ARTICLE: UNDERSTANDING THE POWER OF NEW LITERACIES THROUGH VIDEO GAME PLAY AND DESIGN By Kathy Sanford & Leanna Madill
Current media headlines and discussions amongst educators might have you believing that boys are disengaged in literacy and their results are decreasing just as quickly. However, Sanford & Madill (2007), argue that this may not necessarily be true but perhaps it is current understandings amongst educators of what it means to be literate, what materials count as relevant literacy resources that might be influencing these results. Sanford & Madill (2007), suggest that our boys do participate in literacy and demonstrate many capable literacy skills as literate beings.
A number of studies have gone into researching gender and literacy. Findings show that boys are disengaged in the classroom and have lower reading and writing and comprehension levels compared to girls (Boltz, 2007). However, this may be true only with traditional understandings of literacy. Within the digital age of the 21st century a new form of literacies are emerging described as new literacies. So, what does it mean to be literate and what does literacy look like in the 21st century?
The digital age has changed the way we view and shape our understandings of many aspects of our lives. For example shopping is quite different from 30 years ago. In the twenty first century you can buy just about anything from anywhere in the world without leaving the comfort of your own home. Thanks to mobile technologies in the last ten years this has changed even still allowing a person to do grocery shopping whilst catching the bus to work. Our concept of what it means to shop has changed and evolved as has the technology. So why hasn’t our perception of literacy?
Boys and in some cases girls may not be as engaged by print forms of texts as they were 30 years ago as there is now a wider range of texts for them to engage in.
“...many males and some female students are finding success with alternative literacies. Literacies such as chat rooms, internet, comic books, cell phones, blogs, trading cards, zines, film creation, and video games are a few of the new and alternative literacies that students are engaging in largely outside of school spaces.” Sanford & Madill (2007, p. 434)
Students engaged in these multi modal literacies may reflect poor literacy results in the class but still be highly literate individuals (Sanford & Madill 2007).
Technology and digital medias play a huge role in the youth of today (Ito et al. 2010). A report presented by Futurelab (2009) stated that 97% of 12-17 year olds play computer games in the USA and 87.5% of 8-15 year olds in the UK, proving that video games are a significant media in youths’ lives. Video games are one form of digital media and have a number of valuable skills to offer education and new literacies. Danforth (2009) states that for students to use video games they need to possess a number of literacy skills. They need to have understanding to be able to complete steps, skills in reading text to follow instructions, for example (Danforth, 2009). Sanford & Madill (2007) studied two groups of boys and their involvement with video game creation over several weeks, as students and instructors to gain a deeper insight into the effects these games had on the students and the literacy skills demonstrated by the boys.
Sanford & Madill (2007) observed the boys demonstrating a variety of complex literacy skills that demonstrating that they possess skills as one who is literate and were continuously developing these skills during the experience. Some of these skills went beyond initial understandings of what it means to be literate (Sanford & Madill 2007). The boys demonstrated skills of communication in various forms, most of which was not verbal. For example, body language, imagery, signals like pointing. Comprehension skills, understanding of story line and structure, character profiles, climax and intensity levels. Listening skills, understanding of how one listens what they look like and do, that listening is more than just hearing what is said. They also described the written language as being readable for its intended audience. All of these skills are complex and diverse and in most cases undervalued in the current classroom (Sanford & Madill 2007).
For educators this could mean a controversial shift in our understandings of literacy and the way we teach literacy skills to our students. This report is not suggesting that previous methods of literacy are wrong but simply that we need to be thinking of new ways to engage our students and respect new literacies. Videos games can be a powerful tool in helping our students to gain these skills. Changing pedagogies on how we teach literacy and what we acknowledge as powerful and relevant tools within our classrooms.
However, despite the study proving many positive results, some negative issues were raised. For example the students portrayed negative stereotypes and were undeterred by violence and homophobic and sexist portrayals (Sanford & Madill 2007). Williamson Shaffer, et al (2005) suggests that students who participate in the play of video games develop skills from being in virtual worlds that reflect real life situations. It could be argued that if students transfer these positive skills that they also could transfer many of the negative aspects too.
Video games can be seductive and troubling in their content, fuelling arguments against them in the classroom. However, video games are part of children’s lives and as they play them they learn messages hidden in the game and reflect this without knowing it. One child described the idea of cutting heads off as fun (Sanford & Madill 2007). Teachers have a responsibility to students to engage them in critical literacies so that they can develop deeper understanding of the material they are reading, in this case, video games (Ito et al. 2010, Sanford & Madill 2007). They need to create
“...spaces for critical examination of the games and of the players’ own beliefs and values, potentially changing harmful aspects of video games while enhancing their powerful benefits and learning potential.” Sanford & Madill (2007, p. 451)
What does the future classroom look like? It should look like one that:
- Respects and reflects the types of medias children are engaging with.
- Demonstrates and appreciates the new forms of literacies these medias create.
- Develops students understanding and critical literacy skills as part of developing information smart, lifelong learners.
K.R. think that it is a powerful argument that you make, that it is the perception of literacy rather then a lack of literacy that is at the root of the problems in 21st century schools. It is interesting that informal learning is still undervalued, even though children are engaging in literacy practices with media continuously outside of classrooms.
ReplyDeleteIt is about time that the high levels of literacy that occur in passion sites, blogs, you tube presentation, even emails and texts, gain recognition as important literacy practices and these media be incorporated into the school curriculum. Should schools and their outdated assessment methods start acknowledging the educational potential of new media, I am certain they would find that children are more literate and engaged in literacy practices then ever. (Jenkins, 2006)
The converging of old and new literacy is evident across the Internet, for example fan fiction, where students write stories based on their love of books like Harry Potter to immersive games with strong story lines. (Gee,2008) The rate at which students communicate, combine knowledge, collaborate and create online raises their standards of literacy, mentoring one another and gathering talent. (Ito,2005 ) When I think about how rarely I engaged in literacy practices outside of school, just for fun, during my childhood I realize that new media has been a bad rap where praise instead is due.