Deus Ex Machinima: A Rhetorical Analysis of User-Generated Machinima

Beginning with corporate demonstrations and continuously evolving into today, machinima has become a major expressive art form for the gamer generation. Machinima is the user-centered production of video presentations using pre-rendered animated content, as generated from video games. The term \u27machinima\u27 is a combination of \u27machine\u27 (from which the video content is derived) and \u27cinema\u27 (the ultimate end product). According to Paul Marino and other members of the machinima community, Hugh Hancock, the creator of Machinima.com, first coined the term in 2000. Video productions of this kind have been used in various capacities for the past several years, including instruction or marketing, as well as rapid prototyping of large-scale cinema projects (Marino). In this thesis, I will briefly outline the current research on machinima. I will then build a methodology for my own rhetorical analysis of machinima as they formulate the promotion of their arguments. This methodology will include examples from major rhetorical theorists, including Lloyd Bitzer, Kenneth Burke, and Gunther Kress and Theo VanLeeuwan, among others. I will then apply my analytical tools to modern user-generated machinima from a variety of sources as a series of case studies. These cases include non-profit and for-profit examples, as well as educational and entertainment examples. Finally, I will explain how this framework may be used as a guideline for rhetorically sound and effective machinima

Selection Criteria for Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Video Games for Language Learning

This article addresses criteria for choosing commercial off-the-shelf(COTS) games and their implementation in the classroom and other L2learning environments. The proposal and discussion of a set of suchcriteria, which include the categories of motivation and flow, clearlydefined and spaced goals, game skills and game mechanics, content,story and narrative, multimodality, agency, course integration andscaffolding, and financial, technical, and administrative considerationsare the focus of this article. This discussion is followed by the analysesof three examples of COTS games (Buzz, Heavy Rain, and SingStar)which may be suitable in a L2 learning context

The application of chatbot as an L2 writing practice tool

This study investigates the effect of chatbot-based writing practices on second language learners’ writing performance and perceptions of using the chatbot in L2 writing practices. A total of 75 Korean elementary school students were randomly allocated to two groups. While the control group received traditional teacher-led writing instruction, the experimental group used a chatbot for individual writing practices for 15 weeks. The chatbot was developed using Google’s Dialogflow machine-learning AI platform by encoding expressions from an elementary school English textbook. A pretest was carried out prior to the experiment to examine the initial writing performance, and a posttest was carried out 15 weeks later with a different writing topic. The participants in the experimental group also responded to a short survey to report their perceptions and opinions about the chatbot. The results showed that the two groups generally showed a similar writing proficiency in the pretest scores, but the experimental group performed significantly better in the posttest than the control group, suggesting that the chatbot-based writing practice had a facilitating effect on their test performance. The participants of the experimental group also found the chatbot useful in improving their language skills and made them feel comfortable when learning a foreign language

Animating Truth

Animating Truth examines the rise of animated documentary in the 21st century, and addresses how non-photorealistic animation is increasingly used to depict and shape reality

Rethinking world language teacher education TPACK for integration of digital literacies in the classroom

Studies indicate that many language teachers have a tendency to view language as an abstract linguistic system and are, therefore, hesitant to acknowledge new dimensions of literacy and that learning a language in the digital age involves new communicative competencies including the ability to construct knowledge collaboratively and create and interpret texts that combine various resources made available by digital technologies. The main purpose of this thesis was to investigate the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) of language teachers engaged in the digital literacy practice of producing a multimodal ensemble with machinima with a view to proposing an updated TPACK model for integration of digital literacies into language teacher education. To this end, language teachers participated in a course specifically designed to train them to make machinima videos as well as prompt them to reflect on the affordances of the tool and their transformative effect on the concepts of language and literacy. Findings show that while participating teachers express traditional views of literacy, they demonstrate profound knowledge of multimodal composition by collaboratively constructing complex mode relationships during the machinima production process. Findings also suggest that if digital literacies are seen as encompassing the ability to adapt affordances and constraints of digital technologies to particular circumstances, then, teachers possess digital literacies as they enact the affordances and overcome the constraints of digital technologies through synaesthesia, spontaneous improvising and coaction. This thesis proposes a reconceptualisation of the Content Knowledge domain to include ecological perspectives on language and language learning and teaching and a metalanguage that would enable teachers to discuss and explain the creation of various mode relationships enabled by digital tools. The TPACK model proposed in this thesis allows for the consideration of concepts such as multimodal meaning-making, synaesthesia and coaction which are deemed to be relevant to a discussion of digital literacies within language teacher education programmes

Avatars and the invisible omniscience: the panoptical model within virtual worlds

This Exegesis and accompanying artworks are the culmination of research conducted into the existence of surveillance in virtual worlds. A panoptical model has been used, and its premise tested through the extension into these communal spaces. Issues such as data security, personal and corporate privacy have been investigated, as has the use of art as a propositional mode. This Exegesis contains existing and new theoretical arguments and observations that have aided the development of research outcomes; a discussion of action research as a methodology; and questionnaire outcomes assisting in understanding player perceptions and concerns. A series of artworks were completed during the research to aid in understanding the nature of virtual surveillance; as a method to examine outcomes; and as an experiential interface for viewers of the research. The artworks investigate a series of surveillance perspectives including parental gaze, machine surveillance and self-surveillance. The outcomes include considerations into the influence surveillance has on player behaviour, security issues pertaining to the extension of corporations into virtual worlds, the acceptance of surveillance by virtual communities, and the merits of applying artworks as proposition

Players Unleashed! Modding The Sims and the Culture of Gaming

Siirretty Doriast