The Online Ecology of Literacy and Language Practices of a Gamer

Previous studies have examined how to integrate video games in formal education settings across disciplines and from various perspectives. However, few have explored digital literacy practices prompted by gaming as a fan practice. Drawing on New Literacy Studies frame of analysis, this qualitative case study attempts to unearth the literacy and language learning practices of Selo, an active gamer who translates games from English into Spanish for fun and whose translations prompt online language discussions with other gamers in the fandom (an online space where fans share their activities). With interviews, online observation and screencast videos, we analyse Selo’s fandom, literacy practices and workflow when translating, and the language learning events in the online communities of gamers he is involved in. Results show that (1) Selo’s fandom is a complex semiotic social space with users exhibiting varying degrees of involvement, functions and roles (players, readers, commenters, translators, beta-testers), (2) Selo has a sophisticated set of literacy skills (IT, linguistic, sociocultural), and (3) by resorting to other fans’ feedback online to offset his language deficiencies, Selo and other fans learn situated, meaningful language items under authentic conditions of textual production.This research has received support from the postdoctoral grant Videogames as an academic and vernacular literacy practice (ED481B-2017/007, Xunta de Galicia, Spain) and from the research projects ICUDEL (EDU2014-57677-C2-1-R, Ministry of Economy, Spain) and Fandom in Spain (3rd call, Centro Reina Sofía para la Adolescencia y la Juventud, Spain)

Gaming capital: Rethinking literacy

This paper is part of the symposium: Gameplay, gameplayers and gaming capital: Exploring intersections between games, education and adolescent subjectivities in virtual worlds PEER REFEREEING REQUIRED In rethinking literacy education in light of unprecedented technological change, this paper reports on adolescent gamers and their accumulation of gaming capital. This is in opposition to more pervasive assumptions about gaming as mindless entertainment, learning simulations, ideological tools and interactive mediums for the masses. We see the need to research the medium of games in their entirety, exploring their uniqueness as a medium--while at the same time--making connections to a wider media ecology (Fuller, 2005) that includes more than the games themselves. This media ecology of videogames is demonstrated in part by the 'paratextual' (Consalvo, 2007) industries that support game play, production and design. The 'paratext' is central to gaming capital in creating individual and group systems of distinction within gaming culture. Because we understand videogames as actions across social fields enacted through the actions of players or 'operators' on software, we also deem it necessary to understand both the operator and machines' diegetic and non-diegetic actions (Galloway, 2006). This distinction allows us to think about games as more than texts, literacy practices and narratives, which highlights games' significance in technoclture as systems (Salen, 2008), procedures (Bogost, 2007), algorithms (Galloway, 2006; Wark, 2007), configurations and code (Lessig, 1999; Manovich, 2001). In conclusion we provide a series of interview questions developed to uncover adolescents' gaming capital. We also propose a heuristic to map a players' total volume of gaming capital to better understand how gaming capital establishes trajectories of exchange between cultural and economic capitals and its implications for literacy education

EXPLORING DIGITAL ETHNOGRAPHY APPLIED TO LANGUAGE LEARNING STUDY: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract The digital or virtual atmosphere in the education field today begins to spread which includes in the area of language learning. In line with that one, a research design is proposed in a similar context that is Digital Ethnography (DE). The research aims are to reveal and explore the detail of DE and how it is implemented in research. The method used in this study is qualitative, and the data is collected from 10 articles from reputable journals that discuss DE. The collected data were categorized based on the year, title, author, purpose, method result and discussion, and conclusion, afterward they were analyzed and presented descriptively. The findings of this study showed that DE can be applied in various topic particularly in language learning research. The implication of this study DE can be as one of the options as the research design related to language learning in a digital or virtual context. &nbsp

Living and Learning With New Media: Summary of Findings From the Digital Youth Project

Summarizes findings from a three-year study of how new media have been integrated into youth behaviors and have changed the dynamics of media literacy, learning, and authoritative knowledge. Outlines implications for educators, parents, and policy makers

Toward an Ecology of Gaming

In her introduction to the Ecology of Games, Salen argues for the need for an increasingly complex and informed awareness of the meaning, significance, and practicalities of games in young people's lives. The language of the media is replete with references to the devil (and heavy metal) when it comes to the ill-found virtues of videogames, while a growing movement in K-12 education casts them as a Holy Grail in the uphill battle to keep kids learning. Her essay explores the different ways the volume's contributors add shades of grey to this often black-and-white mix, pointing toward a more sophisticated understanding of the myriad ways in which gaming could and should matter to those considering the future of learning

Portraying Informal Digital Learning of English from Management, Beliefs, and Practices

In a couple of years, massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) previous works reported various informal digital learning of English (IDLE) activities within and around video games that could enhance student-gamer vocabulary outcomes; receptive and productive language skills; and language socialization. The lack of multidisciplinary literature reviews between IDLE and language policy (LP) gives this study to open discussion on both areas. The urgency of this study is the high adoption of IDLE framework without considering LP where the reason for student’s engagement from MMORPG activities can be explained. This study aims to portray IDLE practitioner's activities in MMORPG from language management, beliefs, and practices. Following the long-term process, the data were generated from auto-ethnography and photo-elicitation that were taken from in-game and out-of-game activities. This article found three major findings. First, the management of MMORPG provoked gamers to communicate as a part of the game mission, and the guild could potentially develop top-down and bottom-up LP. Second, the value of language in the community played role in the decision-making language use from the negotiation process. Third, English and Mandarin dominated language practices from different interlocutors in various forms such as language in MMORPG’s context, code mixing, and abbreviation from multilingual sides giving various reading texts in contexts. The high status of English is still dominated by out-of-game language practices. There are two major implications in theory and praxis that would be discussed in this study.Keywords: Auto-ethnography, IDLE, language policy, MMORPG, and multilingual environment

“There’s no fixed course”: Rhizomatic learning communities in adolescent videogaming

The following paper examines how adolescent gamers’ experiences reveal the complex learning systems in which they contribute, create, and participate, troubling the idea of what “gamer” means altogether. We begin by situating ourselves in a complexity science framework, then move to the ways in which Deleuze and Guattari’s (1987) rhizome metaphor supplements our thinking about complex systems, providing a more comprehensive stance from which to understand gaming and learning communities. Drawing from the first four years of our qualitative research, we then provide examples that there is “no fixed course” in gaming, and that our participants actively blur the boundaries of the following traditional identity categories: producer/consumer, teacher/learner, and individual/collective

Learning and Games

Part of the Volume on the Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning In this chapter, I argue that good video games recruit good learning and that a game's design is inherently connected to designing good learning for players. I start with a perspective on learning now common in the Learning Sciences that argues that people primarily think and learn through experiences they have had, not through abstract calculations and generalizations. People store these experiences in memory -- and human long-term memory is now viewed as nearly limitless -- and use them to run simulations in their minds to prepare for problem solving in new situations. These simulations help them to form hypotheses about how to proceed in the new situation based on past experiences. The chapter also discusses the conditions experience must meet if it is to be optimal for learning and shows how good video games can deliver such optimal learning experiences. Some of the issues covered include: identity and learning; models and model-based thinking; the control of avatars and "empathy for a complex system"; distributed intelligence and cross-functional teams for learning; motivation, and ownership; emotion in learning; and situated meaning, that is, the ways in which games represent verbal meaning through images, actions, and dialogue, not just other words and definitions

Digital Gaming and Language Learning: Autonomy and Community

The relationship between digital game play and second language (L2) learning is a particularly tricky issue in East Asia. Though there is an emerging presence of Chinese online games, many more young people are playing the English- or Japanese-language versions of the most popular commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) video games. In other words, most Chinese gamers are playing L2 digital games in their leisure time. Informed by research on out-of-class L2 learning, this paper discusses findings from an exploratory study investigating L2 gaming and learning practices in young people's everyday lives. Drawing on rich data from gaming sessions, stimulated recall, focus group discussion, individual interviews and online discussion forums, this paper argues that gamers exercise autonomy by managing their gameplay both as leisure and learning practices in different dimensions (location, formality, locus of control, pedagogy and trajectory). At the same time, gameplay-as-learning practices are supported by wider communities of digital gamers who take on roles as language teachers and advisers. The paper suggests that activities in these dimensions mediated learning autonomously and from community, and discusses the research and pedagogical implications for L2 gaming and learning.16 page(s

The gaming involvement and informal learning framework

Aim. This article presents a model of how gaming involvement and informal learning come together in practice. Method. Based on a series of interviews, case studies, and a wider survey, the Gaming Involvement and Informal Learning (GIIL) framework indicates how involvement with a variety of gaming practices can lead to a range of different learning experiences. Results. The framework is able to account for both how and what people learn from gaming while also highlighting the influence of player identity. Further, the iterative relationship between identity, involvement, and learning is emphasized: The more strongly someone identifies themselves as a gamer, the greater their micro- and macro-level involvement and the more likely they are to learn from their gaming experiences. Conclusion. The implications of the findings are discussed with regard to informal and formal learning