"Literacy through Gaming: The Influence of Videogames on the Writings of High School Freshman Males" by Immaculee Harushimana, from the Journal of Literacy and Technology, explores the following questions: (1) How can pre-digital educators negotiate literacy with digital natives?, (2) What does adolescent writing reveal about the influence of video game content on adolescents’ cognitive processes?, and (3) What does adolescent writing suggest about teaching with and learning from video game story lines?
(1) How can pre-digital educators negotiate literacy with digital natives?
The article discusses the new "digital environment" in which our students are growing up. This digital environment has permeated the lives of our students with a variety of technological and other non-print forms of literacy. As a result, this digital environment has begun to shift the way in which literacy is viewed. The article strongly suggests that pre-digital educators embrace the notion that literacy has moved beyond simply the ability to read and write. Essentially, the old concept of literacy centered on the idea that print is the primary carrier of information in our culture, and therefore students must obtain the necessary skills to understand and express themselves in text. However, the new concept of literacy is based on the idea that digital technology has become the primary carrier of information in our culture, and therefore students must obtain a broader range of skills as a means of expression. The article provides an extensive list of what new literacy involves today, including, but not limited to: computer literacy, cultural literacy, diagrammatic literacy, document literacy, economic literacy, environmental literacy, film literacy, information literacy, mathematical literacy, media literacy, music literacy, political literacy, scientific literacy, technical literacy, television literacy, video literacy, and visual literacy.
(2) What does adolescent writing reveal about the influence of video game content on adolescents’ cognitive processes?
The article argues that video games hold distinct similarities to novels and films with regards to form and content. Video games, like novels and films, relies on varying degrees of plot and narrative to make a point. To demonstrate the influence of video game content on adolescents' cognitive processes with regards to writing, the researcher examined a reading/writing workshop of reluctant adolescents at an urban high school. The researcher had students write their own stories, and required students have a clear story line, with an identifiable plot, a dynamic conflict with the exposition, the rising action, the falling action, and the resolution. The researcher discovered that the girls typically wrote about personal experiences while the boys typically wrote fictional stories which hinted to some association with either video game stories or action movies. Nine out of twelve boys' stories were identified as adaptations from video games. The researcher finally stated that his research seemed to support the conclusion that the student authors were influenced by video games' characters and plots. The researcher also stated that there was a literacy equivalence between video games and traditional literature.
(3) What does adolescent writing suggest about teaching with and learning from video game story lines? The researcher determined that his research suggested that teachers and curriculum development experts need to bridge classroom instruction, especially in literacy and literature, with the popular medium of video games. The article noted how the content and composition of action-adventure and horror video games, such as Resident Evil, Legend of Zelda, and Tales of Destiny, share the same literary features of plot and characterization with some popular classical epics (e.g. Beowulf and The Odyssey), ancient canonical works (e.g. Canterbury Tales by Chaucer or other Greek mythologies), and even more philosophical works (e.g. Allegory of the Caves by Plato). Even classic literary themes, such as gender roles, class struggle, treatment of children, and so forth, apply to video game storylines. The researcher also noted that students seemed to prefer to write about role-playing games more, as the dynamic interactivity made the plot reconstruction process less challenging. During the writing process, the researcher noticed that students placed more emphasis on the plot development, the highlighting of heroic virtues, and the determination of main characters’ outcome. In education, teachers constantly encourage students to draw upon their prior knowledge whether in literacy or any other area of their education. As the researcher provided evidence of video game influence in the cognitive processes, the article suggests that literacy instruction needs to provide students with the capability to draw from their prior knowledge to develop school literacy. Students' knowledge of video game plots and storylines can help in the understanding of equivalent literary works. The researcher recommends supporting the teaching of classical works with video game scaffolds.
My Perspective
This research article was informative and thought-provoking. I think many teachers are hesitant about incorporating video games into their curriculum, and those that are interested are at a loss on how to adequately innovate their curriculum with video games. The researcher made an important point by demonstrating the influence of video game content on adolescents' cognitive processes with regards to writing. This particular research article was published in 2008; since then, video game trends have only increased among both boys and girls. As educators, it is important to find a way to help students utilize ALL areas of their prior knowledge, as it applies to the learning process. I only wish this article provided more suggestions and ideas on how to innovate curriculum for literacy instruction with the use of video games.
References
Harushimana, I. (2008). Literacy through gaming: The influence of videogames on the writings of high school freshman males. Journal of Literacy and Technology, 9(2), 35-56. Retrieved from http://www.literacyandtechnology.org/volume10/harushimana.pdf
Excellent and thoughtful research article review. Even though this article was published in 2008, I think there is growing interest in researching this topic. There is so much "bad press" on the impact of gaming on children, but more and more researchers are thinking about research questions that can push this field. I think the author of this study has done that --- solid research questions examined. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI think you picked a good article to examine. One of the key points, and main arguments, for involving video games into schools is that students need the opportunity to draw from their own experiences. Giving students the opportunity to share something related to their own interests is in itself a tool educators should have in the back of their minds when doing an activity in or out of class. I tried thinking of an innovative idea for using video games in a classroom, but unfortunately my imagination falls short once I get to the fact that there really isn't a narrative video game which is directly meant to be used in a classroom.
ReplyDeleteI found this tutoring/summer camp a while ago when I was researching this concept of video games in a classroom. I e-mailed them to inquire for more detailed information about their program, but I haven't received a response. It seems to have an interesting premise, and seems closely linked to the idea of gaming in an educational setting. Nice article!
http://www.roleplay-workshop.com/
I really liked that article. Giving the students a technology tool to use in a classroom at school is like striking gold to them! I was talking to a 1st grade classroom yesterday about what they did over the weekend...many of them said 'played my games, video games, and my DS". We talked about the kind of games they play and I was really suprised. Many of the programs and games they mentioned were spelling games, problem solving games, and a few were math games. The use of video games is such a good idea I think! their prior knowledge is great in this area most of the time and they are using hand-eye cordination, problem solving, identifying story concepts, and somethimes even reading.
ReplyDeleteI like the article that you share. I especially like the third question. Literature is quite difficult for foreigners to learn because the vocabulary is too hard. If we can learn those stories by games, it would be easier to know the general idea. If we can know a general idea in advance, it is easier for us to probe into the details. Besides, learning literature by games is interesting and I think it is stress-free.
ReplyDeleteHere I want to share my friend's experience. He likes to play video games, and he also learn English from the games. He would repeatedly listen to the script what the characters say, and he told me it works. This helps him improve his listening ability. I just want to share something but it seems not relevant to this topic!!!!