Squire, K. Video game literacy: A literacy of expertise
This article seeks to examine the impact of video games on literacy and on our understanding of literacy. It challenges the assumptions made by academics from mostly outside the gaming industry in conjunction with how gaming has evolved over the last number of decades. It also focuses on research into how gaming impacts communities and social relationships.
Squire makes some excellent points, backed up by research, that video game literacy is a new form of literacy every bit as complex as other forms of literacy. If we can understand this new form of literacy, then we will be able to incorporate it into schools in a way that enriches education.
I am curious why there is such resistance to this idea in the field of education – it is extremely rare that teachers ever receive any sort of professional development on gaming.
Squire makes some excellent points, backed up by research, that video game literacy is a new form of literacy every bit as complex as other forms of literacy. If we can understand this new form of literacy, then we will be able to incorporate it into schools in a way that enriches education.
I am curious why there is such resistance to this idea in the field of education – it is extremely rare that teachers ever receive any sort of professional development on gaming.
de Castell, S. & Jenson, J. (2003). Serious Play
This article examines the concept that how the new generations learn today cannot be measured by the old standards of text-based literacy. The new age of multimedia – most enjoyably and effectively engaged with through video games – is creating a new form of literacy that we are only barely beginning to understand. Our lack of understanding in this realm is best exemplified by how painfully boring educational games are when compared to commercial games.
“You love them, don’t you?” “So much so that the word itself seems impossibly lame” – when I first heard this interaction between two characters on the television show Californication it was a moment of shocking realization for me; words are just human constructs meant to represent our understanding of the world and our place in it and as a result they will always be limited no matter how many syllables they have. Reading this article presents the idea that multimedia literacy – with gaming literacy at the vanguard – has the potential for being the next evolutionary step forward in terms of human literacy that goes far beyond archaic text.
How we embrace this idea as educators and turn it into something that is utilized to its fullest extent given our current classroom resources is the question that I do not yet have the answer.
“You love them, don’t you?” “So much so that the word itself seems impossibly lame” – when I first heard this interaction between two characters on the television show Californication it was a moment of shocking realization for me; words are just human constructs meant to represent our understanding of the world and our place in it and as a result they will always be limited no matter how many syllables they have. Reading this article presents the idea that multimedia literacy – with gaming literacy at the vanguard – has the potential for being the next evolutionary step forward in terms of human literacy that goes far beyond archaic text.
How we embrace this idea as educators and turn it into something that is utilized to its fullest extent given our current classroom resources is the question that I do not yet have the answer.
The Bridge
How these two articles are linked is through the concept of video games as a new form of literacy. Our understanding of this form of literacy is still in its infancy but there is no going back, and educators are going to need to quickly understand how best to utilize this new form of literacy to meet the needs of students in the 21st century.