XP provides customizable videogame content, and more design
content is available online for download, installation, and use. Though RPG Maker
XP is representative of older, less advanced videogames, Josh asked the students to
work with the affordances and constraints of the design engine to adapt or extend
their storyworld.
In this chapter, I focus on the considerations Roger made when using the
videogame design engine to extend his storyworld, Förvanskaad, in a videogame
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demo he created for the Swords & Spaceships class. A demo is a sample version of
a videogame that includes abbreviated, playable content (typically for marketing
purposes). When discussing the considerations Roger made, I address some of
his design decisions that were prompted in part by a videogame design document
(Taylor, 2000) that Josh used with his students and prompted also by questions that
Josh directly or indirectly asked his students to consider in the class. The design
document and Josh’s questions can be used by teachers to support their students’
videogame design, using one of the many videogame design engines available,
or to support their students in considering how videogames they play assist in the
rendering of the storyworld of a particular transmedia franchise.
NEW MEDIA STUDIES
Before I turn to a discussion of Roger’s videogame demo, I first want to make an
initial argument for why teachers should consider incorporating the study (e.g.,
Ostenson, 2013) and/or design of videogames (e.g., Hodgson, n.d.) within a class
project or assignment. The first part of this argument rests on the notion that the
changes in the ways media are produced, distributed, and shared socially warrant
rethinking the ways teachers engage youth in the study and composition of media,
including videogames. Jenkins (2006) states that the new media landscape not only
includes collisions among older forms of media (e.g., television) and newer forms
of media (e.g., video recorded and distributed via mobile phones) but also includes
new flows of content across multiple media platforms, as well as new interactions
and relationships between producers and consumers of media.
In the Swords & Spaceships class, Josh used the Forgotten Realms franchise as
an example to demonstrate the intentional distribution of content across the media of
videogames and novels. He also showed students how to create their own content for
the franchise using the videogame’s design engine that accompanied Neverwinter
Nights. Josh used this engine to create and share content for the fantasy worlds the
students were building in his class, thus repurposing the affordances of the design
engine to create new content for the Building Worlds Project. Josh was modeling
for his students how to both consume and produce media using content and tools
provided by a franchise.
Gauntlett (2011) argues that this new media landscape requires a new orientation
for media studies. He makes this argument in regard to university media studies,
but much of what he outlines is applicable to work with new media in middle and
secondary school settings. Gauntlett (2011) makes the case for
• Moving away from ‘expert’ readings of media texts toward understanding how
diverse audiences make meaning with media,
• Moving away from the celebration of ‘classic’ traditional media texts toward
parallel considerations of independent and DIY media,
• Moving away from considering new digital and online media as auxiliary toward
the recognition that new media has changed how people engage with all media, and
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STUDENTS’ TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING
• Moving away from the idea that students should be taught how to ‘read’ the media
toward considering them as “capable interpreters of media content” (Gauntlett,
2011, Outline of Media Studies 2.0, para. 6).
Much of the way Josh and his students foregrounded world building in the
comprehending and composing of written texts, movies, and videogames represented
the moves Gauntlett suggests for media studies. Josh did not privilege authoritative
interpretations of the media they considered; the class considered classic fantasy,
such as The Lord of the Rings and A Wizard of Earthsea, along with the media
the students were creating; they considered the role of online and digital media in
the comprehension and composing of media texts; and Josh positioned his students
as authors and designers who considered transmedia franchises to inform the
development of their own.
SHIFTS IN SOCIAL PRACTICES AND PARTICIPATION
The second part of this argument rests on the notion that our understanding of how
adolescents engage with media in their daily lives has changed in ways that warrant
the attention of teachers and a shift of the social practices that are supported within
classrooms around media study and composition. Survey data (Lenhart, 2012;
Lenhart, et al., 2007; Lenhart & Madden, 2005) and ethnographic research (e.g.,
Alvermann, 2002; 2010; Black, 2008; Chandler-Olcott & Mahar, 2003; Curwood,
Magnifico, & Lammers, 2013; Hill & Vasudevan, 2008; Ito, et al., 2010; Kinloch,
2009; Mahiri, 2004; 2011; Vasudevan, Schultz, & Bateman, 2010) suggest that
adolescents are not merely passive consumers of media but rather are actively
engaged in the composition of media within and across a range of in-person and
online social situations. Scholars in the fields of media studies and literacy studies
have offered different, yet related, ways of conceptualizing how to make sense of
how youth participate in social practices related to media and popular culture, as
well as how to rethink classroom learning in response. Here in brief, I discuss what
three of these conceptualizations, i.e., participatory culture (Jenkins, et al., 2009),
affinity spaces (Curwood, Magnifico, & Lammers, 2013; Gee, 2004), and genres of
participation (Ito, et al., 2010), have in common as they relate to Josh’s Swords &
Spaceships class in general and Roger’s videogame design, specifically.
Characteristic of affinity spaces (Gee, 2004) and interest-driven genres of
participation (Ito, et al., 2010), the videogame design for the Building Worlds Project
in Josh’s class was grounded in a shared passion for fantasy and science fiction. Of
the 22 students enrolled in the third offering of the class, 21 of the students reported
interest in fantasy and/or science fiction as the primary reason for enrolling in the
class. However, students began the class with varying degrees of knowledge of and
experiences with the genres and the media considered in the class. Characteristic of
affinity spaces and participatory culture (Jenkins, et al., 2009), students who were
new to the content received informal mentorships from students who had more
expertise. Josh positioned himself as both an expert of particular content to be used
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R. M. RISH
as a resource and as a novice of content with which he was not familiar in order
considered as a lead learner. Josh explained,
I have never made a completed game on this [engine], but for some reason
that’s not stopping me…I’m going to rely on the expertise of people like [AJ]
and [Roger] who have done this kind of stuff before. I was encouraged that
[AJ] was playing again with it yesterday…he was enthusiastic about it still, so
I can rely on [AJ] and [Roger] to sort of distribute that expertise throughout the
room. (Josh, interview, November 24, 2009)
Having taken the class the previous year, Roger positioned himself and was positioned
by others as having both intensive and extensive knowledge of the genres, media,
and the project. Roger not only took the lead in the design of a videogame demo for
his world-building group, but he also served as a resource and a mentor to the other
groups designing videogame demos.
These flexible positionings were supported by the social practices of the Swords
& Spaceships class that blurred the lines between teacher and student, as knowledge
and expertise were dispersed across the class. One student, Erika, remarked that the
elective class “doesn’t feel like school.” This can be attributed in part to a social
practice Ito, et al. (2010) refer to as “rewriting the rules” within the participation
genre of “geeking out.” Several of the students who took the lead for their worldbuilding groups in the design of the videogames demonstrated the “intense
commitment or engagement” that Ito, et al. (2010) state is characteristic of geeking
out (p. 65). Roger was among these students who engaged in attempts to rewrite
the rules of school in ways that supported their project development and videogame
design. Among these revisions included attempts at explicitly challenging social
norms of the classroom and technological restrictions of the computer lab. These
attempts included student-led, flexible grouping to share processes and knowledge
without formal arrangements or permission from Josh, repurposing the school
computer software to circumvent network restrictions and trial software limits, and
engaging in playful media consumption and production that contributed to their
social affiliations and eventual project development. When the students strayed too
far from the social norms of school (e.g., playfully vandalizing each other’s wiki
pages), Josh gently reminded the students of the limits of such rule revision.
Josh’s class represents one specific, and significant, attempt at re-conceptualizing
what media is, how it is studied, who students are as producers and consumers of media,
and how institutions, such as school, can be adjusted to accommodate social practices
related to transmedia world building and videogame design. Next, I turn to Roger’s
videogame demo in order to provide a meta-language that can be used to understand
students’ videogame design within transmedia storytelling. Most of these terms are
from media studies and were not explicitly used by Josh in his teaching or by Roger in
his videogame design and mentoring of other students. However, as Gauntlett (2011)
suggests for new media studies, terms like these and others students invent can be used
to support creative thinking about new media and creative making of new media.
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STUDENTS’ TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING
WORLD BUILDING
Every piece of fiction creates a storyworld. However, the affordances and
constraints of the media used to render the storyworld shape the extent to which
a person can know the world of that story. Murray (1997) wrote with early
enthusiasm for the promise of new media for rendering more immersive narrative
microworlds. Webb and his colleagues (2012) have considered how virtual
worlds designed around print literary texts can be leveraged as supplementary
pedagogic tools to help students understand the storyworld of the text. In the
case of novels, the storyworld is often explicitly explained in linear fashion as
the story’s plot unfolds, revealing details about the world’s history, geography,
cultures, and characters. In the case of movies, the storyworld is often revealed
indirectly as characters interact with each other and their physical environment,
allowing viewers to make inductions about the world that may or may not be
directly confirmed by what appears on screen. In the case of videogames, the
storyworld is often defined as the player takes action within the world, learning
about its affordances, constraints, and internal rules.
However, in each of these cases the storyworld is inherently incomplete, as the
reader, viewer, or player must fill in what is not explained with their own imagination
using “a combination of knowledge of the real world and knowledge of genre
conventions” (Juul, 2005, p. 123). A reader, viewer, or player’s understanding of the
storyworld can be supplemented by paratexts that can help orient them to the world
or help them further explore the world (Gray, 2010; Mittell, 2012). These paratexts
may include official and fan-created aides, such as maps, timelines, character guides,
and fan wikis, that help to render the storyworld not only more comprehensible but
also more immersive (Jenkins, 2006).
ADAPTATION AND EXTENSION
Media scholars outline what can often be a blurry distinction between the adaptation
and extension of storyworlds across media platforms. On one hand, adaptations
involve retelling a story in a new medium, e.g., adapting The Hunger Games from a
novel into a movie. On the other hand, extensions involve telling an untold story or
explaining a previously unknown aspect of the storyworld in a new medium, e.g., the
videogame Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which is set between the movies Star
Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
Both adaptations and extensions, when rendering the storyworld in a new medium,
may contribute to a better understanding of the world (Jenkins, 2011).
In an effort to distinguish extension from adaptation, Jenkins (2006) uses the term
transmedia storytelling to refer to a storyworld that
Unfolds across multiple media platforms, with each new text making a
distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole. In the ideal form of
transmedia storytelling each medium does what it does best. (pp. 95-96)
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For Jenkins and others (e.g., Long, 2007) working with this definition of transmedia
storytelling, the focus is on what each text provides to the overall storyline of the
world. If a new text in a new medium retells a story contained in another text and
medium, they consider the new text to be a redundant adaptation that does not
contribute something unique to the storyworld. Jenkins (2006) uses the example of
the Matrix franchise as his archetype for transmedia storytelling. The Wachowskis
intentionally distributed a story across three media platforms: anime, videogame,
and feature film. Each of the texts have self-contained stories, but they also each
contribute something unique to the storyline of the world that constitutes the Matrix
franchise. Likewise, from The Walking Dead franchise, the character Michonne’s
backstory is not revealed in the television serial; rather, her backstory is revealed
as a comic book first published within Playboy magazine and now freely available
online.
Dena (2010) argues that when considering how stories are told across media
platforms, we should not only consider the relationships among the texts as endproducts but also consider how the reader, viewer, or player makes meaning in
different ways with what each text affords. She argues that each “distinct articulation”
(e.g., book, website, television show) requires a different way of interacting with the
text. To traverse what Dena (2010) refers to as polymorphic fiction, people “move
from flicking pages in a book to clicking on a keyboard to watching a television
screen” (p. 186). Each way of interacting with the affordances and constraints
of a text provides different possibilities for constructing meaning in order to
comprehend and imagine the storyworld. An example of distinct articulations that
blur the lines between adaptation and extension, the transmedia franchise Defiance
is simultaneously being released as a television show and a massively multiplayer
online videogame (MMO). The show and the videogame not only share a storyworld
but also shape one another. What happens in the show shapes events in the game,
and what happens in the game shapes events in the show. Each articulation not only
both adapts and extends but also requires a different type of interaction. The viewer
interacts with the show differently than the player interacts with the game.
Jenkins’ (2006) definition of transmedia storytelling and Dena’s (2010) definition
of polymorphic fiction provide students with considerations to make when thinking
about the relationship between a written story and a videogame within a storyworld
they are building. The transmedia storytelling question asks students to consider
if the end-product of their videogame will adapt something that is already written
or extend the storyworld by telling an untold story. In the case of extension, the
transmedia storytelling perspective asks students to consider the relationship
between the written story and the videogame, e.g., offers backstory, provides new
character perspective, maps the word (Jenkins, 2011).
The polymorphic fiction question asks students to consider what the most
appropriate articulation is for each part of the storyworld. Dena (2010) states that
world builders should ask themselves, “Shall I express this part of my fictional
world with a novel, computer game, painting, or film?” (p. 187). For example, a
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story involving a character’s internal conflict may be best told in articulations that
afford the character’s thoughts to be shared with the audience, e.g., written story.
Alternatively, a story involving external conflict with a hostile enemy may be best
told in articulations that afford the character to make decisions of whether to fight or
flee (e.g., videogame).
ROGER’S VIDEOGAME DEMO
The videogame demo that Roger created in Josh’s Swords & Spaceships class has
two major components. The first is an elaborate cut scene, in which the game player
is introduced to the central conflict of the Förvanskaad storyworld, and the second is
gameplay in which the player is introduced to the young mage Nemveret. When these
two components are considered in relationship to the written stories, descriptions,
and histories posted to the project wiki, Roger’s videogame demo can be considered
to be two extensions to his storyworld.
Roger’s written histories provide two time anchors relevant to the videogame.
The first is the year 1023 when the evil mages known as Svar rose to power; the
second is the year 1989 when the most powerful of the Svar, Mondalb, kills the rest
of the evil mages, and Nemveret first communicates with the god Své (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Roger’s Förvanskaad Timeline.
The cut scene in the videogame, which takes place sometime between 1023 and 1989
(see Figure 1), introduces Deslan and a group of rebel mages who are protecting
a female baby from the Svar and Mondalb. When one of the Svar’s Suppressors
arrives to steal the baby whose aura indicates her potential for magic, Deslan defeats
the Suppressor and assures the baby’s parents that she will be protected and well
cared for (see Figure 2). Roger’s cut scene provides an entry point to the backstory
of the conflict between the good and evil mages. In the cut scene, Roger also
provides foreshadowing for events in the future. He introduces the central deity of
Förvanskaad, Své, though a quote from a religious text, The Maker’s Wisdom:
Man shall govern himself, and I shall be no king unto him. He shall have
free will to build or destroy the world I leave him. But should a man become
tantamount to a god, and destroy the freedom of will I have given to all other
men, then will I step down and put freedom back into the hands in which I
have placed it.
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Figure 2. Deslan promises to care for the child.
Though not explicitly explained, the player is led to believe that this man is the evil
mage Mondalb, and Své is forced to step out of his role as the divine watchmaker
and intervene in the affairs of man. The player is also left wondering who the female
baby is and what role she will play in the future.
After a transition using the title screen of the videogame demo, the player is now
in control of a sprite named Nemveret on an instance map. Nemveret is in a cave
to learn how to fight and use his magic. He receives instructions from a voice that
is later revealed to be Své. The gameplay both orients the player to Nemveret and
trains both the player and the character in the mechanics of the turn-based fighting
of the roleplaying videogame. Nemveret learns to fight low-level cave rats, collects
healing mushrooms, and obtains a better weapon. This training prepares him for a
boss fight with a golem. Nemveret’s reward for defeating the golem is learning that
Své is the voice behind his training and receiving new Astral magic powers.
TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING
From a transmedia storytelling perspective, Roger’s videogame demo provides
unique contributions to the storyworld that makes up Förvanskaad. Both the cut
scene and the gameplay are additive extensions that both explicitly provide new
details about the storyworld and provide new openings for the reader and game
player to speculate about an impending battle between Nemveret and Mondalb.
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Many speculative questions go unanswered about the role of Deslan in the life of the
female baby, who may be grown by the time Nemveret is receiving his training and
promises to have strong magical powers worth protecting. Drawing on a transmedia
storytelling perspective, Long (2007) uses the term negative capability (from the
poet John Keats) to describe “the art of building strategic gaps into a narrative to
evoke a delicious sense of ‘uncertainty, Mystery, or doubt’ in the audience” (p. 53).
Roger’s videogame demo leverages negative capability to send the game player back
to the writing that makes up the storyworld of Förvanskaad in search of unanswered
questions. These strategic gaps work to render a more immersive storyworld as
the reader and game player are invited to exercise what Murray (1997) refers to as
“active creation of belief” (p. 111).
POLYMORPHIC FICTION
From a polymorphic fiction perspective, the cut scene and the gameplay are distinct
articulations that provide the game player with an understanding of the storyworld
by leveraging affordances particular to the medium of the role-playing game. The
cut scene operates like a short animation, as the player reads character dialogue
and watches character interaction. The player is oriented to the magical abilities
of both an evil Suppressor, who defeats a good mage, and Deslan, who defeats the
Suppressor (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. Deslan defeats a Suppressor.
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The sound and graphic effects Roger used in the fight between Deslan and the
Suppressor demonstrate what their magic abilities look like and ultimately establish
Deslan as more powerful than the Suppressor that the Svar had sent to collect the
baby. Arguably, the cut scene provides the player with a more explicit representation
of what the use of magic looks like within Förvanskaad than what a reader would
come to understand through a written description. The cut scene is an appropriate
articulation for establishing Deslan as superior to the Suppressors.
The gameplay helps to further establish the relationship between Nemveret and
Své for the player. In Roger’s written stories of Nemveret, Své began to communicate
with Nemveret without revealing his identity. The gameplay establishes what Kinder
(1991) refers to as transmedia intertextuality by orienting the character Nemveret
and the player to receiving direct instructions from the Voice. As a form of dramatic
irony, the player who read Roger’s written stories will suspect that the Voice is in
fact Své. The player who has not read Roger’s written stories will learn of Své’s
identity at the same time Nemveret does within the game. The affordances of playing
the videogame and following the directions of the Voice help the player understand
Nemveret’s confusion and frustration.
At one point during the gameplay, Nemveret questions why he is navigating the
cave and killing rats. From the character’s perspective, Nemveret is wondering where
he is going and what the Voice has in store for him as he receives his training. From
the player’s perspective, the player may be wondering what all of the rat killing
and mushroom collecting is leading to. The player may perceive this portion of the
videogame demo to be overly repetitive and characteristic of what players of roleplaying videogames refer to as grinding for the sake of leveling the character. From the
videogame critic’s perspective, the critic may be annoyed by the use of the rat-killing
trope (which had been discussed in class as cliché) to level the character and orient the
player to the videogame mechanics. Roger addresses the character’s uncertainty, the
player’s impatience, and the critic’s concerns by strategically placing a conversation
between the Voice and Nemveret, in which the Voice tells Nemveret (and the player) to
stop complaining and that an explanation is forthcoming (see Figure 4).
The words “stop complaining” serve as advice for the character within the
game; acknowledgement of potential frustration the player may be experiencing
by breaking the fourth wall (between character and player); and a wink toward
critics with a move known as lampshade hanging (self-deprecatingly pointing out
a flaw in anticipation of criticism), which breaks the fifth wall (between videogame
designer and critic) (Hunter & Lichtenfels, 2005). By leveraging the affordances of
the videogame, Roger is able to allow the player to discover Své’s true identity as an
accomplishment for the character and the player. This revelation takes on a different
significance for the player compared to the reader if Roger had written the story
of Nemveret leaning Své’s identity and receiving the gift of Astral magic. Roger’s
videogame demo is not only significant because it extends the storyworld but also
because it is a unique articulation that affords the player to construct meaning in a
different way than with the writing that partially makes up Förvanskaad.
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Figure 4. Své encourages Nemveret to continue training.
CONTINUITY WITHIN AND ACROSS ARTICULATIONS
As a design consideration, Josh asked his students to maintain storyline continuity
within and across the articulations of their storyworld. He asked them to work together
within the world-building groups to collaboratively write and read for continuity.
Josh also asked the students to maintain continuity across media when designing
their videogames. He introduced the organizing principle of continuity by explaining
how superhero franchises maintain character and storyline continuity both within the
medium of comic books but also across the media of animation, feature films, and
videogames. Josh explained that a continuity editor for a superhero franchise sets out
to maintain consistency in the character’s storyline and physical depiction. Jenkins
(2011) uses the term radical intertextuality to refer to within medium continuity
and the term transmedia storytelling to refer to across medium continuity. Both are
important to maintain a comprehensible storyworld that is explored from multiple
perspectives within and across media. When a continuity error is introduced, the
active creation of belief (Murray, 1997) is disrupted.
Josh considered continuity errors not as problems to avoid but rather as
opportunities for students to work together to render their storyworlds in more
consistent and coordinated ways. The early assignments of the Building Worlds
projects are designed to lay the groundwork for the stories to be told within the
storyworld. Josh asked the students to define their fantasy world’s history, geography,
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and cultures with written descriptions and multimodal depictions using maps,
drawings, and other found and created images. Dena (2009) explains that franchises
often rely on an official artifact and/or people to serve as a “bible” for the purpose of
maintaining continuity. Dena explains that television serials often use a series bible,
videogame design teams often use a design document (similar to the one Josh used
with this students), and transmedia franchises often use a world or universe guide to
maintain visual and storyline continuity.
MYTHOS, TOPOS, AND ETHOS
When considering what should be defined to establish and maintain continuity, Klastrup
and Tosca’s (2004) identify three core features that they consider to be essential
understandings shared by designers and the audience in order to establish what they
call a transmedial world. The first is the mythos which consists of “the establishing
conflicts and battles of the world” that provide “the central knowledge one needs to
have in order to interact with or interpret events in the world successfully” (p. 412). The
second is topos which consists of “the setting of the world in a specific historical period
and detailed geography” that informs “what is to be expected from the physics of and
navigation in the world” (p. 412). The third is the ethos which consists of “the explicit
and implicit ethics of the word and (moral) codex of behaviour” used to understand how
characters are supposed to behave in the world (p. 412). Roger and his world-building
partner AJ established these core features in the process of laying the groundwork for
the writing of stories and the design of their videogame demos.
Mythos. The mythos of Förvanskaad is established in a history of the world
beginning with Své’s creation of the universe. In the history, Roger and AJ use major
events in the storyworld to define epochs (see Figure 5).
Figure 5. Storylines in Förvanskaad.
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After Své created man and gave them stewardship over the land with the help
of magic, Své departed as a divine watchmaker to allow mankind to determine
its own fate. As man developed in these early years (0 – 320 Y.E.1), distinct
cultures began to emerge, some relying on tools and weapons and others relying
on magic. The second epoch of man (321 – 500 Y.E.) was marked by the Niebora,
the most advanced magic users, who taught other cultures how to use magic to
defend themselves from reptilian predators that roamed the land. However, the
unintended consequences of using Sky magic altered atmospheric conditions
ushering in the Age of Storms (501 – 612 Y.E.), which drove the entire population
of Förvanskaad underground into a system of caves. In the year 613 Y.E., the
storms began to recede leaving the survivors to use Water magic to drain the
flooded lands of Förvanskaad in an epoch of relative peace. In the year 752 Y.E.,
the Niebora discovered the ultimate power of the stars, Astral magic. An elite
society of the most powerful mages, known as the Svar, used Astral magic for
peaceful purposes. However, by the end of the epoch known as The Loosening
(752 – 1023 Y.E.), the Svar began to become corrupt by the ultimate power
afforded by Astral magic.
Through this history, Roger and AJ establish the mythos of Förvanskaad. Man
gradually discovers how to use different forms of magic for peaceful purposes, until
the discovery of Astral magic begins to corrupt the most powerful of the mages.
Roger and AJ foreshadow the return of Své who is reported in a religious text to have
promised only to return if a man attempts to wield the power of a god. The history
renders the storyworld an otherwise peaceful place (when the reptile predators are
not attacking) that is soon to be corrupted by the tyranny of the Svar. In a separate
story, the reader learns that one of the Svar, Mondalb, becomes more powerful than
the other Svar, kills the other nine, and declares himself god-emperor of Vatra, the
mainland of Förvanskaad. Mondalb’s rise to power promises to herald the foretold
return of Své and the need for a hero (Nemveret) to receive what Campbell (2008)
referred to as the call to adventure.
Topos. Roger and AJ also establish the topos of Förvanskaad with written
descriptions of the regions and maps created with AutoRealm (see Figure 6)
and landscapes created with Terragen. The maps and landscapes help establish
Förvanskaad as a fantasy storyworld, wherein humans must rely on magic to
protect them from the elements and predators. Mention of the discovery of
bronze weapons and tools in the first epoch of man provides the reader with
an approximate understanding that even though magic is used, conditions are
comparable to our own Bronze Age. The story of Teltone provides an indication
of the physics of this storyworld. Teltone is a floating island that was raised from
the earth with the help of wind runes engraved on a giant that lifted the land into
the sky. Figure 6 features the floating island; though, its exact location varies at
any given time.
Ethos. The ethos of Förvanskaad is made explicit by the juxtaposition of the Svar
from the rest of the inhabitants of the storyworld, most notably the Niebora. The Svar
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Figure 6. Map of Förvanskaad.
have fallen victims to the corruption of power as they begin to use Astral magic. The
rest of the inhabitants of Förvanskaad are forced to endure the tyranny of the Svar,
until evil is consolidated into a single character, Mondalb, and Své is reintroduced
as intervening in the affairs of man. However, a story AJ wrote disrupted the simple
juxtaposition of good versus evil. AJ described the Niebora as selfish, deceptive,
and guilty of betrayal. Though victims of the first the Svar’s tyranny, the reader is
led to believe that the Niebora are not completely innocent and altruistic. However,
Nemveret was born to parents of the Kadud tribe, a people that are only described
by their lack of knowledge of magic and technology. Nemveret is an unlikely hero
when he begins to hear the voice of Své.
NEGOTIATING CONTINUITY CONFLICTS
As Roger and AJ established the essential characteristics of Forvanskaad, they
often had to negotiate continuity conflicts within and across articulations. The
historical timeline served as the bible for the storyworld in an effort to maintain
historic continuity. For the most part, they were successful at negotiating continuity
conflicts within the written stories, histories, and descriptions. AJ’s story of Teltone
intersected with Roger’s historical account of the Niebora on the timeline in a way
that maintained continuity; though, AJ characterized the Niebora in a different light
than Roger did. An example of an unresolved continuity conflict within the written
stories is a story AJ wrote titled “Of the Derelicts,” in which the Svar attack a band
of mages in the year 2000 Y.E. (see Figure 5). According to a description of Vatra
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written by Roger, Mondalb killed the rest of the Svar in 1989 Y.E. Neither of these
events appear on the timeline that serves as the storyworld’s bible. Therefore, this
continuity conflict may represent unfinished design work as Roger and AJ turned
their attention to their videogame design.
In regard to Roger’s videogame demo, he maintained storyline continuity across
articulations as the videogame picks up after Nemveret has received the call to
adventure by the voice of Své. When the player is introduced to Nemveret, the player
meets a reluctant hero who is questioning why he is in the cave in the first place.
This is characteristic of the second stage of Campbell’s (2008) monomyth, refusal
of the call to adventure, which at the beginning of the game, Nemveret expresses
doubt and confusion and requires encouragement by Své (see Figure 7). To progress
in the game, Nemveret must overcome his uncertainty and doubt and accept the
call to adventure, which he does gradually by first fighting cave rats, then a group
of golems, and at the end the boss golem. Though these events are not explained in
the storyworld bible, they nonetheless maintain continuity with the written story of
Nemveret’s call to adventure.
Figure 7. Nemveret’s refusal of the call.
EMPTY NOUNS AND INTRACOMPOSITIONAL TRANSMEDIA
During the project, Josh asked his students to read a short, open letter written by
Ursula K. Le Guin (2005) on plausibility in fantasy. In the letter, Ursula K. Le Guin
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makes a distinction between the way she has built her storyworld of Earthsea and the
way J.R.R. Tolkien built the storyworld of Middle Earth. The distinction she makes
explains two approaches to world building. The first is generally referred to as top
down (or outside in) wherein the mythos, topos, and ethos for the entire storyworld
are well established before a story is ever told. Tolkien takes up this approach by
defining the history, geography, and languages of Middle Earth before writing the
stories that make up The Lord of the Rings. The second is referred to as bottom up
(or inside out) wherein the mythos, topos, and ethos are only established for a small
part of the world, and the rest of the world is rendered as the storylines unfold. Le
Guin (2005) takes up this second approach; she writes
But in my fantasies, I have often mentioned events or places which I didn’t
yet know anything about—for example, some of the later exploits of Ged
mentioned early in A Wizard of Earthsea. These were, when I wrote them,
merely words—“empty” nouns. I knew that if my story took me to them, I
would find out who and what they were. And this indeed happened… In the
same way, I drew the map of Earthsea at the very beginning, but I didn’t know
anything about each island till I “went to” it.
For Le Guin, the storyworld is defined as the characters discover each aspect of
the world. Josh encouraged his students to take up both approaches. He asked his
students to define what they knew about their storyworld and allow their storylines
to lead them to new discoveries.
Among these potential discoveries, Josh encouraged his students to pursue
empty nouns. He asked his students to identify an artifact, weapon, book, scroll,
etc. that they had mentioned briefly and had not fully explained elsewhere in their
storyworld. He then asked them to provide a detailed explanation of the empty
nouns. In the case of written texts, such as books and scrolls, Josh challenged his
students to actually write the contents of the books and scrolls. To demonstrate
this, Josh shared The Elder Scrolls series of role-playing videogames with his
students. In the game, books that the player discovers in-game are not empty nouns;
rather, they are actually full-length books of myths, legends, histories, biographies,
records, fiction, jokes, songs, poems, plays, journals, research, etc.2 Roger and AJ
took up this challenge by writing descriptions of the weapons used by the Niebora
to defend themselves from the Svar and reptilian predators. Some of the students
in other world-building groups wrote histories, poetry, and songs contained within
their storyworlds.
Dena (2009) uses the terms intercompositional and intracompositional to
distinguish between transmedia relationships across and within unique articulations.
Jenkins (2006; 2011) and Long (2007) are concerned with intercompositional
transmedia, or the relationships among unique articulations of a storyline, e.g., book,
movie, videogame. However, when a full-length book can be read within a single
articulation, as with the books within The Elder Scrolls role-playing videogames, the
term intracompositional transmedia becomes necessary to describe the relationship
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between the in-game book and the storyworld established by the other affordances
of the videogame. Dena (2009) uses the example of Steward and Weisman’s (2006)
novel Cathy’s Book: If Found Call 650-266-8233 that contains items a reader would
expect to find in a diary, e.g., removable photos, napkins with phone numbers, etc.,
to further define intracompositional transmedia. The book and all of the artifacts
contained within it make up the composition.
Roger introduced an empty noun at the end of his videogame demo that was left
unexplained in the rest of his storyworld. After Nemveret defeats the boss golem, he
is rewarded with a tome of Astral magic by Své (See Figure 8). Characteristic of the
third stage of Campbell’s (2008) monomyth, Nemveret receives a supernatural aid
that we assume he will use later to fight Mondalb. Though Roger details in writing
how Astral magic works (makes oneself invisible and employs pure energy as a
weapon) and does not work (very poorly if not under an open sky), he does not give
the reader any indication of how magic is learned in the storyworld. In the game, the
player learns that Astral magic can be learned by obtaining the corresponding tome.
The lack of details about the tomes may be Roger’s intentional use of negative
capability (Long, 2007) to entice the player to search for more tomes, or Roger
may be relying on the player’s familiarity with the genre of fantasy role-playing
videogames to understand the relationship between tomes and learning magic
(Juul, 2005).
Figure 8. Boss golem guarding the tome of Astral magic.
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PARTICIPATORY ENGAGEMENT IN NEW MEDIA
When Josh invited the Swords & Spaceships students to design videogames for
the Building Worlds Project, he had two goals in mind. On one hand, he wanted
his students to consider how stories are told differently within and across media
by considering the choices authors, moviemakers, and videogame designers make.
On the other hand, he wanted to engage his students in telling stories across media,
so that they could make their own design choices informed by the media they
considered in class. Josh helped his students accomplish these goals by leading
them in class conversations about fantasy and science fiction novels, movies, and
videogames and by engaging them in the Building Worlds Project that included
videogame design. Josh explained that he thought this approach was productive for
students to consider
How videogames handle telling fantasy and science fiction stories given that
videogames are so bound up with those genres. I think it’s a good part of our
curriculum to talk about that. (Josh, interview, December 7, 2009)
Josh was less concerned with his students coming up with a definitive answer to the
question of how videogames tell stories within the specific games they considered.
Rather, Josh’s two-fold goals of comprehending and composing transmedia stories
were comparable to what Jenkins, et al. (2009) refer to as transmedia navigation,
which is the consideration of
how stories change as they move across different contexts of production and
reception, as [students] give consideration to the affordances and conventions
of different media, and as they learn to create using a grange of different media
tools. (p. 90)
The Building Worlds Project provided an opportunity for students to experiment and
play with different media, working with their affordances and constraints, and to
take up the role of transmedia storyteller.
However, not all of these experiments resulted in media products with which
the students were pleased. Though Roger represents a student who successfully
created a videogame demo, other students like AJ were frustrated by the constraints
of RPG Maker XP limiting his videogame design to what he considered to be an
anachronistic gameplay experience involving navigating maps with a sprite and
engaging in turn-based battle and dialogue sequences. For Josh, the process of
experimenting and playing with the media was more important for learning about
transmedia storytelling that the actual games the students created. Josh explained
when discussing how he was going to assess the videogame component of the
project,
What I’m really going to be interested in is the post analysis of [the videogame
design]. The videogames, whether they’re good or not is not really all that
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STUDENTS’ TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING
important to me. [Students can] discuss what are the differences between
creating a text-based story, even when you are collaborating and there’s
multiple sources you are drawing from, compared to a [videogame] story when
the reader is an active participant. So, I’m really interested in their thoughts on
that. I’m not sure what they are going to say. I’m not sure what I think are the
differences as I’m working through my own game on my own. What are the
challenges and rewards for creating that kind of narrative?
I think it will be a meta type of thing looking at the way they tell stories, in
terms of the traditional narrative story on the wiki and the way stories are
told in the games. Maybe even doing some comparison, [such as] I found it
easier to tell my story in this format but maybe that when someone played my
game, they played it in a different way than I had imagined. Or maybe they
could write an FAQ or a walk though of each other’s games. (Josh, interview,
December 7, 2009)
By Josh prioritizing experimentation and play with the videogame design engine
over any expected outcomes for the videogame demos, he encouraged low-stakes
problem solving, risk taking, and learning through trial and error. In many ways,
Josh’s emphasis on play shared characteristics of
• participatory culture (Jenkins, et al., 2009), in which play is considered to be
an active mode of engagement that supports problem solving and roles that
encourage strong identifications and emotional investments;
• interest-driven genres of participation (Ito, et. al., 2010), in which “experimenting
and play are central practices for young people messing around with new media”
(p. 58), often supported by affinity spaces like the ones Gee (2004) and Curwood,
Magnifico, and Lammers (2013) describe; and
• third space (Wolhwend, 2008), a hybrid of the official space of school and the
unofficial space of peer culture, in which students use play “to re-imagine power
relations by assuming pretend identities and to explore literacy practices and
materials in a risk-free zone” (p. 134).
All to say, the way Josh and his students engaged in participatory new media study
of transmedia storytelling in the Swords & Spaceships class was just as important,
if not more so, than the fantasy worlds they built with writing, digital cartography,
and videogame design. Josh’s students took up the roles of writers and designers
in collaborative world-building groups and made many of the same considerations
that writers, moviemakers, and videogame designers make when working with a
transmedia franchise.
REMIXING CLASSROOM PROJECTS WITH NEW MEDIA STUDIES
Josh’s elective English course, Swords & Spaceships, is a special case. He and
the other English teachers in his high school have a great deal of administrative
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R. M. RISH
support to offer and experiment with elective English classes like this one.
Therefore, conducting a semester-long Building Worlds Project most likely will not
be possible in other classes without this support, freedom, and availability of the
school’s computer lab. However, participating in the new media study of transmedia
storytelling and the designing of videogames could supplement existing projects and
curricular units already in place.
The following is a list of examples of how teachers may take up the new media
studies and participatory social practices related to transmedia storytelling by
positioning students as:
• Transmedia critics who consider the affordances and constraints of different
media that help to render a storyworld;
• Readers, viewers, and players who co-create an inherently incomplete storyworld
by filling in gaps created by negative capability with their own understandings
based on the story and their knowledge of the genre and/or medium;
• New media scholars who consider the extent to which an articulation of the
storyworld adapts existing articulations (e.g., movie adaptation) or extends the
storyworld in some way (e.g., webisodes);
• New media scholars who consider the role of paratexts in contributing to a
storyworld and how a single articulation (e.g., feature film) can alter and/or define
the appearance and purpose of the paratexts (e.g., novel cover art with feature
film actors);
• Creative directors of a transmedia franchise who decide what is the most
appropriate articulation for rendering part of a storyworld;
• Ethnographers who consider the multiple trajectories people take across media
when navigating a transmedia franchise;
• Videogame designers who consider the significance and purpose of dramatic
irony, wherein the player knows more than the character, for advancing the plot
and the gameplay;
• Videogame critics who consider the significance and purpose of characters
breaking the fourth wall and directly addressing the player;
• Critical videogame modders who consider how to modify existing games with
lampshade hanging and redesign (e.g., Sorry Mario Bros!) that acknowledges
cliché and/or problematic tropes (e.g., damsel in distress); and
• Fanfiction authors/designers who take up an empty noun in a written story, movie,
or videogame and consider how to develop the empty noun as intracompositional
transmedia (e.g., written book within a videogame).
My hope is that this brief description of Josh’s Swords & Spaceships class and the
detailed consideration of Roger’s videogame demo in relationship to participatory
approaches to new media studies will provide teachers with some tools and some
examples for positioning students as agentive, critical consumers and producers of
new media.
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STUDENTS’ TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING
NOTES
1
2
Y.E. is an abbreviation for Years of Existence
For a complete list of books in The Elder Scrolls series, see http://www.imperial-library.info
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JEN SCOTT CURWOOD
3. READER, WRITER, GAMER
Online Role-Playing Games as Literary Response
INTRODUCTION
Today’s youth are increasingly using online spaces to collaborate, communicate, and
innovate. In fact, research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project indicates
that 80% of adolescents use online social network sites, 38% share original creative
work online, and 21% remix their own creative works, inspired by others’ words
and images (Lenhart, Ling, Campbell, & Purcell, 2010; Lenhart, Madden, Smith,
Purcell, Zickuhr, & Rainie, 2011). This is particularly evident within online fanbased affinity spaces, where young adults come together around a shared interest.
These fans see the Internet as a tool to share their creative work that is often inspired
by books, films, and games.
Over the past three years, I have conducted research on The Hunger Games
affinity space to gain insight into how fan culture can support the literacy
practices inherent in writing stories, creating art, producing songs, and playing
games. Drawing on traditions of online ethnographic research, this study seeks to
understand the culture of affinity spaces (Gee, 2004), which are the physical, virtual,
or blended spaces where young people interact around a common interest. There
are three types of portals, or entry points, to affinity spaces (Magnifico, Lammers,
& Curwood, 2013): (1) root websites specific to The Hunger Games affinity space,
including HungerGamesRPG.com and HungerGamesTrilogy.net; (2) archives of
creative artifacts that include transformative works from multiple affinity spaces,
such as FanFiction.net and DeviantArt.com; and (3) social media tools that promote
interaction within and beyond the affinity space, including Twitter, Facebook, and
Tumblr. Within the affinity space, participants move across and through portals as
they engage with the novels, films, and other fan-created work.
In this chapter, I analyze how Georgia, an Australian teen, engages in the
Hunger Games affinity space, particularly how she uses Tumblr as part of a
literature-based online role-playing game. I ask: How do role-playing games
promote engagement with literature? Within a role-playing game (RPG), players
assume the identity of a character in a fictional setting. The core of the game is
guided by rules, and players typically have full control of decision making for
their characters (Tychsen, Hitchens, Brolund, & Kavakli, 2006). There are many
H. R. Gerber & S. S. Abrams (Eds.), Bridging Literacies with Videogames, 53–66.
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J. S. CURWOOD
forms of role-playing games, including computer role-playing games, massively
multiplayer online role-playing games, pen-and-paper role-playing games, and
live action role-playing games. While the RPG in this study takes place online, it
does not involve a game engine nor does it require players to complete quests or
engage in synchronous play, such as with popular MMORPGs. Instead, Tumblr’s
microblogging platform allows players to write dialogue and share multimedia,
which can occur asynchronously.
Drawing on the concepts of Multiliteracies and affinity spaces and using the
Designs of Meaning as an analytical tool, I begin by considering how Georgia’s
developing knowledge of game design facilitated her participation in Tumblr-based
role-playing games as multiple characters from the Hunger Games novels. I then
analyze how her offline work on character development shaped her understanding
of the characters’ experiences, motivations, and beliefs. Finally, I examine how
her literary knowledge of The Hunger Games enabled her participation in the roleplaying games. In closing, I discuss how teachers can draw on Multiliteracies in
order to promote young adults’ close reading of literary texts as well as their creative
and multimodal writing practices.
MULTILITERACIES AND ONLINE AFFINITY SPACES
The New London Group (1996) argued that in a culturally and linguistically
diverse world where multiple modes of expression and diverse forms of textual
representation are available, a common framework is increasingly important. As a
result, they proposed a metalanguage of Multiliteracies based on the idea of Design,
which could “identify either the organizational structure of products or the process
of designing” (New London Group, 1996, p. 73-74). By applying the concept
of Design to any meaning making activity, they identified three key elements:
Available Designs, Designing, and The Redesigned. The New London Group (1996)
stated, “Together these three elements emphasize the fact that meaning making is
an active and dynamic process, and not something governed by static rules” (p. 74).
The process of Designing, then, involves the transformation of Available Designs
in order to create and articulate meaning. Consequently, the New London Group
emphasized the socially situated nature of meaning making by locating this activity
within a metalanguage of Multiliteracies.
Multiliteracies are nonlinear, multimodal, and firmly rooted in social practices
(Kalantzis & Cope, 2000). While these practices may occur within school, young
adults’ meaning making practices extend “beyond the classroom walls and into
the borderless world of Internet resources” (Luke, 2000, p. 82). Consequently,
Multiliteracies can be traced within and across affinity spaces. They contain multiple
portals that offer diverse interest-driven trajectories, opportunities to learn with others,
and paths toward becoming an authentic participant (Squire, 2011). Youth draw on a
variety of modes and semiotic resources as they engage with their common passion
in online affinity spaces (Curwood, 2013a). While the field continues to theorize
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READER, WRITER, GAMER
affinity spaces (Hayes & Duncan, 2012), further research is needed to shed light
on the nature of literacy development and social interaction within online contexts.
Recently, several colleagues and I have argued that an update to Gee’s (2004)
initial categorization of online affinity spaces was necessary (Lammers, Curwood,
& Magnifico, 2012; Magnifico, Lammers, & Curwood, 2013). We posited that
contemporary affinity spaces have nine defining features: 1) A common endeavor
is primary; 2) Participation is self-directed, multi-faceted, and dynamic; 3) Portals
are often multimodal; 4) Affinity spaces provide a passionate, public audience for
content; 5) Socializing plays an important role in affinity space participation; 6)
Leadership roles vary within and among portals; 7) Knowledge is distributed across
the entire affinity space; 8) Many portals place a high value on cataloguing content
and documenting practices; and 9) Affinity spaces encompass a variety of mediaspecific and social networking portals.
Online affinity spaces offer fans a way to come together around a shared interest,
across time and space. Many fan-based affinity spaces either emerge from games
or include games as a part of the fandom. Prior scholarship has indicated that
games support complex forms of learning that include collaborative inquiry, the
development of situated identities, and participation in a common discourse (Gee,
2003; Squire, 2006; Steinkuehler, 2006). Moreover, games often involve complex
literacy practices (Black & Steinkuehler, 2009). By conceptualizing game design,
social networking, and creative writing as Multiliteracies, this chapter seeks to add
to this growing body of research.
METHODS
Research Context
To understand the literacy practices inherent in affinity spaces, I have taken a
sociocultural and situated approach by observing and participating in the space
associated with The Hunger Games, a young adult trilogy. Since 2011, I have
examined fan practices in various portals where young people write fan fiction,
create art, produce videos, compose music, and design games (Curwood, 2013a;
Curwood, 2013b; Curwood, Magnifico, & Lammers, 2013; Lammers, Magnifico,
& Curwood, 2014). Role-playing games, in particular, offer youth an opportunity to
deepen their content knowledge, participate in social interactions, and develop their
creative writing skills.
The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay are part of a growing number of
dystopian novels written for young adults. From 2008 to 2012, Suzanne Collins’ trilogy
sold over 50 million copies worldwide. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Panem includes
an affluent capitol, surrounded by thirteen impoverished districts. In the Dark Days,
the districts rose up against the capitol. To remind the citizens of Panem that such a
revolution must never happen again, they are subjected to the Hunger Games each year.
The protagonist, 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, becomes a tribute within the Hunger
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Games, where she has to fight for her survival. Not only must she struggle against the
Gamemakers who control the treacherous environment, she must also be ready to kill
the Career tributes who have trained their entire lives for the Hunger Games.
As part of my wider study of the Hunger Games affinity space, I have found
that the multiple portals offer young adults a way to comprehend, analyze, and
critique the novels and films. More than that, they create a valuable space for fans
to transform the plot, characters, and themes. Whether they choose to be active
participants, designers, moderators, or lurkers, young adults have the opportunity
to develop online identities as readers, writers, and gamers. For instance, 13-yearold Jack is actively involved in online discussion boards related to the Hunger
Games; here, he critically analyzes the novels, collaboratively constructs a character
index, and discusses global issues (Curwood, 2013a). Meanwhile, 16-year-old
Cassie writes news stories and reviews books on a popular portal; she also acts in
fan videos available on YouTube and manages a Twitter account with over 50,000
followers (Curwood, Magnifico, & Lammers, 2013). Affinity spaces allow young
adults multiple pathways for participation; consequently, it also encourages them to
cultivate diverse literacy practices and engage with an authentic audience.
Data Collection and Analysis
Data collection began with systematic observation to gain insight into the dynamics
of communication and semiotic production in the online affinity space. I conducted
multiple interviews with thirty focal participants via Skype, email, and private
messages. Participants ranged in age from 11 to 17, and they represented a variety of
countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.
These interviews sought information about the factors that shaped their literacy
practices, participation in online affinity spaces, and engagement with The Hunger
Games novels. I also collected artifacts, including discussion board rules, online
profiles, and creative work.
Drawing on descriptive case analysis (Yin, 2003), I created case studies from
focal participants in The Hunger Games affinity space. Using a thematic analysis
framework (Boyatzis, 1998; Saldaña, 2009), I performed several repeated rounds of
qualitative coding, gradually consolidating and refining the participants’ discussions
of their literacy practices into several broad patterns. To understand the relationship
between Multiliteracies and affinity spaces, I drew on the New London Group’s
(1996) Designs of Meaning, which represents “the ‘what’ of literacy pedagogy”
(p. 11). Consequently, it offered a way to conceptualize focal participants’ literacy
practices related to three elements: Available Designs, Designing, and The
Redesigned.
In this paper, the Designs of Meaning concept is used as an analytical tool to
understand the process of meaning making. Within The Hunger Games affinity space,
there are a number of Available Designs for developing writers, designers, and gamers
to draw upon, such as narrative traditions and game strategies. They are then able
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READER, WRITER, GAMER
to use these within the process of Designing, which involves actively transforming
available semiotic resources. The resulting text, such as a fan fiction story or a roleplay game, then becomes The Redesigned. Given the dynamic and public nature of
affinity spaces, each Redesign has the potential to become a new Available Design. In
order to trace this process, I drew on interviews with young adults to understand how
they accessed, made sense of, and employed Available Designs in order to engage
in the creative and transformative act of Designing. By analyzing artifacts, such as
artwork and dialogue integral to a role-play game, I was then able to gain insight into
the ways in which the Redesigned are part of the wider affinity space.
Focal Participant
In this chapter, I offer a case study of a 17-year-old from Western Australia. Georgia
is in her final year of high school and plans to attend university. She explains, “I’m
an arts student, so I don’t take any math or sciences because I find them unnecessary,
and also quite stifling – there is no room to create, or to see things from a peculiar
perspective. I prefer subjective, creative subjects with deep analytical possibilities
such as literature.” While she fondly recalls her teachers introducing her to The
Picture of Dorian Gray, 1984, and Macbeth, she reports feeling frustrated by the
prescriptive assignments that she often encounters in school. In Year 12, Georgia said
that she was “exceptionally fortunate to have been assigned a wonderful literature
teacher. Her methods are engaging, and she encourages her students to interpret
the text in their own respective ways… She understands, from reading my work in
particular, how strongly I respond to certain texts emotionally – so she takes care to
encourage my emotional responses.”
Georgia is a fan of dystopian literature and she first read The Hunger Games in
2009. Georgia explains that the trilogy was not popular with her friends at school,
and she wanted to “seek out like-minded people with whom I could converse and
fangirl – people who would share my excitement and passion.” Over the past four
years, Georgia has been an avid participant in The Hunger Games online affinity
space, and she used all three types of portals to engage in the Hunger Games affinity
space. While Tumblr and Twitter are social media tools and TheFandom.net and
Hypable.com involve diverse fandoms, Mockingjay.net is a root website unique to
the Hunger Games affinity space. These various portals allow Georgia to engage
with other fans and deepen her understanding of plot and the genre. More than that,
they encourage Georgia’s creative response to literature; she shares, “I like my
creativity to flow, and I like to be inspired to read or write.”
TRACING MULTILITERACIES IN ONLINE ROLE-PLAYING GAMES
While Georgia is active on multiple portals within The Hunger Games affinity
space, this analysis will focus specifically on how she uses Tumblr to support
her engagement with literature and foster her literacy development. Within a
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Multiliteracies framework, the Designs of Meaning offers a tool to understand
Georgia’s semiotic practices related to online role-playing games. As a role-player,
Georgia was able to draw on Available Designs, which included literary elements,
such as genre and voice, as well as common patterns and conventions within roleplaying games, like game rules. Georgia used Tumblr-based role-playing games in
order to engage in the process of Designing, whereby she took on the role of specific
characters, used available modes and semiotic resources, and engaged in meaning
making. Consequently, the publicly available game became The Redesigned. When
other fans read Georgia’s Tumblr posts and followed how the RPG unfolded, the
game then became a new Available Design. In what follows, I draw on the Designs
of Meaning to analyze how Georgia used online role-playing games to engage in
literary response.
Role-Playing Game Rules as Available Designs
Georgia and a couple of friends created The Hunger Games Role Play, which allowed
other fans to propose characters, join in the role-play, and shape the game rules.
In constructing this game, they drew on Available Designs, including role-playing
practices and Tumblr conventions. Capitalizing on the rapidly growing popularity
of the trilogy and the upcoming release of the first film, they used Tumblr hashtags,
such as #rp and #katniss, to share their RPG within the affinity space. At its peak
in 2012, the game had sixty different players that represented each of the districts
within Panem. Within the game, each character had his or her own Tumblr, which
was linked from the Follow List page. This allowed each player to have multiple
characters and to follow the Tumblrs of all other players within the game.
One of the key Available Designs for Georgia was role-playing game rules.
Moreover, Georgia’s first foray into sustained role-playing was instrumental in
informing her understanding of game design and game rules. Since The Hunger
Games involves a fight-to-the-death game, it was vital that the rules of engagement
and the accepted levels of violence be clear at the onset. For that reason, one rule
stated, “Being rude or derogatory to role-players while either one of you is out of
character is not acceptable. Save it for the arena, children!” and another noted,
“The official rating of this role-play is MA. In keeping with the spirit of the Games,
violence is acceptable. However, if you wish to delve into all the gory details,
please take advantage of the Read More feature for the sake of readers who may not
wish to witness it.” This latter rule allowed some players to include violent acts in
detail while permitting others to chose to avoid reading such (perhaps gratuitous)
descriptions. At the same time, this rule also opened the opportunity to explore
romances between characters.
As a game designer, Georgia quickly learned that part of designing a role-playing
game is setting expectations for game play. For instance, some players were active
daily while others either were not able or chose not to participate so frequently.
Consequently, one rule stated, “If you are inactive for three weeks without declaring
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READER, WRITER, GAMER
hiatus to us, we will option your role for another to fill.” Additionally, role-playing
games require clear rules and shared expectations. Part of this entails having a
common discourse; with text-based online role-playing games, this extends to
grammatical features of the game. One rule specifically addressed this: “Roleplaying is fun and easy, but more enjoyable for readers and role-players alike when
you use correct punctuation, grammar and sentence structure. Please refrain from
“script format” (putting actions in *asterisks* between dialogue). You don’t have
to write full paragraphs, but a more professional structure is more descriptive, and
reads better!”
While some game rules for the role-playing game were established from the
beginning, others developed over time and in consultation with other players. This
was particularly evident when the Hunger Games narrative, which involved a fightto-the-death scene, posed issues for the development of the game narrative, which
would end following each character’s subsequent death. Consequently, Georgia and
her fellow moderators created the Cato rule,
Only if the RPer agrees to the death can the character die. In the instance
of the character’s death, the role re-opens for another person to audition for.
The character can be cast again, owing to the Capitol’s advanced biological
engineering capabilities. This is the only instance where resurrection is
possible.
In order to advance the game narrative, the rules had to significantly alter the Hunger
Games narrative. Georgia said, “After Cato died, we had to ask ourselves: Can he
come back to life? Can someone else play Cato? What does that mean for our game?”
They decided to imagine that the Capitol had a secret facility that could bring people
back to life, thereby allowing characters like Cato to re-enter the game. At the same
time, they agreed to allow new players to enter the game through recently resurrected
characters.
As a game designer and moderator, Georgia learned how rules shaped players’
expectations and practices. At the same time, she slowly grew frustrated with the
“lack of common courtesy and common sense” that some players displayed. While
this included minor disagreements and social politics, it also involved the ways
in which players portrayed Hunger Games characters. For Georgia, fidelity was
paramount, “It’s really important to me to stay true to my character, and I wrote to
Suzanne Collins’ world. But others used the game as a way to play out silly fantasies,
like having Katniss fall in love with a Career tribute.” Consequently, the Available
Design of game rules was just as important as the Available Designs of literary
elements, including character development. Due to growing frustrations, Georgia
and her fellow moderators decided to end The Hunger Games Role Play, but to
continue playing their individual characters through separate Tumblr accounts. This
offered Georgia the chance to continue to explore the Hunger Games world, but to
do so on her own terms.
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Role-Playing as Designing
Within a framework of Multiliteracies, role-playing can be seen as Designing. When
Georgia engages in role-play, she transforms available resources and makes choices
about her mode of communication. In order to participate in role playing games,
Georgia needed to have an in-depth knowledge of the setting and characters within
Panem as well as the history and purpose of the Hunger Games. At the same time,
her interaction with other fans within the affinity space meant that they could readily
ask questions and that they would likely correct any of her misconceptions. The
role-playing game gave Georgia her first opportunity to embody characters from
The Hunger Games. To do so, she had to understand each character’s motivations
and interactions with others within the story. But she also needed to consider how
Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins used descriptive language and dialogue to
advance the plot. Rather than being a passive reader of The Hunger Games, Georgia’s
role-playing offered her the chance to draw on Available Designs. It also allowed her
to create three separate Tumblrs and explore the characters of Clove, Cinna, and
Cashmere through the process of Designing.
Role-playing games were instrumental in shaping Georgia’s experience as a
Designer and developing her craft as a writer. Prior to reading The Hunger Games
or joining Tumblr, she was already passionate about writing, thinking, pondering,
and exploring the world around her. But Panem was something else entirely, and
as Georgia put it, “You just want to act out what you love. Role playing lets me
immerse myself in a new world and hone my skills as a writer.” However, not all
of Georgia’s writing development took place online or in a public space. With each
of her characters, she wrote short stories that explored key moments in their lives,
and to “imagine bits and pieces from their pasts.” While Georgia role-played three
different characters, the one that she invested the most time and effort in was Clove.
Clove is a minor character in the Hunger Games novels, and Georgia was
fascinated by her - a beautiful, strong, and sadistic Career tribute. Clove hated
Katniss and murdered young Rue; despite her slight frame, she was skilled in the use
of knives and reveled in psychological warfare. Georgia initially chose to role-play
Clove for one simple reason: “Careers are bad ass.” But through exploring Clove’s
character in privately-written, third-person stories and publicly-shared, first-person
role plays, Georgia gained new insight into Clove’s character. As she describes, “I
found new meaning through my writing.” As a result, Georgia engaged in Designing
both outside of and within the role-playing game. This is evident in some of the short
stories that Georgia wrote as part of her character development process. For instance,
“Julius” explores how Clove’s childhood may have contributed to her violent nature.
The story begins:
Georgia’s Character Development Story
“What does he look like to you?”
“It looks like a dog.”
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“He, Clove. He. Who does he remind you of?”
Clove wrinkled her nose as she glared fixedly at the animal before her; sleek
and bony, with large grey eyes that almost resembled her own. “It's got a long
face,” she finally declared. “Like Julius, from training.”
Her father, a wise young man with impeccable posture, smiled down at her.
“Then Julius is what we'll call him."
“So it's ours?”
“He. He is yours.”
“Oh... Why?”
He smiled that same knowing smile; the one he wore when craned over the
drawing table, or when he dressed her for the reaping and told her that one day,
Clove, your name will be in that bowl. “You have a lot to learn from Julius.”
And without much further discussion, the dog was assimilated into the house.
Georgia continues her story, sharing that the bond between Clove and Julius
developed over the years. She writes, “Their partnership was unspoken, fluid, and
perfect. Clove learned to trust her dog as her companion and her hunting partner,
and, some day presumably around her sixth birthday, as her friend.” But as a Career
tribute, she had to harden herself to such friendships. One day, her father ordered
ten-year-old Clove to assemble her knives. As the realization of her father’s words
hit Clove, Georgia continued Clove’s story:
Georgia’s Character Development Story
It took all of Clove's effort to stand; she tucked her knives into her palm and
turned to face her father and her dog, who surveyed her with those round, dark
eyes. They were calm and wise, as if he knew that he had been raised for the
slaughter. That same calmness dwelled in her father's eyes as he released the
dog and stepped aside to give his daughter a clear shot.
Her hands shook violently as she raised her knife.
“Dad, I can't,” she said weakly. “I can't hurt him.”
“It, Clove. It.”
She shook her head. “He's just a dog!”
“Exactly!” Clove's father glowered at her, a fire striking in his features with
scorched her. It was debilitating. “A dog is nothing compared to a person. How
do you expect to kill anyone at the bloodbath if…”
“You made me name him!”
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“People have names too, Clove! But a name doesn't matter to a corpse. Now
throw the knife, or so help me you'll be stitching your own wounds tonight.”
Georgia’s story doesn’t end here, with the murder. Instead, she considers what else
may have happened to Clove. After killing Julius, Clove tried to put the day’s events
out of her mind. The next day, she found a note from her father, expressing his pride
in her. The note was accompanied by a gift. Georgia writes:
In it was a pair of soft leather gloves, inside lined with sleek, dark fur. Julius’ fur.
Clove put them on, grateful for the warmth they provided, as she endeavored to
seek out her father to give him her thanks.
Outside of the role-playing game, Georgia’s short stories, such as this one, were
critical in advancing her knowledge of the world of Panem and the characters within
it. Moreover, her out-of-game writing helps her with her in-game role-playing and
Designing. Georgia’s motivation with these stories was not to share her work with a
public audience; rather, it was to develop her craft.
Sharing the Redesigned Through Tumblr
While Georgia’s main role-playing character was Clove, she also role-played Cinna
and Cashmere. By role-playing all three characters on Tumblr, Georgia made The
Redesigned, or the transformed Available Designs, available online. Georgia was
drawn to Cinna, an important character throughout the trilogy, and Cashmere,
a minor character in Catching Fire, and wanted to explore them more within the
context of the role-playing game. While both characters hail from the Capitol, the
similarities end there. Cinna is a brilliant stylist and a double agent who plots a
revolution. Cashmere is a career tribute and previous victor of the Hunger Games.
By role-playing these characters, Georgia was able to delve into their histories, their
motivations, and their voices. This can be seen in their Tumblr introductions and
design (Figure 1), which are part of The Redesigned. Cinna’s introduction focuses
on his role as a stylist; in her posts, Georgia shared some of her artistic interpretations
of Cinna’s designs. As Cinna, Georgia’s writing is descriptive and poetic; she talks
of practical beauty, obscure materials, and raging fires. In contrast, Georgia takes on
an entirely different voice as Cashmere; she is confrontational, blunt, and haughty. A
minor character in one novel, Georgia’s writing as Cashmere allows her more room
for exploration and interpretation.
Tumblr promoted Georgia’s creative writing skills. Writing in the omniscient
third person, she focused on her characters’ dialogue with others and her description
of their surroundings, actions, and interactions. Role-playing demanded that Georgia
be responsive to how others within the game advanced the storyline. For instance,
Cinna and Katniss engaged in a lengthy exchange within the game. When another
role-player introduced the idea that Katniss felt regret at her perceived weakness and
poor decisions, Georgia-as-Cinna immediately responded,
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Figure 1. Screenshot from Cashmere’s Tumblr.
“You made the decisions that needed to be made. War is war; it is unfortunate
that we had to resort to war to reach equality, but it was necessary. And look at
all the good work you’ve done, and all the lives you’ll save, the people who’ve
liberated; you always were brave. The bravest woman I have ever known. You
have never needed me to be brave.” His words were earnest, heartfelt, things that
he had always been reluctant to put into words. The line of his stitches and the
stroke of his pencil spoke volumes more than his words; but they were all he had,
here and now. Katniss needed to understand how she had changed the world.
While Georgia’s literary knowledge fostered her engagement in the role-playing
game, Tumblr’s interactive design encouraged her interaction with others and
offered her an eager audience for her creative work.
As a digital tool, Tumblr offers writers a powerful opportunity to share their
Redesigns with an authentic audience. According to Georgia, “As a writer, I had
the chance to work with other writers in tandem. Many of them are really talented,
and I need to respond quickly and in character.” By role-playing different Hunger
Games characters, Georgia was challenged to embody each character’s unique voice
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and reflect their beliefs and perspectives. While she primarily used Tumblr for her
creative writing, Georgia also used it as a way to share her artwork and others’
creative work (see Figure 2). In this illustration, Georgia imagined how Cinna would
see Katniss; she shared it on Tumblr with the caption, “A concept that came alive on
the girl before it could be committed to paper. Katniss Everdeen’s hair.” Not only
does Tumblr provide a collaborative and multimodal platform for fans like Georgia
to share their creative work, it also offers a way for them to connect to the wider
affinity space and fans across the world.
Figure 2. Illustration from Cinna’s Tumblr.
DISCUSSION
Unlike classrooms, most affinity spaces distribute leadership opportunities across
many individuals, texts, and tools (Gomez, Schieble, Curwood, & Hassett, 2010).
For students who are disengaged with school or resent the prescribed nature of
their literary experiences in English classes, online role-playing games offer a
powerful way for them to demonstrate their leadership, develop their literacy skills,
and engage in self-directed learning. Kalantzis and Cope (2000) suggested that a
Multiliteracies pedagogy can shape curriculum design and content instruction.
They proposed four related elements: Situated Practice, Overt Instruction, Critical
Framing, and Transformed Practice. Situated Practice is firmly grounded in students’
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interests and lived experience, thus allowing space for agency and identity to enter
into the classroom. To begin, teachers can use surveys and class discussions to
uncover students’ interests. By incorporating popular culture, for instance, into the
classroom, students can engage in Situated Practice.
Overt Instruction makes the underlying concepts and theories of learning that
shape curricular content explicit. The aim of Overt Instruction is for students to
engage in conscious awareness and control over what is being learned. Rather than
using literature in a decontextualized way to teach about literary elements, teachers
can ask students to assume the role of a specific character. While role-playing games
can take place online, they can also readily take place in the classroom in both
small and large group settings. Kalantzis and Cope (2000) explained that a defining
feature of Overt Instruction is the use of metalanguages, including those that define
the form, content, and function of discourses in practice. Critical Framing, in turn,
situates knowledge within a relevant context and fosters reflective learning practices.
For secondary English teachers, this means sharing with students how literature is
fundamentally positioned in social, cultural, and historical contexts. The Hunger
Games, for example, draws on myths, symbols, military histories, and classic works
of literature. Finally, Transformed Practice emphasizes the importance of applying
knowledge, skills, and tools in novel situations.
Georgia’s out-of-school engagement in the Hunger Games affinity space, roleplaying games, and Multiliteracies positively impacted her in-school writing. This was
due, in part, to her Senior English teacher who encouraged her emotional and analytical
responses to literature. This led to Georgia writing an essay, inspired by The Hunger
Games, which won a school prize. In it, she made clear intertextual connections,
A close analysis of the socio-political climate of Panem has led me to take
under serious consideration the alleged crimes of the Capitol, and to wonder
whether the result of Katniss’ defiance was really due. Is the Capitol truly as
evil as we think it is – or is it just another step in evolution?
For Georgia, role-playing and writing allowed her to experience flow. According to
Csikszentmihalyi (1996), the context and task are vital to achieving flow, whereby
a person is fully immersed in and highly motivated by an enjoyable activity. While
creative writing can often be a challenging activity, an online role-playing game
offered her a clear set of goals, measurable progress, and immediate feedback.
Reflecting on her experiences, Georgia explained, “There’s a real skill to it. It’s the
sport of kings on the Internet.”
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ANNE BURKE
4. TEACHING WITH CLUB PENGUIN
Re-creating Children’s School Literacy through Paratexts in the Classroom
INTRODUCTION
The growth of children’s virtual worlds has introduced a new and exciting forum
where children can interact socially with peers and others, create new friendships,
and generate new texts and gaming experiences in the classroom and at home. The
growth of these online worlds has resulted in profound changes to the way children
play and form relationships, as the digital experience galvanizes these social
dimensions of childhood in a more widespread and participatory culture.
Virtual worlds for early learners were almost unknown ten years ago when
digital play spaces were generally considered to be the realm of older computer
users and more serious gamers. Increasingly, however, online creators and multinational conglomerates are targeting younger audiences. In 2009, cumulative
numbers from various child-oriented virtual worlds suggested they had around 180
million registered users under the age of ten. By the end of 2011, these figures had
doubled, and the numbers for children over ten were exponentially greater (Kzero
Kids/Tween Universal Survey, 2011). There is an emerging research base attempting
to understand how children make sense of these new play experiences and how
they participate in online virtual worlds. Research focusing on the areas of social
networking, emergent play, and emotional and physical growth as it pertains to
children’s online experiences continues to be undertaken (Black, 2012; Burke &
Marsh, 2013; Kafia, 2010; Merchant, Gillen, Marsh & Davies, 2013; Reich & Black,
2012; Subranayam, 2009). Though we have reports that look at children’s digital
play and mobile technology (Rideout, 2011; Shuler 2009; Marsh et al., 2005), and
studies (Black, 2012; Burke & Marsh, 2011; Wohlwend, 2010) which frame our
understanding of the changes in young children’s digital play have been conducted,
there is much less research looking at how children’s gaming lives, and the texts
they create and produce, can be used to enhance their literacy skills in schools. The
current growth of digital play in virtual worlds presents a profound need for more
empirical research on how children learn. This is especially true now that the play
and the social lives of children are spanning into virtual spaces. Discovering both
what and how children are learning from online gaming is critical.
In this chapter, I look at the use of paratexts in the classroom, while considering
how gaming literacy can complement and support traditional language arts resource
H. R. Gerber & S. S. Abrams (Eds.), Bridging Literacies with Videogames, 67–88.
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A. BURKE
materials. In addition, I reference multimodal literacies and their digital affordances
as a framework for the consideration of these texts as school literacy activities.
Multimodality relies on the alliance of multiple modes for the communication and
expression of meaning, reaching far beyond the traditional text-based definitions of
literacy. The integration of such modes speaks to the multiple forms of representation
in which texts may be communicated. Ultimately, we can see how educators may
access, harness, and develop the digital practices of students in the service of larger
curriculum goals.
GAMING & EDUCATION
A running theme found in many gaming studies speaks to how children’s play,
games, and virtual world presence provides a rich opportunity for the teaching and
learning of digital literacy. Apperley and Walsh (2012) reported that teachers might
use gaming literacy to complement the acquisition of print-based textual learning
materials currently used in classrooms. One of the benefits of connecting digital
literacy with print-based literacy is that student learning becomes more multimodal.
Learning in this vein diversifies texts as “visual, spatial, and auditory as they are
linguistically centered” (Healy, 2008, p. 6) and invites differentiation among learners
with different learning styles, abilities, and cultural differences.
One particular focus of this elementary classroom research study involved
paratexts, in particular those found and inspired by the online virtual world known
as Club Penguin (www.clubpenguin.com), where different representations of text
appear in the form of images, written text in the form of words, and audio texts in
the form of sounds. Walsh (2012) demonstrated how digital literacies and gaming
paratexts can be used in the classroom. For Walsh, the use of paratexts refers “to digital
gaming and game cultures, and using them in the classroom enables practitioners to
focus on and valorise the considerable literacies and skills that young people develop
and deploy in their engagement with digital gaming and game cultures” (Walsh, p.
323). As recognized by the teacher in this study, using these types of digital literacies
can help bring to the classroom what students use in their everyday lives at home.
“The term paratext is mobilized to describe the print and multimodal texts used and
often developed by game players that circulate in the complex nexus of literacy
practices that make-up digital gaming cultures” (Applerley & Walsh, 2012, p. 116).
In today’s society, technology is a huge part of children’s lives. Because of the
relevance in their lives, “digital game paratexts are easily accessible print and
multimodal texts that connect gaming with curriculum-based literacy outcomes”
(Walsh, p. 323). Current research practices conclude that digital literacy in the classroom
can motivate children in ways that traditional teaching cannot. In better terms, “digital
games increase players’ ability to manage spatial representation, iconic skills, visual
attention and problem solving” (Walsh, p. 323). Such motivation was observed in
our data collection at the school during our weekly meeting. We also observed how
children developed skills that “encourage[d] experiential and exploratory learning,
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[which] provides players with conceptual understandings of active learning strategies,
and fosters social engagement and the development of collaborative skills” (Walsh, p.
323). The administration team at the school was interested in how these skills could
transfer into social and collaborative values for the children and how the use of gaming
paratexts could be applied to their everyday learning.
Like much of the school environment, gaming involves not only involves learning
to play the game, but also getting to know the paratexts well. Children take their
school practices to the test when it comes to online reading for gaming paratexts
such as GameSpot, for example. In the Walsh study, researchers spoke with a ninth
grader who “disliked reading, but spent his Thanksgiving vacation pouring over a
Pokemon training manual in order to get ahead in his gaming skills” (Walsh, p.
324). Similar to Walsh’s research, many children in this study enjoyed reading Club
Penguin manuals and gaming texts because they found that it was more is relevant
and motivating in comparison to other texts in the classroom.
While reading is not the only thing that gaming paratexts entails, children do read
“descriptions, guidelines, instructions, and strategies for digital games. However,
they should not be regarded as merely practical, but also as imaginative and creative
outputs that include writing, digital artwork, visual and audio design, and new game
designs” (Walsh, p. 324). In our Club Penguin study, children showed their creative
outputs in their sharing of their written texts. Although all of these skills can be
used in the classroom on a day-to-day basis, more work needs to be done in order
to add them to everyday practices and activities. We observed how the teacher’s
understanding of the importance of making available Club Penguin mission books
and toys brought greater literacy benefits for children when using the paratexts, and
introduced how these texts could be used in everyday teaching practices.
THE DISNEY ORGANIZATION
Giroux and Pollock (2010) asserted that the manner in which large corporations,
such as Disney, produce and disseminate children’s culture has the potential to
drastically shape children’s everyday lives. “The concentration of control over the
means of producing, circulating, and exchanging information has been matched
by the emergence of new technologies that have transformed culture, especially
popular culture, which is the primary way in which youth learn about themselves,
their relationship to others, and the larger world” (Giroux & Pollock, 2010 p. 1). Put
another way, digital technologies, films, television, etc. have transformed our cultural
practices and thus regulate our social practices. These technologies are no longer
simply media of communication or entertainment, but have become the primary site
of education for both children and adults. It is in this manner that Giroux and Pollock
framed these technological productions as a contemporary public pedagogy. The
school study site discussed later in this chapter did express concerns over the use of a
Disney produced virtual world such as Club Penguin for literacy instruction, but felt
that the social and friendship benefits for the children would outweigh such concerns.
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While the media content produced for consumption would seem to be increasing,
the number of multinational corporations responsible for its production are
decreasing. Following this, as in the case of Disney, power becomes increasingly
concentrated amongst these few large corporations. The images produced by
multinational corporations such as Disney are foundational to the transmission of
information implied in the concept of a public pedagogy. It is important to note,
however, that these images similarly inform the individual’s most private desires and
perceptions. “At issue for parents, educators, and others is how culture, especially
media culture, has become the primary educational force in regulating the meanings,
values, and tastes that legitimate particular subject positions – what it means to claim
an identity such as male, female, white, black, gay, straight, citizen, or noncitizen”
(Giroux & Pollock, 2010 p. 2). Media culture, then, is responsible for establishing
concepts and definitions of gender, race, sexuality, nationality, etc. Recent statistics
have underscored exactly how pervasive this sort of corporate produced culture is
through interactions with technology in our daily lives. It has been estimated that the
average American may spend in excess of six hours a day watching film, television,
and other video-based entertainment, and that the numbers of hours consuming these
forms of entertainment will match the number of hours spent asleep by 2013.
Multinational corporations like Disney are aware of the vast potential for
significant profit that can be made from the commodification of children’s culture.
As such, much is invested in determining the purchasing habits of children, as well as
their ability to influence the purchasing habits of their parents. “If Disney has its way,
kids’ culture will become not merely a new market for the accumulation of capital,
but a petri dish for producing new commodified subjects” (Giroux & Pollock, 2010
p. 3). Children and adolescents seeking to establish their own individual identity
are especially vulnerable to multinational corporations like Disney. This is largely a
result of market research that attempts to employ strategies of commodification as
discretely as possible.
The Disney organization, which designs and operates Club Penguin, has created a
number of paratexts based on activities within the game that engage students’ writing
interests, as well as drawing upon their gaming knowledge to complete a task. The
teacher in this study felt the use of such texts was a good method to include outside
literacies such as those used in gaming practices in a written assignment. The paratext
template provided by Disney invited her to do so. In my previous work, I observed
that young gamers’ literacy practices are very active, and move fluidly between online
and offline play. I have also observed, however, that teachers in my study did not see
the value of gaming because it was thought to be outside of curricular school literacies
(Burke, 2013). Paratext activity, for example where students write and solve mysteries
through sharing of game moves or “walkthroughs” (Consalvo, 2003), give students the
opportunity to use their gaming literacies as school sanctioned funds of knowledge. In
this study the teacher saw the benefit of such gaming literacies to build literacy skills.
Apperley and Walsh (2012) noted that there is often a tangible segregation
between a child’s educational life, and their home life. Jewitt (2009) also lamented the
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differences between the multimodal-rich out-of-school learning environments and the
mono-modal learning environments that are present in many classrooms. This study
aimed to bridge to the multimodal lives which the teacher in the study understood
as a valuable avenue for connecting to her classroom children’s lives. Gee described
students’ online identity as their virtual identity, which should be thought of as a
“virtual character in a virtual world” (2007, p. 49). This virtual identity is enabled
by a multiplicity of identities: the real world, the performed, the projective, and the
associative (Abrams, 2011). Gee (2007) also acknowledged the discontinuity between
students’ out-of-school literacy and their school-based learning, but noted that
identities are normally fluid. Central to Gee’s ideas is the understanding that gameplay cannot be understood as merely an event that takes place on an isolated digital
screen (2003). Instead, it is enacted by gamers in specific contexts, or locations, using
specific technology. “The concept of situations is important because it articulates
the overlapping connection between digital gaming and off-line activities, and how
game-play experiences are shaped by everyday life” (Apperley, 2010, p. 120).
PARATEXTS IN THE CLASSROOM
Educators “often bemoan the fact that video games are compelling and school is not”
(Gee, 2007, p. 65). Digital game paratexts present themselves as a segue between
the out-of-school and in-school literacy activities that characterize a child’s life.
Digital game paratexts also complement traditional print-based literacy because they
conform closely to the textual requirements of the “official curriculum” (Apperley &
Walsh, p. 116). This was indicated by my data when I looked at the types of learning
outlined in provincial curriculum documents. For example, in grade four, language
arts students are expected to be able to critically interpret, select and combine
information from a variety of resources and technologies. Digital paratexts, similar
to the ones used in this study, could also correspond to Gee’s (2007) suggestions for
careful consideration in choosing and using virtual reality worlds in the classroom.
This prudence stems from widespread concern about children’s safety when
learning with screens of all kinds (Palmer, 2006; Rogers 2012). Further Apperley
and Walsh (2012) found that when acknowledged by educators, gaming literacy
and the consumption and productions of digital paratexts can increase the ability
of student gamers to acquire multimodal literacy, and help bridge the gap between
out-of-school digital practices and their learned experiences in the classroom. As
found in my research, the teacher was instrumental in connecting to the multimodal
landscapes of the children’s lives when she engaged paratexts in the classroom.
IDENTITY
Consalvo (2003) suggests that many game fans will go to great lengths to immerse
themselves in digital worlds, often creating detail, suspense, character development,
reader identification, and a strong attachment to a main character. Gee (2007) credits
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this investment to gamers’ projective identity, which is described as a projection
of one’s “values and desires [that students project] onto the virtual character” as
well as “seeing the virtual character as one’s own project in the making” (p. 50).
In this projective identity, students use personal aspects of their lives such as their
history, while some attempt to compensate for their real world limitations. Digital
media-like games are often pegged and stereotyped in major media as detrimental
for the minds of today’s youth. In a world where this type of media culture is so
pervasive, educators cannot casually push creativity, that is cultivated by an everincreasing digital culture, to one side. Consalvo (2003) points out that children who
play videogames are active members of the media consumer market around these
games, and it is necessary to include children’s literacy practices in any discussion
about gaming. “Games are fundamentally more active than television viewing, and
gamer’s intertextual use of media forms demands that researchers consider more
than just pixels on the screen when considering video games” (p. 332).
Digital game paratexts can be viewed as creative, performance based, and imbued
with the gaming passion of the player. Gamers are exposed to different representations
of text in the form of images, written text in the form of words, and audio texts in the
form of sounds. Moreover, the language that is used in a paratext, such as Disney’s
Club Penguin activity book, is representative of its virtual world audience, where
its readers can readily identify the content of the book (i.e. the puzzles and writing
activities). Gerber and Price (2011) state that,
by understanding and validating these experiences, and by allowing students
to write on topics about which they are passionate and knowledgeable as
an impetus and platform for writing multiple genres for multiple audiences,
teachers may help students become more proficient writers and even enjoy a
subject that they may have at one time dreaded. (p. 72)
By using digital-based literacy in the classroom and harnessing gaming language
through paratexts, an educator can stimulate creative collaboration between what is
necessary in a child’s life (education and learning) and what they are interested in (the
digital world, games). This is paramount, as student gamers that adopt virtual avatars
and interact within virtual worlds through their projective identities, will rehearse
“new values and ways of being” (Gee, 2007,p. 63). Using multimodal pedagogies,
an educational system can utilize traditional print-based literacy in collaboration
with digital gaming to bolster a child’s learning efficacy by combining the child’s
learning with gaming. Jenkins (2005) advocated that educators should harness this
intense interest, and seek to develop a curriculum that complements and collaborates
with youth interests. The school in this study saw the importance of harnessing the
children’s gaming interests to aid traditional literacy teaching. “The educational use
of electronic simulation games works…not as a replacement for good teaching or
tried-and-true methods, but as a tool that good teachers can use to spark learning
and to provide a context for a range of other related experiences” (Jenkins, 2005
p. 51). Educators who engage with virtual world playmaking would be harnessing
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the multimodality that children engage through their everyday creative text-making
practices.
GAMING IN TRADITIONAL SCHOOL
We live in an increasingly technological world. Everywhere we look, we see children
immersing themselves in digital culture such as gaming communities, smart phones
and tablets, and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Furthermore, for one to succeed economically in the modern world it is almost
imperative to have a certain familiarity with digital culture. Gerber and Price (2011)
suggested that encouraging students to participate in the more traditional literacy
practices is increasingly difficult given the prevalence of contemporary digital
literacy practices. “Traditional school finds itself battling the engaging media of
Facebook, YouTube, and the latest video game on a daily basis (Gee, 2003; Hull &
Schultz, 2001). These media, however, should not be seen as an opposing force to the
traditional goals and nature of the English classroom” (Gerber & Price, p. 68). Gee
(2007) contended that good videogames offer students a greater potential to learn
because they provide rewards based upon problem solving skills and higher order
thinking. Students must learn and demonstrate their understanding as they advance
in the games. As suggested in the interviews with participants in this study, the
young players illustrated critical thinking and problem solving skills in writing their
paratexts in traditional literacy forms. The teacher also valued the children’s class
presentation of their paratexts with peers re-creating the collaborative knowledge
sharing network observed in their classroom on-line play (Burke, 2014)
The observation in this study speaks to why it could be a mistake to stereotype
gamers as passive participants. Gee (2003) explained that “When anyone plays
a digital game, it happens in a situated context that is integral to understanding
the learning and sociality that occurs during the experience of gaming” (p. 120).
Likewise, Apperley (2010) explains that game play cannot be understood as merely
an event that takes play on an isolated digital screen, rather “the concept of situations
is important because it articulates the overlapping connection between digital gaming
and offline activities, and how game-play experiences are shaped by everyday life”
(Apperley, 2010, p. 120).
Salen (2007) argued that as products of design culture, games reflect a host of
technological, social, material, formal, and economic concerns. A game designer
indirectly designs the player’s experience, while the player goes through the motions
of learning through digital literacy, as well as designing the rules of play. Walsh
(2010) likewise contended that adolescent videogame players instruct themselves
in the field of technology and digital play. Game-play and design require players to
explore and negotiate risk, possibility, identity, and subjectivity in new and emerging
virtual worlds, on their own or collaboratively. Similarly, a child using videogames
engages in social interactions both as a virtual identity within the game and as a
real world identity among other players. “Gamers often organize themselves into
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communities of practice and that creates social identities with distinctive ways
of talking, interpreting experiences, and applying values, knowledge and skill to
achieve goals and solve problems” (Gee, 2008, p. 24). In our observations, the
use of the paratexts in this study naturally created communities of practice where
discussions around the game play connected the children’s knowledge of school
based literacies and outside game practices. (Burke, 2014) Digital games are systems
(Juul, 2003; Salen & Zimmermann, 2004). They are based on rules (Järvinen, 2003)
set into motion by players. When students (or anyone else) play digital games,
they are reflective in the action of playing the game (Schon, 1983; Salen, 2007;
Salen & Zimmerman 2004, 2005). Students strategize the potential moves they can
and will make, as well as the potential consequences for each move to be made
in a game. Walsh (2010) acknowledged that systems-based literacy practices are
contingent upon the game player’s understanding that the system is constituted by
their interaction with the game. Digital literacy, therefore, allows youth to take a
leading and creative role in their learning by designing narratives, plots, character
development, rules, consequences, and so on.
MULTIMODALITY
Multimodality is present in everyday forms of literacy, but implicit in the images,
literature and information found in communication technology (Harste, 2010;
Jewitt, 2009). This technological wave has transformed traditional forms of literacy,
and generated new forms for students to demonstrate their knowledge. Since most
children are not innate critical thinkers, they need to be taught how to develop
critical thinking skills through the use of multimodal forms of communication
that frame their lives. The use of paratexts used in the classroom study invited an
opportunity for children to develop critical skills. Children critically selected most
appropriate modes to suit their communicative purposes to share their club penguin
game secret. However, for a deeper critical learning experience, the teacher in the
study could have engaged the children in discussions about aptness (Kress, 2010),
that is, conversations about the “potentials of different modes and work at which
mode is best suited to express particular meanings” (Stein, 2008, p. 83).
It is paramount that teachers incorporate multimodality in school-based learning as
it helps to enhance students’ critical thinking and supplement their various identities.
These shifts across semiotic practices are said to “produce not only variations in
content and meaning, but also shifts in the child’s subjectivity” (Stein, 2008, p.
884) because they require students to draw on aspects of their life-worlds when
completing multimodal projects. Multimodality can also lead to transformational
pedagogy through trans-modality (Rowsell, 2013) or inter-semiotic relations (Jewitt,
2009) or the fusion of modes (Stein, 2008). Although as discussed earlier in the
chapter there are concerns over multi-national conglomerates such as Disney’s
marketing of images and static texts such as the club penguin paratexts, Rowsell
(2013) rightfully calls for conceptions of multimodality to frame instructional time
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in classrooms which invite children to act as creative designers who mix different
modes in order to produce new forms and find ways of expressing their ideas. In
keeping with Rowsell (2013), I observed how students collaborated with their peers
through gaming literacy, and importantly saw how paratexts may acknowledge
participatory structures in which students use different modes that support their
abilities as designers.
Early research concluded that multimodality was not a pedagogy, but a
“reconceptualization of learning” which could lead to “rethinking pedagogy”
(Stein, 2008, p. 875). Unfortunately, school-based learning will not be beneficial
for students unless schools adapt their curriculum to “support the critical reading of
[gaming] multimodal texts” (Harste, 2010, p. 35). Moreover, teachers need to adapt
new ways for evaluating multimodal texts as they use different designs from pen and
paper based texts (Harste, 2010).
RESEARCH CONTEXT
During a period of one school year, I observed children playing online in the virtual
world of Disney’s Club Penguin. The study took place at a middle-sized elementary
school located in an affluent neighborhood in an urban city in Canada. Close to
60% of the 700 students who attended the school were bussed daily from their
homes. There were 15 children who participated in the study. Participants included
eight boys and seven girls, ages nine to eleven, from one grade four classroom. The
classroom teacher had been at the school for five years. She encouraged her students
to read independently, including in her recommendations to the students’ novels,
magazines, graphic novels, and popular culture material such as Disney’s Club
Penguin mission books. During our virtual worlds ‘club’ held on Tuesday afternoons,
the children would play freely on the site in the computer lab. The Principal and
Vice-principal visited often to see what the children were doing, but were mainly
interested in how children were developing friendships through their play. While
both administrators were strong advocates of play-based literacy in classrooms, they
expressed concerns about the opportunities for socialization of the children, as the
catchment zone for the school reached far beyond the walking neighborhood. There
were concerns about a disconnect between the neighborhood children and those who
came by bus. Both administrators saw the value of connecting the children from both
neighborhoods through the virtual world of Club Penguin. In one discussion before
the study began, the principal shared, “I would like for the kids to know each other
outside of school in some way, some parents do not have the transportation to help
kids connect whereas others are far too busy working.” Many of the questions the
administrators asked the children when they visited were around friendship, play and
whether they connected with each other on the site during the weekends.
Children were given Deluxe Club Penguin memberships for the purpose of the
study. While Club Penguin is essentially free, paid memberships offer a greater
degree of access to the sites’ games and affordances. Ten of the children owned
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a Club Penguin account previous to the study, and were well acquainted with the
virtual world. Much of the activity I observed was focused around the arcade games,
earning virtual coins, performing secret-agent ‘missions,’ dojo competitions, friend
requests, player interaction such as dancing, pizza making and visiting each other’s
puffles (the games’ virtual pets) housed in their penguin avatar’s igloo. Interestingly,
students often brought their puffle toys to school, and would place them on their
desks during the club sessions. We observed that students often mimic online play
during offline playtime, by organizing dance contests, or by making pizza using craft
materials. The teacher also noted in her field notes that the girls would make plans in
class to meet on a particular server in Club Penguin during afterschool playtime. She
commented that children invested much time in maintaining their pets and penguins,
and this interest was shared among many of the children during creative play in the
classroom. In general, the teacher had a natural curiosity about Club Penguin, and
was receptive to using Club Penguin paratexts in her class to engage the creativity
of the children.
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
A case study (Stake, 2000) approach was used to look at children’s virtual play
across online and offline spaces. The use of case study methodologies is effective
for centering on the children’s virtual and classroom learning for this study. The
intended goal for this research was to gain a more meaningful understanding of
children’s virtual play, their literacy practices, and their engagement with the
multimodal capacities offered within the Club Penguin site, as well as how these
literacy practices could be extended to the classroom. Wolfe and Flewitt (2010)
keenly note that new media greatly impacts “children’s development as ‘literate
beings’ and on their learning more generally” (p. 388). Data were collected in many
forms, including through instruction time in the classroom, during recess and lunch,
and in a designated computer lab where children would play on the Club Penguin
site. Play making on the site was documented through screen shot programs such
as Jing, and through the use of hand-held recording cameras. A total of 30 hours of
recording was viewed. The classroom teacher also observed the children play on
the Club Penguin site during weekly data collection. She was interested in how the
children’s literacy engagements on the site could be included in the classroom. By
being present in a number of school learning contexts—during instructional class
time, recess, lunch, and afterschool—I was able to take a holistic approach to the
analysis of data, thereby understanding more about the children’s real life contexts.
Data were collected through (A) detailed field notes, (B) recordings of students’
play online, (C) transcribed interviews with students and teachers, (D) paratexts and
digital texts in the classroom, and (E) videos and still shots of toy play. In this way,
the data collection was intended to give agency to the children’s gaming literacy
by articulating “pivotal moments in their lives and to reflect on life trajectories”
(Hull & Katz, 2006, p. 43). The analytic methods used included thematic coding
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of children’s paratexts for use of modes and critical discourse analysis (Fairclough,
1995). Critical Discourse Analysis is useful for pinpointing the storied selves of
children’s lives. It included children’s “ways of interacting, ways of representing,
and ways of being” (Rogers & Elias, 2012, p.260). The data were read and coded
for major themes and subthemes across data sources, and codes were revised
and expanded as more themes arose. In this case study, the particular focus was
digital play in virtual worlds, and how the gaming engagements of children in Club
Penguin could become a part of the curriculum and pedagogical practices of the
classroom teacher.
USING PARATEXTS IN THE CLASSROOM
The use of paratexts as an aspect of this study was a result of the teacher’s desire
to incorporate the creative play from Club Penguin experiences into her classroom
curriculum in the form of a literacy text. Over time, she decided on the idea of
a newspaper article, an explanatory form of essay that is familiar to most of the
children. The assignment was chosen from a Disney Club Penguin activity book,
and asked children to focus on asking the ‘5-W questions,’ a traditional literacy text
required in the grade four language arts curriculum. The assignment asked students
to work in a multimodal capacity by writing the article through relating their favorite
Top Secrets in game play.
Who likes to play this game? (Penguins who like adventure? Penguins who like
to solve puzzles? Penguins who like to role-play?)
What kind of game is it? (Is it a surfing game? A multiplayer game?)
When do you play this game? (Anytime you are on Club Penguin? Whenever
you can find a buddy to play it with you?)
Where can you find this game? (In the Lighthouse? At the Dojo?)
Why do you like playing this game? (Because it is fun? Because you like a
challenge? Because you always get a high score?)
Figure 1. Top Secrets Paratext in Club Penguin.
In the next section, I examine three participants’ paratext response to the assignment,
showing how the children engaged creatively with the multimodal language present
in game play on the screen. The students were excited to complete this assignment,
which allowed them to draw on the imaginative experiences they had developed in
a creative part of their online play lives. Consideration was also given to how the
students’ creativity engaged expected school-based skills as related to higher order
thinking in their written responses:
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In using critical skills, the writer needed to analyze the artifacts and activities
in the game to figure out the rules and constraints of the game. This is how the
player is challenged by the game.
Analytical/ Explanatory skills asked that the writer figure out how to select
aspects of game play in a textual form and present it through the multimodal
actions and choices made by the player.
In problem solving, the writer had to solve the game for himself/herself and
compose a mental flow chart, which could be reproduced in the form of text.
MEGAN
Megan is an avid Club Penguin player and at the time of the study had two separate
accounts – one of her own, and another for a younger brother to whom she was
teaching the rudiments of the game. She regularly brought a collection of Club
Penguin toy figurines and Puffles to school. Her teacher described her as a good
reader and writer, with a keen sense of humor and an exuberant presence. Chatty
and knowledgeable about virtual play, she considered herself an experienced gamer,
and had accounts on other game sites, like Poptropica and Dress-up Dolls. She
creatively engaged with the assignment.
Megan’s Paratext
“Psssst, do you want hear a secret. I know many. First of all, did you know that
in the pizzatron 30000 game you can turn the regular pizzas into candy pizzas.
I also no [sic] many more. To catch the mullet you wait until all the evil things
go by, then put a fish on your line. So you can catch the mullet. Also when you
go to play Bean counters, there is a certain spot that you click and jellybeans
come out. Press the jelly beans then play the game! Did you know that you
can also get a silver surfboard. OK, first go to the cove, then press the sheet of
paper in the bottom right corner. Press the words and Walla. You got it. Now,
last but not least, I will show you how to make a funny sound. Press the letter
E then letter T. I think it kinda [sic] sounds like a fart!”
Megan’s news item paratext is unique in that she creatively uses her own voice in
her writing. Engaging in the multimodal capacities of the site, she easily describes
her gaming trajectory through her description of her ‘Top Secret’. Her voice
reflects the confidence she has in the classroom, along with the strong social skills I
observed through her interactions with others. Megan views herself as an expert, and
demonstrates a great enthusiasm and pride in teaching others. Her paratext reflects
how she uses features and recognized artifacts to help divulge her secrets. For example,
Megan’s description of the site’s step-by-step directions shows how she engages
creatively through the choices she makes through the multimodality of screen-play
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in her paratext. It also demonstrates her ability to actively engage an audience with
her descriptive narrative of the game’s use of various modes working in concert. In
many ways, her description captures how her creative choices in the artifact capture
the playfulness of the site. The multimodal features characteristic of online texts are
also present in her written paratext—the visual mode: “silver surfboard,” the gestural:
“you can turn the regular pizza’s into candy pizzas,” spatial: “also when you go to
play bean counters, there is a certain spot that you click and jellybeans come out,” and
the auditory mode: “I think it kinda [sic] sounds like a fart!”
Through her integration of multiple modes of communication, Megan illustrates
how her engagement with the site encompassed critical thinking, analyzing, and
problem solving skills in statements like, “To catch the mullet you wait until all the
evil things go by, then put a fish on your line. So you can catch the mullet.” In a very
real way she needs to not only understand how to use the site’s affordances, but also
to be able to demonstrate this understanding to others in her description of the steps
needed to catch the ‘Top Secret’ mullet.
In her paratext, Megan also demonstrates her ability to utilize the classroom
skills characteristic of her language arts lessons. This includes her ability to analyze
the game in a literary way (i.e. summarize, to give direction, and to organize the
knowledge of her play in a recognizable sequence of steps and/ or events). She
indicates that she has sizable technology skills working in concert, such as sharing
‘cheats,’ showing alternate ways to beat levels and giving keyboard shortcuts. In
addition to this creative game play, her paratext suggests that she is building upon
valuable literacy skills that includes being able to interpret the question being asked,
use the screen as a guide to share information, and critically select and combine
information in a strategic way. This in turn revelaed how children can use particular
information and strategies the teacher emphasized elsewhere in the curriculum
through the paratextual devices drawn from their online activities.
KENDRA
Kendra was an avid player of Club Penguin and read beyond the grade level average
for the class. At home she played on the site with her father, who she described as an
enthusiastic gamer. Kendra had a very large collection of Club Penguin paraphernalia,
and was considered an expert player amongst the other children. Her teacher shared
that Kendra demonstrated excellent reading and writing skills, particularly when she
was interested in the task at hand. She was very creative and imaginative in her play
observed in the classroom with her toys.
Kendra’s Paratext
There are many secrets around the islands of Club Penguin. Here are just a
few of them. Have you ever seen someone make a funny noise while a music
emote comes up? First you have to make sure that your not writing anything in
the chat box. Then press E and T at the same time. It should work! Have you
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ever wondered how to catch the mullet? I can only give you a hint. He doesn’t
like worms. Try experimenting with other things to see what he likes. Is regular
Bean Counters too easy for you, try expert level! There is a tiny loose string
at the bottom of the coffee bag. If you find it click on it, then Jelly beans will
come out. Click on the Jelly beans and then you would have a choice between
hard, expert or extreme Good luck! Next up, we’re going to the plaza to play
Pizzatron 3000! Ready for dessert? Lets make candy pizza! To make some,
click on the lever on the machine to change it to candy pizza. Play ahead!
Wanna [sic] get a new surfboard for catchin’ [sic] waves? If you’re a member,
bring up the surf catalogue and click on the W in ‘Waves’. If you have enough
coins, buy it! Waddle on Club Penguin!
The newspaper article exercise asked students to share knowledge from their creative
digital play interactions, and to use their classroom abilities to write a directional
text, in order to bridge the gap between these two learning spaces. Kendra was
extremely engaged and interested in the topic at hand. As a result, her paratext
showed a higher level of academic engagement that was not representative of other
students’ responses. From the first line of her text, she invites the reader to engage in
her creative and imaginative on-line play. She explained how to play following the
trajectory she would have followed when engaged in online play. As was the case
with Megan, Kendra also creatively used various multimodal affordances to describe
the games’ actions—the visual mode: “There’s a tiny loose string at the bottom of
the coffee bag,” gestural mode: “If you find it, click on it, then Jelly beans will come
out,” spatial modes: “Then press E and T at the same time,” and auditory modes:
“Have you ever seen someone make a funny noise while a music emote comes?”
Kendra’s paratext demonstrated interesting uses of critical and analytical
thinking, as well as problem solving skills. However, like the game itself, she rarely
gave explicit instructions. Instead, she offered creative clues as to how to engage in
advanced play, and encourages the reader to solve the problems themselves, as she
had done. For example, she would ask, “Have you ever wondered how to catch the
mullet? I can only give you a hint. He doesn’t like worms. Try experimenting with
other things to see what he likes.” To explore this clue, the gamer would have to try
many different techniques, requiring them to be creative in their thinking to solve the
problem of the game. By telling her reader what the game character doesn’t like, she
provided enough of a clue to draw them further into the game’s process, and to think
more analytically, critically and problem solve creatively. Another demonstration of
Kendra’s problem solving skills was indicated in her statement, “Ok, first go to the
cove, then press the sheet of paper in the bottom right corner. Press the words and
walla!” Here, Kendra demonstrated not only the skills of deduction and problem
solving, as she had already worked through this particular sequence of events, but
also the ability to expound, on paper, a step by step process that others must take in
order to progress. By encouraging others to develop their own critical thinking and
problem solving skills, she displayed an understanding of the meta-text that drives
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Club Penguin; the designers of the site encourage a high degree of problem solving
and critical thinking within the structure of the game. This also aids in the creative
experience for the player. Kendra tapped into this philosophy and used it to frame
her own explanations.
Kendra’s paratext also demonstrated math skills. One particular game she talked
about in her paratext is ‘Bean Counters’, a game that involves not only critical
thinking, but the ability to work with and understand numbers. Since Kendra was
providing hints on how to solve the problems, she was demonstrating a specific
set of math skills that she used to progress in the game. Kendra also demonstrated
knowledge of basic technology, such as how to properly use a keyboard and a mouse
to navigate through complex virtual worlds. In her paratext she stated, “Then press
E and T at the same time,” and “Click on the Jelly beans and then you would have
a choice between hard, expert, or extreme. Good luck!” Kendra’s involvement
with this assignment also indicated an understanding of money, and the idea that
things have monetary value, as she stated, “If you have enough coins, buy it!” She
expressed her interest in the ability to save a certain number of coins in order to
eventually purchase things she wanted, which aided in her creative play on the site.
This was not only an indication of basic budgeting skills, but also knowledge of
responsibility and organization. It was only when she engaged in writing about the
game that these skills were voluntarily put to use and displayed so comprehensively.
HANNAH
Hannah’s mother described her as a well-rounded child and a serious Club Penguin
gamer. She was very involved in all sports in school and enjoyed dancing and
swimming on the weekends. She liked to help out at her church on the weekends
and liked that her many church friends would chat and share secrets at the socials
held after service. She shared their church pastor thought it was “neat” how they
connected through Club Penguin. Her classroom teacher said she was quite creative,
technically savvy and shared her expertise with others in the class.
Hannah’s Paratext
Hey! Over here! Do you want to hear a secret? Oh! Lets get started! First of all,
theres a Bean counters Secret. Oh. Go into the Bean Counters. Menu, do you see
the big bag? Well there is a little string. Click on it. When the Jellybeans fall out
keep clicking on them. Then you can click a harder level. Next up, the Pizzatron
3000 secret. So when you get to the Menu, You will see a little lever in the corner.
Click on it and it will change to candy. Hit Play and you will make a candy Pizza!
OK number 3! Do you ever get tired of surfing on the regular yellow surfboard?
What about a silver one. Go to C the cove and press the catalog. Hit the “W” in
waves (at the top) and up pops the silver surf board! Hey have you ever wanted
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to catch the prize mullet in ice fishing? Well let me just tell you this, he likes
smaller fish! Oh so keep going until there are no more obstacles then you will see
him appear. Wait till he’s clearer, and... wait(!) You have to have a fish on your
line! Then Bam! He’s yours. Ok. I have one more thing. Try pressing EP on your
key board. Then expeirament with the other letters! Bye!
Hannah’s paratext revealed that the exercise was useful in the classroom setting
because she was writing about her gaming passion. Since she was confident in her
own knowledge concerning Club Penguin, she was enthusiastic and actively engaged
in the writing process. Hannah shared a wealth of information concerning her avid
knowledge of how to navigate through the game, including some of her strategizing
skills, how she was able to get ahead in the game, and how to play new games.
Within her paratext, readers can identify many of Hannah’s developed academic
skills such as her ability to summarize from a mere portion of reading, her critical
thinking, and her ability to evaluate. She presented the ability to think critically
about the information that was presented in order to solve the issue, given the clues
provided. For example, when attempting to explain how one would catch the prize
mullet in ice fishing, she stated, “Well let me just tell you this, he likes smaller fish!
Oh so keep going until there are no more obstacles then you will see him appear.”
Here, we are able to discern Hannah’s ability to think critically about how to achieve
a specific goal, in this case, how to catch a prize mullet in ice fishing. To achieve such
a goal, Hannah demonstrated the ability to think about feeding the mullet smaller
fish, as she adhered to the given clues. Her paratext, therefore, indicates her ability
to critically think and analyze a given situation when provided with only small parts
of a whole. Hannah’s sophisticated writing style and skills within her paratext also
demonstrates her academic skills and literacy. She only makes small errors, such
as her spelling of “expeirament,” and demonstrates advanced writing techniques
such as imperative tense and commands such as “Click on it.” Her paratext also
demonstrates an active voice when she asks, “Do you ever get tired of surfing on the
regular yellow surfboard?” Hannah used these rhetorical questions in her paratext,
demonstrating the ability to enhance her analysis and capture a readers’ interest and
keep them engaged. She demonstrates a mature writing style providing a potential
reader with a visual aid: “yellow surfboard…a silver one,” gestural aid: “you have
to have a fish on your line,” spatial aid: “Go into the Bean Counters, do you see the
big bag?”; “Well there is a little string. Click on it.”; “Hit Play and you will make a
candy Pizza!”, and auditory aid: “Then Bam!” in her descriptions.
Hannah’s paratext also demonstrates her problem solving skills. She described
a specific plan of action in which to accomplish tasks and problems within the
game. She gave a detailed description of how to overcome specific issues and reach
specific goals. Her description of how to catch the prize mullet in ice fishing not only
demonstrated her ability to critically think, but also her ability to solve problems.
The problem presented was that a player must undergo a series of tasks before they
are able to catch the prize mullet. Hannah explained this series of tasks, indicating
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TEACHING WITH CLUB PENGUIN
that she possesses the problem solving and organization skills necessary in order
to solve this problem herself. She explained that, “…he likes smaller fish! Oh so
keep going until there are no more obstacles then you will see him appear. Wait till
he’s clearer, and…wait (!) You have to have a fish on your line! Then Bam! He’s
yours.” Hannah’s paratext demonstrated not only her well developed writing skills,
but also her creative ability to critically think about issues she was presented with,
and her problem solving skills as she indicated the steps and processes that must be
undertaken to solve the problems with which she was presented.
IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING
Kendra, Megan and Hannah displayed a lot of confidence as readers and as
producers of multimodal texts when they were given the opportunity to participate
based on their screen-play. Their written responses show they have both the ability
and the inclination to think in a multimodal capacity in order to explain their
gaming instructions. Creatively thinking about and writing an explanatory text
for another player, as a multimodal connective piece, is a challenge. Students had
to recall the narrative storyline of the virtual play activity, then share both their
personal understanding of the game and the critical knowledge they have garnered
through game play. This type of reading and writing engagement shows how the
children engage in an intertextual reading of many types of texts on the screen. The
integration of the modes within the gaming text enhances, and can transform, how a
player draws meaning from the text.
Their gaming paratexts reflect and reinforce not only digital literacy, but also
learning objectives that are foundational to the school curriculum, such as critical
thinking and problem solving skills. Participating in these game paratexts had the
unexpected benefit of encouraging children to practice organizing their thoughts,
which was required in order to first complete and then explain how to progress from
one stage of a game into another. This assignment was directly relevant to the grade
four language arts program at the school. In order to follow directions on the site (i.e. in
the form of hints and clues) and to solve unusual math problems, the children had to be
able to identify key words then analyze, organize, and explain this knowledge orally or
in written form. Kendra’s assignment, in particular, indicated how paratexts reinforce
a child’s critical thinking and problem solving skills. She created a challenge, ensuring
that the reader would have to try several techniques and think critically about how
to solve the problem at hand, while also demonstrating her own critical thinking and
problem solving skills, having already solved the problem herself. All three children
demonstrated a necessary level of critical thinking and problem solving. They also
demonstrated knowledge of organization as well as cause and effect in that each step
led to another step, which eventually led the gamer to achieve a specific goal.
As children take part in game paratexts, such as in this assignment, they are
taking part in traditional print literacy, while embracing an activity they are equally
passionate about. The paratext writers had to build a bridge between their online
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Figure 2. Modal Integration in Club Penguin Paratext.
activities and the classroom texts commonly given as an assignment. The challenge
of this text required students to think through a multimodal lens as they engaged in
the writing process. In order to effectively explain the games’ rules and affordances,
they were required to think about writing as something beyond a mere classroom
activity, and instead as something that related to the ‘real’ world of their gaming.
Megan, Kendra and Hannah were able to model Apperley’s (2010) “reciprocal
process” (p. 119), where there was an interaction between them as users and the
knowledge required by the game that could then be put to use in a classroom context.
CONCLUSION
The paratext engaged the children to use creativity, think divergently and to use the
multimodal facets of the game to complete a language arts assignment. Consequently,
this classroom writing activity invited children to fluidly share skills that are of
benefit in both the classroom and in their virtual play sites. One of the key findings
in this study is that the use of virtual playgrounds, such as Club Penguin, can create
avenues to fuse offline and online play. This is particularly true when literacy writing
engagements are developed using multimodal texts of interest such as paratexts, as
children in the study often role played a multiplicity of identities created around
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the narrative storyline of Club Penguin. The teacher acknowledged that children
invested much time in the maintenance of their virtual pets and penguins, and this
shared interest among children was a big part of the creative play in the classroom.
The inclusion of the Club Penguin paratext acknowledged the importance of such
play. One of the suggestions for future study, however, would be to find out more
about the parents’ understanding of their children’s literacy and digital play. The
teacher mentioned that some parents did not approve of the school’s use of language
arts instructional time for play in virtual worlds, while others thought that the online
games should be used only at lunch time, and finally some for socializing and
maintaining friendships.
As this research concludes, digital gaming worlds can have significant impact in
the field of education. The study shows how easy it is to incorporate this into the
classroom environment, and how students can achieve if given text that motivates
them. The use of digital game paratexts in the educational setting can be a great
starting point for two reasons. One is that paratexts “require less experiential and
technical knowledge of digital games to teach” (Walsh, 328). Second, students are
already familiar with these technological advances from out-of-school practices.
The main goal is to hope that teachers will develop lesson plans that can address
students’ motivation in accordance with gaming worlds.
Although the teacher did harness the creative gaming literacy practices of
participants through a paratext designed to reveal their online accomplishments, it
was noted by the teacher that the paratext gave limited opportunity for creativity
outside of the Club Penguin site’s particular narrative voice. Student interest
in writing the paratexts was ascribed to the narrative tales around the immersion
of their penguin avatar selves. However, the concepts of multimodality invite
researchers and educators to see multimodality as a creative force in textual creation.
Nonetheless, as a paratext, it also harnessed two of Apperley’s requirements for these
devices (p. 122). First the Club Penguin exercise did not require the teacher herself
to understand the totality of the game, so much as it required her to understand how
it could be utilized as a platform for the children’s writing. Secondly, it made the
connection between gaming and the writing skills required for their language arts
studies explicit for the students.
The teacher’s desire to find space for the children’s virtual play was accomplished
by giving instructional time for the children. More importantly, however, was her
valuable understanding of her children’s digital literacy practices within the virtual
space of Club Penguin. She included Club Penguin books, posters, and toys within
her classroom space, as affordances to enhance their play and creativity. By using
a paratext associated with the children’s home gaming engagements, she connected
their exhibited game playing skills of critical thinking, problem solving, and
analytical processes, not to mention creative outputs to further inform their learning
of traditional language arts texts, such as a newspaper story. Her efforts allowed
children to see that their online and offline lives were simply extensions of their
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multimodal textual abilities, and, as such, the gap between their online play and their
classroom work was much narrower than any of them would have thought.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author graciously acknowledges the Social Sciences Humanities Research
Council of Canada for their generous funding of this research.
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SECTION TWO
MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER SECOND
LANGUAGE LEARNING
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JASON YJ LEE & CHARLOTTE PASS
5. MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAMING AND
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING
BRIEF HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING: WHO IS THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE LEARNER?
Understanding how second language (L2) learners (those learning English as
an additional language) are represented in English language learning research
promotes an understanding of the history of English language education. Mitchell
& Myles (2004) categorized views toward L2 learners among English Language
learning (ELL) scholars into three perspectives: the linguistic perspective, the social
psychological perspective, and the sociocultural perspective. These perspectives
are addressed in sequence below, to demonstrate the history of English language
education.
From the linguistic perspective, the goal of linguists was limited to observing
the linguistic system. Based on such observations, English language learning
researchers in the late 1960s posited that errors made by the L2 learners did
not reflect actual errors; rather, they maintained that the “errors” represented a
legitimate language constructed through the systematic stages of acquisition. For
example, Corder (1967) focused on the errors made by language learners, referred
to as error analysis. This process focused on the language production of the learner
rather than the deep structure of the language. Later, Selinker (1972) introduced
the term interlanguage to represent the language produced by ELLs. Building
upon error analysis, Selinker (1972) considered language errors as indicative of
systematic stages of acquisition. In other words, interlanguage was recognized
as a structurally intermediate language developed between an L2 learner’s native
language (L1) and their second (or additional) language (L2). Consequently,
linguists and psycholinguists became interested in how L2 learners cognitively
process language. Given their focus on the neurological aspect of language, it was
easy for them to overlook the social aspect.
The second perspective of English language development is the social
psychological perspective. According to this perspective, L2 learners possess a
universal trait: legitimate and systematic language learning. In reality, however,
L2 learners often experience varying rates of progress in language development.
This differing pace of language learning cannot be explained through the linguistic
perspective; therefore, social psychologists examined the individual differences in L2
learners, which evolved into the social psychological perspective. In this perspective,
H. R. Gerber & S. S. Abrams (Eds.), Bridging Literacies with Videogames, 91–101.
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J. Y. LEE & C. PASS
the L2 learner's learning style was taken into consideration. Keefe (1979) defined
learning style as the "cognitive, affective and physiological traits that are relatively
stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with and respond to the learning
environments" (p.4). Based on Keefe's definition of learning style, cognitive factors
relate to language learning strategies, and affective factors impact motivation. This
means that, depending on L2 learners’ learning strategies and motivation level, the
rate of language acquisition varies. Similarly, Ehrman and Leaver (2003) offered
supporting evidence by identifying and introducing nine different learning styles
(e.g. field independence, inductive-deductive, leveling-sharpening, etc.) in English
language learning. They continue to assert that these nine different learning styles
correlate with one another, or individually, creating a variety of possible combinations
and differences among the language learning rate of students.
While the linguistic perspective focused on the universal aspect of the learner,
and the social psychological perspective concentrated on the individual learner,
the third perspective (sociocultural) views the language learner as a social being.
By doing so, the language learning process is viewed through a social lens, and
learners are considered to be social beings in a context, rather than as independent
individuals (Mitchell & Myles, 2004). In the early 1980's, Long (1983, 1985) argued
the importance of interaction. Since input is important for ELLs, to understand the
nature of the input, it is important to learn the interactions in which L2 learners
engage. This concept developed into an interaction hypothesis. For example, Swain's
(1985) comprehensible output hypothesis posits that L2 learning takes place when
the learner encounters a gap in knowledge of the new language and modifies output
accordingly. Such a cognitive adaptation promotes English language learning in a
way that differs from input based because of the different cognitive skills required.
Since sociocultural theorists have different views about interaction, Long’s and
Swain's arguments do not fully align with the sociocultural perspective. Interaction
is considered an effective means for input in the interaction hypothesis, but in the
sociocultural perspective, interaction itself is considered a social aspect of the
learning process (Mitchell & Myles, 2004). Following this social aspect of learning,
Soviet psychologist Lev S. Vygotsky’s philosophy has given insight for English
language learning. Since the 1990s, James Lantolf has advocated the application of
Vygotskian theory to English language learning (Lantolf, 1994; Lantolf & Appel,
1994). In recent English language learning, the constructivist, sociocultural view
has been used in education. Therefore, the learner is now viewed as a collaborative
social being.
Thus far, this chapter has chronicled the role of L2 learners in English language
learning research. Paradigm shifts have occurred, and L2 learners, formerly viewed
as individual learners, are now considered social beings. Therefore, providing L2
learners with a social environment can determine the success of their L2 learning.
Given the fact that MMO gaming provides a social environment for the players, it
could be considered a suitable environment for language learning.
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MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAMING AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING
RESEARCH AND BENEFITS OF MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAMING IN
RELATION TO ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING
Massively Multiplayer Online Games as a Tool for English Language Acquisition
Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game environments have potential in language
learning because of the interactive and collaborative community they provide
(Nardi, Ly, & Harris, 2007; Peterson, 2010; Steinkuehler, 2007; Thorne, 2008).
Because of this rich context for language learning, many researchers have applied
MMO games to language learning. Using the linguistic perspective, researchers
(Bryant, 2006; Palmer, 2010; Rankin, Gold, & Gooch, 2006; Steinkuehler, 2007)
have studied the development of vocabularies, literacy skills, speech acts and modal
verbs. Researchers (Black, 2008; Choi, 2006; Lam, 2000, 2004; Peterson, 2010;
Thorne, 2008; Thorne, Black, & Sykes, 2009; Yi, 2007; Yee & Bailenson, 2007)
have also observed the importance of the affective aspects in language learning, such
as motivation or anxiety. Because MMO game environments are open and social,
various language scholars (Peterson, 2012; Lee & Gerber, 2013) have studied the
social aspect of language learning in MMO games.
The Linguistic Approach
Researchers’ attention in MMO and English language learning has led ESL
researchers to focus studies on the linguistic domain of language learning. Consider
Steinkuehler’s (2007) use of the game Lineage 2 to develop players’ literacy skills
in multiple practices such as writing, presenting, poetry and debating. Researchers
have also examined vocabulary studies in the MMO game environment. Rankin et
al. (2006) discovered that college level students increased their L2 vocabularies after
playing the MMO game Ever Quest 2. In addition, Sylven and Sundqvist (2012)
found that children aged 11 to 12 years old who played more than 5 hours of MMO
games possessed larger L2 vocabularies compared to the non-gamer control group.
Furthermore, other researchers (Miller & Hegelheimer, 2006; Ranalli, 2008) have
shown that MMO gaming is helpful in L2 vocabulary acquisition if it is paired
with vocabulary lists or exercises. Palmer (2010) discovered that gamers develope
Spanish speech acts through playing the game World of Warcraft. She contended
that social interaction and communities of practice were the important aspects in
developing writing and speaking in MMO games. Additionally, a few game players
have developed German modal verbs through playing World of Warcraft (Bryant,
2006). In this study, Bryant played a German version of World of Warcraft with the
study participant and acted as a facilitator in the study. He focused on assisting the
participant in using modal verbs in multiple situations while playing the game. The
subject gradually learned and used the modal verbs through game chat in World of
Warcraft.
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The Affective Approach
The affective approach is based on human emotions or feelings. According to Brown
(2007), the affective domain is tightly woven into human behavior. He adds that
language is such a pervasive phenomenon that it cannot be separated from a person’s
life (Pike, 1967). Therefore, understanding the affective domain in English language
learning is important (Brown, 2007). Similarly, Krashen (1982), in his affective filter
hypothesis, asserted that language is best learned when the anxiety (affective filter)
is low.
Some researchers have found that in a computer mediated conversation or MMO
game setting, the affective aspect buttressed the L2 learner’s language learning.
Lam’s (2004) study illustrates how online communities can empower language
learners, which transfers into increased English fluency. Black (2008) and Lam
(2000) contend that supportive feedback in online community literacy activities
helped their students to build ‘counterbalance’ (Yi, 2007, p.35) and to overcome
difficulties in the English language classroom (Thorne, Black, & Sykes, 2009, p.807).
This counterbalance increases the confidence of language learners whether they are
in language classrooms or cyberspace. Writing in the MMO game environment
occurs in various forms, i.e., chatting (interaction), forum participation, blogs, and
fanfiction.
Using an MMO gaming perspective, Thorne (2008) proposed that intercultural
exchanges in the game World of Warcraft lead to increasing motivation in language
learning. Further, Peterson (2010) argues that role playing games (RPG) can lower
inhibition during emerging conversation. Yee and Bailenson’s (2007) Proteus effect
study reveals that the players’ interactions were influenced by their virtual avatar and
their awareness of how they were viewed by others. Their research concludes that
the more the players were aware of their avatar appearances, the more this awareness
impacted their negotiation of behavior. This study doesn’t directly relate to English
language learning education, but it does relate to how appearances influence the
learner’s interaction behavior.
Another important factor of the affective domain is motivation. Not only in
English second language learning research, but also in various other types of human
research, motivation is essential for learning (Dornyei, 1998). Various kinds of
motivation, especially intrinsic motivation, are the most powerful determinant of
successful learning (Deci, 1975). Thus, MMO game settings have the potential to
increase the intrinsic motivation of English language learners. Choi (2006) argues
that MMO settings attract players to become immersed in the game and help maintain
motivation to continue playing the game. In Choi’s research, she asserts that MMO
games have three elements that increase the motivation level of the players.
First, the storyline of MMO games stems from a fictional mythologem, defined
in Jungian psychology. Jung observed various dreams and found similar patterns of
fictional mythologem elements that appear regardless of race or cultural background.
Choi argues that this fictional mythologem stimulates the unconsciousness of the
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MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAMING AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING
players, drawing them to the MMO game. Moreover, this similarity between the
patterns that Jung observed in people’s dreams compels players to continue to play
the MMO. A second motivator is the open concept of the storyline, which promotes
increased interest in delving into the story of the MMO game. This open concept
elicits feelings among the players that the game is a never ending story. Moreover,
it brings players back to the game. A third motivator is the straightforward concept
of the protagonist and antagonist. This element encourages the players to take on
specific roles to increase their enjoyment of the game. While Choi’s (2006) research
does not specifically relate to English language learning, it does underscore the
motivational aspect of MMO game play and provides a rationale for why players
continue to play MMO games.
The Sociocultural Approach
Sociocultural theory (SCT) in language learning focuses on the social situation and
the mediated nature of mental activities (Vygotsky, 1978). From this point of view,
language development is based upon interactions in a social context (Rama, Black,
Es & Warschauer, 2012). MMO games share this perspective, because they contain
a social context for language learners to experience. Peterson (2012) analyzed four
EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners’ linguistic and social interactions in
a MMO game setting. In the study, the participants showed an appropriate use of
politeness, such as greetings, informal language, small talk and humor. Peterson
argues that the MMO environment provided the EFL students’ with a collaborative
situation for social interaction. Lee & Gerber (2013) also linked English language
learning and the MMO game World of Warcraft. For this research study, a 21 yearold Korean male’s game play of World of Warcraft was observed for a period of
one year. The game was played in English, which was the target language for the
participant. The researchers found three distinctive patterns of the participant’s
English language development. The first pattern was his reliance on his native
language (L1) functions. The participant showed patterns of using his first language
functions to communicate in his L2. This refers to his memory of his L1 knowledge,
because he recalled his language functions from his L1. The second pattern was that
the participant started to ‘pick up’ language from other players’ interactions. The
third pattern was that the participant began to communicate comfortably with the
other interlocutors in World of Warcraft. In this study, Lee and Gerber found that
the learner’s language developed from the influence of the community of World of
Warcraft and the social interactions in the game.
MMO as an English Language Acquisition Tool
According to Gee (2003), high-quality games possess the following six
characteristics:
• The games' education components are hidden.
• The games are interactive and nonlinear.
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• The games encourage exploration by rewarding players.
• Players can choose to assume the 'protagonist' character or the 'antagonist'
character so they may experience both perspectives.
• The games encourage players’ creativity.
• The games have more than one correct answer or means for accomplishing the
same objectives.
In Gee's opinion, these six elements construct a good game for players to enjoy
and motivate them to continue to play the game. MMO games share these six
characteristics. More importantly, MMO games have hidden forms of educational
components. For example, the Korean MMO game Goonzu (Wi & Won, 2009)
fosters an understanding of the political system for elementary students. Because
the Goonzu MMO game incorporates an election system, the students took time and
effort to select the candidates and participated in the election. Goonzu’s structure
mimics the political system and allows players to enjoy the game while acquiring
a deeper understanding of the election system. This alternative approach to the
game provided students with an alternative view of the game, which enables this
MMO game to be an educational tool. For instance, MMO settings are interactive
because players need to communicate with other players and with other gamerelated objects. The structure of many MMOs cannot be fully enjoyed alone since
MMO games reinforce collaborative environments. Collaboration play occurs in the
form of group activities, such as killing a stronger boss together or group quests,
when multiple players of different classes are required to advance the quest. Reward
systems in MMO games take various forms, such as rare items or a status indicating
accomplishment that other players can recognize. Players in MMO games can enjoy
both the protagonist and antagonist viewpoint in the game’s storyline.
To illustrate, World of Warcraft and Starwars: Old Republic have different sides
for players to choose: Alliance or Horde in WoW, Republic or Empire in STWOR.
Each protagonist or antagonist represents a unique style of storyline for players to
experience. MMO environments thus promote the creativity of players and does not
necessarily represent a single experience or solution. In boss fights, for example,
there is more than one way to accomplish the task of beating the opposition.
Depending on the player’s skill level and knowledge of the game and class, it can be
accomplished in different ways.
Community
MMO provides players with an interactive and collaborative community. In the
MMO environment, players communicate, play together, trade items and learn the
system of the game that is closely related to real life settings.
Based on Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory viewpoint, language learning
should be in an interactive environment. However, language learning classrooms
often fail to be a social, interactive community. Average language institute
classrooms have different group dynamics compared to the social life of community
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dynamics. For example, in a community there is a mixture of native speakers of the
target language, but also English language learners as well. However, since language
learning institutes are built specifically to learn the target language, the classrooms
are filled with English language learners. This group dynamic is quite different from
the community group dynamic. In sociocultural theory, language is best learned when
it is socialized in the community. However, the language institute classroom does
not reflect this part of the theory. Another difficulty that English language learners
confront is that the classroom interaction does not necessarily serve the purpose of
communication. In other words, it does not reflect the personal needs of the language
learner. Although the instructor will provide themes with purposes, those themes
are not necessarily authentic, nor do they provide what language learners need to
function as a community member. Because language is used differently in multiple
contexts, if it does not meet with the language learner’s interest, then there can be
difficulty in learning. For example, if the learner is interested in watching movies,
then he/she would want to learn more about the language used in a movie context.
Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming settings are different because the purpose
is clear, a focus on gaming. Players focus on exploring the game content or learning
game mechanics. For ESL learners, language in this situation is used as a supplement.
Although language acquisition is not the goal, it is a benefit of playing the game and
participating in the MMO community.
While Gee doesn't include English language learning in his list of characteristics
of high-quality games, MMO games share multiple aspects that could be beneficial
in English language learning education. MMO games can provide players with
motivation and a collaborative environment, according to Gee (2003), two aspects
that have an important role in English language learning.
SUGGESTIONS FOR PRACTICING FOUR LANGUAGE SKILLS
THROUGH INTEGRATION
Based on the sociocultural theory of language acquisition, language needs to be
social and used in an interactive community. Considering this framework, MMO
games can be suitable for enhancing the speaking aspect of English language
learning, yet MMO games have the ability to address reading, listening and writing
skills as well. The following section describes possible suggestions for using MMO
games to develop reading, listening, speaking and writing skills.
Reading
Freire and Macedo (1998) describe the complexities of language by focusing on the
single literary act of reading, noting, “Reading does not consist merely of decoding
the written word or language; rather, it is preceded by and intertwined with knowledge
of the world… [l]anguage and reality are dynamically connected” (pp. 8-10).
Consequently, for L2 learners, the acquisition of knowledge about multiple contexts
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is necessary for language learning and for becoming less marginalized by the lack
of language proficiency. Massively Multiplayer Online Games can provide myriad
contexts to enable such learning to occur.
Consider, for example, that the setting of MMO games requires players to read the
game. In other words, everything that players encounter in the games is in a reading
format. Players read the quests off of NPCs (Non Player Characters) and interact
with other players through a chat format. Reading does not stop there, though, due
to the large storyline of which MMO games consist. There are other supplemental
reading materials that are not specifically associated with the MMO game.
First, there are novels and graphic novels. Since MMO games are based on a broad
spectrum of storylines, novels and graphic novels aligned with the MMO games can
disclose other parts of the storyline that can help players to understand the world of
the MMO game. Second, there is fan fiction, which is created by other players who
enjoy the game content. They create their own story that could be considered a spinoff from the original story. The readings in fan-fiction are based on informal writing,
but they share other insights about the game story that come from a fan’s perspective.
Third, there are blogs and forums. An MMO game is a very complex system; so
players need to study the mechanics of the game knowledge. For example, types of
items to acquire or explanations of boss fights are clarified in blogs or forums.
These various contexts of reading can be used in ESL settings. Researchers (e.g.,
Ryu, 2013) refer to this beyond game culture as after game culture. Additionally,
according to Ryu’s research, participants enjoyed the after game culture, and
motivation was high to continue to explore the after game culture. With regard to
classroom instruction, novels or other web posts may be used to aid students’ reading
as part of the after game culture. Since the context of the reading materials is familiar
to the students, they will find it much easier to engage with the additional readings.
Listening
Listening is limited in MMO settings because the communication is done mostly
through chat format. However, as the player progresses toward the end game content,
communication becomes a vital factor. When the MMO game gets harder and the pace
of it gets quicker, the need to communicate spontaneously and immediately becomes
inevitable. Players use third-party programs to communicate verbally with other players.
Since not everyone is required to speak verbally, ESL students can take their time to
listen, and forget about immediately responding to the interlocutor. This additional time
can lower the anxiety for ESL learners by giving them time to think and respond.
Speaking/Presenting
Speaking and presenting are different skills, but for this purpose, they are being
combined because they both represent expressive language. For example, expressing
one’s thoughts can also be considered a form of speaking.
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In MMO game settings, speaking and presenting occur in text forms. For ESL
learners, this is an advantage because they do not need to worry about accents,
pronunciation or quick responses to other players. Like the listening component,
ESL learners can take time to read the text and respond, which can lower their
anxiety level. Also, the instructor could preview the text and anticipate the issues
that the ESL learners could be having.
Writing
Writing in MMO games can be related to speaking and reading. Since MMOs follow
a chat format, communicating with others is a writing activity. Additionally, when
participating in blogs and forums, players need to write to discuss and collaborate
with others.
For ESL learners, writing can be done informally through chat or by keeping a
game journal blog. Formally, writing can be done through writing fan fiction or a
reflective piece of game play.
DISCUSSION
In this chapter, we looked at the current trend in English language learning,
sociocultural theory. According to the sociocultural theory approach, language needs
to be social and learned from an interactive environment through collaboration.
In this sense, MMO games can provide English language learners with a social,
collaborative environment. In addition, MMO games have the potential to provide
intrinsic motivation for learners and promote a habit of continuing to study the
English language. Implementing an MMO game in the classroom might be premature
at the moment, yet MMO games can still provide a wonderful opportunity for
supplemental instructional material in the current language classroom. Moreover,
MMOs can provide ESL learners with authentic language acquisition via experience
and interaction as endorsed by Krashen and Terrell (1992).
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board. Unauthorized distribution will be prosecuted.
JAVIER CORREDOR & MATTHEW GAYDOS
6. LANGUAGE GAMES
How Gaming Communities Shape Second-Language Literacy
The Internet has created spaces for second-language learning that are fundamentally
different from spaces available fifteen years ago. These new, Internet-enabled
spaces allow for bilingual participation in complex shared social activities. Young
people all over the world watch, listen, read and learn from content produced in
languages different than their own almost every day. They also have the opportunity
to interact with people who speak a different language via tasks that require
collaborative action around common goals (Jenkins, 2006). The multimodal, crosscultural nature of these activities has enabled new types of bilingual interaction.
From these interactions, global communities have emerged, including participatory
networks gathered around videogames, fan fiction, and other cultural objects (ÁvilaToscano, Gutiérrez & Pérez, 2011; Jenkins et al, 2009). These communities use
several channels of communication including blogs, chat rooms, and social media,
which afford them the ability to not only hang out together but also to exchange
different types of resources. The availability of new, bilingual, cultural objects, in
turn, widens the spectrum of possible worlds from which young people today can
build their identities and improves the possibility of being bilingual in a way that is
socially relevant, and not just (as in traditional second language learning) another
curricular obligation.
This chapter explores the characteristics of bilingual interaction in the context
of gaming communities in Latin America, as reported by videogamers in Bogotá,
Colombia. The most relevant findings of a year-long qualitative study in gaming
communities are presented and interpreted according to current literature in gamebased learning, bilingualism and situated learning. Specifically, this research focuses
on the dynamics of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPGs)
communities in Latin-America and the way in which their bilingual and situated
nature helps players to develop reading and communication skills in a second
language. The study shows that MMORPG gamers display linguistic behaviors
similar to those of bilingual speakers, even though they live in a context where no
bilingual interactions exist offline. More importantly, the study shows that these new
linguistic behaviors arise because their gaming experience scaffolds a complex set of
practices that modifies both the cognitive process and the sociocultural meaning that
contribute to learning a second language. In this sense, bilingual learning in online
videogames is not the byproduct of traditional learning practices, but the result of
H. R. Gerber & S. S. Abrams (Eds.), Bridging Literacies with Videogames, 103–127.
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J. CORREDOR & M. GAYDOS
new forms of literacy. The basic claim is that bilingual interactions afforded by
videogames have substantially modified the way that young people approach second
language learning, creating a de facto mestizo literacy. That is, a literacy where
several hybrid sources of activity and cultural traditions are negotiated according
to pragmatic, identity and cognitive constraints. Mestizo literacies are blurring the
frontiers between first and second languages through written interactions in online
environments. This transition is allowed due to a radical transformation in the way
that young people experience the second language. Today, mandatory formal ways of
second language learning are being replaced by participatory, self-driven approaches
to learning.
This study places itself in the intersection of two convergent research spaces
from which second language learning in videogames can be understood: one is the
space of online communities that interact to build meaning and negotiate public
identities; the other is the space of online gaming as a resource for second language
learning (Thorne, Black & Sykes, 2009). There is a large body of literature about
the first aspect showing the existence of bilingual interaction within interest
communities in diaspora spaces. Members of those communities produce hybrid
forms of language, including complex forms of code switching, the development of
transitional identities associated with linguistic forms in different languages, and the
use of bilingual cultural codes in the production of fan fiction (Black, 2008; Lam,
2004). This article extends this research to show that the characteristics of diaspora
communities can be observed in online gaming spaces. Regarding the second aspect,
there is a specific branch of research on second language learning in videogames that
focuses both on educational games as designed experiences for language learning,
and on the informal emergent interactions produced in online communities of gamers.
Literature regarding games specifically designed for language learning shows that
these type of resources can be effective in decreasing errors in second language
learners (Strik, Cornillie, Colpaert, van Doremalen & Cucchiarini, 2009). It has
been also observed that games can be used to teach language pragmatics, although
their effectiveness depends on participants´ approach to learning. That is, when the
game is perceived as a space for experimentation, learning is better than when it is
perceived as a set of tasks to be completed (Sykes, Oskoz & Throne, 2008). This
research also shows that online immersive games designed specifically for language
learning help participants to improve their language skills, particularly for learners
with high levels of prior knowledge (Rankin, Gold & Gooch, 2006). Additionally,
researchers have shown that participation in these communities can produce results
similar to those produced by interactions with native speakers (Rankin, Morrison,
McKenzie, Gooch & Shute, 2009).
Observations of interactions in communities around online games has also
produced data suggesting that very rich patterns of second language learning might
be happening around online videogames, and that those spaces are ideal contexts
for language learning. Research suggests that by their own characteristics online
videogames permit situated learning, community formation, risk taking and the
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LANGUAGE GAMES
development of collaborative social relationships (Peterson, 2010). Research
also shows that, in some types of games (such as MMORPGs), natural bilingual
conversations arise, allowing students to perform complex linguistic exchanges such
as the use of hybrid codes, or the complex negotiation of norms for participation
(Leppänen &Piirainen-Marsh, 2009). This article extends this second line of research
by showing that bilingual interactions are a byproduct of online gaming that change
both power relationships and learning patterns related to second language learning.
BRIEF METHODOLOGICAL OVERVIEW
Given the qualitative nature of this study, findings are presented alongside relevant
literature. The canonical structure of empirical documents (e.g., introduction, method,
results) is not followed, because a holistic reading of findings was considered to
be a more comprehensive way to present the educational implication of bilingual
videogaming (Corredor, 2010). Data sources included in-depth interviews, products
of virtual interactions, and on-site observations of individuals’ interactions while
gaming. Interviews were semi-structured conversations organized around two
thematic axes. The first axis was related to the characteristics of videogamers
including their evolution as players, their motivations for playing the game, their
learning dynamics and their sources of information. The second axis focused
specifically on the particularities of bilingual interaction in videogames. The aspects
explored in this second axis included instances of interaction with players in other
languages, the characteristics of videogame communication, and the strategies used
to establish conversational rules. Forums were visited several times during the year
and the information in them was copied to Excel files. The posts included in the
sample taken from the forums covered a total of five years. That is, the oldest posts
collected were written four years prior to the beginning of the study. Forums were
chosen because they allowed us to retroactively examine recorded interactions over
a long period of time.
Thirty-two gamers (eight women, twenty-four men) between the ages of 18 and
32 years old participated in this study; all of them were enrolled in or had previously
completed post-secondary education. A convenience sample was used (Patton,
1990): participants were contacted through online groups, directly through flyers
in several colleges, or through referral by other participants. All of them lived in
Bogotá, Colombia. Because participants reported constant interaction with gamers in
other countries, we assume that the results of this study present a relatively accurate
picture of what happens in other parts of the continent. Participants were interviewed
in two stages: an exploration stage and a confirmation stage. In the exploration stage,
17 regular gamers were interviewed with an unstructured interview script that was
organized around the two thematic axes mentioned previously: the first thematic axis
was related to the evolution of gamers within the gaming community and the meaning
of MMORPGs as part of their personal identities. The second thematic axis explored
bilingual aspects of gaming, including the frequency of interactions with gamers in
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other languages, the characteristics of bilingual interactions, and the strategies they
use to unveil unknown meanings, and in more general terms, to gain access to second
language knowledge. From this interview, emergent categories were identified, and
within those categories, frequent themes were isolated. For example, in the category
of context, the growing access to the Internet was a frequent theme used to explain
changes in gaming practices. In the confirmation stage, 15 gamers were interviewed.
The two general thematic aspects were the same (gaming community and bilingual
practices), but the interviewers had a checklist of emergent categories and themes to
be covered. For the gaming community axis, the emergent themes included, among
others, peer collaboration, games´ affordances, online resources, status and situated
learning. For the bilingual practices axis, the themes included learning strategies,
identity development, code switching, bilingualism, hybrid language, abbreviated
expressions, advanced conversation, and culture. The process was divided into two
stages to verify the categories produced by the first stage. As explained by Ericsson
& Simon (1993), using all available data to create the coding categories means
exhausting the degrees of freedom and preventing proper theoretical verification.
By dividing the process into two stages, categories created in the first stage can be
properly confirmed in the second one.
Participants were added to the study until saturation was reached (Bowen, 2008;
Glaser & Strauss, 1967). All of the gamers interviewed for this study had more than 4
months of regular gaming experience (max: 10 years) and played at least three times
a week. In the confirmation phase, 19 online forums devoted to MMORPG topics,
groups or guilds were visited in search of examples to illustrate the themes identified
in the interviews. Interviews were transcribed in Spanish and then translated to
English by the researcher, trying to keep the style, the tone and the grammar used by
participants in Spanish, including crutch words and other linguistic peculiarities. Some
of the fragments presented here do not follow Standard English grammar, because
they were translated to keep their original construction in Spanish, such as when a
participant started a sentence and without finishing, switched to a different idea.
LEARNING LANGUAGE IN GAMES: LEARNING IN CONTEXT
Central to activity theory is the idea that individual development must be framed
within the larger picture of social activities and the cultural practices in which
learners engage (Steinkuehler, Black & Clinton, 2005). Individual development
and social processes are interconnected, and changes in the social environment lead
to new ways for individuals to develop and learn. By its dialectic nature, activity
theory also states that changes in the social environment do not erase old practices,
but that complex processes of negotiation happens between the old and the new
practices, and between the different sources with which individuals are in contact
(Engeström & Sannino, 2010; Vygotsky, 1978). Bringing this approach to literacy
and second language learning implies asking what is new and what has changed with
the advent of social online gaming. The results of this study suggest that language
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LANGUAGE GAMES
learning in gaming resembles few formal school practices, but shares many aspects
with how language is learned by native speakers. Language development in games
is situated in the social context and cannot be separated from identity development.
Rather, games afford new ways to communicate and support language and identity
development through bilingual interactions in online environments that are socially
relevant and free from geographical constraints.
MMORPG Affordances
Gaming and gaming communities afford second language development for several
reasons. Steinkuehler and Williams (2006) suggest that gaming spaces are becoming
third places for interaction for young people. Third places are social spaces situated
between home and school that allow young people to socialize with few or no formal
obligations. Third spaces are critical in building new connections and extending
social networks (Oldenburg, 1989). When third places are located in virtual media,
participants engage in playful interactions that grow from the diversity of resources
available to Internet users. Resources distributed via the Internet are, by nature,
multilingual. In online third places, communities of gamers emerge, creating ideal
spaces for bilingual learning and interaction.
Gaming communities are not dependent on physical proximity (Steinkuehler &
Williams, 2006). Social bridging allowed by virtual communities provides users the
opportunity to get in contact with people outside of their immediate social networks
and physical spaces (Corredor, Pinzón & Guerrero, 2011), which for the case of
language learning implies the opportunity to interact with native speakers of different
languages. Virtual communities connect people across countries and languages, and,
for this reason, they allow participants to experience bilingual interaction.
The role of virtual communities in changing the dominant practices of literacy
goes beyond allowing people to communicate with native speakers of other
languages. The multimodal hypertextual nature of online interaction provides users
with the ability to navigate through different formats and genres, and in using
them, to build online selves. In a single Internet session, a participant can arrange
a meeting to play an online game, look for a better strategy to achieve a game
challenge or level – possibly in a forum written in a different language – and then
switch back to the online game with his or her friends. While real life interaction
is for most people, a single-language activity focused on content available in their
physical space and therefore often constrained to their native language, game-based
learning is constituted by activities that cross languages and culture. These types of
activities allow gamers to build hybrid media by mixing content produced by users
and taken from the Internet in several formats and genres (Steinkuehler et al, 2005).
Hyperlinking, posting and sharing content is a core feature of digital literacy that in
turn defines users´ participation in games and social media (Carrington, 2009).
Virtual environments including social media, chat rooms and other supporting
spaces for gaming have other advantages for interaction in a second language. These
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J. CORREDOR & M. GAYDOS
spaces constitute an intermediate step between real time interaction and written
communication. For this reason, they provide learners with extra time, which can
be used to look for definitions in online dictionaries or to reflect on records of past
interactions. The nature of written interaction in these virtual environments may
in fact facilitate the communication of non-native speakers in public environments
(Jones et al, 2001). Additionally, the anonymity provided by many virtual spaces
and the fact that interaction is not necessarily face-to-face may also help facilitate
learning (Lapadat, 2002). In such contexts, learners may take risks and ask questions
that they would not make under normal (non-virtual, non-anonymous) circumstances.
Finally, games permit situated participation and the creation of communities of
practice (Shaffer, Squire, Halverson, & Gee, 2004). Sustained interaction in social
media and online games allows participants to engage in activities that modify their
identities and require participants to situate written texts in relationships with personal
and social meanings. This characteristic comes in sharp contrast with traditional
forms of second language teaching that is often disconnected from learners´ lives
and experiences. Situated participation is pervasive in MMORPG´s because this
type of game requires players to 1) build and upgrade characters based on game
performance, and 2) to complete missions in collaboration with other players
especially under game mechanics that entail responding to complex constraints.
Through the process of solving these missions, players have to balance resources and
coordinate with one another in order to exploit the characters´ characteristics, which
vary from player to player. For example, different characters belong to different
classes and have different specializations; they vary in the talents they have. So,
players in an MMORPG need to collaborate and coordinate their actions to complete
missions (e.g., defeating a monster), which in turn leads to the development of social
organizations (“guilds”) where learning acquires social and practical relevance. In
this context, language use is not only possible but also necessary. For global gaming
communities, this implies the rise of bilingual gaming practices.
BILINGUALISM, STATUS AND IDENTITY IN ONLINE AND OFFLINE
COMMUNITIES IN LATIN AMERICA
Small bilingual communities that focus on dominant western languages (e.g.,
English, French) have existed for a long time in Latin American, but bilingualism
was traditionally restricted to elite groups in large cities (De Mejia, 2005; Ordoñez,
2004) for whom knowing English was an asset that granted access to a privileged
set of human networks and resources. The dynamics of English learning twenty
years ago followed similar patterns to those identified in other parts of the world in
relation to the distribution of symbolic capital and the protection of the status quo
(Bourdie, 1977; Makin, Jones-Díaz, & McLachlan, 2007). Second language learning,
particularly of high valued western languages, was a defining sign of status, a class
marker of some sort. Outside of those spheres, learning a second language was seen
as a curricular obligation with little to no use. Even when mandatory English teaching
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LANGUAGE GAMES
was part of national curricula and assessment standards, most students saw it as a
distant topic with no connection to their lives or identities. The Internet, however,
has facilitated access to resources for learning English as well as an understanding
of its value in many aspects of everyday life. Additionally, new digital media has
broadened the chances of participation in global subcultures, social movements and
aesthetic trends, in a way that gives cognitive, personal and social meaning to second
language learning (Jenkins, 2006).
Second Language Use and Status in Gaming Communities
Prior to the advent of the Internet, English fluency and knowledge was predominantly
a class marker, to which only upper class families could assign some practical
value. Outside of those circles, English was seen as a valuable asset – in the sense
it determined social positioning – but was seen as an asset belonging to others.
With increased access to the Internet, and gaming in particular, English fluency has
become a part of a broader network of meanings for underprivileged youths within
gaming communities.
The evolution of English use within MMORPG gaming communities illustrates
this transition well. As evaluated by interviews and residence location, most
participants in this study come from unprivileged backgrounds. They are not
quintessential globalized citizens whose destiny is to know the world, studying
abroad and speaking a second language, as people from upper class families have
done since the 18th century in Latin America. Their families are mostly monolingual,
and their degree of spatial mobility is low. They seldom know someone who has
traveled abroad, let alone someone who speaks a second language. They reside
in poor urban neighborhoods where Internet connectivity at home is still scarce,
despite several public policy incentive programs (e.g., low taxes for computers).
In this context, gaming communities have adapted and evolved according to these
constraints. Initially, gaming communities relied on small Internet cafes, called
chuzitos, where several computers used a shared Internet connection and often
used pirate/private servers with unlicensed copies of videogames. Participants
reported that the first MMORPG servers available were based in English speaking
countries, and older participants had no choice but to learn some English in order
to play the game. Later, the availability of Spanish-based servers and of affordable
Internet connections (and computers) increased, expanding the spectrum of choices
for game-play. Many players migrated to Spanish or Colombian servers, and many
starting organizing LAN parties at home.
The social value of English language fluency has evolved within gaming
communities relative to these changes; initially necessary for game play, fluency
became a status marker. Being English-fluent within the game implied that you
started playing before Spanish servers, that you knew the game before it became
fashionable in a time of limited Internet access, and that you overcame the many
obstacles gamers initially faced in order to play. In this way, being English-fluent
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J. CORREDOR & M. GAYDOS
signaled seniority within gaming communities. At the same time, being Englishfluent meant that you knew your way through the cultural cross-paths of globalized
gaming. Both English and Spanish-based servers confront gamers with an astonishing
linguistic and cultural diversity, at least when compared to the localized (and some
ways, provincial) experience of former generations. In both spaces, players compete
against and cooperate with players who do not speak Spanish. Knowing a second
language becomes a fundamental asset for in-game participation. Even gamers
playing on Spanish-based servers have to interact with non-Spanish speakers.
This fact gives social value to second language learning in a way that makes this
type of identity viable. That is, in low and middle class communities, English use
was traditionally seen as a skill with no practical value and at times an external
imposition. For many gamers however, it becomes a necessary part of their identity.
It defines who they are as gamers, as it is a necessary resource for successful play
and a requirement for membership in globalized gaming communities.
It is important to note here that identity is understood in the context of affinity
groups and it is defined as a set of common practices that grant recognition of a
person as a member of a social group (Gee, 2000-2001). Under this definition,
identity needs to be distinguished from identity status as defined by Erikson (1968),
who considers identity to be an inner construct that goes through several stages
during personal development and status to be a position within a social hierarchy. In
this chapter, identity is primarily constituted by the practices of social relevance that
gamers share and subsequently to their developed communities, experiences and
status relationships they establish and sustain through these practices.
To illustrate, consider the following excerpts from the category bilingual
interaction, where it is possible to see the importance of the themes of status, prestige
and personal identity. In the first excerpt, a 20 year old male (M, 20) asserts that
English use is a foundational feature of MMORPG gaming and it is an indicator
of the complexity, broadness and depth of gaming knowledge. In the second
excerpt, in the same line, a different participant explains the evolution of MMORPG
gaming, stating that at the beginning of the game’s development missions were not
translated to Spanish, making English communication necessary. Comments from
the researcher appear within brackets [].
“The game started with that language [referring to English] … people believe
that the more you know rare things, ummm, the more you know about the
game, and the longer you have been playing for” (M, 20).
“At the beginning the missions were only in English; they were not translated,
therefore one… ummm… and if you had some knowledge, you understood
more or less the sentence and you could go through. That was core” (M, 21).
In a similar fashion, in the following excerpt, a young man reflects on the social value
of English use within the gaming communities by stating that English competence
gives “prestige,” and works as a signal of deeper knowledge and experience. This
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LANGUAGE GAMES
assertion means that English value comes not from its external worth within the
social hierarchy but from its communicative power and its correlation with other
game skills. Being able of communicate in English signals a broader set of skills like
being able to play more advanced missions, discover bugs in games, or communicate
with server employees. It is important to note here that words presented in bold
font were originally uttered in English, even though interviews were conducted in
Spanish.
“yes, of course, it gives you prestige because the more you know about the
game, the more known you become, and [people think that] if you have more
experience, you should be stronger. Then, if you start talking about, I don´t know,
about more difficult missions, if you discover the bug in the game and you report
it to the game master, they will say, that man speaks with the game masters, he
is one of the heavy ones. Yes, yes, the language is important” (20, M).
These interviews suggest that English social value is seen as a function of its practical
implications – a function of its meaning within the game as well as its relationship
to the set of social practices that surround the game. For this reason, even after the
advent of Spanish-based servers, English continued serving a valued and necessary
function within the MMORPG gaming community.
Global Communities’ Effects on Bilingualism
Second language use is important because communications and interactions around
the game are not restricted to Spanish speakers, as evidenced by the relatively
high frequency with which interviewees mentioned bilingual interaction in global
communities. That is, MMORPG gaming broadens the social experience of players,
putting them in contact with friends and contacts that do not speak Spanish. Because
of this experience, English acquires significant social value by enabling players
to foster and cultivate personal relationships. These relationships, in turn, help to
tie English language use more strongly to players’ personal and social identities.
Belonging to the globalized gaming communities requires being bilingual as
explained in the two following excerpts.
“But, after you make some friends and contacts, you have to start speaking
English; it is important that you be able to make people understand you;
because the game gains complexity, if you’re interested and a given contact is
useful, you definitely have to speak English” (M, 21).
“I talk a lot with a Greek, and with a Turkish, and with an Australian. Those
are the three internationals I talk to the most” (23, F).
Another reason why English has maintained its connotation as a status marker is
because some supporting materials (e.g., online forums) are not available in Spanish.
Many MMORPG gamers perceive English as a practical resource with clear
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J. CORREDOR & M. GAYDOS
applications to the process of improving their game play. Additionally, many gamerelated elements (e.g., powers and skills) are named in English. Translating them is
perceived as expensive in cognitive and social terms, and useless in the sense that
it does not increase the communicative efficiency of interactions between Spanish
and non-Spanish speaking players. Translating a word to Spanish does not make it
easier to comprehend; it does, however make it more difficult to communicate. In
interviews, gamers explained that they often go back and forth between English and
Spanish in the game as well as in their discussions about the game. See for example,
the following two excerpts.
“English is the universal language [within the game]. One always asks a
question in English, when you approach a character in the game. The game
is a world. So people are always wandering around or starting a mission. So,
in that situation, you see someone, and you speak in English because it is the
universal language. There is not another language that all people understand”
(23, M).
“my opinion is that the slang of the Internet becomes one. That is, each culture
has its normal things for everyday life, but there is a particular slang for the
Internet and that is the one that is used” (22, F).
Mestizo Literacies in Videogames
Bilingual participation was also evident in the use of words in both languages, as
well as in hybrid versions of linguistic expressions. For example, in the first fragment
of the quote that follows, the participant uses the English word “whisper” while
answering the interview in Spanish. Both the transcript in Spanish and the transcript
in English are presented for the sake of clarity. Additionally, it is important to point
out that Spanish is phonetically transparent and the h has a mute sound. So, it is not
possible to say from the audio if the participant will write “whispear” or “wispear”
in an actual chat conversation.
“Even though the game is in Spanish, the powers are in English… one asks and
they answer in English. So, in the game one can chat [“chatear” in Spanish]
and one can whisper to another character that is close. Then when people ask
you to whisper, they tell you “whisper” [“wispear” in Spanish]” (20, M).
“Así el juego este en español, los poderes son en inglés... uno pregunta y le
responden en inglés. Entonces en el juego, un puede chatear y uno puede
whispear [whisper in English] a un personaje que está cerca. Entonces cuando
le piden a uno que susurre, le dicen whispear” (20, H).
Overall, this section has shown that both the evolution of gaming communities and
the resulting social practices seem to favor the use of English as a communication
tool. The use of English in gaming communities fundamentally modifies the
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way bilingualism is conceived by young people today in Latin America. Second
Language Learning is not seen as an inapplicable activity with no social value.
Being bilingual means being a better player, and more importantly, a better member
of the gaming community (whose limits extend beyond local communities to reach
global networks). English use has a role both in participation and identity. In the
next section, we will explore how this new social configuration produces emergent
bilingual practices within gaming communities.
BILINGUALISM IN GAMING COMMUNITIES
When asked, participants in this study revealed an ongoing transformation in the
communication practices occurring in online environments. At the micro-level, this
transformation entails the surge of new hybrid forms of online chat. In particular,
gamers use code switching in forms that are very similar to those conducted by
people immersed in bilingual environments. In a similar fashion, they use abbreviated
expressions that refer to English sentences, in a combination of both online writing
practices and bilingual practices. At a more macro-level, language learning by
MMORPG gamers evidences a transition from bilingual literacy conceived as an
activity separated from social practice, to an activity grounded in the goals of the
game and the community of gamers.
Code Switching, Hybrid and Abbreviated Language
Living in bilingual and multicultural environments shapes the experience and
behavior of children and teenagers, influencing language and literacy. Code switching
has been described as a natural part of bilingualism (Goldstein & Kohnert, 2005).
Many bilingual speakers switch between languages in contexts where it is socially
allowed, while at the same time separating languages when in monolingual contexts
(Grosjean & Soares, 1986). The strategic choice to code switch in some contexts but
not others indicates that code switching is not a symptom of linguistic deficit, but
rather the result of a complex negotiation of social meanings with both functional
and identity implications (Han Chung, 2006; Reyes, 2004). In particular, research
points out that by using or not using code switching, speakers fulfill different
discourse purposes and respond to social and pragmatic constraints (Myers-Scotton,
1995; Tay, 1989).
Similar writing practices have been described both in online and physical
environments for adolescents who have been highly exposed to two languages. It
has been reported that young people who are exposed to bilingual influences engage
frequently in hybrid forms of writing involving both English and local languages, as
well as in abbreviated writing forms such as those used in other chat channels (Tan
& Richardson, 2006). This type of hybrid language happens in groups of adolescents
that are exposed to different languages at home and at school (e.g., children of
immigrant families) as well as in groups of adolescents that live in societies in
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which they have a high exposure to English through digital media (e.g., Malaysia,
Singapore), even though the societies as a whole are relatively monolingual (Tan &
Richardson, 2006; Tay, 1989).
MMORPG gamers behave somewhat like bilingual teenagers, despite living
in predominantly monolingual environments. The exposure they have to a second
language through gaming puts them in a position similar to adolescents in bilingual
communities (like immigrant’s children) or in highly technologized societies (e.g,
Singapore). During the interviews, a recurring topic was code switching. Gamers
introduced English words and abbreviated expressions (e.g., LOL) in online chats,
forums and other discussion spaces. They also produced special types of code
switching in which they combined English words with Spanish grammar, or they
used English-based abbreviated expressions in conversations.
Code switching. The following examples, which were categorized by researchers
as code switching and bilingualism, illustrate these forms of linguistic production and
their role in the communities of gamers. Code switching is a natural communicative
act within the gaming communities. In the following excerpt, an MMORPG gamer
expresses an opinion in a forum in the context of a debate regarding how to deal with
inexperienced players in the game. He is generally arguing that new players should
be helped, but that there should be a hard leash on free riders. In the same sentence,
he uses an English word (“noobs” for newbies), a game-specific term (“azeroth”),
and an Internet expression (“ke” for “que” (“that”)) that is applicable only to the
Spanish phonetics. This hybrid use of language indicates a blurring frontier between
languages and contexts of use in gaming communities.
“support the few noobs that [“ke”] run through azeroth, no the free riders”.
A similar type of hybrid use is seen in a special type of code switching in which
gamers use English words and Spanish Grammar in forums and chat. In the following
excerpt a participant in a Spanish-based forum is trying to get people to form a guild.
The participant uses the verb “whisper” in English, within a message written in
Spanish. Interestingly, he or she uses the incorrect English spelling, by omitting the
“h” in the writing of the verb, as can be seen in the Spanish excerpt below. He also
make a Spanish spelling mistake by using a “c” in the word “interece” when the
correct spelling includes an “s” instead.
“anyone interested please wisp me (alias) or to (alias2), and we´ll be guild”
“al que le interece que nos wispee a mi (alias) o a (alias), y somos horda”
Participants reported that this type of code switching is a standard practice in gaming
communities. Other examples of English words with Spanish adaptations used in
conversations are the use of Spanish verb forms at the end of English verbs. For
instance, gamers will sometimes use the verb level-ear (literally translated “to
level”) for leveling and lag-ueando for lagging. Several points need to be stressed
here. First, many of these words do not exist in Spanish given the recent origin of
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the phenomena (e.g., lag). In some cases, the direct translation of a word expresses
a very different meaning than the original word used by the gaming community. For
example, the direct translation of leveling is “nivelar”, but “nivelar” means making
equal, not advancing in levels (like it does in the MMORPG World of Warcraft when
referring to rapid leveling). What this implies is that gamers are aware of use in
context, not just of literal translations. This fact implies that gamers are developing
the basis for understanding English at a pragmatic level, which is an elementary and
necessary step in the advanced comprehension of a second language (Garcia, 2004;
Xu, Case & Wang, 2008). Similarly, when gamers create hybrid forms, they do so
in a way that implies a more advanced understanding of the nuances of English.
In Spanish the only way to present a verb in its infinitive form is by writing the
verb without any conjugation. In English, you can use, in certain occasions, the
gerund of the verb to produce the same effect (e.g., exchanging “to represent” and
“our representing” in the sentence “We were told that to represent the defendant
would be political suicide”). Naïve learners of English that do not understand this
use will translate a verb in gerund in English (leveling) as verbs in gerund in Spanish
(nivelando) but never as verbs in infinitive (nivelar). When we review the verb form
used in many hybrid verbs, we found that gamers use the advanced translation. That
is, they translate a verb in gerund as a verb in infinitive (leveling to level-ear, instead
to leveleando). Hybrid forms were also found in nouns. For example, noobs-adas in
which the word noob (newbie) is combined with a Spanish termination indicating an
object that has a characteristic of a group. “Noobsada” cannot be translated directly
but means an object or action that has the characteristic property of a noob.
Abbreviated language. Hybridity in language also produces bilingual abbreviated
language. The use of abbreviated language is a characteristic of contemporary
digital environments. Research has documented that teenagers engaged in digital
conversations go through the creative process of language development by for
example, building abbreviations for long sentences or single letter representations
of phonetic approximations of actual sentences (Merchant, 2001). These processes
of appropriation give new meaning to technological tools and modify the definition
of literacy. As we found in this study, many gamers use acronyms (abbreviated
expressions) that come from English. For example, gamers used GM for Grand
Master; WTS or WTB for want to sell or buy; and BRB for be right back. An
interesting phenomenon is the use of acronyms that depend on English phonetics. For
example, “Y” for “Why” and “U2” for “you too”. What this implies is that, at a basic
level, gamers understand that English and Spanish phonetics are different. While this
idea seems obvious to advanced English learners, it is a subtle and important point
for most second language learners (Saito, 2007). In this sense, gaming creates a
window not only to English written comprehension, but also to the understanding of
certain concepts that may prepare gamers for learning phonetics in the future. When
explaining the use of abbreviated expressions, gamers explained that using them
creates an advantage for gaming (e.g., it´s quicker) and can help them to belong to
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the community of gamers. They also referred to a collaborative learning mechanism
to explain how they learn them, as showed in the following excerpt.
“I think that it is because everything has to be written in the chat…Instead of
writing the complete word, you search for ice crown citadel, then, so if it is
not too long, you put ICC. Well, the first time I had to ask too: what was the
meaning of ICC?” (18, M).
This type of behavior is not restricted to forums. During interviews, gamers
described similar tendencies within in-game chat, pointing out that even though
speaking Spanish is the norm in many environments, the adoption of English words
is a necessary part of gaming. Their responses suggested that the existence of code
switching was produced by social and pragmatic goals. That is, they described
the existence of key terms that every player needs to know in order to be able to
participate in game situations. Without those terms, the player cannot communicate
effectively or collaborate in the collective actions of the game.
“you say, let´s go to an instance; let´s make a guild! Yes. All the techniques are
in English.., guild that means guild, boss, that is the boss. Yes? Key terms that
everyone, everyone knows” (23, M).
Second Language Learning in Videogames
Code switching is not accidental. The origin of these linguistic forms is related to the
emergence of global communities of gamers, not with the learning of isolated words.
Participants indicated that they interact with a broad network of peers within the
game and that this interaction serves both as a motivation and as a space for second
language use. Within their communities, gamers learn new words and use them in
contexts linked to their lives and identities. Their second language, English, serves
a social purpose and is grounded in activity. It is important to note that gamers learn
situated uses of language, not abstract definitions. For example, in the next excerpt
a gamer explains the dynamics of second language learning in the context of these
communities, referring particularly to the use of the term “farming”.
“those terms [referring to code switching]…
I don’t know who make them popular. For real. I think it was people from
panama or the Puerto Ricans. So you hear that they say that they were
farming [in gerund] in that place. Then one ¿What do you mean farming [in
gerund]? Farm comes from farm, and what they are referring with farming
[in infinitive], for example, is that someone is farming minerals, is that he is
in the zone looking…looking for minerals and he is exploiting them” (21, M).
Here, the interviewee explains how the term was introduced and how he discovered
its meaning. He first heard the term “farmeando” (farming) in the context of an
online discussion about where to obtain resources within the game. Given that
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“farm” is not a word in Spanish, he had to ask in the context of the same discussion,
what the word meant. In doing, he obtained an example-based definition of the
word: an explanation of its use. Participants reported that this type of interaction is
common within the game’s communities and goes beyond game-specific words. In
the following excerpt, a participant explains the origin of his own code switching by
stating that he chats with “people from other countries” and therefore he has to use
“slang”, referring to the use of everyday language as opposed to academic or school
based-English. He explains that in those interactions he “gets” (meaning “learns”)
English expressions, including some expressions that are hard to translate (e.g., “full
of himself”).
“most of the people I chat with are from other countries, with people from
here you hang out [meet face to face] Then, a great part of the slang, and of the
thing you get are in English…For example expressions like: ¡uy that person
is “full of himself”!... and in Spanish there is no a way to say it “it is full
of himself”, the literal translation doesn’t stick [work]. Some expressions are
easier in English than in Spanish” (23, M).
Advanced Uses of English within Gaming Communities
Beyond the particularities of code switching, participants’ answers and forum
excerpts show that there is an extended use of hybrid bilingual expressions. This
use is not an isolated phenomenon. There is a deep transformation underway within
second-language learning. First, it is clear that contemporary adolescents interact
in the context of global communities that extend beyond physical frontiers. These
communities converge around common interests; interests rather than geographical
closeness unify the communities (Jenkins, 2006). The context provided by these
communities creates a social common ground in which second-language learning
happens in a meaningful way, not driven by curricular obligations but by social
and identity commitments. Second, for the case of games, these communities
interact around the shared goals provided by the game. Players work together to
surpass certain challenges, complete tasks, and achieve goals, grounding second
language learning and use in activity. Participants reported advanced English use
in conversations within and around game situations. They explained that code
switching (rather than an initial, formal-education stage of English use) correlates
to other bilingual practices within the gaming community. They suggest that gamers
read frequently in English, as it is the primary language of communication used to
conduct in-game chat and out-of-game email exchanges.
Specifically, conversations about game topics such as coordinating activity,
resource management, and other strategic elements, are often conducted in English.
These conversations, as described by participants, can be qualified as generative.
That is, they do not follow a fixed script and can represent varied configurations of
events. In the following excerpt, a participant describes how she uses her English
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knowledge to coordinate action with another player who does not know English.
Participants reported that this type of exchange was common and particularly
important when negotiating in the trade channel.
Yes of course one learns a lot. Let´s say… once I was in a mission and there
was a man that only spoke English, then I had to talk to him in English, that
is, I had to whisp him -that´s another term- “give me more mana” (21, F).
Cultural Code Switching
MMORPG gamers also engage in code switching at a different level, a cultural
level. That is, they learn different cultural codes via within-game interactions. From
those interactions, gamers build intuitive theories of cultural differences. In the
case of cultural code switching, the focus is not on language use but on culturebased conventions and on the expectations and interpretations that underlie these
differences. Gee’s (1990) distinction between discourse with a little d and Discourse
with big D is useful for interpreting game-based code switching as a culturallyembedded activity. In the first case, discourse refers to simple linguistic acts that
constitute discourse at the micro-level; in the second case, Discourse refers to a
broader network of meanings that are embedded in culture(s). Interacting in
videogame communities help individuals develop bilingual competency at the level
of discourse, but also at the level of Discourse. During interviews, participants
demonstrated this (albeit generalized) cultural awareness in different examples.
“For example once I had to play with an English [British], and he took the time
to talk everything complete, calmly; the Americans are everything fast, quick,
quick, the way they are: “you´re taking so much time” and so. The French are
like… they don’t like English and everything is like Ok, Ok, and so” (22, F).
“the Americans abbreviate everything, they say three words and communicate
one idea. The Colombians build more on the idea, the same as the Latinos. But
in that construction things get lost” (23, M).
Cultural code switching by MMORPG gamers is similar to other hybrid cultural
practices observed in adolescents growing up under several diverse cultural influences.
Teenagers exposed to multicultural environments produce hybrid interpretations of
texts in which they use both the imaginaries of their original cultures, and the tools
coming from the dominant culture to create a literacy where multiple worlds coexist
(Medina, 2010). Participants in this study share some of these traits with bilingual
adolescents and with multicultural teenagers; they behave like bilingual adolescents
because they are in the initial stages of second language learning, and they behave
like multicultural teenagers because through gaming they have come in contact with
a multicultural array of information sources. Gaming is transforming the way young
people get to know the world, access content and interact with others.
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SITUATED LEARNING, PEER COLLABORATION AND USE OF
ONLINE RESOURCES
From a situated perspective, participating in gaming communities is powerful
for language learning because it allows learners to understand the pragmatics of
language use in context and the nuances of real life communication. Learning
language through participation in an authentic community of practice provides
learners with opportunities that are not frequently found in formal ways of
teaching. Practices such as those found in online gaming environments better
resemble the way that language is learned and experienced naturally, as the
gaming environment helps to present language use in authentic rather than
primarily didactic contexts. Further, bilingual interaction in online games permits
learners to engage in socially meaningful communication and to use multiple
languages as they construct hybrid, virtual identities. That is, their language use
is situated in the social and pragmatic space around the game and influenced by
their current cultural-historic positions.
Participation in online games gives social meaning to action that is tied to the
individual’s identity, providing longstanding motivation for language learning
through continued identity production and through a sense of community belonging,
both of which are crucial for learning (Greeno, Collins, & Resnick, 1996). Identity
and knowledge do not evolve separately; rather they constantly interact with one
another. Learning English means understanding its value in one’s life and finding
some personal connection with it. Success in teaching English as a second language
depends to a large extent on the ability to involve students with the content and use
of the language in their social realms (Toohey, 2000). Online games allow learners
to draw these connections by themselves. More importantly, participation in virtual
environments permits students to have an active role in negotiating the terms of their
second language use and the personal meanings that are constructed. Where topdown, curriculum-mandated approaches to teaching English constitute an imposition
of will based on social hierarchy and the implicit power of school, participation in
gaming communities permits students to decide what aspects of a second language
they want to assume.
In terms of transfer, a situated perspective suggests that participation in online
gaming communities presents learners with real-life situations and authentic contexts.
In this sense, language learned in game spaces may be more likely to transfer to
other social contexts, as, unlike formal schooling, these language practices are
already connected to socially situated meanings and contexts. Though they did so
infrequently, participants also mentioned transfer to formal evaluation and learning
contexts. Language practice in videogames was in some cases considered a starting
point for formal language learning or as a jump-start resource, providing competitive
advantage in learning or evaluation. In the next passage, a participant describes how
bilingual practice in games –although in this case referring to card role-playing
games- helped him to succeed in a classification exam in his first college year.
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“At the beginning, it helped me a lot. When I played Dungeons and Dragons, at
the beginning, there were no books in Spanish, so I just read English books, and
that helped me a lot when I presented the fluency exam of level four”(23, M).
Situating activity in a context that an individual finds personally relevant can also
help foster collaborative learning and problem solving, the advantages of which are
well known (Palincsar & Brown, 1984). Given the affordances of online games,
learners frequently exchange information and conduct sequences of questions
and answers. This type of interaction creates a configuration in which more
experienced users support new users´ activities in order to better integrate them into
the community. At the same time, new users can pick and choose the tasks and
topics that they find interesting or worth pursuing. As novice players are assisted
and empowered with the help of more advanced users, they accomplish more than
they could have on their own. In this way, game based structures align strongly
with social approaches to learning, especially with regards to the development of
language through the personally meaningful social interactions supported in and
around game play (Vygotsky, 1978). Peer collaboration is also useful, as it increases
just-in-time feedback and allows for the creation of long standing social support
networks (e.g., friends). The advantages of having a gradual introduction to any
type of activity are highlighted by models of apprenticeship (Lave & Wenger,
1991). These social practices, including peer collaboration and apprenticeship, are
characteristics of good learning in general and second language learning specifically
within and around online games.
During interviews, participants referred to the existence of communities of
learners that conduct practices of collaborative reasoning and reciprocal teaching.
Within these communities, they reported the existence of collaborative exchanges
based on spontaneous Q&A sequences, during which participants with lower levels
of knowledge request help from the community in order to better understand the
meaning of words and expressions. These exchanges, as described by participants’
interviews, imply a mutual, though tacit agreement, in which participants with
lower knowledge feel entitled to ask, and participants with higher knowledge
feel responsible for providing learning and guidance to those with lower levels of
knowledge. Exchanges like these have been described in different virtual learning
settings focused both on games and on formal academic content (Steinkuehler, 2007;
Van de Sande & Leinhardt, 2007). According to participants’ accounts, bilingual
learning in games supports the progression of non-English speaking new-comers to
more central community members (who can understand English and are fluent in the
bilingual practices of the community). Players initially learned terms from Spanish
speakers with more experience in the game, and later were able to participate in
interactions with completely monolingual English speakers. The implication of this
type of evolution is that participants begin by engaging in explicit questioning about
the second language and later learn through direct participation in gaming situations.
On a related note, participants reported that they use online resources (e.g., Google
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translate, online dictionaries) to support the process of learning. This practice is selfdirected and situated. Participants do not play and then learn language. They learn
language simultaneously during play, frequently keeping a browser window open
to allow for a quick look-up of unknown expressions. This practice in turn stresses
once again the situated nature of language learning within the gaming community.
“well, the ones that initiate me in that were a cousin and a friend of him. Ummm,
they talked to me, and I was like “explain me because I don’t understand”. At
the beginning they were explaining me thing by thing, well… they were the
ones that explained me all those things…I remember that the first times they
told me about some statistics in English” (20, M).
“Well, they stick to you, stick to you [meaning you can´t get rid of the
expressions]. Let´s say, many words stick to me by only seeing them…. You
hear, you ask: what is noob, what is LOL. That noob is newbie, who doesn’t
know anything. LOL is the laugh” (21, M).
“Then you have to be seeing the dictionary, checking the Google translator, to
see what they are telling you. The game is a website, so you can minimize it,
and be connected to the Internet. So, I was playing and looking in the Internet
when I did not understand [something]” (18, M).
Teaching and Learning English in the Context of Mestizo Literacies
The results of this study suggest several implications for populations learning
English as a second language. These implications are different for situations in which
students live in relatively monolingual, non-English speaking societies, compared to
situations in which students are immersed in an English-speaking environment. In
this section, we will first present the implications that these results have for second
language learning both within and outside of English speaking countries with a
particular emphasis on populations that have little or no contact with mainstream
language speakers.
The first implication has to do with a blurring frontier between monolingual
and bilingual communities in the globalized, digital world. This transformation is a
natural follow up of hybridity and convergence in other levels of literacy. Hybridity
between literacy in the digital and physical worlds and convergence of decentralized
communities through Internet have created the conditions for the prominence of
mestizo literacies as a dominant form of language use for contemporary youth. Of
course, hybrid literacies have existed for a long time in multilingual communities
or in zones of the world where geography created strong linguistic cross-paths
(Canagarajah, 2007). The advent and widespread adoption of the Internet has,
however, made this experience accessible to virtually all young people with Internet
access. And though this study highlights the change as it occurs in a videogame
context, the implications extend to other media as well, covering multiple channels,
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products and interests (e.g, social media, virtual forums, fan fiction, political
participation). It seems inevitable to conclude from these data that future experiences
of language learning will be different than they were previously, and indeed, that
they have already begun to change. Further, it is possible that in time, several
dialects will interact in the virtual world around English as a lingua franca. It seems
more likely, however, that the changes observed in this study are an example of a
broader set of transformations in which processes that were previously exclusive to
bilingual communities are now being extended to the experiences of young people
in digital environments. Take code switching for example. The changes presented
in this text not only represent a window into the way that new language is learned,
but also in the way that languages evolve. Loanwords are a byproduct of social
contact between languages and represent the stabilization of code switching as a
regular social practice. Internet access, as immigration has done previously, might be
increasing the rate of transference of words between languages. This change is based
on a transformation of the communication media rather than on the geopolitical
properties of different demographics. Gamers and their linguistic practices indicate
a change in this direction; change that brings with it a transformation not only in
language, but also in the configuration of culture.
This new configuration, in turn, modifies the goals of English teaching further
emphasizing the way that formal instructional perspectives based on direct instruction
are increasingly out of sync with current technological trends. The focus of English
learning can be understood as moving from content transmission to participation
in communities and identity development. Teaching practices should reflect this
change. Gaming and Internet use in general have increased the number of individuals
learning English, not as a mandatory subject in school, but as a tool that enables the
participation and negotiation of ideas and identities with others. Most importantly,
participation in online communities has blurred the distinction between languages
in the virtual experience of a large group of middle class students. Nowadays, many
middle class students in Latin America conduct virtual activities, switching between
Spanish and English and improving the personal significance and social meaning
of using a second language. In this context, English teaching has to be connected
with those new identities and with the participation in the communities of practice
that have led teenagers to engage in bilingual behavior. Teaching grammar rules
abstracted from context and compelling use does little to leverage students’ interest
in learning a second language. Gaming communities are self-driven learning and
teaching communities and instructors of English may benefit from attuning their
practices to work more synergistically with participation in such contexts.
Another line of debate is whether or not the linguistic behaviors of gamers are
complex enough to be considered a sign of bilingual competence. Game community
members conduct activities highly valuable in other social contexts, like being able
to chat, exchange information, write and read in forums, while at the same time
displaying behaviors that are not canonical to English use (e.g., code switching).
The issue seems to be where the lower limit of competence should be placed. For the
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case of gamers in monolingual countries coming from low and middle class families
in which bilingualism is not the norm but the exception, the behaviors displayed by
participants are not only sufficient but also surprising. Pushed by their interest to
participate in the gaming community, players’ English levels easily surpass those
displayed by their parents. Even code switching presents for them the opportunity
of experiencing hybrid literacies, in a way that is similar to their upper class
counterparts. Gaming then, acts as an entrance point for bilingual literacies. At this
basic level, gamers build identities that encompass bilingual forms of participation
and give them a sense of agency in bilingual environments, particularly at the level of
writing. From there, they can take advantage of more complex forms of participation
including the development of spoken fluency. English use as performed by gamers is
not perfect, but it is a point of contact between convergent cultures and experiences.
Asking English language learners for perfect grammar, spelling or pronunciation
from the beginning is closing the door on an opportunity. Imposing traditional
standards of perfect English fluency to newcomers will strengthen linguistic elitism
(Nayar, 1994), more related to class differences and social positioning, than to actual
performance and willing participation.
Finally, it is necessary to discuss the political implications of bilingualism.
English teaching in Latin American countries has been criticized as a form of
cultural imperialism, in which students are indoctrinated in a foreign language and
encouraged to forget their traditions and original identity. In this context, language
is considered a means for political control. In the case of gaming communities this
is not true for several reasons. The first reason is that gamers in this study are not a
defined ethnic population with a clearly distinct identity. On the contrary they are
contemporary global citizens whose goals do not differ much from other citizens
in the western world. Their goals include going to college, traveling abroad and
succeeding at professional and academic levels. Different from upper and middle
class students in the US, or even in more affluent social spaces in Latin America,
those goals are restricted by access and constraints in social and symbolic capital,
including the possibility of being bilingual. By creating globalized, bilingual spaces,
gaming is opening access doors to opportunity. English is no longer a strong social
class marker in Latin America (though French or German still are); it has become
a requirement for equality. By creating bilingual communities of practice, gaming
is leveling the field, particularly for those who (as the participants in this study) do
not belong to privileged groups, and lack access to many learning and interaction
spaces for second language learning. In the same sense, providing them with English
competency or fluency enables participation in worldwide social movements in what
has been called globalization from below (Brecher, Costello, & Smith, 2000).
Second, English language proficiency in the United States can act as a gatekeeper
for social mobility in ways similar to Latin America, albeit via different mechanisms.
For many students, cognitive and cultural proficiency in English (especially whiteacademic vernacular) forms the basis of future success in school. Rather than being
useless or detached from their lives, students instead face negative consequences
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for failing to become English proficient, as they are frequently asked to learn
English as a second language while at the same time mastering the academic content
appropriate for their grade (which is often presented in English). As the linguistic
and cultural capital that these students bring into classrooms is often discounted
(Gutierrez & Rogoff, 2003), videogames may assist in making up the so-called deficit
imposed by the (often unfair) school structure. Considering the social pressures of
peers that can be associated with the classroom, the potential for videogames to
provide psychosocial moratoria (Gee, 2003) and anonymous practice spaces may be
particularly appealing to students who are privately struggling. Finally, the fact that
communities of gamers grow from below creates a different configuration in English
learning. Instead of being passive receivers of transmitted information, global
communities take and decide, maintaining agency in the process of learning. In this
way, instead of receiving an imposed artificial identity, they construct a hybrid one
in which they take what they consider to be best for them, adopting values and
practices from their own and other cultures.
The new global economy has changed the relations of production and therefore
it has altered the very definitions of power and status associated to language.
This new configuration has important consequences for citizen on both sides of
the English divide. For those in countries whose native language is not English,
English competency combined with a global economy has opened new markets
and opportunities. They can now participate in, both as consumers and producers,
diverse economic sectors from tourism to digital application development; from
education to high-end scientific research to artistic production. In extreme cases,
English competency might mean the difference between being able to access
those opportunities or being condemned to manual labor jobs of old economic
configurations. English competency might also mean the power to transcend and
transforms those markets through transnational activism in the form of global social
movements and advocacy groups, many of which require some level of Englishbased communication. With all the information available on the Internet through
videos, and webpages, such as Youtube and Wikipedia, language learning is a major
frontier.
For citizens of English speaking countries, the new global economy creates
what can be called the second language imperative. This imperative indicates that
economic success cannot be separated from multicultural awareness, including at
least some level of second language knowledge. That is, no country can aspire to
compete in the new global markets without being able to communicate with the
other on their own terms. The question of language becomes then a question of
competitive advantage. Even in the so-called first world, citizens who do not speak
a second language will be limited to industrial jobs, that are quickly disappearing
or being outsourced. Similarly, the new postindustrial economy implies that many
people will have to engage in reverse immigration, looking for high paying jobs
overseas, probably in high tech or scientific fields. Only those people with some
level of second language competency will be able to survive the edge of the storm.
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LANGUAGE GAMES
Globalization is eroding economic supremacies and changing markets in a way that
makes second language competency a valuable asset. Videogames in this context
become an important and powerful educational tool because of their power to create
communities that are global and multilingual in nature – characteristics of the
economy that young people will inevitably face.
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ZHUO LI, CHU-CHUAN CHIU & MARIA R. COADY
7. THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF GAMING
LITERACY
What Can We Learn from Adolescent English Language Learners’ Literacy
Engagement in World of Warcraft (WoW)?1
INTRODUCTION
Few teachers and educators would dispute the daunting challenge they face today
to engage students to learn in school. However, what is evident from existing
research is that students are increasingly disengaged from reading and writing in
school, while at the same time they take pleasure in out-of-school technologybased activities, especially playing games in a digital world, surfing the Internet,
communicating via instant messaging and text, and socializing on social media sites
(Ito et al., 2008; Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008). King and O’Brien (2002) use
the term “a literacy Catch-22” (p. 40) to describe how adolescents in a new world
of information technologies are faced with the dilemma between out-of-school
multiliteracies featured activities and in-school print-based learning. This dilemma
may undermine adolescents’ ability to become digitally and critically literate and to
develop intermedial competence (King & O’Brien, 2002).
In contrast to traditional or “official” literacy activites encountered in school
settings, playing videogames, or gaming, is considered an “unofficial” literacy
among adolescents (Dyson, 2005). For English language learners (ELLs), who are
challenged to acquire high degrees of English rapidly but who are “not faring well
in U.S. schools” (August, 2006, p. xiii), gaming may be a thorny issue, because it
begets parents’ and teachers’ concerns about time spent playing rather than learning.
Although researchers (e.g., Gee, 2003; Selfe, Mareck, & Gardiner, 2007) have called
attention to the use of videogames to foster literacy development, little empirical
research has examined adolescents’ literacy activities in gaming, and even less
is known about ELLs’ views of the gaming experience. To address this gap, we
sought to understand how adolescent ELLs were engaged in second language (L2)
literacy practices through a popular massively multiplayer online role playing game
(MMORPG), World of Warcraft (WoW).
H. R. Gerber & S. S. Abrams (Eds.), Bridging Literacies with Videogames, 129–152.
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Z. LI, C.-C. CHIU & M. R. COADY
FRAMEWORK
Multiliteracies
In this study we conceptualize literacy from a sociocultural perspective and view it as
effective participation in a social practice by using language across multiple modes
(writing vs. image) and media (print vs. screen). In contrast to a more traditional
concept of literacy, in which reading and writing skills are central, literacy as social
practice (Barton & Hamilton, 1998; Gee, 1992; Street, 1984) emphasizes “the
social relationships and institutions within which literacy is embedded” (Barton &
Halmiton, 2000, p. 16). In other words, literacy practices (or literacies, in the plural)
can take on varied forms and are situated in specific social and cultural contexts
(Barton, Hamilton, & Ivanič, 2000).
Technological advancements have brought significant changes in communication
and social practices, which have had a profound impact on what it means for one to be
literate. To read and write, print remains essential, but today this is far from sufficient.
Nearly two decades ago, the New London Group (1996) proposed the concept of
“multiliteracies,” which went beyond the traditional reading and writing activities in
“page-bound, official, standard forms of the national language” (p 2). Their expanded
concept of literacy, brought about by technological innovations, has been illuminated
by adolescents and young children in out-of-school activities (Jenkins, 2006). Cope and
Kalantzis (2009) point out that “new literacies” have emerged as a result of increasing
multimodaility due to burgeoning digital technologies. In fact, Dodge et al. (2008) have
noted that today’s adolescents are “the most media literate of any generation” (p. 226).
Referring to videogaming as a new literacy, Gee (2007) defines literacy as “any
technology that allows people to ‘decode’ meanings and produce meanings by using
symbols” (p. 135). Drawing upon Gee’s definition, we consider “literacy” to mean
effective functioning in situated social practices through meaning-making across
various modalities (text, images, symbols, numerals, sound, movement, and so
forth) in a multimodal environment.
Literacy Engagement
The concept of “literacy engagement” advocated by Guthrie (2004) plays a
prominent role in shaping research on literacy education. Guthrie notes the universal
observation that high engagement is associated with high achievement, and,
conversely, low engagement with low achievement. According to Guthrie, there are
four dimensions of engagement: first, time on task suggests “paying attention to text,
concentrating on meaning, and sustaining cognitive effort” (p. 3); second is affect,
which implies enthusiasm, liking, and enjoyment; third is cognitive qualities of the
reader signifies conceptual learning during reading or building new understandings
based on existing knowledge (Guthrie & Anderson, 1999); and fourth is activitybased, which indicates the quantity and diversity of students’ reading in and outof-school. Taken together, engaged literacy is a cognitive, motivational, and social130
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THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF GAMING LITERACY
interactive behavior. Using strategies like questioning and comprehending, an
engaged reader, for example, is capable of participating in social interactions such as
discussing his or her reading experiences with friends. Guthrie’s literacy engagement
framework provides a second, useful lens through which students’ engagement in
gaming literacy can be understood.
Second Language (L2) Acquisition Theory and Gaming
Given the large and growing number of students who do not speak English as their
first language (L1), as well as those students with low levels of literacy (August,
2006), literacy development for English learners has increasingly drawn educators’
attention. The National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth
point to the dearth of research dealing with English learners’ out-of-school-literacy
experiences, particularly their literacy practices as influenced by technological
innovations (August & Shanahan, 2006).
Videogames provide ELLs with a highly contextualized environment in which they
can interact with animated agents and receive positive reinforcement in an engaging
way. To elaborate on how videogames can be used to facilite second language (L2)
literacy development, it is necessary to revisit second language acquisition (SLA)
theories to examine how videogames address ELLs’ linguistic needs from a theoretical
base. First is the notion of “comprehensible input” (Krashen & Terrell, 1983). Students
acquire a second language when the language they are learning is made understandable
or “comprehensible” to them. Comprehensible input hypothesis (Krashen & Terrell,
1983) can be applied to gaming environments, which optimize language learning
opportunities (García-Carbonell, Rising, Montero, & Watts, 2001). Videogames offer
players extensive contextualization of language input, including graphics and visuals,
pictures, symbols that represent players’ goals and strategies (e.g., a treasure chest),
and the ability to look up language alongside actual play, such as on the Internet.
The second theory related to L2 acquisition and gaming is the notion of affective
filter (Krashen & Terrell, 1983). Affect refers to feelings and emotions; affect
directly relates to the comfort of a L2 learner who is in the process of acquiring a new
language. Lowering the “affective filter” for language learners is a key element of
the L2 acquisition process. Videogames provide a less stressful and more enjoyable
environment, which has a positive effect on language learning outcomes (García
-Carbonnell et al., 2001).
Finally, scholars long have differentiated distinct types of language in education:
academic and conversational language (Cummins, 1986; Schleppegrell, 2004).
Academic language refers to the type of language used in educational contexts,
including discipline-specific language and literacy uses (Fang & Schleppegrell,
2008). In contrast, conversational language is used in everyday conversations and
may be included in educational settings but is not characterized by discipline-specific
language. The language of gaming is context-specific but tends to incorporate
conversational language use, particularly in the chat features of the game. Knowing
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Z. LI, C.-C. CHIU & M. R. COADY
the pragmatic uses of language is a necessary L2 skill, and gaming allows players
the chance to engage in context-embedded (Cummins, 1986; 2001) language uses in
an enjoyable environment.
Weighed against the abundance of studies conducted on videogames in education
as a whole (Garris, Ahlers, & Driskell, 2002; Margolis, Nussbaum, Rodriguez, &
Rosas, 2006; Millians, 1999; Rosas et al., 2002; Shaffer, Squire, Halverson, & Gee,
2004; Squire, 2006), a paucity of published work has been dedicated to gaming in L2
acquisition. Most studies on this topic analyze the features of videogames, which may
be applied to language learning in general. Several studies investigated game design
tools and principles related to language acquisition (Morton & Jack, 2005; Pasero &
Sabatier, 1998; Johnson, Vihjalmsson, & Marsella, 2005); few studies focused on the
language learner’s use of videogames (deHaan, 2005; Herselman &Technikon, 2000;
Yip & Kwan, 2006), particularly with reference to its classroom application. In prior
studies on language development through videogames, some positive results have been
found in certain linguistic domains such as speaking (Morton & Jack, 2005), vocabulary
learning (Miller & Hegelheimer, 2006; Rankin, Gold, & Gooch, 2006; Yip & Kwan,
2006), listening and character recognition (deHaan, 2005), and computer-mediated
communication (Thorne & Black, 2007; Shin, 2006). What remains unexamined is the
landscape of L2 literacy practices in gaming and an in-depth investigation of how L2
learners are engaged in various literacy practices while gaming.
World of Warcraft (WoW) in Education
In light of the popularity among adolescents and the embedded literacy opportunities,
we chose WoW as the game through which we studied L2 literacy practices. WoW
is currently the world’s largest massively multiplayer online role-playing game
(MMORPG). Since WoW was launched in November 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment,
it has grown to more than 8 million monthly subscribers (Kain, 2013). WoW is set in
a fictional 3-D world, where players design and control avatars to explore locations,
defeat creatures, and complete quests in order to obtain rewards and improve their
equipment for more difficult quests.
WoW has sparked researchers’ interest in exploring its educational value. Nardi
and Harris (2006) discovered that social activities in WoW through collaborative
play provides rich learning opportunities. In addition, WoW is a chatful environment
in which peers voluntarily teach others in conversations, approaching what Vygotsky
(1978) has deemed a “zone of proximal development” (ZPD) through peer-topeer collaborations (p. 86) (Nardi, Ly, & Harris, 2007). In a study of adolescent
boys engaged in after-school play of WoW, Steinkuehler and King (2009) found
that those students, who were identified as “at risk” and failing in literacy related
classes, showed great interest in detailed and lengthy discussions about gaming and
communicating on their message boards.
In recent years, WoW has also received research attention in the field of L2 teaching
and learning. For instance, Bryant (2006) concludes that WoW can provide an
132
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THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF GAMING LITERACY
engaging language immersion environment. Thorne (2008) found that multilingual
transcultural communicative activities occur in WoW. Using WOW as a tool for
supporting eight ELLs’ language learning in a Thai university, Kongmee, Strachan,
Montgomery, & Pickard (2011) reported that WoW offered a safe virtual space for
ELLs to communicate with other players across the globe so that their confidence
in using English was boosted through gaming. Futhermore, the students became
more active in using English while they were reading, writing, acquiring vocabulary,
and practicing public speaking and conversational skills in WoW play (Kongmee
et al., 2011). Sarsar (2008) investigated ELLs’ gaming experience, especially their
WoW play, outside of school in the United Arab Emirates and argued that scholars
and educators should inquire about how best videogames can help students learn
academic content. Hence, it is increasingly important to understand how students are
engaged in gaming and how that facilitates literacy development.
EXPLORING ELLS’ WOW EXPERIENCE
The main question of this study was “what second language (L2) literacy practices
are adolescent male ELLs engaged in with WoW?” Two interrelated secondary
questions were investigated: What L2 literacy practices are adolescent male ELLs
engaged in within WoW? and what L2 literacy practices are adolescent male ELLs
engaged in around WoW?
By “literacy practices within games,” we mean literacy practices that are
indigenous to the game playing process. In contrast, “literacy practices around game”
are literacy practices that are not embedded in game playing per se but are relevant
to or born out of game play. These literacy practices include both online practices
(e.g., seeking information on the Internet) and offline practices (e.g., communicating
with other players about game play in real life).
A qualitative research design was used to understand “meaning in context”
(Merriam, 1998, p. 1). With a focus on “the meaning-making activity of the individual
mind” (Crotty, 2004, p. 58), a multiple case study approach was used. We followed a
constructivist theoretical perspective to present “rich, ‘thick’ description” (Merriam,
1998, p. 29) of what L2 literacy practices occurred when adolescent ELLs played
WoW and what those L2 literacy practices meant to them.
Identifying and Recruiting English Learner-Players of WoW
Since two researchers of the study were members of the local Chinese community,
we went to the local Chinese church in a southeastern college town to distribute
flyers and solicit participants from within the Chinese-speaking community. For the
sake of “purposeful sampling” (Creswell, 2007, p.75; Merriam, 1998, p. 61), we
conducted an oral survey to recruit participants. The selection criteria required the
participants: 1) be identified as ELLs in grades 8-12 (approximately aged 13-18),
including those who were currently receiving English as a second language (ESL)
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Z. LI, C.-C. CHIU & M. R. COADY
services as well as those who were exited from ESL services; 2) speak Chinese
as a first language; 3) play online computer games and spend about two or more
hours playing games per day; 4) have been or be willing to play WoW in the English
language. Both novices and experts of playing WoW were invited to participate in
this study. Though we intended to identify participants who were currently receiving
ESL services, none could be found in the sampling population. Ultimately, four
male adolescents who were native Chinese speakers and L2 learners of English
participated in this study.
Fei2, Jim, and Mark were born in Mainland China, and Kyle was born in Taiwan.
All of the particpants had immigrated to and been in the United States between
four to nine years at the time of the study. Mark, Fei, and Kyle were identified,
received, and were exited from ESL services in public schools, indicating that they
had attained a level of English language proficiency that allowed them to participate
fully in mainstream classes. Except for Kyle, who was a recent high school graduate,
the other three participants were still in high school at the time of the study. Though
Kyle had just completed 12th grade, he still had two credits remaining in order to
obtain his high school diploma. Mark was an experienced WoW player and had
reached a level 80, the maximum level in WoW. The other three participants were
new to WoW but had been playing videogames for between four and ten years. Table
1 below provides an overview of the participants’ backgrounds.
Table 1. Four participants’ background information
Name
(Pseudonym)
Age, gender
Grade
Length of time
in the U.S. at
time of study
WoW level Length of game
(lvl) during the play history
study
Fei
14, M
9th
5 years
From 1 to 8
8 years
Jim
17, M
10th
9 years
From 1 to 12
4 years
Kyle
18, M
post-12th
4 years
From 1 to 11
10 years
Mark
16, M
10th
7 years
80 (Highest)
8 years
Note: Kyle had finished 12th grade, but he still needed to earn two credits to receive his high
school diploma.
In WoW, all the participants designed and controlled their avatars (or characters) to
complete quests given by non-player characters (NPCs) and interact with other players
through text or voice chat in synchronous time. In creating an avatar, the participants
needed to choose to be members of Alliance or Horde, two warring factions. Characters
from the same faction could group and interact. Also, a player had to select the
character’s race and class. There were ten races (Dwarf, Gnome, Human, Night Elf,
Draenei, Orc, Tauren, Troll, Undead, and Blood Elf) and ten classes (Druid, Hunter,
Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior, and Death knight) during
134
Table 2. Four participants’ avatars in WoW
Participant
(Pseudonym)
Mark
Avatar’s Name Blubolt
(Pseudonym) (L1 to L8)
Lylefun
(L1 to L12)
Vanillat
(L1 to L3)
Midiron
(L1 to L5)
Unokool
(L1 to L11)
Marklull
(L80)
SuperMark
(L72)
Faction
Horde
Horde
Alliance
Alliance
Alliance
Alliance
Alliance
Race
Undead (Male)
Troll (Male)
Human (Female) Human (Male)
Human (Male)
Night elf (Male) Night elf (Male)
Class
Mage
Warrior
Warlock
Mage
Warrior
Warrior
Hunter
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Kyle
THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF GAMING LITERACY
Jim
Avatar’s Image
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this study period. Each race had unique racial traits and certain class selections. Table 2
shows the participants’ avatars (in pseudonyms) in WoW.
Incorporating Data from Multiple Sources
In the analysis of the data, we triangulated multiple data sources, including
interviews, observations, and archival data sources.
Interviews. There were two formal one-hour individual interviews with each
participant. At the beginning of the study, a one-hour interview was conducted with
an emphasis on the participants’ prior videogaming experience. The first interview
provided a global view of each participant’s “life history” in terms of videogames.
At the end of the study, a second, one-hour interview was conducted to ask the
participants to reflect on their WoW experiences throughout the study period.
Observations. We observed each participant playing WoW once each week, with
each observation lasting between 60 and 90 minutes. A screen capture program,
Camtasia, was used to record the game playing process on the screen. After each
observation, the recording of the game process was used in a stimulated recall
procedure to cue each participant’s memory in describing his experience (Gass &
Mackey, 2000) while playing the game.
Archival Data. With the participants’ permission, any substantial products
related to their online gaming experience, for example, the timelines of gaming
history drawn by the participants and some snapshots of game play, were collected
as supplementary data.
Seeking Emerging Issues
Two stages of data analyses, within-case analysis and cross-case analysis, were
conducted. In order to yield substantial “comparisons” in data analysis, the constant
comparative method developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) was used throughout
the data analysis process.
As Figure 1 demonstrates, three sets of data derived from each case, namely,
individual interviews, observation field notes and reflections, and archives. In withincase analysis, we analyzed data by case or participant, such that each case consisted
of interview, field notes, and archival data. In cross-case analysis, we looked
across all four participants’ interviews, observation data, and archives. In this way,
comparisons were constantly made within and between levels of conceptualization
(Merriam, 1998).
LITERACY EVENTS IN WOW
The findings from this study demonstrate a hierarchical arrangement of literacy
events. Findings differentiate among “gaming activities,” which are the activities
directly observed in the participants’ game play process; “literacy activities,”
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Figure 1. Flow of data analysis.
Note: The dotted line arrows and the solid line arrows indicate within-case analyses and
across-case analyses respectively. The two-headed arrows between same types of data
between cases (e.g., observations vs. observations) suggests an open cycle of comparison
across cases, i.e. 1st participant’s observation data were compared with observation data of
the other three participants rather than merely comparing the observation data of the 1st
participant and that of the 2nd participant.
which suggest “observable units of behavior” (Barton & Hamilton, 2000, p. 7) and
where literacy plays a role; and “literacy practices,” which refers to an abstract
way of “utilising literacy” (Barton & Hamilton, 2000, p. 8). Differentiating gaming
activities from literacy activities and from literacy practices provided a bottom-up
lens through which “literacy” in gaming could be specified, contextualized, and
conceptualized. Literacy practices were dependent on literacy activities, which were
based on specific gaming activities. The relationship among these three events is
depicted below in Figure 2.
Gaming Activities and Literacy Activities within and Around WoW
There were 51 gaming activities identified within WoW play but only four gaming
activities around WoW. Gaming activities within-WoW and around-WoW gaming
were categorized as shown in Tables 3 and 4. The participants’ within-WoW gaming
activities far outnumbered around-WoW gaming activities. In contrast with various
within-WoW gaming activities, around-WoW gaming activities were rare and only
found in two (Mark and Kyle) of the four players’ gaming process. In essence,
around-WoW gaming activities tended to be more optional in the game play, rather
than necessary.
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Figure 2. Gaming activities, literacy activities, and literacy practices.
Tables 3 and 4, below, also demonstrate the complexity and plurality of literacy
activities in the participants’ WoW experience. Eighteen and three literacy activities
were found within WoW and around WoW, respectively. Of all the literacy activities
both within and around WoW, reading, a process of decoding texts, symbols, and
numerals, was an activity that occurred in most of the gaming activities. Decisionmaking was the literacy activity whose occurrence was second to reading. The
participants made decisions when they were faced with more than one option. For
instance, players decided whether to accept or reject a quest after reading about it.
The third observed literacy activity was discovering, which included discovering
problems as well as resources. The fourth literacy activity was comparing, which
occurred when the participants had two or more objects in the game and needed to
consider whether they were similar or different.
Literacy Practices within and Around WoW
We identified four principal literacy practices, including information seeking,
strategizing, problem solving, and socializing in the participants’ WoW play. All of
the around-WoW literacy activities such as searching, reading, and watching video
were related to seeking information. In other words, information seeking was the
only literacy practice that occurred both within and around WoW. Table 5 provides an
overview of all of the literacy practices within and around WoW. It further illustrates
the literacy activities in which participants’ literacy practices were grounded.
Figure 3 provides a visual display of the frequency of each literacy practice both
within and around WoW. Each literacy practice is briefly explained below.
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Table 3. Gaming activities and literacy activities within WoW play
Gaming Activities (within WoW)
Acquiring
quests
Literacy Activities (within WoW)
from exclamation
marks
discovering (quests/problems)
from Wanted
reading (symbols, text)
Posters
from quest items
Accepting/ Rejecting quests
reading (text, symbols, numerals)
decision making
Processing quests
reading (text, symbols, numerals)
questing (demonstrating
understanding by doing)
Doing Quests
Completing
quests
reading( text, numerals, symbols)
Claiming rewards comparing
decision making
Tracking quests
Retrieving quest
logs
decision making
interacting (through chatting)
Grouping
Social
Interacting
Competing
reading (text, numerals)
planning
Player vs
Environment
(PvE): raiding
Player vs Player
(PvP): dueling
Player vs Player
(PvP): Horde vs.
Alliance
advertising
recruiting
negotiating
interacting (rejecting/
accepting,recruiting,deploying)
reading (chatting: text, numerals,
symbols)
writing (in chatting)
competing
Chatting
reading (text)
writing
Equipping characters
reading (text, numerals, symbols)
decision making
Repairing armors
discovering (weapon smiths)
reading (text, numerals, symbols)
comparing
decision making
repairing
Managing
Characters
(Continued)
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Table 3. continued
Gaming Activities (within WoW)
Managing
Economy
Exploring &
Checking
Others
Literacy Activities (within WoW)
Accepting training
discovering(trainers)
reading (text, numerals, symbols)
comparing
decision making
Managing backpacks/inventory
discovering (problems)
reading (text, numerals, symbols)
comparing
decision making
Recovering health
discovering (problems)
reading (text, numerals, symbols)
recovering
Buying and selling
discovering (merchants)
reading (text, numerals, symbols)
comparing
decision making
transacting
Banking
reading (text, numerals, symbols)
transacting
Auctioning
discovering (auctioneer)
reading (text, numerals, symbols)
searching
transacting (buying & bidding)
Time, map, calendar, NPCs,
reading (text, numerals, symbols)
character info, spellbook, icons, etc.
Travelling using Hearthstone
reading (text, symbols)
locating
Finding a home
reading (text)
decision making
Resurrecting(choosing to be healed
reading (text, symbols)
by a spirit healer or retrieving
locating
corpse)
resurrecting
Note: The literacy activities and literacy practices in shaded areas were those found in all
four participants’ game play.
Information seeking. Information seeking was the main, observable literacy
practice in which participants were engaged. Information seeking is a broad concept,
which reflects a series of attempts made by the participants to obtain information
both within and around the game. The information embodies both the problems
the participants needed to solve in the game and the resources they could or did
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Table 4. Gaming activities and literacy activities aroud WoW play
Gaming Activities (around WoW)
Literacy Activities (around WoW)
Reading on WoWhead and Tankspot
searching
reading (text)
Googling NPCs
searching
reading (text)
Checking patch info on WoW Web
reading (text)
Watching YouTube videos about WoW
searching
watching video
Table 5. Summary of literacy practices within and around WoW
Literacy activities
Literacy practices (Frequency)
Reading (text, numerals and symbols)
Discovering (problems and resources)
Searching
Watching video
Information seeking
(32)
Planning
Comparing
Decision making
Strategizing
(15)
Questing
Competing
Repairing
Recovering
Transacting
Locating
Problem solving
(10)
Writing
Interacting
Advertising
Recruiting
Negotiating
Socializing
(8)
use to solve the problems. The participants read texts, symbols, and/or numerals
when involved in all the gaming activities: questing, chatting, managing characters,
managing economy, randomly exploring, and checking. Around WoW, Kyle used
Google to search a NPC’s information.
Strategizing. Planning, comparing, and decision-making are components of
strategizing. On the macro level, strategizing determined how the participants’
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Figure 3. Literacy practices within and around WoW.
avatars were manipulated in the virtual world. On the micro level, some specific
strategies that applied to game play were found in the participants’ game process.
The participants used four specific strategies. First, exploring was a strategy and an
individual learning process the participants often used when they had difficulties
locating a certain place. Second, searching for useful information online was used
frequently and appeared to be an effective way to strategize. Third, reading with
purpose saved participants’ time while they were engaged in a quest. Participants
noted that this was an effective way to save time. Fourth, collaborative play with
other players was a strategy in which all the participants were engaged.
Problem solving. Problem solving was a literacy practice in which the participants
utilized information and resources in order to accomplish some game-specific tasks.
These tasks included questing, competing, repairing armor, recovering health,
buying, selling, auctioning, and locating. Problem solving in this study occurred as
a final step in a larger problem solving process. For example, doing quests, which
was a larger problem (or event), included acquiring, accepting/rejecting, processing,
completing, and tracking quests.
Socializing. In gaming, socializing occurred when the participants interacted
with or intended to interact with other players through text chat or voice chat, which
were commonly characterized by situated language use. Without exception, each
participant expressed a positive view of the significance of social interaction in the
game process.
For instance, Jim, who benefited from playing with another player, said talking
to a more experienced player was more helpful than reading the quests, because he
felt there were some random places that he had never heard about it but had to find.
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To Mark, socializing did not occur as a separate, unique event; rather, socializing
occurred while he was competing, comparing the roles in raiding, and searching
patch information online.
MULTIMODAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN WOW
Guthrie’s (2001) framework of literacy engagement underscores the instructional
and social contexts that foster reading development. In this study, the participants’
literacy practices are embedded in the context of gaming, and that further includes
social interaction among players. To differentiate the literacy engagement in
classroom reading (Guthrie’s framework) from literacy engagement in gaming (the
context of this study), we use the terms reading literacy engagement (RLE) and
gaming literacy engagement (GLE), respectively.
Multimodal Environment
Reading literacy engagemen mainly includes reading print in a classroom setting,
whereas GLE occurs in a multimodal environment. Moreno and Mayer (2007) define
multimodal learning environments as learning environments that use both verbal and
non-verbal modes to embody content knowledge. Given that texts, symbols, and
numerals are pervasive in WoW, the player is immersed in a multimodal environment.
Beavis (2002b) describes several central elements entailed in reading and playing
games, including “segmented screens, talk, color, dimensionality and sound”
(p. 6). All five of these elements were noted across the four participants’ gaming
experiences in several ways. First, the animated action of the game occupied the
center of the screen. Second, there was a multitude of supplementary information
that was supplied in the form of icons in different sections of the screen (non-center).
The players moved between these different layers of frames to locate the information
needed in the game process. For example, they opened spellbooks to check spells.
The game log updated the players on what was happening in the game world. Third,
colors played an important role to deliver information to gamers. For example, the
players could easily identify the value of loots with different colors so that they
could decide which items were worth keeping. Fourth, dimensionality indicated the
layout of the game. In WoW, the players used the map on the top right corner in the
game to change their location. Finally, the main use of sound in this game was to
create realism and intensify “the immersive feeling of the game” (Beavis, 2002b, p.
7). Though Mark was the only participant who used audio communication with other
players online, the simulation of the fighting sounds made the participants have a
sense of “presence,” that is, “the feeling of being there” (McMahan, 2003, p.68).
WoW presented a world of both visual and audio effects. Each participant
interacted in multimodal fashion, including text, symbols, numerals, and sound. In
contrast to Guthrie’s (2001) emphasis on the use of interesting and engaging text, in
WoW this was replaced by the multimodal nature of the game.
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Scaffolded Learning Environment for Second Language Learners
The WoW setting itself was arguably a scaffolded learning environment. A scaffolded
learning environment consists of two parts. First, the student/player actually
needs scaffolding, or access to information (curriculum in school) that is made
understandable or comprehensible to them. Second, the student/player has access to
scaffolding, essential someone or something that makes information understandable.
Generally, scaffolding is most effective in learning when the information, curriculum
or second language is just above the ability level of the player/ learner (Krashen &
Terrell, 1983). In the case of gaming, the game must be challenging enough to keep
the player engaged in playing, but not so demanding that the player feels unable
to succeed. In the instructional context for reading engagement, Guthrie (2001)
points out that learning and knowledge goals are codeveloped by the teacher and
the students and based on school requirements. Though there were no teachers or
external requirements in WoW, learning occurred via the game design and was part
of the player’s expectation.
WoW presented a learner-centered environment. The participants had access to
several in-game tutorials, which acted as a ‘more knowledgeable peer’ when the
player required additional information (Nardi, Ly, & Harris, 2007). First, new
tutorials were set in the exclamation marks, and players could access those at
their convenience. Second, some of the information was integrated in the chat log.
Whenever a player logged in, a piece of information about updated patches, addon issues and forums on the Website appeared. Third, each quest in WoW was set
in a narrative format and functioned as tutorials to scaffold the learning process.
All of the in-game tutorials designed in the game provided explicit instructions and
allowed novice players to learn by doing rather than by reading a manual.
Interactive Learning Environment
WoW offered a high degree of interactivity among individual players. Prior research
on adolescents’ videogaming experience found that social interactions about the
game existed out of games (Raney, Smith, & Baker, 2006). This study found that
participants’ learning was demonstrated through interactions with other players in
the game and by interacting with the game itself.
Playing was the best way to demonstrate the participants’ understanding of the
game. The social interactions enhanced their motivation to play. The interactions
among players provided rich learning opportunities; the interaction between the
participants and the game itself was constantly ongoing. The participants received
immediate feedback in their game process. When they were too far from the target,
they could see the red alert or hear the warning if the volume was kept on. The chat
log functioned as a device that also provided constant feedback. Players also received
rewarding confirmations if they successfully accepted and completed quests.
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Collaborative Learning Environment
In presenting the instructional context for reading engagement, Guthrie (2001)
interprets collaboration as constructing knowledge socially in a learning community.
Indeed, this essential element of traditional classroom instruction is likewise apparent
in WoW. Vygotsky’s (1978) notion of ZPD demonstrates how collaboration occurred
in WoW. According to Vygotsky, a distance exists between the learners’ actual
developmental level without any external assistance and his/her potential level with
external assistance. The assistance could either be from adult guidance or peers
collaboration. Nardi, Ly, and Harris (2007) found that player-produced conversations
in WoW fostered ZPD supplied by more experienced peers. In line with their findings,
Mark confirmed that he and his friend, Ananivana, helped each other from the very
beginning of the game. Their shared experience, peer-collaboration, not only kept
them engaged in the game but also boosted their learning.
SECOND LANGUAGE (L2) LITERACY ENGAGEMENT MODEL IN WOW
Below we provide a visual representation (see Figure 4) to demonstrate the
participants’ literacy engagement in WoW as a dynamic system. The diagram on the
left of the figure shows the relationship among literacy practices, literacy activities,
and gaming activities. All literacy practices were embedded in literacy activities,
which were derived from gaming activities. In other words, gaming activities as
the most observable activities in gaming provided opportunities for literacy. The
circle on the right demonstrates the four literacy practices identified in this study,
which included socializing, information seeking, strategizing, and problem solving.
“Sense of engagement,” which we use to pinpoint how the participants felt about
their gaming experience, occupies a central location with the four literacy practices
around it. Hence, the four literacy practices that occurred concomitantly fostered the
participants’ sense of “enthusiasm, liking and enjoyment” (Guthrie, 2004), which
involved reward, immersion, and immediacy. Three of the four literacy practices,
that is, socializing, strategizing, and problem solving, occurred within WoW. Only
information seeking occurred occasionally around Kyle’s and Mark’s game play.
Thus, it is clear to see that engaged literacy through gaming has the potential to
transcend the immediate environment and support additional literacy activities.
While playing WoW, English as a L2 was necessary for the participants to
complete the task-based activities. In terms of language use, reading and writing
were the main language practices in which the participants were involved, and those
occurred in English. Furthermore, reading in the game was not confined to reading
words. Reading was multimodal, and it included words, symbols, images, numbers,
colors, and occasionally sounds, all of which shaped the context for the participants.
Though writing was not as indispensable as reading in WoW play, informal writing
(e.g.text chat) did occur in all the participants’ game play process, though the
frequency varied. Mark was most active in using informal and specialized game
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Figure 4. L2 Literacy engagement in WoW.
Note: The variety of the frame lines (from solid lines to dashed lines) of the four components
(reading, listening, writing, and speaking) indicates the varied degrees of occurrence of the
four language practices. Reading was most often observed language practice in the gaming
process. Writing occurred less than reading but more than listening and speaking.
language to chat with other friends. Listening and speaking were optional literacy
practices, which occurred less frequently. The multimodal environment in WoW
offered the participants a variety of literacy options that they could choose from, in
order to effectively function in the game world.
In summary, examining the literacy practices that the participants were engaged
in reveals the nature of the literacy engagement in gaming. A bottom-up perspective
on gaming activities, literacy activities, and literacy practices provided the lens
through which the nature of the literacy engagement was viewed in a dynamic way.
In WoW, literacy engagement occurred when a player’s excitement and enthusiasm
were aroused by the joint functioning of reward, immersion, and immediacy
in a multimodal gaming environment replete with scaffolding, interaction, and
collaboration. Players were involved in a dynamic process of socializing, information
seeking, strategizing, and problem solving simultaneously within and around the
game. To the participants and others who learned English as their second language,
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the exposure to the English language was increased, due to the fact that reading
and writing were incorporated into the gaming process while listening and speaking
tended to be optional, but engaging, practices.
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
This study contributes to the field of literacy development in that it demonstrates the
types of literacies that non-native English speakers (prior English language learners)
were engaged in out-of-school settings. Findings show that the four participants were
highly engaged in multiple and simultaneous literacy events across four modalities
of language – listening and speaking (when audio was utilized in WoW), reading, and
writing. They engaged in multimodal forms of literacy (reading and writing print
in English, symbols, numerals, colors) to obtain information. As Beavis (2002a)
asserts, the information in the game world is presented “in a variety of modes –
verbal, visual and symbolic” (p. 53). This type of context-embedded (Cummins,
1986; 2001) language use facilitates learning English for L2 learners because the
additional information in tutorials and visual aids help students to make sense of new
information very quickly.
In addition to the multimodal nature of reading, findings from this study showed
that adolescent ELLs’ L2 literacy engagement was scaffolded, interactive, and
cooperative in the game. For second language learners, scaffolding facilitates the
development of the second language when the language input is made comprehensible.
In the context of learing a second language and building new vocabulary in English,
scaffolding through the use of visual and audio aids, as occurred in with WoW, is
cruicial (Krashen & Terrell, 1983).
In addition, players’ individual learning styles and learning needs were met
continuously while gaming. For example, for a student whose learning style is visual,
the multimodal nature of information can enable the student to view images and
symbols and click on them. Clicking allowed the participants to obtain additional
information when they needed it, or when it was most necessary. This provided
an immediate and authentic input for players. For others whose learning style is
language-based, printed text in English accompanies visuals and images, also
providing immediate and authentic language input. Finally, for students who prefer
audio instructions, those are likewise available within WoW. The multimodal learning
environment, which responded to individual participants learning preferences,
bolstered their motivatation to participate and desire to succeed and gain power.
Given the changing nature of literacies in the 21st century, as foresighted by the
New London Group (1996) nearly two decades ago, it is important for educators of
ELLs and mainstream students to begin to see the relationship between motivation,
literacy engagement, and multimodal learning environments. Schools across the
US are already responding to the uses and benefits of multimodal learning and
technologies available, even if that response has been sluggish. For example, teachers
can now create “courses” within online social media sites such as Edmodo and use
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specialized Apps (applications) to provide additional opportunities for literacy and
reading. And for teachers of English language learners, the use of online audio and
video to build content knowledge, background, and show real images of items and
events, is a revolutionary opportunity for teachers to respond to the unique needs of
ELLs. Used in a classroom setting, we believe that these can drive language learning
in two ways: (1) engaging students through the use of multiple modalities and
semiotic systems where individual learning needs can be met; and (2) demonstrating
the immediate, communicative nature of English in written and oral forms and for
authentic purposes. Because English is one of the most dominant languages in the
gaming world, videogames such as WoW provide ELLs with a highly interactive,
stress free, and multimodal learning platform on which to “try out” English language
for communicative and literacy development purpose in a low risk environment
(Krashen & Terrell, 1983). Feedback was embedded in the activities, as immediate
and authentic communication. Hence, participants enjoyed the low-stress language
environment.
As teachers of English language learners adapt their content and mateirals to
meet the language learning needs of students in their classrooms, teachers can tie
language objectives to multiple modes of language input and student output (Herrera
& Murray, 2005). For example, teachers can “build background” and key vocabulary
by utilizing streamed videos for students. Multimodal learning via online media is
a genre within itself. As the United States moves to a common, national curriculum
in the 21st century and Common Core State Standards respond to the increasing
pressure for students to develop high degrees of academic language (CCSSI, 2013;
Cummins, 1986, 2001; Schleppegrell, 2004), language associating online and
multiple literacies needs to be included as a genre and knowledge base in its own
right. Hence, incorporating technologies and gaming opportunities with extension
language and literacy activities for second language development into school time
and school curricula may become an increasingly necessary component for teachers
of English learners.
In the context of gaming, Gee (2007) suggests that student learning can occur
using games. In this case, teachers can build background information required to
assist game play, assist in designing avatars, and frontload key vocabulary for ELLs.
The gaming environment has immediate application for second language use, and
teachers can have students reflect on their experience orally or in writing using
feedback features.
For future research, we offer several suggestions based on our work with gaming
and English language learners. First, research involving players at varied gaming
levels will enrich our views on literacy opportunities that may vary for different level
game players. Second, it is important to explore the gender role in adolescents’ literacy
involvement embedded in gaming in any future research. Third, investigating WoW
and gaming with newly arrived ELLs, i.e., at various English language proficiency
levels, will allow for additional insight into their linguistic and cultural experiences
in a language-enriched gaming environment. Fourth, studies that look across diverse
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groups of learners, from various first language backgrounds, would shed further
light on role of gaming and its implications for literacy development in and outside
of school. Finally, this study provides the first step to understand how adolescent
ELLs are engaged in L2 literacy practices in gaming outside of the classroom. We
anticipate that future studies will explore the ways that videogames could be applied
to school teaching and learning to lessen the “new digital divide” (Buckingham,
2007) between students’ in-school literacy and out-of-school literacy. [6,248]
NOTES
1
2
This work was funded in part by the International Research Foundation (TIRF) for English Language
Education.
All names of participants are pseudonyms.
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SECTION THREE
VIDEOGAMES AND CLASSROOM LEARNING
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MARY RICE
8. REVIEWING THE CONTENT OF VIDEOGAME
LESSON PLANS AVAILABLE TO TEACHERS
Teachers are far more likely to use resources that they have immediate and easy
access to (Grossman & Thompson, 2008). It is with that understanding that I
approached the issue of locating and analyzing the content of lesson plans available
to teachers on the subject of videogames. There were two research questions in this
study. (1) Are lesson plans for teaching videogames on the Internet accessible to
teachers and (2) what is the nature of any plans that exist?
This chapter overviews the online lesson plans accessible to teachers who might
be interested in using videogames in their curriculum to build literacy skills. This
study has implications for advocates of videogame use in classrooms as well as for
scholars with research the use of videogames in instructional contexts.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Several bodies of research inform this review. The first body reviews the theoretical
foundation for the use of videogames in educational contexts. The second body
reviews the practical work on videogames in classrooms. The third body describes
lesson plans with particular attention to the common ways that teachers are taught
to make them. The last part of this review ties together the bodies of research into a
theoretical frame built around the concept of Technology and Pedagogical Content
Knowledge (TPACK) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). Each of these bodies informs this
study by laying out how videogames ought to be used in classrooms, the current
state of how they are used, and what teachers recognize as support for improved,
increased, or enhanced educational uses.
Theoretical Foundations of Videogames in Education
Videogames have been a topic of interest for researchers for quite some time, but
they have been especially popular in the wake of research coming from places like
the New London Group (1996). This consortium outlined new skills that would be
necessary for learning in the 21st Century. In particular, this group acknowledged
the work of Kalantzis (1995) who suggested that workers in a new economy ought to
be well rounded, rather than specialists. The notion of well roundedness underscores
a need for a focus on multiple literacies, rather than the traditional one-dimensional
H. R. Gerber & S. S. Abrams (Eds.), Bridging Literacies with Videogames, 155–168.
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M. RICE
view of literacy that dominated the past. The group leaned heavily on work by
scholars such as Cope and Kalantzis (1999) who argued that multiculturalism,
technology, and economic opportunity were bound to merge in ways that would
require a more sophisticated view of literacy and learning.
Lave and Wenger (1991) called groups of people that share interests and have
social investment in one another Communities of Practice (CoP). The New London
Group published their ideas as a manifesto, challenging literacy educators to think
in terms of lifeworlds or community spaces where life and meaning making could
coexist. In order to attend to this notion of lifeworlds in practice, the New London
Group pointed to the new multimedia and hypermedia channels and really, any
technology where subcultures have the opportunity to find and use their own voices.
The major argument of adherents is that technology should be used to connect people
and give them outlets for collective knowledge(s) and identities.
The New Literacies movement has paid particular interest to the notion of
discourse communities as they relate to CoP. A CoP is the group itself. The way to
join the group is to participate in their shared practices, many of which are discursive.
When a CoP has a particular discourse, they are also a discourse community. The
notion of discourse community comes from the work of Nystrand (1982) and was
elaborated on by Swales (1990). Communication in a discourse community follows
rules about what can be said and how can be said. Taking up these discourses is
requisite for joining a CoP. Research on videogames and education or learning has
been unclear about how it intends for teachers to move about in the CoPs. There
is also little consensus about terminology and lack of holistic thinking about the
contexts, purposes, and aims of game usage in many studies (de Freitas, 2005).
Previous theoretical work about videogames and learning has focused on the
advantages of the technology. A particularly noteworthy example is Squire’s (2003,
2006, 2011) work propounding videogames as a tool for learning, practicing, and
living in multiliterate worlds. In looking at the clarion call for solutions to a national
concern for more effective ways to help young people become successful readers,
possessive Squire’s has tried to outline practical ways in which the digital age could
be leveraged. In particular, he argued that games were an experiential, interactive
medium with a community of social practice participating in designed experiences.
Whereas de Freitas (2006) wrote about the theoretical underpinnings of teaching with
videogames with an emphasis on how and why they should be used, Annetta (2008)
described how teachers were using videogames as an alternative to manipulatives
in an attempt to accelerate learning in school contexts. Such research suggests that
teachers are great efforts to engage with videogames as part of their practice.
In a CoP, people learn through practice and participation. However, Lave and
Wenger also assert that there is such a thing as legitimate peripheral participation in a
CoP. In terms of videogames in education, teachers are expected to join the CoP that
has been built on the scholarly inquiry into literacies and interactive technologies
without the advantage of having opportunities for legitimate peripheral participation.
Instead, a dichotomy has presented itself as teachers who are either in the CoP or
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REVIEWING THE CONTENT OF VIDEOGAME LESSON PLANS AVAILABLE TO TEACHERS
out. Further, it is teachers’ job to work to get into the CoP by attending intensive
trainings, participating in research, buying products, signing up for online accounts,
and doing intense study while searching for ways to infiltrate the videogames and
learning community even in cases when they were never part of the videogame
community in the first place. Even more problematic is the fact that teachers are
expected to take up New Literacies and aspects of progressive education at a time
when political rhetoric emphasizes “basic skills” and “standardization” (Ravitch,
2013). Apprenticing teachers into New Literacies practices, of which videogames
are part, is a tall order for a profession already subject to multiple, often conflicting
demands.
Practical Uses of Videogames in Classrooms
Tondeur, van Braak, Sang, Voogt, Fisser, & Ottenbreit-Leftwich (2011) established
that pre-service teachers are rarely able to implement technological tools in their
classrooms, and one of the major reasons was a lack of access to resources. Another
was a lack of staff development and general support. These researchers maintained
that helping teachers to take up technology of any kind would require time and
resources that brought together theory and practice to produce ideal learning
environments for students. These findings are particularly relevant to videogames
because so many teachers do not have experience with them as casual players and
are not necessarily experts on the functions of their hardware.
In one review of videogames in education, Egenfeldt-Nelson (2006) identified
five key tensions in the 300 research articles that he examined. These were learning
versus playing, freedom versus control, drill-and-practice games versus microworlds, transmission versus construction, and teacher intervention versus no
teacher intervention. While his specific review was about the use of videogames in
education, his focus was on research studies and giving new direction to the field
of research. Among his concerns about wider use and more rigorous studies were
the practical problems of using videogames more widely in educational contexts,
specifically “short lessons, physical space, variations in game competence among
students, installation, costs, and teacher preparation time” (p. 188).
Another review that is more recent was conducted by Young, Slota, Cutter, Jalette,
Mullin, Lai, & Yukhymenko (2012). These researchers reviewed 300 articles about
videogames in education, but they were particularly interested in how videogames
were being used in various disciplines to promote learning. They found that physical
education classes that included Exergames contained the most authentic uses that
resulted in the greatest learning for students. By contrast, videogames used in math
and science classes were marginal in their ability to help students learn. These
are dismaying findings for advocates of videogame use for learning—that for the
subjects in which students often struggle the most, and in which much opportunity
is tied—there are few viable uses of games at present, which will produce learning
outcomes. These findings are also likely to frighten teachers in certain disciplines
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M. RICE
that are already under increasing pressure to produce proof of learning to collect
their salaries and maintain their employment from movements like value-added
measurement (McCafferty, Lockwood, Koretz & Hamilton, 2003). It would be a
tremendous risk for a teacher in a widely tested content area to embark on videogames
as an instructional tool when there is a lack of empirical support that such efforts
will result in the kind of learning upon which teachers are judged. The dialectic
between providing authentic contexts that expand participation in lifeworlds and
produce measureable and observable learning in students has to be achieved in the
game design community in order for teachers to be truly safe in taking up gaming in
instruction. These findings underscore the idea that teachers who want to use games
to teach subject matter need support in order to do so.
In summary, research on videogames in education has spanned several decades
and has a heavy advocacy piece to it—researchers who study videogames want to
persuade teachers to use them in their curriculum. What has not been considered
is the extent to which teachers who are not in research studies lack connections
to learning companies or online gaming sources, but who might consider using
videogames in their teaching, are able to access planning materials to help them get
started.
Lesson Planning Methods for Teachers
Since the purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of lesson plans available
to teachers, it is necessary to comment about what the education field has to say
about the components of a lesson plan. Although lesson plans that teachers use tend
to vary by subject, length of teaching experience, and other factors, there are several
theories of lesson plan design with which teachers are familiar (Clark & Dunn,
1991). These modes of planning represent discursive knowledge (Nystrand, 1982)
of teachers about how to foment and implement instruction.
Madeline Hunter’s (1984) Essential Elements of Instruction. Hunter’s threepage lesson plan form included the following elements: (a) anticipatory set, (b)
objective and purpose, (c) input, (d) modeling, (e) check for understanding, (f)
guided practice, (g) independent practice, and (h) closure. This format is often the
first format that teacher candidates are taught to use (Johnson, 2000). The problems
with this lesson plan format include the assumption that every lesson is a discrete
piece of learning. When teachers are trying to use multiple literacies to engage
students in on-going projects that may even be highly self-directed, this format may
not be applicable in its entirety. However the notion that there needs to be some
objective or purpose in the plan and that there needs to be a dialogical relationship
between teachers and students where products are developed that meet the goals and
show demonstration of learning are applicable to the development of New Literacies.
Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). This method was
developed as a tool for principals to use to evaluate teacher performance, but
eventually evolved into a planning tool in and of itself (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short,
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REVIEWING THE CONTENT OF VIDEOGAME LESSON PLANS AVAILABLE TO TEACHERS
2012). The parts of SIOP are lesson planning (which includes setting a language
and a content goal), building background knowledge, grouping, practice/application,
assessment, and reflection. These pieces are not supposed to be linear like Hunter’s
(1984) model, but there is some sense that student background knowledge should be
activated and that some kind of activity should occur where students can operate on
a concept and they are assessed according to how well they have mastered a skill.
Universal Design for Learning. Some scholars interested in online learning
research identified characteristics of an online environment that would make
it theoretically conducive to learning for students with disabilities. This line of
research resulted in the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The UDL claims to
embrace a model of clear objectives for learning based on neuroscientific findings
(National Center on Universal Design for Learning, 2013). This model emphasizes
that lessons should have (1) multiple means of representation, (2) multiple means
of action and expression, and (3) multiple means of engagement. Each of these
three pieces is broken down further into sub categories with examples and links to
online resources. This model emphasizes a multiplicity of learning activities that
could result in a multiplicity of learning outcomes, but it has 32 checkpoints for
lesson planning that fit under the three major categories, making it a bit unwieldy.
While it may not be practical for a plan to attend to all 32 elements, the tenets
of multiple means of representation, action, expression, and engagement should be
highly relevant to multimedia learning opportunities, such as those that involve high
engagement activities like videogames.
Summarizing the Critical Lesson Plan Elements
What the three major lesson planning frameworks all have in common are a sense of
aim, goal, purpose, mission, or objective, an expectation that students will interact
with materials, with each other, and with the teacher, and finally, that those interactions
if planned and executed properly will result in connections that go from previous
knowledge or understanding to new learning. It was with these understandings that
I approached this project where I looked at lesson plans. At minimum, a plan that
a teacher can adapt and use should describe and provide materials for those three
elements.
Some scholars have argued that teaching with technology should be framed around
technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge. This is known as the TPACK (Koehler
& Mishra, 2006) framework. TPACK includes not just the lesson planning strategies
that appear earlier in this review of literature (EEI, SIOP, UDL) but also the social
and contextual factors of technological implementation and use in the classroom.
This framework is a series of overlapping types of knowledge (content knowledge
+ pedagogical knowledge = pedagogical content knowledge; content knowledge +
technology knowledge = technology content knowledge; pedagogical knowledge
+ technology knowledge = pedagogical technology knowledge). Together these
forms yield technology and pedagogical content knowledge. Mishra and Koehler
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argue that this framework, based on Shulman’s (1986) work, is necessary because
emerging technologies do not have fixed uses like older technologies do. A pencil, for
example, is regarded to have far fewer uses than a computer in a classroom (Brand,
1997). The TPACK framework suggests strongly that lesson plans for teachers
should address learning in the traditional sense, but it should also help teachers tap
in to the multiple uses of videogames as instructional technology and multiple ways
to access videogames through various technological methods. TPACK also suggests
that just using the games as a way to build schema or referencing them here and there
is also insufficient. Instead, gaming technology should be integrated into a complex
teaching and learning system that is carefully planned and seamless. If academic
advocates of gaming technologies know this, then plans for teachers that suggest
such integration should be widely available to teachers. TPACK experts and gaming
collaborators should have been able to leverage what they know about technology
and the time they have to play with it, to make it easier for teachers to use and use
well without having to sign up for being a research subject or spend countless hours
and their own dollars trying to join the videogame discourse community.
ANALYTIC APPROACH
The work of Mitgutsch (2010) argues for the use of playography as a way to establish
connections between the virtual worlds of games and the realities in which we live.
The purpose of my sharing these fragments of my particular playography is to
establish that I am not a heavy gamer, but I understand their importance and support
their use and I also understand that students like videogames and their playographies
would be even more extensive than mine.
I am a former junior high school teacher with 10 years of experience in secondary
classrooms. In my home, there is an Xbox, a PlayStation3, a Wii, a (PlayStation
Portable) PSP , a Sega Game Gear, and I am the personal owner of a DSi. I own three
games for the DSi—Tetris, Wheel of Fortune, and Brain Academy. I have bowled,
boxed, and cow raced, and played Cooking Mama with a colleague on the Wii. I have
never played a single game alone or with another player on the Xbox or PS3. In terms
of computer games, I have played PC versions of Minesweeper and Minesweeper;
Commodore 64 versions of Frogger, Donkey Kong, PacMan as well as Mike Tyson
Boxing in an Atari format. The only online game I have ever played on Facebook is
Happy Aquarium. I kept feeding my fish and cleaning my tank for months, only to have
my fish die when I went to Europe and had to go without Internet access for two weeks.
I told a friend I was unable to give her a ride home because I was trying to get home to
save those fish. My students have used graphic novels based on videogames like Halo
in class. I have also used games such as Happy Aquarium, Cooking Mama, and even
simpler games like Minesweeper as cognitive examples and metaphors for describing
processes of reading and writing. Although I have never given instruction in how to
create a game, several of my students have generated videogames as class projects,
captured images or graphic sequences from videogames for class film projects, and
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REVIEWING THE CONTENT OF VIDEOGAME LESSON PLANS AVAILABLE TO TEACHERS
brought their games and used them for class presentations. My junior high students, in
fact, have proven themselves very adept at linking videogames to classical literature
and movies, such as Beowulf, and Dante’s Inferno. I have also set up simulations
where students have to help characters uncover boons and make decisions that lead
to various outcomes. These simulations have not been technologically supported, but
the principles of objectives and agency are lifted from my understandings about how
videogames operate as text.
As readers can surmise from reading my gaming autobiography, I am potentially
one spot above a novice. I am not an expert at games or how they work. I would not
consider myself “in the know” about what games are popular and I do not spend very
much of my leisure time playing videogames. My interest in them for educational
purposes is grounded in my previous work in the developing literate identities of
adolescent boys (Rice, 2011a), literacy curriculum (Rice, 2012; Rice, 2011b) and the
identities of teachers as they take up teaching (Rice, 2010; Rice & Coulter, 2012). As
I read about curriculum and research on literacies in the classroom, I found ample
support that videogames were a viable curricular option. What I wanted to know
was whether a teacher like me who wanted to start integrating videogames into the
curriculum would be able to find online lesson plans to help me see how to do that.
The particular methods that I used were selected and executed with a non-gaming
expert but amenable teacher in mind.
LOCATING LESSON PLANS
This study used an open definition of literacy as multiliteracies necessary for
negotiating a variety of disciplines (Cope & Kalantzis, 1999). This definition was in
keeping with the definitions from the New London Group (1996) and other influential
definitions in the field of videogame research. I was also operating off the notion
that teachers wanted to try new instructional tools, especially with technology, but
they also wanted tools that were ready-made and easy to access (Ruthven, 2013).
Indeed, teacher beliefs about technology rarely align with their actions (Ertmer, et.
al. 2012). Just because teachers think they should avail themselves of technology
does not mean that they do. Instead, teachers focus on barriers such as financial and
administrative support, infrastructure, and so forth.
According to Gerber and Price (2013), teachers consider time the most important
barrier to implementing technology. Teachers lack opportunities to sit down and think
about how to get access to the technology, how to plan instruction around the technology,
how to work out the kinks to make the instruction more optimal, and how to plan for
the potential negative reactions of peers and parents who do not perceive technology,
particularly videogames as being sufficiently robust to bring about positive learning
outcomes. That said, teachers who are interested in potentially using videogames in their
instruction do not immediately go out and join Nings (online platforms for professional
to create customized social networks), discussion boards, or sign up for other types of
accounts that would give them access to more planning support.
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The next issue that arose in designing this study was how I was going to
determine what easy access was. My requirement that the lesson plans appear on
the Internet made sense because teachers readily use materials online and have
access to equipment for downloading and printing materials. For the purposes of
this research, accessibility was defined as (1) appearance in the first three pages
hits on either google.com or yahoo.com (2) completely free of charge (3) available
for use without having to start an online account, sign in, or order equipment or
books. It was assumed that eventually materials might have to be accessed online or
purchased from somewhere else, but the plan needed to be immediately available.
These plans, of course, needed to be available for download during the window
in which data were being collected. Finally, in keeping with Ruthven’s (2013)
terminology, I decided ready-made meant (4) some description of the lesson would
be necessary, but in general I used an open definition of the term plan.
I went through three rounds of searching for plans. These searches occurred in
October 2012, March 2013 and January 2014. I restricted the number of results
pages that I looked at to three because of an iProspect (2006) study that indicated
that 90 percent of search engine users stop looking after three pages. I also restricted
my engines to Google and Yahoo because Google powers almost 68 percent of
all searches and Yahoo is powered by Bing, which is owned by Microsoft—the
other major sponsor of search engines (SEO, 2013). Indeed, when I entered my
search terms into Bing.com, I got the same results as when I used Yahoo. The same
iProspect study indicated that users do not switch search engines when they do not
get enough results, but instead alter their keywords. The keywords I used initially
were “videogame lesson plans,” but I also tried “free videogame lesson plans,”
and “lesson plans for teaching with videogames.” The search engines changed
“videogames” to “video games.” In addition to lesson plans, the results of searches
yielded bloggers advocating the use of videogames in education, advertisements,
and websites advocating the use of videogames for education as well as therapy and
entertainment. These were not considered as data in the findings.
Using these criteria, a data set of 20 lesson plans was analyzed. The grade level
was exclusively middle and high school. In order to analyze these plans, I first created
a table where I entered the plan title, details of the plan, the web address of the plan,
and then I read over the plans and used thematic coding (Miles & Huberman, 1994)
to organize the data. An additional table was made to determine the features of the
plans in the data set. This table also contained information about whether the plan
had a stated objective, a link to state or Common Core (2013) standards, descriptions
of activities, reproducible organizers or texts in any format (printable or online only),
and a link to a videogame. Table 1 contains a summary of the plan title, descriptions,
features, and sources for the 20 plans.
162
Plan elements
Coded Category
Source
Sims
Description
System management
Scholastic.com
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Description
System management
Scholastic.com
Rune
Description
Elements of narrative
Scholastic.com
Rise of nations
Description
System management
Scholastic.com
Real world lesson:
Designing a video game
Objective, questions, video
System management
Teachingchannel.org
Math in video games
Instructions and handout
Critical thinking
Thirteen.org
Video game design lesson plan:
You be the judge
Instructions and handout
Critical thinking
Learninggamenetwork.
com
Video games
Objective, aims, descriptive text
Critical thinking
About.com/ Lesson library
Video games lesson plans:
MMORPGS economics
Teacher narrative an instructional
sequence
System management
c.apricio.us/2011/06
Karma tycoon video game
Goals, vocabulary, materials, and
instructional sequence
System management
Lessonplanspage.com
Collateral Damage? Researching a Instructional sequence and guiding
questions
connection between video games
and violence
Social utility of gaming/
critical thinking
NYTimes.com
Go wild with endangered species
Critical thinking
www.ymiclassroom.com
Link to game
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Plan title
REVIEWING THE CONTENT OF VIDEOGAME LESSON PLANS AVAILABLE TO TEACHERS
Table 1. Videogame* lesson plan descriptions
M. RICE
164
Table 1. Continued
Link to game
System management
www.ymiclassroom.com
How would you change history?
Link to game
Critical thinking
www.ymiclassroom.com
Creating a roadmap: Storyboarding
as an element of game design
Description, instructional sequence,
reflection questions
Elements of fiction
gamestarmechanic.com
Creating a soundtrack for a video
game
Objectives, strategies, and materials
Critical thinking
Soundtree.com
Video-games lesson
Objectives, strategies, and materials
Social utility of videogames
mediasmarts.ca
Video games and social control
Objectives, strategies, and materials
Social utility of videogames/ futurestate.tv
elements of fiction
*The word, video games, appears as two words within the chart due to search parameters used to locate lesson plans.
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Physics take flight
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REVIEWING THE CONTENT OF VIDEOGAME LESSON PLANS AVAILABLE TO TEACHERS
FINDINGS FROM THE REVIEW
Most of the plans come from the same sites. Indeed, Scholastic.com provided four of
the 20 plans. Another four plans were provided by Powerupthegame.com. This means
that two sites provided 40 percent of the plans. The rest of the plans were all from
unique sources. Most of the plans are about understanding systems and/or building
literacy skills. These skills are not tied to a particular content area. The most well
represented content area was social studies for which six plans were located. This is
30 percent of the total number of plans. The second most well represented content
area was science, with five plans. Both English/language arts and the industrial arts
had four plans. There was only lesson plan accessed that featured math.
The lesson plans did not contain identical elements. Seven of the plans stated
a particular learning aim, goal, or objective (35 percent). Five plans articulated
specific standards, state, or national, that the plans would meet. During the first
search for lesson plans, only a few contained reproducible material or other textual
features for use during the lesson. By the last search, 12 of 20 plans contained such
materials. Ten of the lesson plans included a link to a videogame. While many plans
that included links discussed skills that students might learn from the games, there
were not usually instructions to the teachers for guiding the students through the
process of how to learn content or skills from using the games. The lessons that did
do this came from Powerupthegame.com.
Several of the plans had alignment issues between the objectives, the instructional
sequence, and the materials provided. One example of this comes from a resource
site for English as a second language. The instructional sequence in this plan asks
students to
Write a description of one of their favorite video games using the vocabulary in
the vocabulary tree. Ask students to NOT use the name of the game. Make sure
to point out that directions should be given in the imperative voice (i.e., Open
the door, go to the chest, get the gold, etc. NOT You must open the door, you
must then go to the chest, you must get the gold from the chest, etc.).
However, the text provided to the students as supplemental material was not linked
very well to the task at hand. The students were supposed to practice giving directions
through the game. The sample that was provided focused more on the features of the
game.
Star Hunters is the game with something for everyone! Designed for multiple
platforms including: PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube—and even a mobile
phone version. This 3-D game puts you in control! A cross between a roleplaying, action, educational and fighting game, you’ll be wowed by its
incredibly addictive nature. This game has got it all, puzzles to solve, tasks to
complete and missions to accomplish and all these in various player modes.
Just think, if you like to fight, you can fight your way to the top. If you prefer
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quizzes, the wizards have plenty of questions to ask as you learn your way
to success. All this with multiple navigation systems: joystick, keyboard and
mouse. Get Star Hunters—the fun has just begun!
Lessons like this seem to suggest that videogames are a point of interest for the
students and not a subject of study in and of themselves. Many of the plans used
videogames as an ancillary topic or a motivational idea without delving fully into
using them to teach. In a lesson plan about videogame landscapes, teachers are
asked to locate video game magazines and show students how the landscapes in
videogames contain surreal elements. Then, the students are supposed to create
their own surreal images from their imaginations. This is another instance where
videogames are positioned as an interest grabber, but they are not the real focus of
the lesson.
Another interesting finding was a dichotomy between teaching about videogames
and teaching with videogames. The lessons about videogames included lessons on
how to design games, how to debate about the social merits of games, especially
violent ones, and description activities where students are led in talking about
games. One of these lessons was designed to help students learn how rules in a game
affect the potential outcomes. Specifically the students were supposed to learn that
a game needs some rules to make it interesting, but too many rules makes the game
too difficult and decreases motivation to play. The New York Times website also
provided a lesson plan with sources discussing not only research about videogames
and violence, but explanations about why it was difficult to study the possible link
between the two. Lesson plans like these demonstrate that lessons about videogames
have the potential to be highly educative.
The lessons plans that facilitated teaching with videogames were focused on using
problem solving strategies to create a system or to work with a system. Example of
this include the Karma Tycoon lesson plan where students engage in a simulation
where they set up and run non-profit corporations based on problems in their own
community. Such activities have merit by bringing aspects of the real world into the
virtual world for experimentation. Although the Physicsgamebox.com site does not
have especially helpful lesson plans in terms of curriculum development, the games
it hosts do illustrate real world physics in virtual circumstances as well.
In general, the plans do not attend to the tenets of TPACK (Mishra & Koehler,
2006). Instead of showing teachers possibilities for what could be done with
videogame technology, the plans are rigid and fixed. Many of them appear to teach
about videogames rather than with videogames. For example, several of the plans
ask students to argue in favor (or disfavor) of the use of videogames. On closer
analysis, however, the plans are not reaching their full potential either. There is no
discussion in the discourse communities that would be in favor of or opposed to
videogames in educational settings.
Finally, it was striking how, considering these plans were about videogames and
purported to be grounded in New Literacies (1996), unimaginative most of the plans
were. Many of the descriptions said things like “practice argument skills” or “learn
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REVIEWING THE CONTENT OF VIDEOGAME LESSON PLANS AVAILABLE TO TEACHERS
about social systems” without being explicit about how such skills representing
something more sophisticated than something a teacher could do in a well-crafted
plan without a videogame. The goal of New Literacies is to help students engage in
long-term, on-going problem-based projects where they use technology to access
information, evaluate it, and determine ways to respond to the information in an
array formats. Students learning in this paradigm should also be using both linguistic
and non-linguistic forms.
IMPLICATIONS FOR INCREASING ACCESSIBILITY TO PLANS
Advocates of videogame use in the classroom as well as those who conduct
research on videogames and learning may wish to attend to these distinctions when
addressing teachers or attending to research questions about using videogames
in teaching. This confusion matches what de Freitas (2005) found in her review
of research on videogames, namely that there was a lack of distinction in various
ways to learn from videogames. Egenfeldt-Nelson (2006) noted in his review that
he had concerns about teachers’ ability to use videogames in education because of
factors like time and expertise. In addition there are concerns about expense. Since
teaching with videogames requires that a videogame be purchased or licensed for
use, there is always going to be a specific, additional expense to using a lesson plan
with videogames. In this review of lesson plans, videogames as a motivational topic,
learning about videogames, and learning with videogames emerged as important
ways that videogames could be leveraged with varying degrees of success depending
on the overall design of the plan, the attention to issues of cost and technological
infrastructure, and potentially the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of the teacher
who comes to the plan.
Academic advocates of videogames, teachers who might want use videogames
in education, and companies that produce educational videogames and lesson plans
for these games have different needs and goals. No group is willing to meet the
other two on their discursive terms. Teachers want plans that are inexpensive, fast,
and easy to use; companies want customers in education to purchase their products;
academic advocates want teachers to use their research to help children learn and
companies to use their research to aid instructional design. They all exist separately
from one another, each with their own ends.
A teacher who wants to try to use videogames to meet standards and build growth
promoting learning experiences faces significant barriers in terms of instructional
support for doing so. Implications for this research include the need to provide
teachers with more readily available high quality plans as part of an ongoing effort
to encourage them to use videogames as part of instruction. According to the lesson
planning frameworks that are most often used by teachers, a lesson plan needs to
have a description of the activity or interaction between students and teachers, but
it also needs some kind of learning objective or goal and it needs to describe how
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the activity will meet the goal. This type of information is vital to teacher decision
making about how to use the curriculum, even if the ideas in the lesson and the
premise and design of the game is otherwise sound.
Also, in today’s current educational milieu of common standards, it is likely that
teachers would benefit from help making explicit connections to the curriculum
standards that govern their work as teachers. To that end, modeling is critical for the
implementation of new practices (Tondeur, et. al., 2011). A teacher in a building that
does not have a colleague to model the proper educative use of videogames in the
classroom is unlikely to have access to very many other resources to model unless
they can get access to some high quality lesson plans.
Implicit in the general lack of thoroughness of the plans is that teachers have
more gaming expertise than they probably really do or that they have the luxury of
time to do the leg work to figure out how to use the videogames. Future materials
aimed at helping teachers that do not assume they have gaming knowledge, time
to do extensive hunting for ideas and materials, and resources to purchase plans
and materials for preview are more likely to be used. It may be that there are good
quality plans available for registering accounts or for purchase. If this is the case,
the makers of these curricula need to find better ways to help the teachers see that
putting in this extra effort will be worthwhile. It is likely that teachers are barraged
with products to buy in their teacher boxes and spammed with emails soliciting their
business, but they control very little funding in a school and their personal earnings
do not often afford expensive, long term financial commitments, particularly new
teachers, and especially when the teacher is unsure of whether the materials will
really be beneficial. In an educational climate where many groups claim to have the
answer to help students learn better, instead of asking how teachers are going to get
into the discourse community of videogame technology, the technocrats should be
asking how they should shape their message to infiltrate the discourse community
of teachers. As a part of that consideration, future research might be directed to
disentangling the issue of teaching about and teaching with videogames.
Twenty plans within easy reach of a teacher are simply not enough. Of these 20,
most were very different from Squire’s (2003, 2006, 2011) call for opportunities to
work in experiential life worlds. It is true that playing many types of videogames gives
students the chance to use these skills as the games themselves are problem-based and
users have to gather information and make decisions. However, those qualities should
be coming forward in the materials available to teachers as games are used. Teachers
may think that students who like games already play them on their own. It will be
difficult to convince educators that they should just allow the children to play, the
playing will teach the skills, and then somehow the children will solve the problem
of global warming, food production, oil spills, or anything else. It is my firm belief
that videogame technology holds great promise for helping to develop these skills.
Indeed, Annetta (2008) and others have shown these possibilities to exist, but based
on the lesson plans that are readily and easily accessible to teachers, videogames look
more like product pitches, carrot and stick bribing systems, and time fillers.
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I end this chapter with a challenge for advocates of videogames in educational
settings, especially those who conduct research. I challenge them to continue making
their message that videogames ought to be more widely used in schools while also
finding ways to provide real access to materials that teachers can understand and
see how to use in their classrooms (Grossman & Thompson, 2008). These materials
should also be for a variety of subject matter and fit into broader notions of curriculum
as an integrated whole. If it is genuinely imperative that students have access to
lifeworlds (Squire, 2003, 2006, 2011) then it also ought to be imperative that the
people who believe in the educational promise of games make greater efforts to get
those lifeworlds to students in practical ways. Providing this educational opportunity
to students will require further invitation to teachers to participate in the CoP (Lave
& Wenger, 1991) so that in their interaction, they can learn how to use a wide array
of tools to meet the needs of students. While full participation in a short amount
of time might not be possible, setting a goal for legitimate peripheral participation
makes sense for helping teachers understand how the lifeworlds are educative in
terms that make sense to them.
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9. COLLABORATIVE VIDEOGAME AND
CURRICULUM DESIGN FOR LANGUAGE AND
LITERACY LEARNING
INTRODUCTION
The dichotomy between theory/research and practice is often discussed in the
field of teacher education. There appears to be a great divide between the formal
knowledge of research universities and practical knowledge from the classroom
(Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999). Our work in digital literacies draws from the tenets
of practitioner inquiry, collaboratively generating knowledge in a community of
inquiry (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999, 2009). The authors of this chapter, two
university researchers—both former secondary school teachers—and a current
public high school English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, blurred the line
between theory and practice in collaborating to design a videogame for language
and literacy learning. Through this collaboration, we drew from our experiences
in teaching and attending teacher education programs as well as other resources
reflecting our educational and professional histories.
This chapter describes curriculum design using Gamestar Mechanic (www.
gamestarmechanic.com) to create a literacy game on the topic of bullying for
an English Language Arts course for English language learners (ELLs) from the
perspective of the collaborators. We developed the game based on the learning
objectives and content of a semester-long unit on bullying and provided opportunities
for the students to identify and practice literacy strategies (making predictions, text
connections, and inferences) that may support the students as they interact with texts
in English (Gregory & Kuzmich, 2005). The focus of this chapter, as the title suggests,
is on the collaboration in this school-university partnership and our approach to
designing the videogame. We embed a reflective discussion on the collaboration for
videogame design in a particular context in hopes of sharing information on how
such a process may be applied in other contexts for language and literacy learning.
CLASSROOM CONTEXT
This project was situated within an ongoing collaborative partnership between the
authors, which aimed to generate and deepen a recursive exchange of knowledge
regarding the language and literacy practices of adolescent English Language
Learners. With the support of Gamestar Mechanic, we created a videogame for 25
H. R. Gerber & S. S. Abrams (Eds.), Bridging Literacies with Videogames, 171–184.
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public high school students designated as intermediate level ELLs, as determined
by New York State’s English language proficiency test. The students were enrolled
in two sections of English Language Arts classes. Across these two sections,
there was a wide range within the “intermediate” level: according to the teacher’s
holistic assessment of the students, some of the students were likely be placed in
the advanced level in the following academic year, some students could have been
considered “high-intermediate” at the time, and some students were identified as
having learning disabilities and had Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). The
students were 14-21 years old, and while there were a variety of home languages
represented in the class, most of the students spoke Spanish. Other languages
represented in the two class periods were Georgian, Hebrew, and Korean. Academic
English was a central component of the curriculum in this school context. All
students must pass a series of standardized exams in order to graduate high school,
and ELLs are not exempt from this requirement. For example, if a student arrives in
the U.S. at age 19 and matriculates into the high school, the student may experience
a relatively great amount of pressure to become proficient in academic English
in order to graduate high school before the end of his/her twenty first year, when
a person is no longer eligible to be enrolled in the state’s public high schools. In
response to this situation, the teacher’s goal was to develop engaging lessons that
fostered academic growth.
A key feature of the instructional practice in this local educational context was
content-based ESL, an area particularly emphasized at the secondary level, where
ELLs are expected to simultaneously master both the English language and a
particular set of subject matter (e.g. Chamot, Dale, O’ Malley, & Spanos, 1992;
Duff, 2001). As such, the game was embedded in a lesson plan with both content
and language objectives specified by the teacher. The content objective related to
the topic of bullying, in particular, an anti-bullying campaign led by an adolescent
named Katy Butler who was a victim of bullying. The language objectives focused
on reading strategies for students to apply while reading an authentic text from Katy.
Students also had an opportunity to share their opinions regarding issues relevant to
this text.
GAMESTAR MECHANIC
Gamestar Mechanic is a free game design platform that allows students, teachers, and
educators to create games using a simple design software online. The unique feature
of Gamestar Mechanic is that not all features of the design function are immediately
available: burgeoning game designers must engage in an introductory “quest”,
traversing a series of levels embedded in a larger narrative in order to ‘unlock’ many
hidden design features, such as characters, weapons, and layouts. Designers are not
only conscripted into a series of increasingly difficult levels, but also are presented
with lessons in game design along the way in order to demonstrate how to best
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SETTING THE STAGE OF SILENCE
Lesson Plan
Content objectives:
Students will be able to make inferences, predictions, and connections based on
a campaign email about bullying
Assessment: The game and oral discussion
Language objectives
Students will be able to make inferences about information in a campaign email
Assessment: Successful completion of the game
Students will be able to discuss (orally) their predictions and connections related
to a campaign email
Assessment: Pair and whole-group discussions
Brief lesson sequence (to be adapted by the teacher):
Elicit prior knowledge and build background on relevant terms and concepts:
activism
petition
campaign
email campaigns
moving ratings
review of reading strategies: making inferences, predictions, and connections
using italics or quotation marks to signify the title of a movie
Show video of Katy
Active/collaborative reading of Katy’s email (e.g. buddy reading)
Teacher models the game (including the training game) and the game survey
Students play the game and complete the game survey
Differentiation: The teacher is collaborating on this unit with another ESL teacher
in her building that teaches advanced ESL. The teacher’s intermediate level
students will partner with an advanced level student to form heterogeneous pairs.
The two students can decide who will control the keyboard for the first level
while the other student provides his/her input as the two proceed in completing
the level, which includes responding to reading strategies questions. When level 2
is reached, the other student can control the keyboard. Alternatively, the class can
plan to play all the levels of the game twice such that one student controls the
keyboard for all the levels and then switch with his/her partner.
Review video questions as a whole group (or in pairs)
Differentiation: Sentence prompts on the board may be optionally used by
students. Students also have the option of writing their responses rather than
sharing orally with others.
Discuss open-ended questions in pairs and then as whole group
Students complete a self-reflection related to the game and the lesson
(Continued)
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(Continued)
Ideas for Building on This Lesson Plan
Students and the teacher examine and synthesize the game reviews and game
surveys. They design (including storyboarding) and implement improvements on
the game.
Students further consider Katy’s situation and campaign and think about issues
of particular interest to them. The students can then design a game or an action
plan to raise awareness about these issues. Students who are not designing a game
might, for example, following Katy’s model, strategize an online campaign.
A lesson plan might involve interview skills and talk around game and lesson
design.
Link to the training game: http://gamestarmechanic.com/game/player/782726
Link to the game (three levels): http://gamestarmechanic.com/game/
player/782726
Figure 1. Lesson plan incorporating the videogame. This figure illustrates the lesson plan
that follows other lessons on bullying and reading strategies, including making inferences,
predictions, and connections.
craft levels for a variety of gameplayers. These lessons provide instruction on both
technical and aesthetic elements of game design.
One of the researchers, Nora, and colleague Robert, were tasked with creating
the handful of levels necessary for the literacy lesson. After consulting with Susan,
the classroom teacher, and creating a series of storyboards to map the potential
features of our levels, the researchers set out to play their way through the
Gamestar Mechanic design lessons (often with great consternation). This initial
stage—playing to complete the game and unlock all the design features—took
several weeks and revealed a number of previously unknown design elements that
caused the researchers to go back and revise to their original plan. Of particular
importance in the design process was incorporating English language text into
the game so that it authentically complemented and supported gameplay. It was
also crucial to design levels that were both entertaining and challenging, but not
overly frustrating. After completing the first draft of the levels, the researchers
opened the software up to the Gamestar community (all games are available for
free play online to anyone) and to their fellow doctoral students for ‘beta testing’.
After voluminous feedback on the difficulty of the game, Nora and Robert once
again modified the game before submitting it to Susan for feedback and eventual
implementation in her classroom.
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SETTING THE STAGE OF SILENCE
KATY BUTLER <MAIL@CHANGE.ORG>
DEAR _____,
I WAS BULLIED A LOT IN MIDDLE SCHOOL. FIVE YEARS AGO, IT GOT SO BAD
THAT FOUR GUYS CAME UP BEHIND ME, CALLED ME AWFUL NAMES AND
SLAMMED MY HAND IN MY LOCKER, BREAKING MY FINGER. THE WORST
PART IS, I FELT SO TERRIFIED AND ALONE THAT I COULDN’T EVEN TELL MY
PARENTS THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED.
SO WHEN I SAW THE NEW DOCUMENTARY BULLY, WHICH WAS PRODUCED TO
STOP BULLYING, IT FELT SO GOOD TO KNOW THAT THE FILMMAKERS WERE
TELLING THE STORIES OF KIDS LIKE ME. I THINK THAT EVERY KID SHOULD
SEE BULLY. THAT’S WHY I WAS SHOCKED TO LEARN THAT IT WAS GIVEN
AN “R” RATING BECAUSE SOME OF THE BULLIES IN THE FILM USE BAD
WORDS.
TWO WEEKS AGO, I STARTED A PETITION ON CHANGE.ORG ASKING
THE MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA TO CHANGE BULLY’S
RATING TO PG-13. MORE THAN 300,000 PEOPLE HAVE JOINED ME. CLICK
HERE TO SIGN NOW.
THE PAST TWO WEEKS HAVE BEEN INCREDIBLE. I’VE BEEN ON CNN,
MSNBC, FOX NEWS, CBS, AND THE ELLEN SHOW. CELEBRITIES LIKE ELLEN
DEGENERES, MERYL STREEP, JOHNNY DEPP, JUSTIN BIEBER, RANDY
JACKSON, DEMI LOVATO, AND DREW BREES -- AS WELL AS 29 MEMBERS
OF CONGRESS, LED BY REP. MIKE HONDA -- HAVE SAID PUBLICLY THAT
THEY AGREE WITH MY CAMPAIGN.
BUT EVEN AFTER ALL THAT, THE MPAA HASN’T BUDGED. I GOT TO MEET
WITH ONE OF THEIR EXECUTIVES LAST WEEK, AND SHE TOLD ME THAT THEY
HAVE TO KEEP THINGS “CONSISTENT.” MAYBE SHE THOUGHT THAT I WOULD
GIVE UP, OR THAT I’M JUST 17, SO HOW MUCH CAN I REALLY CHANGE ANYWAY?
BUT I KNOW THAT IF WE KEEP UP THE PRESSURE, THE MPAA WILL HAVE NO
CHOICE BUT TO ADMIT THAT BEING “CONSISTENT” ISN’T AS IMPORTANT AS
LETTING KIDS SEE A MOVIE THAT COULD LITERALLY SAVE LIVES.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN MY PETITION TO TELL THE MPAA TO CHANGE
BULLY’S RATING TO PG-13.
THANKS FOR YOUR HELP. KNOWING THAT ALL THESE PEOPLE ARE STANDING
WITH ME, I DON’T FEEL ALONE OR AFRAID ANYMORE.
-KATY
Figure 2. Katy Butler’s anti-bullying campaign email via Change.org. This figure shows
the main print text accompanying the videogame.
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Figure 3. Screenshot of videogame. This figure shows a part of the videogame where
the gameplayer encounters an inference question. The player must pass by the “Naviron
Informers” (in green costume), who give directions and asks questions in the form of
written text.
Figure 4. Screenshot of videogame. This figure shows coins to be collected by the
gameplayer. In the videogame, the coins represent signatures to be collected for Katy
Butler’s anti-bullying campaign. To safely collect signatures in this part of the game, the
player must navigate a maze and answer two questions from the lesson’s main text, which is
Katy’s campaign email.
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SETTING THE STAGE OF SILENCE
GAMING AND LITERACY
In this section, we describe our understanding of literacy and how it shaped the
collaborative videogame design. Our approach was influenced by the notions of
multiliteracies and readers as navigators and makers of meaning.
MULTILITERACIES
Rather than adhere to traditional notions of literacy pedagogy, which refers to teaching
and learning to read and write words in page-bound forms, we take into account the
developments of ever-changing multimedia technology that has prompted an emerging
conceptualization of literacy: literacy teaching and learning includes negotiating
multiple discourses (McKay & Wong, 1996) imbedded in multiple technologies
(Gee, 2007). K-12 schools in the United States are experiencing substantial growth
in the ELL population (August & Shanahan, 2006; U.S. Department of Education,
2003). In response to these demographic changes, perspectives on literacy instruction
have expanded to become more culturally responsive (New London Group, 2000, p.
9). It is our belief that under this broadened perspective on literacy, videogames can
have a meaningful role in a multiliteracies classroom (Lankshear & Knobel, 2008).
Students in the English Language Arts classes interacted across modes with nonfiction texts and played a videogame about Katy Butler’s anti-bullying campaign.
The students were able to meaningfully navigate the videogame in a meaningmaking process akin to interacting with a traditional print text (Smagorinsky, 2001).
Following the perspective of multiliteracies, the process of reading can be
interpreted as an interaction with symbols and discourses. By extension, videogames
offer a series of visual and audio symbols with which players interact (Steinkuehler,
2010). Hawkins (1991) explains that the application of literacy skills for ELLs
“happens when the learners are actively engaged in interaction that gives meaning
to the symbols with which they are working.” (p. 178). By extension, Steinkuehler
(2010) suggests that the process of playing a videogame involves “reading the game’s
meanings and writing back into them” (p. 61). In effect, the process for both reading
a written text and playing a videogame is an interactive exchange of information.
MAKING SENSE OF THE VIDEOGAME
According to Gee’s (2005) concept of “distributed authentic professionalism,” a
videogame player negotiates meaning as he/she develops strategies for interacting
with a new domain of knowledge. Within this experience, the player becomes deeply
involved in the objectives of the game, just as a reader of a traditional written text
negotiates meaning and becomes involved in the text. Despite significant parallels
between negotiating written texts and videogames, it is possible that interacting with
a videogame is a more cognitively demanding task, as players must swiftly develop
strategies to navigate and make meaning in a virtual world.
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Our videogame began with an introductory session in which players were presented
with a model of the structures and rules of the game, guiding students toward independent
game play (Walqui, 2006). After the introductory model, the videogame provided
instructions for players to navigate each level. The players manipulated their avatars and
passed through virtual worlds from the perspective of Katy Butler to collect signatures
for her anti-bullying campaign. Throughout game play, heterogeneous partnerships
were formed for students who needed extra support to participate in the videogame.
According to Salen (2007), videogames offer a “transgressive learning stance based in
play” in which players contest the imposed boundaries of the game (p. 307). The ELLs
challenged the structures of the videogame through their response, play and subsequent
feedback, just as they might manipulate new vocabulary and grammatical structures as
part of the language learning process (Ellis, Basturkmen, & Loewen, 2001).
QUESTIONS
1. KATY SAID THAT 300,000 PEOPLE SIGNED HER PETITION. WHY DID THESE
PEOPLE SIGN HER PETITION? (INFERENCE)
• THEY THINK THE DOCUMENTARY “BULLY” WAS WELL MADE.
• THEY WANT TO MEET CELEBRITIES LIKE ELLEN DEGENERES AND
MERYL STREEP.
• THEY WANT KIDS TO WATCH “BULLY” TO LEARN ABOUT THE PROBLEM
OF BULLYING.
• THEY WANT TO MEET KATY TO LEARN ABOUT THE PROBLEM OF
BULLYING.
2. WHAT DOES KATY HOPE WILL HAPPEN IF THE MOVIE RATING OF “BULLY”
IS CHANGED FROM R TO PG-13? (INFERENCE)
• THE DOCUMENTARY “BULLY” WILL MAKE MORE MONEY FROM MOVIE
TICKET SALES.
• KATY WILL BE FAMOUS.
• PEOPLE WILL STOP BULLYING KATY.
• MORE KIDS WILL BE ABLE TO WATCH “BULLY.”
3. A LOT OF CELEBRITIES, LIKE JOHNNY DEPP AND JUSTIN BIEBER, HAVE
PUBLICLY SAID THAT THEY AGREE WITH KATY’S CAMPAIGN.HOW CAN
CELEBRITIES HELP KATY’S CAMPAIGN? (INFERENCE)
• CELEBRITIES CAN MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT THE PROBLEM OF BULLYING.
• CELEBRITIES CAN USE THEIR FAME TO TELL A LOT OF PEOPLE ABOUT
THE PROBLEM OF BULLYING.
• CELEBRITIES CAN HAVE A BIG CONCERT TO RAISE MONEY FOR KATY’S
CAMPAIGN.
(Continued)
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SETTING THE STAGE OF SILENCE
4. KATY SAID THAT IT FELT GOOD TO KNOW THAT THE MOVIE “BULLY”
TELLS THE STORY OF KIDS LIKE HER WHO WERE BULLIED. WHY DID
KATY SAY THAT? (INFERENCE)
• KATY THINKS THAT IF PEOPLE SEE THE STORIES OF KIDS LIKE HER
WHO WERE BULLIED, KIDS WILL STOP BULLYING OTHER KIDS.
• KATY THINKS THAT THE KIDS IN “BULLY” SHOULD BE FAMOUS.
• KATY LIKES TO WATCH MOVIES ABOUT KIDS LIKE HER.
• KATY LIKES “BULLY” BECAUSE THE KIDS IN THE DOCUMENTARY ARE
HER FRIENDS.
OPINION QUESTIONS EMBEDDED IN THE VIDEOGAME (THE ANSWER
THAT THE GAME PLAYER CHOOSES WILL DETERMINE WHAT CHALLENGE
THEY FACE NEXT – THERE ARE DIFFERENT GAMES FOR EACH ANSWER
CHOICE.):
• DO YOU THINK THAT BULLYING IS A PROBLEM AT YOUR SCHOOL? WHY
OR WHY NOT? READ BOTH OF THE SIGNS UP AHEAD. THINK ABOUT WHICH
STATEMENT YOU AGREE WITH AND FOLLOW THAT PATH. REMEMBER,
THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWER!
• WHO IS MORE RESPONSIBLE FOR PREVENTING BULLYING IN SCHOOLS
- TEACHERS OR PARENTS? WHY? READ BOTH OF THE SIGNS UP AHEAD.
THINK ABOUT WHICH STATEMENT YOU AGREE WITH AND FOLLOW THAT
PATH. REMEMBER, THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWER!
OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (SEE LESSON PLAN IN
APPENDIX 1):
1. DESCRIBE A PERSON THAT KATY REMINDS YOU OF. THE PERSON CAN
BE REAL, FOR EXAMPLE, ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS; OR THE FRIEND CAN
BE FICTIONAL, FOR EXAMPLE, A CHARACTER FROM A FICTIONAL BOOK
THAT YOU’VE READ. (CONNECTION)
2. WHAT DOES KATY’S STORY ABOUT BEING BULLIED REMIND YOU OF?
(CONNECTION)
3. DO YOU THINK A LOT MORE PEOPLE WILL SIGN KATY’S CAMPAIGN?
EXPLAIN. (PREDICTION)
Figure 5. Questions about Katy Butler’s email campaign. This figure presents the
multiple-choice questions weaved into the videogame. The underlined option is the “best”
answer. As part of the lesson, students also discussed these questions.
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Continuing with this idea of meaning making, if we adapt the notion that interpreting
pictures on a page involves symbolic interpretation which require high-level cognitive
skills (Hawkins, 1991), we could argue that gaming takes a learner in comparable but
alternative steps. According to of the notion of gaming as literacy, gamers-as-learners
utilize and further develop higher-order thinking skills, which involve “skills such
as comprehension, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and application,” (McLoughlin
& Mynard, 2009, p. 148) as they interact within a game system. As Squire (2005)
highlights, “Success and even survival in the game [requires] deep thinking across
diverse problem spaces.” In this sense, “word and deed are united and the knower is
a knower of specific kind—a type of active professional, not just a generic recipient
of knowledge” (Gee, 2005). The aim was for the learner to actively construct and
apply knowledge as he/she played and read the videogame. This resource orientation
along with the notions of multiliteracies and meaning making formed the foundation
of the formulation of our videogame and its role in the learning unit on bullying.
SCAFFOLDING WITH THE VIDEOGAME
We now turn to the underlying concepts, namely the notion of scaffolding, as
informed by Teaching English to Speakers of Other Langauges (TESOL) that guided
our collaboration in videogame design for literacy and language learning. Cummins
(1981), in a seminal study in the field of TESOL, suggests that ELLs may need 4 to
10 years to develop proficient academic English skills. However, as Echevarria, Vogt,
and Short (2007) argue, secondary level teachers cannot wait for ELLs to become
proficient in academic English before teaching them in the content areas. According
to this argument, teachers should teach both content and language, as is the case in this
study’s teacher’s English Language Arts classes for ELLs. English Language Learners
have the additional challenge of learning new content while simultaneously learning
the structures of a new language. As such, scaffolds are necessary to support them in
this cognitively demanding process (Watts-Taffe & Truscott, 2000). Scaffolds enable
ELLs to engage in the learning process by presenting new language and content in a
comprehensible manner.
The field of TESOL recognizes the value of including scaffolds to support student
comprehension of language and content (e.g. Gass & Selinker, 2001). For example, in
discussing the effectiveness of graphic novels in engaging ELLs in critical discussions,
Chun (2009) offers the concept of comprehensible input (Krashen & Terrell, 1983),
explaining that the visuals scaffold “textual meanings,” allowing ELLs to overcome
otherwise “formidable barriers” of a novel’s written text (p. 146). By providing
contextual and background information, the visuals create entry points to the written
text, making the English language more manageable for ELLs (Chun, 2009). Research
related to ELLs and various youth literacies point to the potential of videogames and
multimedia technology as a scaffold for school literacy (Black, 2005; Harushimana,
2008; Kasper, 2000). Our videogame encompassed many elements that are regarded as
effective forms of scaffolding in ESL contexts: visuals, video, movement, and role-plays
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(Cary, 2000). Each of these elements was purposefully designed to enhance the students’
understanding of new language and content (Johnson, 1982).
The videogame was one component of a comprehensive unit plan. As such, the
students expanded upon the foundation of knowledge they had developed on the topic.
Prior to playing the videogame, the students participated in various background building
activities that supported reading comprehension (Carrell, 1983), including engaging
in both print text and multimedia about bullying, to become familiar with the antibullying campaign email that they then read. After playing the videogame, the students
discussed the written questions and responses embedded in the game and built upon
their knowledge and interaction with the subject of bullying and associated language to
participate in a discussion about the campaign email. The students employed reading
strategies and engaged in dialogue to respond to questions, including “In your opinion,
does Katy have a strong voice? Why do you feel this way?” and “Connect Katy’s story
about being bullied to a time in your own life or a time in the life of someone you know.”
These questions prompted students to examine the agency demonstrated by Katie, as
well as apply the reading strategy of making text connections. The videogame acted
as a “linguistic bridge” (Gibbons, 2003) by presenting the written text in a scaffolded
manner, and supporting the students’ participation in the class discussions. Furthermore,
because our videogame was an integral part of a larger unit of study aligns with Young
et al.’s (2012) proposition that “games cannot succeed as stand-alone solutions ” (p. 83).
That is, the videogame was one of many texts and materials utilized by the students in
this English Language Arts lesson. Applying the idea that scaffolds assist in providing
an entry to language, literacy, and content learning, we developed the videogame to
serve as a scaffold in addition to its other roles in the learning unit on bullying.
REFLECTING ON THE STUDENTS
We discuss here our observations as former and current teachers, who are pausing to
“puzzle” over, inquire into, and reflect on the process of developing and implementing
the videogame in the classroom (Ballenger, 2009; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009).
Reflecting on our process in collaborating to create the videogame as well as the
theoretical underpinnings, we believe that the videogame provided a means for students
to experience ownership over their learning and provided a venue where their agency
emerged. Given that ELLs comprise a typically marginalized student population
(Harper, de Jong, & Platt, 2008), it seemed particularly appropriate to foster a learning
space conducive to student ownership. One student in particular demonstrated a great
sense of agency engaging in the videogame. Despite being classified as having a
learning disability, the student was able to apply reading strategies to interpret texts,
and become the first student to complete all five levels of the videogame. In playing
this videogame, the student was able to demonstrate and utilize different types of
literacy resources (Rowsell, 2013). Such a result was not observed when the student
was required to engage in only traditional print text, highlighting the affordances of
incorporating videogames and other forms of literacy in the classroom.
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While traditional structures of instructional design do not include a space for
students’ voices, during these learning experiences students were positioned as experts
and their critique of the videogame was valued. Two forms of student feedback were
incorporated into the instructional plan for the videogame activity. During the sessions
in which the classes engaged in the videogame, students provided online ratings
through Gamestar Mechanic. Additionally, students completed more extensive written
reflections on the videogame, which included suggestions to add new levels to the
game, and develop a version for younger students, so they may also engage in learning
about bullying. While analyzing the videogame through careful reflection, the students
activated literacy skills and participated in the process of videogame design (Smith
& Grant, 1999). These activities granted the students access to digital literacies and
communities of learners (Black, 2005). Through these mechanisms, we hope our view
of students as expert learners came to fruition, though we understand there is often
more that a teacher could do to relinquish power in a space of learning.
Figure 6. Gamestar Mechanic online review instrument. This figure displays one way in
which the students (the gameplayers) were able to provide feedback on the videogame.
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Language and literacy instruction throughout the unit focused on the socially
relevant issue of bullying, both in school and cyber contexts. The topic of bullying
was selected as the content for this unit in anticipation of new legislation at the state
level where the project was implemented. The new law sets standards and regulations
for how students treat one another in the school setting with regard to race, culture,
religion, gender identity, physical appearance and other personal characteristics.
Throughout the unit, vocabulary included in the legislation, such as “bystander”
and “upstander,” were introduced to students to emphasize that, rather than simply
observe a problem, students have the ability take action to improve the condition.
In addition to the videogame, students interacted with various forms of literacy
and media on the topic of bullying, as they read excerpts from the new legislation,
newspaper articles, watched a documentary, interpreted a political cartoon and
participated in a guest visit from a local police officer. After engaging in the series
of lessons and activities, we hope the students were able to position themselves as
experts on the topic of bullying, and shared their knowledge with younger students
by writing children’s books for an elementary ESL class in the district that was
simultaneously engaging in a bullying unit. The students seemed to exhibit agency
as they drafted and designed their books to enact social change.
The particular content of the videogame– Katy’s anti-bullying campaign– exposed
students to youth activism, providing a springboard for the students’ potential future
activism. Engaging in the videogame and the lesson provided training grounds for
and a simulation of an activism project to equip students to lead their own social
justice campaign. The teacher introduced the students to the website, www.change.
org, where Katy initiated her original petition. Students explored the site and selected
petitions that were meaningful in their own lives, including those that addressed
animal rights, international issues and immigrant rights. The videogame served as
an introduction for students to gain awareness of social issues, and demonstrate the
manner in which they may act as agents of social change. In effect, the videogame
and accompanying instructional activities enabled students to explore social issues
beyond bullying that are meaningful to their own lives, and recognize their capacity
to bring about change as local and global citizens.
FINAL THOUGHTS: LOOKING AHEAD
Considering student learning as the major goal, this project linked a classroom
teacher and two researchers to utilize their knowledge and resources to support
instruction in an English language learning environment. As in all partnerships,
consistent communication was key. We dialogued to execute our shared vision of
a videogame that was an integral part of a lesson plan within a larger learning unit.
Rather than simply design an instructional program for “intermediate level” ELLs,
the game developers used samples of students’ schoolwork and feedback from the
cooperating teacher in order to tailor the program to the strengths and needs of
students. Similarly, all stakeholders frequently communicated via email, telephone
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L. NGO, N. A. PETERMAN & S. GOLDSTEIN
and in-person meetings in order to track the progress of the course and individual
students, and to modify their plans accordingly.
An instrumental piece in this process was Gamestar Mechanic, which facilitated
a reflective journey in game design. Such open software proved important for
researchers and teachers with little experience in creating videogames to immediately
begin working and playing in a digital space. As such, our reflection and design was
instrumentally linked to the unique features and user-friendly aspects of Gamestar
Mechanic.
The gap between research and practice is often discussed, but our collaborative
efforts highlight ways and areas in which such a divide can be bridged. That is, we
have attempted to work within a framework of collective inquiry. The relational
dynamics of this project were crucial to its success – all stakeholders shared a
fundamental belief in the need to ground our project “in the problems and contexts
of practice…and in the ways practitioners collaboratively theorize, study, and act on
those problems in the best interests of the learning and life chances of students and
their communities” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009, p. 123). Though this collaboration
was in the spirit of collective knowledge construction between communities and
universities, the students were ultimately at the heart of the project goals.
Admittedly, our collaborative efforts could be improved upon, as is often the
case with endeavors in education that challenge the status quo. At the very least, we
hope that this school-university partnership may serve as a model for others on both
sides and inspire future collaborative inquires. Schooling is becoming increasingly
restricted by curricular requirements and mandated standards; nonetheless, there
is still space for the creativity and collective voices of educators—researchers and
teachers alike—all with the aim of increasing access to learning and helping our
learners to thrive.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the National Writing Project and Gamestar
Mechanic for providing us with Premium access to Gamestar Mechanic in support
of our project. Gamestart Mechanic offers both free and Premium access to their
gaming platform, in addition to resources and social networking media for teachers.
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10. WRITING IN VIRTUAL WORLDS: SCRATCH
PROGRAMMING AS MULTIMODAL COMPOSING
PRACTICE IN THE LANGUAGE ARTS CLASSROOM
Hayley and Emir, sitting two at the computer, take turns dragging and dropping
Lego-like digital blocks from one section of the screen to another in the Scratch
program interface. “Press the flag!” says Emir to Hayley, who has control of the
mouse. As Hayley maneuvers the cursor to click the green flag in the top right-hand
corner of the screen, the two students watch the cartoon-like avatars on the right side
of the screen move about in reaction to their building-block code. When they do not
like the way that the avatar has reacted, they go back, rearrange the coding blocks,
and press the green flag again to check for the response they desire. There is much
trial and error, but the students never lose momentum. Once they have successfully
animated their avatars, they begin to add sounds to their program. Deciding they
have not yet mastered this skill, they navigate to the Scratch website and, locating
a tutorial, find the process for adding sound. The tutorial, created and uploaded by
another young Scratch user, is interactive. It, too, was made using Scratch.
Scratch, released to the public in 2007 (scratch.mit.edu), is an open-source educational
programming tool for creating videogames. It was designed to allow young people to
create complex multimodal (using multiple channels of communication beyond just
linguistic symbols) compositions with ease. In addition, Scratch’s designers envisioned
that the Scratch programming language would teach young people the basics of
programming while sharing their projects and Scratch programming knowledge with
each other, learning reciprocally through a community of practice (Lave & Wenger,
1991). As Scratch programmers view Scratch projects they like, they can access the
programming code and integrate the code into their own projects.
Developed for use by six to 16-year-olds, elementary, middle, and high
school teachers can use this tool in their classrooms to develop skills in narrative
composing with new media tools. Teachers can use Scratch to support an array
of traditional English Language Arts (ELA) skills like narrative writing, revision,
attending to grammar, and organization of ideas; it also supports the development
of media, technology, and computational thinking skills (Grover & Pea, 2013)
including computer programming. And since Scratch taps into multiple modes of
expression beyond just written (linguistic) text, it is an apt tool for those students
who have traditionally underperformed in ELA and may benefit from an expanded
communicative toolkit.
H. R. Gerber & S. S. Abrams (Eds.), Bridging Literacies with Videogames, 187–205.
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J. WARNER
NEW LITERACIES
The illiteracy scare of the 1980s brought on by A Nation at Risk, a report by thenPresident Ronald Reagan’s National Commission on Excellence in Education,
seemed to inspire research around the out-of-school literacy practices of young
people (Gardner et al., 1983). In reaction to the assertion that youth were falling
behind the rest of the world in the area of literacy, scholars sought to illuminate all
the ways youth demonstrated literacy in their lives (Lankshear & Knobel, 2008). A
vast expansion within the electronics industry happened around this same time, and
the out-of-school, computer-mediated literacies practices of young people became a
focus of literacies research.
Since then, stakeholders are increasingly regarding literacy less as a set of discrete
skills and instead as what people are actually doing in their everyday lives that involve
reading and writing (Street, 1984; 1993). Hinchman and Alvermann (2012) point
out that because “multiple bridges connect texts, purposes, tasks, identities, social
affiliations, media, and settings,” (p. xiii) the lines between in- and out-of-school
literacies are becoming blurred. The term “new literacies” has emerged to represent
all of the ways that people use a variety of texts in their lives. However, the term is
most often associated with digital literacies practices, including reading and writing
digital texts, Internet literacies, informational literacies, “computational literacy”
(diSessa, 2001), and others which “broadly fall under a new literacies umbrella”
(Coiro, Knoblel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008, p. 10) involving new technologies.
Inherent to arguments about the nature of literacy learning in the 21st century is
the notion of social futures (Cope & Kalantzis, 1999; New London Group, 1996). As
technologies impact the English language and the notion of literacy is accordingly
destabilized, what will students need to be considered literate in their social futures?
In other words, what knowledge and skills will help students to be successful in
reaching their life goals? As technologies mediate more and more of the reading and
writing tasks that are required of students in the classroom, skills in programming, a
language skill usually segregated from ELA into the area of computer science, will
be of paramount importance. Russian computer scientist Andrei Ershov recognized
this decades ago in 1972: “To be a good programmer today is as much a privilege as
it was to be a literate man in the sixteenth century” (p. 504).
VIDEOGAMES AND NEW LITERACIES
As young people have taken up new literacies with fervor, educators have been
interested in the ways that bringing digital literacies into the classroom can make
“schooled literacy” more relevant for youth in changing times. Popular culture has
lost the stigma it once had, relegated to out-of-school time alone (Page, 2012). Instead,
educators now commonly look to the ways students engage with popular culture to
scaffold school-sanctioned literacy learning (e.g., Black, 2008; Buckingham, 2008;
Gainer & Fink, 2008; Hill & Vasudevan, 2008; Laman, 2012).
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WRITING IN VIRTUAL WORLDS
One such genre within popular culture increasingly tapped by educators is the
videogame. As videogames have grown in popularity, they have become a focus for
researchers. Just how popular are videogames? In 2009, 60% of middle and high
school aged students reported that they played videogames daily (Rideout, Foerh, &
Roberts, 2010). A Pew Internet and American Life study found that 97% of teenagers
are gamers (Lenhart et al., 2008). While initially, the popularity of videogames led
many to fear their influence was negative (Squire, 2002), more recently, researchers
have begun to focus on the educative potential of videogames. A recent review of
literature on gaming for education by Young et al. (2012), for example, reviewed
studies on games for learning science, history, mathematics, English, and even
physical education (eg., Din & Calao, 2001; Kuppens, 2008; Zheng, 2006).
Videogames’ potential for literacy learning in particular has been well documented
(e.g., Adams, 2009; Ashton, 2010; Burke, 2012; Burke & Kafai, 2010; Hawisher &
Selfe, 2007; Ip, 2011a, 2011b; Sanford & Madill, 2007; Steinkuehler, 2008). Perhaps
the most influential work in this area is Gee’s (2007) text on videogames, learning,
and literacy. In this work, Gee pinpoints 36 learning principles that videogames
support, including active and critical learning, design, reading, risk-taking, and selfknowledge. Many of the principles he outlines relate specifically to literacy learning,
though Gee’s view of literacy as “social and cultural practices with economic,
historical, and political implications” (p. 9) is quite panoptic.
Games have most often been demonstrated as effective in teaching narrative
writing or storytelling. This makes sense since at their core, games are narratives that
can be manipulated or “played” (Burn, 2009). Burn (2009) calls this the “narrative
potential” of games. In games, one “plays” the existing story: the basics are set
out, the beginning, middle, and ending are implied, but improvisation, a sort of coauthoring, is required (Alberti, 2008; Burn, 2009; Gee, 2007). Gee uses the term
“embodied stories” (p. 79) to describe the ways that players’ choices and actions re/
write the stories.
Thus, playing games has been recognized as a form of authorship. However, young
people engage in writing the videogames themselves as well. This requires some
programming knowledge, but writing games also recruits narrative concepts such
as plot development, characters, conflict, and setting. Burke (2012) explained the
“overlapping forms of composition” (p. 122) involved in writing games, the “coded
narrative,” (p. 123) which is the hidden programming code, and the multimedia
narrative that plays out on the screen. In his study of ten middle school students,
aged 12 to 14, participating in a seven-week writing workshop wherein the students
composed digital stories in Scratch programming language, Burke (2012) outlined
the ways the students learned programming knowledge and narrative writing skills
concurrently through the workshop.
Other researchers who have explored young people writing code with various
programming platforms including Stage Cast Creator with seven to 11 year olds
(Habgood, Ainsworth, & Benford, 2005), GameMaker for game writing for mobile
platforms (Pericles, 2007), Logo with fourth grade students (Kafai, 1995), and
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J. WARNER
creating custom modules for the game Neverwinter Nights (Robertson & Good,
2005a; Robertson & Good, 2005b; Howland, Good & Robertson, 2006; Szafron
et al., 2005). These studies showed the ways that young people learn computer
literacy skills through writing videogames. As they engage with hardware and
software for making videogames, students develop or recruit technical skills. These
skills might include, for example, recognizing and navigating the typical features of
an applications window like a scroll bar or a drop-down menu. They gain exposure
to the cursor-to-mouse connection, dialogue boxes, the use of common commands
like Find, Undo, or Select, and ways of navigating within the interface. The Common
Core writing standards require that students “use technology” for writing in grades
6-12, and as such, these basic skills are crucial (National Governors Association
Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). In addition,
the students must employ narrative writing skills in their stories’ development.
The narrative writing skills used in playing and writing videogames have been
observed to transfer over to writing linguistic texts. For example, Robertson and
Good (2003) studied children using a role-playing game called Ghostwriter as a
prewriting activity to examine whether or not they employed richer characterization
in the stories they wrote based on the avatars they manipulated in the game. The
researchers found that the relationships between characters were more developed in
the stories after the children used the game.
Games have been used in other creative ways to teach writing. Gerber and Price
(2011) described methods for using videogames to teach expository and creative
writing. In a writing activity called a “walk-through,” students write an informational
text about a videogame that provides background information about the game’s
storyline as well as practical knowledge for navigating through the game. According to
the authors, this kind of writing must be detailed, clear, and specific (p. 70). Persuasive
writing can be supported by videogames as well. The authors described argumentative
writing activities based on videogames carried out on blogs or a class Ning (a popular
social networking site). They named war games and first-person shooter games as
appropriate platforms for persuasive writing. Creative writing, too, can be supported
through the use of videogames. Students can write fanfiction (a genre wherein students
extend storylines from a game or “borrow” characters from a game to create new
storylines), poetry, lyrics, or screenplays based on videogames (p. 71).
Adams (2009) explored teaching methods using videogames for reluctant readers.
She described how the text-rich role-playing game Neverwinter Nights helped her
students learn new vocabulary words and other reading skills like comprehension
and reading for information (p. 58). Adams argued that “virtual literacy” (which she
separates from informational literacy) is important for students because they learn
to “‘read’ authors’ intentions by making inferences and comprehending the codes
involved in the online world” (p. 58). But in addition to traditional reading skills
and virtual literacy, videogames can “create those meaningful experiences that add
relevance to students’ reading” (p. 59). Since reading and writing are inextricable,
videogames can be harnessed in this way to support writing in ELA.
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MULTIMODALITY AND VIDEOGAMES
Multimodality, or modes of communication beyond the linguistic alone, including
visual, auditory, and kinekonic, or that of the moving image (Mills, 2011), is quickly
gaining recognition as a central feature of communication in contemporary culture
(Siegel, 2012). diSessa (2001) describes children’s engagement with a software
called Boxer, maintaining that students can express more with programming, which
is layered expression (visual, auditory, kinekonic, and linguistic), than with just
linguistic text. diSessa (2001) argues for the importance of matching the “mode
of inscription” to the communicative purpose. Each mode of inscription, according
to diSessa “has its own structure, expressive range, associated modes of thought,
and ‘intellectual allies’” (p. 7). Motion, he posits, can be expressed better through
programs than through something like audio, for example. As such, programming as
a mode is the intellectual ally of motion. diSessa entreats us to consider the mode
most apt for the function when composing:
Aptness is critical. Every inscription system is apt for some things and less apt
for others. Programming, like arithmetic, is evidently not very apt for poetry
or for discussing the nature of computational media, but it happens to be quite
superb for motion. (p. 32)
This expansion of the modal palette beyond the linguistic mode alone allows for
expanded communicational possibilities for literacy students.
MEDIA LITERACY
As stakeholders have come to recognize media literacy as central to new literacies,
researchers have explored the ways that young people learn media literacy through
writing games. Since games are media texts, creators of games are producing media
texts, which can foster media literacy as students become not only critical consumers
of media but also creators of media (Burn, 2009). Koltay (2011) maintained that
media literacy is best cultivated through media creation. For example, Squire (2008)
described an educational program created with game writers including SONY
Imageworks that required young people to “identify an existing media property,
creating a game design and pitch materials, and then [do] a 20-minute design brief
before a team of experts from academia, industry, and business” (p. 662). In this
way, students learned media literacy by engaging in media creation through media
production and by exposure to the commercial gaming industry.
VIDEOGAMES AND SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT
Videogames have been shown to be appropriate for literacy learning and engaging
for students in a media-saturated world, but have they been shown to impact
achievement? A number of studies have explored the impact of playing videogames
on student learning. Chuang and Chen (2009) conducted a study in Taiwan with
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J. WARNER
108 third graders learning about fire-fighting through computer-assisted instruction
and a videogame. They found that the videogames supported the students’
cognitive processes and that play supported learning and development. In another
study, Loyalist College found that engagement with a virtual world led to a 30%
improvement in students’ test scores on a critical thinking test (Hudson & deGastKennedy, 2009). Researchers have even examined the effects of videogames on
creativity. Scholars at Michigan State University surveyed 491 middle-school
students in a National Science Foundation-supported study as to their frequency
of videogame play and then tested creativity using the Torrance Test of CreativityFigural. Of the participants, they found that they were more creative in writing
stories and drawing the more they played videogames (Jackson et al., 2012). There
is, then, evidence that videogames can aid the learning of content knowledge, critical
thinking, and creativity, all of which support literacy learning.
GETTING STARTED: SCRATCH PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
Because of its user-friendly design, Scratch is appropriate for teachers and students
new to writing videogames or programming. In addition, since all Scratch projects
are open-source, that is to say, the code behind every game is available to everyone,
it is easy for a new Scratcher to learn from the work of others. However, Scratch
can be used by veteran programmers as well, since the language allows for complex
compositions by those with more advanced programming skill. As such, it is a
suitable tool for differentiated learning (in other words, for use with all students).
At the time of this writing, there are over three million projects from around the
world hosted on the Scratch website. A social hub where youth digital content creators
share and remix others’ Scratch projects, the Scratch website includes featured
projects, video tutorials, and wiki support. A forum section on the Scratch website
includes places for discussion around topics that include “Help with Scripts,” “Show
and Tell,” “Project Ideas,” and “Collaboration” among others. At the time of writing,
over 319,000 users have communicated via the forums on creating Scratch projects.
Creating real media with others, required by the Common Core State Standards, can
be accomplished through partnerships facilitated by the ScratchEd message boards
(http://scratched.media.mit.edu/discussions).
COMPOSING IN SCRATCH
The creators of Scratch sought to make a low-barrier means of computer programming
for children. To use Scratch to construct videogames and compose digital stories of
other kinds, composers drag and drop “building blocks” reminiscent of Legos™ that
initiate actions in their program. In this way, the software allows them to imagine,
plan, and build virtual worlds quickly and without much technical knowledge.
Composing in Scratch is similar in many ways to writing process with linguistic
texts. In programming, as is true in other languages, there are certain constraints
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or rules, which ELA educators would recognize as grammar. But unlike English
grammatical rules which must be memorized, the constraints within Scratch are
communicated visually through the shape of the blocks. The shapes of the blocks
suggest what can and cannot be built onto them, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1
demonstrates how the shape of the blocks suggest which blocks are compatible, and
thus, how the composers can and cannot assemble the code.
Figure 1. Scratch blocks.
Characters and other objects that can be animated in Scratch are called costume
sprites (see Figure 2). The software comes with many costumes, in folders labeled
animals, fantasy, letters, people, things, and transportation. Costumes for sprites can
be imported into the program from digital image files as well. Composers can even
import photographs of famous people, their families, or their classmates to animate
within Scratch. In addition, composers can draw their own costumes for sprites using
the Sprite Paint Editor, seen in Figure 3.
In Scratch, backgrounds are also sprites because they too can be animated, but
they are labeled within the program as Backgrounds (see Figure 4). Just as with
the character sprites, Scratch includes stock backgrounds, or students can import
backgrounds. Alternatively, they can paint their own. In this way, students can tell
a story about a familiar place by taking and importing a photograph of their own
town, or tell a fantasy story by painting their own imaginative background. There are
scaffolds and freedoms that can be utilized and exercised depending upon student
readiness.
The Scratch composing screen, shown in Figure 5, is divided into thirds. In
the leftmost third, the composer has a palette of motion, control, sound, and other
command blocks from which to choose called the button screen. Composers can
drag command blocks from the button screen to the center column called the code
screen. The rightmost column is referred to as the stage and it is here where the
composer can view the actions initiated by their codes. As such, the two layers of
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Figure 2. Examples of costume sprites.
Figure 3. Sprite Paint Editor.
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Figure 4. Examples of stock backgrounds that are preloaded in Scratch.
Figure 5. The Scratch interface.
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the game can be “read” in two parallel languages, one symbolic and one visual. This
affords a composer who is learning to compose through programming languages
timely feedback about how the code is communicating or failing to communicate.
Creating programs in Scratch requires ongoing revision of students’ programs as
they write the code and then run the code to see the outcome. In this way, revision is
almost constant, streamlined with the composing process itself.
diSessa (2001) describes this property of programs like Scratch as “synthetic:”
“Programs are not just analytic and a basis for reasoning. They are also synthetic.
They can be run” (p. 34). He goes on to point out that this property represents what
is most powerful about programs as a form of writing:
‘Make it experiential’ is perhaps the single most powerful educational heuristic
that I know. Experts aren’t left out either. The synthetic power of computer
programs, for example, to simulate weather or global warming transcends all
other inscription systems (p. 35).
Indeed, the fact that the code creates an experience rather than lying inert is powerful
for learners. Imagine if a story written in linguistic text could be “run” and the author
could watch the narrative unfold before his or her eyes. This is what happens in
Scratch, but with programming language.
Because of the program’s fast response to changes in the code, Scratch encourages
experimentation and play; in the words of the Scratch creators, it is more “tinkerable”
(Resnick, et al., 2009, p. 63). This quality of being tinkerable acts as a scaffold for
those without much technical knowledge or skill. They can rely on trial and error to
get the results they desire. No manual is needed; no teacher is needed. The Scratch
creators explain that this is the logic behind the Lego brick design:
Given a box full of LEGO bricks, children will start tinkering. They’ll snap
together a few bricks, and the emerging structure will give them new ideas. As
children play and build with LEGO bricks, plans and goals organically evolve
along with the structures. We wanted the process of programming in Scratch
to have a similar feeling…As with LEGO bricks, connectors on the blocks
suggest how they should be put together. Children can start by tinkering with
the blocks, snapping them together in different sequences and combinations to
see what happens (Resnick et al., 2009, p. 4).
In Scratch, while some planning can be carried out beforehand, much of the
composing happens in the space of the program. As Alberti (2008) pointed out,
composing in digital spaces that allow for play “rewrite[s] the conceptual binary
of process and product in composition pedagogy” (Alberti, 2008, p. 1). In Scratch,
composition and revision happen simultaneously as students create codes, watch
how their sprites react to that code, and tweak that code according to their desired
outcome. The immediate feedback is what makes composing in Scratch so
engaging.
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CAN I BORROW THAT? REMIXING AS A SCAFFOLD WITHIN SCRATCH
Buckingham (2008) reminds us that media education is inherently social because
media is social. Media producers work from prior knowledge gained from other
media and other people. Going further, he insists, “imitation is an indispensible
aspect of learning” (p. 134). The Scratch website includes several components
written by Scratch users to support newcomers to Scratch programming, including
a Scratch wiki, a Scratch resources site, and a forum where Scratch composers can
post questions or offer help (Figure 6). The categories within the forum are set up for
getting help with scripts, “show and tell,” project idea sharing, a collaboration thread
to help connect potential programming teams, and other means towards sharing,
helping, and getting support.
Figure 6. The Scratch forums.
Another feature of Scratch that supports newcomers through collaboration is that
Scratch projects are open-source. This means that when composers upload their
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projects, the source code is available to other Scratchers. Other users who view the
projects and like what they see can copy the code or parts of the code to use within
their own Scratch projects. Note the option to “download this project” in the top
right corner of the screen that accompanies this Scratch project in Figure 7.
Figure 7. A Scratch project showing download capacity, top right
If a Scratch composer likes a particular facet of a Scratch project they view on
the site, they have the option to download the project and cut and paste the code for
the element they like into their own project. This can support novice programmers
in learning how the codes translate into sprites, actions, backgrounds, etc. It also
allows for a novice to put a project together using bricolage, or by piecing together
bits of code from several projects to create a new work as a scaffold into Scratch
composing. In Scratch, remix is supported, even encouraged, by its open-source
design, the “share” button built into the design screen, and the social network that is
attached to it. Appropriation and free-sharing of this kind has become part and parcel
of new media culture. In fact, the name Scratch is derived from the term “scratching”
that describes what remixing DJs do when they splice together different music tracks
(Resnick et al., 2009).
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CREATING A SIMPLE NARRATIVE WITH SCRATCH
To get started storytelling with Scratch, some teachers prefer that students create a
storyboard on paper prior to using computers to bring the story to life. Others favor
a more organic digital process. Even with storyboards, students often stray from the
original plan once they have the opportunity to explore the capabilities of Scratch,
which comes loaded with many settings, characters, and sounds. Showing students
sample Scratch projects on the Scratch website that match the teacher’s desired
student outcome an apt way to begin in either case. (There are several featured at
the Scratch website here: http://scratch.mit.edu/studios/138297/) Students may need
a basic lesson in creating an animation with Scratch prior to composing a digital
story or videogame. Teachers can students choose a sprite and play around with the
blocks, seeing how the code will make the sprite react. Scratch cards (http://info.
scratch.mit.edu/Support/Scratch_Cards) can be printed out and made accessible to
the students as they learn the basics of Scratch programming; the cards are two-sided
printable PDFs that show both the action and the code students use to create the
action. Teachers can give students a rubric, such as the sample in Figure 8, to guide
their process.
Part 1: Establish a Setting or World
Teachers can have students click the white box near the bottom right side of the
screen that says "stage,” allowing students to choose between exiting files with
various settings, or paint their own original setting image. The setting acts as an
inert background upon which the animations can move about; advanced users can
animate the backgrounds as well. Students can also upload their own files to use
as settings. For example, students can bring archival photos from home, or go out
and photograph the school or sites within the local community to use as the setting.
There is no limit to how many settings are brought into a Scratch project. Students
can change backgrounds according to the necessary scene changes in their story.
Part 2: Add or Create Characters
Just as with the background images, students can choose between existing characters
within Scratch, paint new ones, or import photographs to use as characters in their
project. In Scratch, characters are referred to as sprites. To add a new sprite, click
one of the buttons next to "new sprite." They are: Paint your own sprite, get an
existing sprite from a file, or get a surprise sprite. If students want to get rid of a
selected sprite, they can delete it by selecting the scissors from the tool bar and
clicking on the sprite. Each sprite has a name that displays beneath the icon. Students
can also choose a sprite from existing files. The bundled sprites are categorized into
Animals, Fantasy, Letters, People, Things, and Transportation. The create new
sprite option allows students to draw a sprite using the Paint Editor.
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3 – Satisfactory
2 – Developing
1 – Needs
Attention
0 – Not present
Setting(s)
Story contained 4
backgrounds that
supported the settings
of the narrative
Story contained
3 backgrounds
that supported
the settings of the
narrative
Story containted
2 back-grounds
that supported
the settings of the
narrative
Story contained 1
background
No background
Characterization
Visual, auditory,
and text elements of
characters supported
characterization; all
characters were distinct
and developed.
Some visual,
auditory, and text
elements used as
characterization for
most characters
Some attempts
at character
development in a
few characters
Little character
development
No character
development
Plot/Action/
Conflict
Story had a clear and
well-developed plot and
the animation of the
characters supported
plot development
Story had a clear
plot and the
animation of the
characters supported
plot development
Some attempts at
plot development
and some animation
Little plot
development or
animation
No plot development
Story Structure
Story had a clear
beginning, middle,
and end, with some
creativity in structural
choices
Story had a clear
beginning, middle,
and end
Story’s structure
was unclear at
times
Story’s structure
was unclear
No structure
Grammar and
Mechanics
Story was free of
grammatical and
mechanical errors
Story had very few
grammatical and
mechancial errors
Story had noticible
grammatical and
mechanical errors
Story had copious
grammatical and
mechanical errors
Grammatical and
mechanical errors
were distracting and
overshadowed the story
Figure 8. Sample rubric for a standards-based Scratch project.
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4 – Excellent
J. WARNER
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Part 3: Animate Characters with Scripts
At this point, students can make a sprite speak. Click the Looks category and get
a SAY block. Click inside the SAY block and type to change the words. Students
can add as many as desired to keep the monologue going. Add another sprite to
have a conversation. Click on that sprite to add scripts for it. Each sprite will have
its own set of scripts. Think of the scripts as the directions for the sprites who are
actors.
The scripts not only allow students to make the sprites speak, but they are also
used to animate the sprites. There are several options for animating sprites ranging
from simple to complex. The place to begin is with the built-in commands for
moving sprites. Once students have mastered the built-in commands, they can try
complex animation by using "costumes" they draw themselves that utilize a "flip
book" effect to create the illusion of movement. Built-in commands can be found
within the code screen’s Motion section. The two modes of animation in Scratch are
(1) using degrees and steps or (2) using the Cartesian Coordinate System (x,y). To
use degrees and steps, students first maneuver the sprite in the direction (represented
by degrees) that they wish it to move by dragging it with the mouse. Then, they
can command the sprite to move a certain number of steps in the coding screen.
For example, students choose an initiating action, such as, “When Start Button is
Clicked,” and then point the sprite according to their wishes, e.g., “Point in direction
-40,” and then enter the number of steps, e.g., “Move 7 steps.” Alternatively, using the
Cartesian Coordinate system, students hover the mouse over the stage, and the (x,y)
coordinates are revealed beneath the stage. Students can enter several commands
using the coordinates, such as “Set y to 40,” “Go to X:32 Y:-40,” or “Change Y by
9.” Again, the script must begin with an initiating action, such as a click of the green
flag, or a click of the sprite.
These are the building block commands that students can use to achieve a
multimodal representation of the story they have imagined or written. Teachers can
decide what programming structures to assess in addition to any narrative features
that are in the curriculum.
EXTENSIONS: BRINGING VIDEOGAMES INTO THE WRITING PROCESS
Scratch can be used to create a multimodal digital story product. It can also
be integrated at other junctures in the writing process and to teach concepts in
composition.
Videogame-supported Revision
Students are often reluctant to revise writing because they find it difficult to get
the distance from a piece of writing necessary to see where adjustments might be
made. To use videogames to aid revision, teachers can ask students to use linguistic
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writing to describe characters for a story, and then use videogame writing software
to develop those characters. After creating those characters visually and “bringing
them to life,” students could then turn back to the linguistic version of the story to
revise and add detail based on their experience with the program.
Teaching Elements of Rhetoric
The idea of rhetoric is as old as the writings of Aristotle, yet the digital writing
of games recruits rhetorical strategies such as audience awareness, planning and
outlining, revision, and publishing. The Common Core 6-12 writing standards
require:
With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen
writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new
approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
(National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief
State School Officers, 2010).
Since the act of creating a game is truly “creative” in the etymological sense of the
word; that is to say, there is a product that can be shared with others, videogames
exist for real audiences, the players. Publishing original work for real audiences
has been shown to increase motivation and learning (Sefton-Green & Buckingham,
1998) unlike the “pseudotransactional” (Petraglia, 1995) kinds of literacy activities
that usually happen in schools. Creative production for a larger audience has shown
to be of importance to students (Papert, 1980, 1994; Kafai, 2006), and it brings
narrative writing into the realm of real life for them.
In writing games, students must tailor their games or stories to particular
audiences with particular levels of readiness, and plan the various facets of the game
accordingly. As they create a story or game, they must constantly run their program,
experiencing it as their audience will, to ensure that the code is correct (i.e., leading
to the desired outcome).
Teaching Genre or Form and Function
To bring discussion of the best modes of expression for story elements into the ELA
classroom, teachers can use videogames. The Common Core State Standards for
6-12 ELA dictate that students should:
Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information to make
important connections and distinctions; include formatting (e.g., headings),
graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding
comprehension (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices,
Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010).
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To approach this standard using videogame writing, teachers can have students
create a written story that includes action. Then, students should be instructed to
create that same story using videogame software. Teachers can parlay this experience
into a discussion of the specific ways that the multimedia aided comprehension
of the story for an audience (e.g., “seeing” the characters, experiencing the motion
of the story kinekonically) and extend the conversation to discuss the affordances
of various genres of expression like painting, song, recipes, shopping lists, poems,
etc.
Teaching Grammar
As discussed, programming languages have their own grammars. To use a
programming language to teach English grammar, a teacher can show students
a snippet of a programming language, and have them try to decipher it just from
reading the bit of language. What action would it initiate in a program? After some
time, the teacher can run the program and show the students the outcome. As this
is repeated a few times, students can discuss how the language seems to “work.”
Then, have students begin to write using the structures in the program as a scaffold.
Let them run the programs they have written, and see if they effected their desired
outcome. Teachers can then route the conversation toward a discussion of the parts
of speech in the English language and how they function in relationship to the
programming language. Students could even create a visual heuristic akin to Scratch
blocks that visually suggests how the parts of speech work.
Playing Videogames as Writing
Teachers can use playing videogames as an entryway into the world of writing with
those students who profess to be non-writers or for those who have a difficult time
getting started with narrative composition. Either at school or as an out-of-school
homework assignment, have students play a videogame for thirty minutes, pausing
it in five-minute increments to turn to a pen and paper or a word processing program
to capture, in writing, the story that is “unfolding” for the character that the student
embodies. As an extension, teachers can debrief with students about the choices they
made as “co-writers” of the story as well as those fixed features of the narrative built
into the game. They will begin to see themselves as writers, as well as explore the
idea of storytelling from a rich, immersed perspective.
MULTIMODALITY AND THE FUTURE OF WRITING INSTRUCTION
With expanded toolkits for communication beyond linguistic symbols (Siegel,
2006), what will be possible? Lanier (2010), often called the father of virtual reality,
described a future where “postsymbolic” communication might be possible:
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Suppose we had the ability to morph at will, as fast as we can think. What sort
of language might that make possible? Would it be the same old conversation,
or would we be able to “say” new things to one another?
For instance, instead of saying, “I’m hungry; let’s go crab hunting,” you
might simulate your own transparency so your friends could see your empty
stomach, or you might turn into a video game about crab hunting so you and
your compatriots could get in a little practice before the actual hunt.
I call this possibility “post symbolic communication.” It can be a hard idea
to think about, but I find it enormously exciting. It would not suggest an
annihilation of language as we know it—symbolic communication would
continue to exist—but it would give rise to a vivid expansion of meaning.
This is an extraordinary transformation that people might someday experience.
We would then have the option of cutting out the “middleman” of symbols and
directly creating shared experience. A fluid kind of concreteness might turn out
to be more expressive than abstraction.
Lanier’s thinking is exciting, yet I find the notion of programming (which is
essentially writing in code) as a more direct form of expression than writing in
linguistic codes problematic. What I do find seductive are the expressive possibilities
of programming that are not possible through oral or linguistic communication.
diSessa (2001) pointed to the need for a computational medium to be expressive
through what he calls the “principle of expressiveness:” “A computational medium
must be expressive. It must extend minds with new ways of thinking and knowing.”
(p. 111). What kinds of expression will be salient in the future? What new ways
of thinking and knowing will be possible through new expressive modes? This
question should guide our thinking about what kinds of modes will be important
to teach and through what media. One thing that is for certain is that the kinds of
literacies that will be salient for the future are more expansive than those emphasized
by contemporary government-mandated curriculum. As Gee (2007) implored us:
In the modern world, print literacy is not enough. People need to be literate
in a great variety of different semiotic domains…The vast majority of these
domains involve semiotic (symbolic representational) resources beyond print.
(p. 18).
What separates games and other forms of narrative writing is that the narrative
elements must be expressed multimodally. Burn (2009) aptly described creating
games as “…multimodal work, including writing…” (p. 114). Creating games
provides an opportunity for rich storytelling expression through music and narration,
still and moving images, and structural choices. For those students who are not as
adept with print literacies or creating linguistic texts, communicating through an
expanded modal palette can widen the circle of who can participate in the classroom
(Siegel, 2006) and the possibilities for what new ideas can be expressed.
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This e-book was made available by Sense Publishers to the authors and
editors of this book, the series editor and the members of the editorial
board. Unauthorized distribution will be prosecuted.
INDEX
A
Affinity Spaces, 4, 54, 55
Avatars, 6, 72, 94, 132, 134–136, 142,
148, 178, 187, 190
L
L2 (Second language learning). See
Language Learning
Language Learning
English as a Second Language (ESL),
119, 121, 124, 133, 165, 171
English language learning/learner
(ELL), 91–99
B
Bilingual literacy, 113
C
Club Penguin, 67–86
Code switching, 113–115
Collaboration, 96, 119–125, 192
Critical discourse analysis (CDA), 77
Curriculum, 5, 71, 171–184
E
ELL (English Language Learning/
Learner). See Language Learning
English as a Second Language (ESL).
See Language Learning
F
Fallout 3, 3, 5, 6, 12–17, 19, 20
Fan Fiction. See writing
N
Narrative. See writing
New literacies, 130, 156–158, 166, 167,
188–190
G
Gamestar Mechanic, 4, 6, 171–176,
182, 184
Google Maps, 3, 12, 20, 21
H
Hunger Games, 3, 35, 53–60, 62, 63, 65
I
Identity, 71–73, 108–113
M
Media-sharing sites
Facebook, 53, 73, 160
Instagram, 73
Tumblr, 53, 54, 57–60, 62–64
Twitter, 53, 56
YouTube, 56, 73, 124
Motivation, 20, 54, 62, 68, 85, 92–94,
97–99, 105, 116, 119, 144,
147, 202
Multiliteracies, 54, 55, 57–65,
130, 177
Multimodality, 5, 68, 74, 75, 191,
203, 204
M
Paratext, 5, 12–15, 67–86
walkthroughs, 5, 70
Participatory culture, 12, 33, 49
Participatory networks, 103
Pedagogy, 56, 64, 69, 70, 74, 75
209
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editors of this book, the series editor and the members of the editorial
board. Unauthorized distribution will be prosecuted.
INDEX
R
Red Dead Redemption, 14
Remix, 5, 49, 50, 197, 198
Revision. See writing
Role Playing Games
digital, 12
massively multiplayer online game
(MMO), 91–99
tabletop, 12
S
Scratch, 6, 189–204
Second language learning (L2), 3, 4,
113, 116, 117
Skyrim, 6, 13–16, 19, 20
Social networks, 53, 55, 67, 107, 161,
190, 198
Storyworlds, 29–50
T
Transmedia, 29–50
210
Transmedia Analysis, 29–50. See also
Transmedia
Tumblr. See social networks
W
Web 2.0, 11
Wikis, 3, 12, 17, 24
World Building, 11–25, 35
World of Warcraft, 6, 93–96,
129–149
Writing
adolescent, 129–149
creative, 11–25, 64, 65, 190
fanfiction, 50, 94, 190
fiction, 11, 12, 15, 18, 22, 24, 25
narrative, 187, 189, 190, 202, 204
polymorphic fiction, 36, 39, 40
revision, 201, 202
science-fiction, 3, 29, 30, 33, 48
storytelling, 29–50