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Paying attention to attention: New economies for learning
Abstract
Challenging formal education's traditional monopoly over the mass-scale acculturation of youth, the technological infrastructure of the new economy brings in its wake a new “attentional economy” in which any “connected” adult or child owns and controls a full economic share of her or his own attention. For youth who have never known the text-bound world from which their elders have come, new technologies afford them far greater power and greatly expanded rights that enable them to decide for themselves what they can see, think, and do, as their teachers grapple with ways to attract, rather than compel, students' voluntary attention. This paper reviews various formulations of “attentional economy,” and it urges the study of popular forms of technologically enabled play. These technologies effectively mobilize, direct, and sustain the engaged attention of youth, whose learning in and through play far exceeds the kind of glazed-eyed button-mashing complained of by those who have made little effort to understand the educative prospects of computer gaming.
... Children aged 3-10 represent the largest demographic of the virtual worlds and online games (Kzero, 2011) they themselves choose to engage with and identify as significant to them (de Castell & Jenson, 2004). The recognition that digital games are a critically important dimension of younger children's lives at home and in early years locations presents challenges as well as opportunities for early childhood education. ...
... 1-2). The situated 'learning arrangements' characteristic of both convergence and informal game-play also serve to destabilize traditional structures of authority in important and meaningful ways (de Castell & Jenson, 2004). Through this 'in-room' gaming context, another child takes the role of teacher, which is redefined as a 'just-in-time' resource (Stevens et al., 2008) rather than an arbitrary credentialed 'professional' in an institution the learner had no hand in selecting. ...
The recent promotion and adoption of digital game-based learning (DGBL) in K-12 education presents compelling opportunities as well as challenges for early childhood educators who seek to critically, equitably and holistically support the learning and play of today's so-called digital natives. However, with most DGBL initiatives focused on the increasingly standardized ‘accountability’ models found in K-12 educational institutions, the authors ask whose priorities, identities and notions of play this model reinforces or neglects. Drawing on the literatures of early childhood studies, game-based learning, and game studies, they seek to illuminate the informal contexts of play within the ‘hidden’ and ‘null’ curricula of DGBL that do not fit within the efficiency models of mainstream education in North America. In the absence of a common critical or theoretical foundation for DGBL, they propose a conceptual framework that challenges what they regard to be the institutionally nullified dimensions of autonomy, play, affinity and space that are essential to DGBL. They contend that these dimensions are ideally situated within the inclusive and play-based curriculum early childhood learning environments, and that the early years constitute a critically significant, yet overlooked, location for more holistic and inclusive thinking on DGBL.
... New Media & Society 9 (1) While a fair amount has been written about the representations of bodies in social online environments such as MOOS and MUDs, little has been written about the implications of new digital Cartesianism for online educational environments.Thus, this inquiry is situated at the intersection of several nascent disciplines. First, feminist poststructuralist and postcolonial analyses of the importance of material and embodied experience (Fanon, 1967(Fanon, [1952; Grosz, 1993;Probyn, 1993) and how this has been prematurely dismissed (Adam, 1998;Balsamo, 2000;Boler, 2002). 2 Second, cultural geographies that analyse the 'time-space compression' and 'death of distance' arguments within the context of globalization, which also signal the necessary intersections of theorizations of 'space and place' alongside analyses of discourses and experiences of cyberculture (Harvey, 2000;McDowell, 1999;Massey, 1994;Robins and Webster, 1999).Third, the implications of these socio-theoretical shifts in relation to educational theory and practice (Boler, 2002;De Castell and Jenson, 2004;Zembylas, 2005).The central question underpinning this critique of digital Cartesianism is: whose goal is it to transcend the body and what may be lost in this migration to new spatial imaginaries? These interdisciplinary approaches share a common concern with how bodies, space and social relations are understood best within materialist terms, and how the shift from proximity to CMC redefines the way in which we conceptualize social networks and relationships of self and other, thus placing radical, critical and transformative pedagogies at risk. ...
... As in the previous advertisement, the assumption is that educational software promises efficiency and frees up the 'economy of attention' (De Castell and Jenson, 2004).Teachers can be 'more accessible' to their students. Left out of the equation is the question of the quality of interaction or educational experience, which is not in any way to dismiss or critique appropriate use of web-enhanced education, but rather to highlight the particular hypes about the limitations of bodies and space within educational technology advertising. ...
New Digital Cartesianism' investigates the socio-material power inequities embedded in text-based, computer-mediated communication (CMC). Is the body really transcended in text-based computer-mediated communication? This article summarizes software and hardware advertising 'hypes', cyber-enthusiast 'hopes', and the 'actualities' of CMC which contradict this virtual dream of pure minds communicating. Marketing hypes and cyberhopes mythologize disembodied CMC with promises of anonymity and fluid identities. However, the actualities of how users interpret and derive meaning from text-based communication often involve reductive bodily markers that re-invoke stereotypes of racialized, sexualized and gendered bodies. Ironically, despite claims that CMC achieves Descartes' dream of 'pure minds' and the transcendence of body, users frequently rely on stereotyped images and descriptions of bodies in order to confer authenticity and signification to textual utterances. In digital Cartesianism, the body actually functions as a necessary arbiter of meaning and final signifier of what is accepted as 'real' and 'true'.
... Helpful to elucidate the educational significance of this repositioning 4 is James Gee's discussion of the importance of perspective-taking and identity in the acquisition of powerful secondary discourses, that is, dominant "discourses of power" (Delpit, 1995), acquired in contact with social institutions beyond the family, in schools, churches, and state institutions, in this case primarily social service, health and welfare organizations, harnessed to critical analyses of "legitimate peripheral participation" enabled by queer theory. The "participation" of queer students in the "public" school (within which, however, such students are not legitimately a part of its "public") (Ibanez-Carrasco & Meiners, 2004;Jenson, 2004), requires them to assume a position of illegitimacy, invisibility, non-existence, as a condition of their always only apparent "participation" in the linguistic and material practices of teaching and learning that circulate there ( Van de Ven, 1994). This fractured and fracturing kind of seeming-participation Hodges (1998) characterizes as an "agonized compromise," "when a person is engaged in doing and yet is withdrawing from an identification with the practice." ...
... As demonstrated in a previous discussion of this project, interview-based findings may be significantly at odds with image-based responses (e.g. drawings), group discussions, and self-administered questionnaires (de Castell & Bryson, 1998b;de Castell & Jenson, 2004;Hill, 2001). ...
This paper reports on a short-term ethnographic participatory action research project that engaged urban Canadian, street-involved "queer and questioning" youth in a multi-media enabled inquiry into peer housing and support needs. The "Pridehouse Project" (http://www.sfu.ca/pridehouse) was initiated by, and accountable to, a community-based housing support group. These responsibilities raised central critical questions about education, epistemology, and ethics in identity-based, socially activist, research. The dual role of ethnography as both research and pedagogy is here illustrated, and the educational value of productive activity-based learning in non-formal settings, particularly for youth inhabiting the margins of mainstream social life, is argued for. (Contains 16 notes.)
... Helpful to elucidate the educational significance of this repositioning 4 is James Gee's discussion of the importance of perspective-taking and identity in the acquisition of powerful secondary discourses, that is, dominant "discourses of power" (Delpit, 1995), acquired in contact with social institutions beyond the family, in schools, churches, and state institutions, in this case primarily social service, health and welfare organizations, harnessed to critical analyses of "legitimate peripheral participation" enabled by queer theory. The "participation" of queer students in the "public" school (within which, however, such students are not legitimately a part of its "public") (Ibanez-Carrasco & Meiners, 2004;Jenson, 2004), requires them to assume a position of illegitimacy, invisibility, non-existence, as a condition of their always only apparent "participation" in the linguistic and material practices of teaching and learning that circulate there ( Van de Ven, 1994). This fractured and fracturing kind of seeming-participation Hodges (1998) characterizes as an "agonized compromise," "when a person is engaged in doing and yet is withdrawing from an identification with the practice." ...
... As demonstrated in a previous discussion of this project, interview-based findings may be significantly at odds with image-based responses (e.g. drawings), group discussions, and self-administered questionnaires (de Castell & Bryson, 1998b;de Castell & Jenson, 2004;Hill, 2001). ...
... Current research areas. A cornerstone for using electronic gaming in the classroom is the selection and implementation of pedagogical strategies that support its integration into the classroom culture (De Castell & Jenson, 2004;Din, 2001;Kirriemuir, 2002;Verenikina, Harris, & Lysaught, 2003). The pedagogical strategies a teacher uses must provide support for students during game play and reinforce opportunities for learning outside of the game. ...
... The maintenance and direction of attention and development of perceptual skills are supported by feelings of immersion. These feelings, produced by a player's interaction with the environment, engage them in a state of fl ow where a balance exists between game related information and individual abilities such that homeostasis is achieved (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990;De Castell & Jenson, 2004;Sherry, 2004). This balance is supported by the developed schemas a player uses to direct action and understand the game environment (Douglas & Hargadon, 2001). ...
... Watson (2006) claims that in a digital world the people know how to use common technologies. Therefore, according to Watson, they do not need to learn about those technologies but rather use them for the learning process (Watson, 2006 Another reason for the necessity of technology enhanced learning is pointed out by de Castell and Jenson (2004). They claim that TEL is needed because the possibilities of the digital economy could be a permanent distraction to the learning progress if not used. ...
... Therefore they suggest using those possibilities in the learning environment in order to make learning more attractive. (de Castell & Jenson, 2004) ...
Throughout history, the ongoing technological progress has caused the economy to change in many aspects; furthermore, at times it triggered the dawn of a new era. In the 1980s, this happened for the last time and the digital economy has emerged over the last decades. Since then, the significance of approaches to technology enhanced learning (TEL) has increased rapidly. However, the relations between the digital economy and technology enhanced learning are hardly investigated. Therefore this study points out the known relations between technology enhanced learning and the digital economy by reviewing 1089 publications. Thereby one could recognize that the relations between the regularities of the digital economy and the field of technology enhanced learning have not been thoroughly researched yet.
... The concept of engendered game design was, thus, further supported in the literature review (Castell & Jenson, 2004;Dickey, 2006b;Hayes, 2005). ...
An experimental research study using a mixed-method analysis to was conducted to examine educational video game effects on mathematics achievement and motivation between sexes. This study examined sex difference in a 7th grade mathematics (Mathematics 2/Mathematics 2 Advanced) classroom (n=60) learning algebra. Attributes and barriers relating to educational video game play, preference, and setting characteristics were explored. To examine achievement and motivation outcomes, a repeated-measure (SPSS v14) test was used. The analysis included ethnographic results from both student and teacher interview and observation sessions for data triangulation. Results revealed a statistically significant academic mathematics achievement score increase (F =21.8, df =1, 54, p<.05). Although, mathematics class motivation scores did not present significance (F =.79, df =1, 47, p>.05), both sexes posted similar data outcomes with regard to mathematics class motivation after using an educational video game as treatment during an eighteen-week term in conjunction with receiving in-class instruction. Additionally, there was an increase in male variability in standard deviation score (SDmotivationpre=8.76, SDmotivation post=11.70) for mathematics class motivation. Lastly, self-reported differences between the sexes for this limited sample, with regard to game design likes and dislikes and observed female game play tendencies, were also investigated. The data presented customization as a unified, but most requested, game design need between the sexes. Between sex differences were found only to be superficial other than a female delay in game acceptance with regard to time and game play comfort.
... The video game industry offers rich spaces for technical and professional communicators to explore as examples of "symbolic-analytic" professional work environments [1]. Much has been written over the last decade about the potential of video games for teaching and learning in the 21st century [2], [3], [4], [5], but the actual workplace engineering and communication practices that lead to these products and projects are still understudied. This is unfortunate because game development studios serve as fascinating objects of study for exploring the connections between various types of engineering communication. ...
This paper summarizes and contextualizes a case study that presents data from interviews conducted over a period of three months within an independent game design and development studio. The study discusses how the studio is organized and how employees perform typical tasks and interface with management. The research focuses specifically on communication and knowledge management practices employed by the organization and articulates key stories that represent the challenges of working within a workplace that spans both creative and technical disciplines. These stories add to our knowledge of technical and professional communication in game development and provide us with important information about engineering communication practices in multidisciplinary environments. The paper also discusses the tools, technologies, and documentation strategies used by game development professionals to communicate and work through difficult problems.
... Researchers are only beginning to understand how multimodal, interactive media successfully attract, capture, and hold the attention of students (Jonassen, 2000; Gee, 2003; de Castell & Jenson, 2004). Certainly using new media in the reading, writing and representing of poetry motivates students if only because it offers a new and fresh classroom approach. ...
The goal of this research study was to develop a conceptualization of the relationship between new digital media and adolescent students' writing of poetry while immersed in using new media. More specifically, the research focused on the performative affordances of new media and how these interacted with the students' creative processes as they created digital poems. The article examines eight themes that emerged during the study, including the multimodal, multilinear and collaborative nature of the poems, the role of audience and identity in the creative process, and the shifting views of poetry the students experienced.
... In particular, worldbuilding games such as SimCity and Civilization have been deployed in classrooms, either "as is" or modified to meet the curricular demands and time constraints of traditional schooling. There are several rationales for this union of learning and leisure: video games teach the way humans are psychologically structured to learn (Gee, 2003;Jackson, 2009;Shafer, 2007); this generation of students are attuned to learning multimodally (Kellner, 2004;Kress, 2003;Lotherington, 2005); video games create a fun and engaging learning environment that can hold a player's attention voluntarily and for long periods of time (de Castell & de Jenson, 2004;Goldhaber, 1997;Lankshear & Knobel, 2002); video games have become centrally important to the developing competencies that many see as central to 21 st century citizenship (Jenkins, 2009;Prensky, 2006;Watts, 2009) and more. ...
Out of all the K-12 disciplines, History is positioned to benefit the most from integrating games into the classroom because while school-based history is considered to be the most boring subject amongst today's young people (Loewen, 1995), history-themed video games continue to be best-sellers. This article explores how mediated action theory, in particular Wertsch's (1998) ideas regarding mastery and appropriation, can yield particular insights around the different kinds of learning that can happen by playing history-themed video games. The data used here was collected as part of a small-scale case study that asked four self-proclaimed "history gamers" to talk about the possible connections between their play of WWII games and learning history. I provide an overview of mediated action and make a case for its suitability as an analytical framework to examine game-based learning. This will be followed by case-specific findings on how the players of WWII FPS games I studied made use of these games to learn about WWII history. Suggestions on future research trajectories on history-themed games and game-based learning, as well as other uses of mediated action theory, will be discussed at the end. Author Keywords World War 2; history; first-person shooters; digital game based learning; mediated action The idea of using commercial history-themed video games for educational purposes has been circulating amongst educators and researchers for the past two decades (Eisler,. In particular, world-building games such as SimCity and Civilization have been deployed in classrooms, either "as is" or modified to meet the curricular demands and time constraints of traditional schooling. There are several rationales for this union of learning and leisure: video games teach the way humans are psychologically structured to learn (Gee, 2003; Jackson, 2009; Shafer, 2007); this generation of students are attuned to learning multimodally (Kellner, 2004; Kress, 2003; Lotherington, 2005); video games create a fun and engaging learning environment that can hold a player's attention voluntarily and for long periods of time (de Castell & de Jenson, 2004; Goldhaber, 1997; Lankshear & Knobel, 2002); video games have become centrally important to the developing competencies that many see as central to 21 st century citizenship (Jenkins, 2009; Prensky, 2006; Watts, 2009) and more.
... Furthermore, Bettelheim suggests that the educational failures can be mitigated by an overhaul of the traditional classroom based on the findings of cognitive neuroscience [4]. Likewise and following in the same order, researchers, professionals, and students all acknowledge the need for students to be engaged throughout the learning process [5]. It has been noted that students are bombarded with outside stimuli, causing a general lack of engagement towards the material. ...
This paper describes the findings of a replication study conducted at a different location. This study measures the engagement level of participants objectively from two learning techniques: video game and handout (traditional way of learning). This paper may help other researchers design their own Brain-Computer Interface study to measure engagement. In addition, the results of this paper shows a correlation analysis between Engagement (measured physiologi-cally) and knowledge measurement (subjective data). Further, this paper de-scribes briefly the limitations of the Emotiv non-invasive EEG device, which may help researchers and developers understand the device more.
... Video games are multimodal tools that include 3D spaces, conversational tools, audio, video, graphics, animation and AI (De Castell & Jenson, 2004). In alignment with previous findings (eg, Tüzün, 2006), most of the students participated in the implementations in this study through a pattern in which the immersive context of the game faded away, and the learning opportunities and the social relations around them took precedence. ...
The research design for this study focuses on examining the core issues and challenges when video games are used in the classroom. For this purpose three naturalistic contexts in Turkey were examined in which educational video games were used as the basis for teaching units on world continents and countries, first aid, and basic computer hardware and peripherals, in primary, secondary and higher education contexts respectively. Methods employed in the data collection include observing lessons, taking field notes, interviewing students and teachers, saving online discourse data, and collecting student artifacts and reflections. Findings identified issues related to (1) the design of the video game environment, (2) school infrastructure, (3) the nature of learning, the role of the teacher and classroom culture, and (4) engagement.
... Part of this will likely entail using these facilities -these rapidly obsolescing buildingsmore efficiently than we have done, less as detention centers and more as open access, flex-time learning centers, by capitalizing on mobile technologies for learning, hybrid pedagogies of both distance and face to face learning. The era of sitting day after day in one after another small classroom with one teacher and the same group of students, year after year, is now as obsolete as its coercive attentional economy (de Castell and Jenson 2004). These buildings and practices were designed for very different times, resources, conditions and media ecologies than our own. ...
This paper begins with the most obvious, and yet most elusive, of educational media ecologies, the buildings which are ‹home› to pedagogic communication and interaction, and considers how we might understand «building as interface», construed first as a noun, («a structure with roof and walls» – OED) referring to places as physical structures, and then as a verb, («the action or trade of constructing something» – OED), referring to the activities of construction through which we can engage technologies central to theory, research and practice. Our concern is with exploring the larger question of educational sustainability: with what ‹sustainability› means when applied to a specifically educational context, and with the sustainability of the kinds of emerging educational environments in which new information and communications technologies play a significant role. This question of sustainable educational environments is driven by a need to be responsible and accountable for the impact of the technologies and practices we eagerly embrace in the name of «21 st century learning», even as prospects for a 22 nd century are so rapidly receding from view. As one prominent media ecologist put the point: «we have to find the environments in which it will be possible to live with our new inventions» (McLuhan 1967, 124).
... Rather than viewing children and adolescents as capable and thoughtful individuals who bring an array of knowledge and experiences to new learning situations, they are perceived as needing protection from 'harmful' influences of little understood modes of activity. However, research on video game literacy and learning suggests that youth take up video games in highly sophisticated ways (Jenson & de Castell, 2004; Sanford & Madill, 2006; Mackey, 2007). One such sophistication of video game play and creation is the clear link to literacy when 'literacy' is understood as more than print text (Gee, 2003). ...
The rapidly growing phenomenon of video games, along with learning that takes place through video game play, have raised concerns about the negative impact such games are reputed to have on youth, particularly boys. However, there is a disconnect between the discourse that suggests that boys are failing in learning literacy skills, and the discourse that suggests that they are learning highly sophisticated literacy skills through engagement with video games. This article reports on a research project investigating the literacy skills boys are learning through video game play and explores whether these skills are actually beneficial and whether they aid learning or distract from more useful literacy learning and healthy pursuits.
... In t he l ast t wo d ecades, ne w t echnologies a nd m edia have enabled innovative and meaningful teaching and learning to flourish. Pare nts of adolescent vi deo game players have likely not experienced these same learning opportunities in school, an d i f t hey ha ve experienced inventive, technological learning outside of school, they likely do not recognize the value in the m eaningful l earning that vi deo game r esearchers (de Castell & Jen son, 2004; G ee, 2003; Shaffer, Squire, Halverson, & G ee, 2 005) a re fi nding. However, parents are o n t he forefront of t heir children's gaming experiences with consoles found more commonly in the l iving room, fam ily room , or chi ld's be droom; parents funding or buying gam es di rectly; pa rents o bserving o r listening to their adolescent gamers' gaming experiences. ...
Introduction Media reports such as "Virtual Worlds threaten 'values" (BBC news, 2007); "Violent youth crime rising, statistics show" (The Vancouver Sun, 2007); "Hooked on games: battling a cyber-addiction" (Times Colonist, 2007); "New video games sell sex instead of mayhem" (Times Colonist, 2006) sensationalize video games and imply a dire state of violence, health related problems, isolation, and addiction caused by video game play. Parents appear to be situated between these frightening and guilt-ridden reports of doom and knowing their own child, his/her abilities and potentials. What are parents thinking or feeling about video game content and play for themselves and for their adolescents? How do they interact with their children and video games? What do parents want to know more about? What are their stories? Context In the last two decades, new technologies and media have enabled innovative and meaningful teaching and learning to flourish. Parents of adolescent video game players have likely not experienced these same learning opportunities in school, and if they have experienced inventive, technological learning outside of school, they likely do not recognize the value in the meaningful learning that video game researchers (de Castell & Jenson, 2004; Gee, 2003; Shaffer, Squire, Halverson, & Gee, 2005) are finding. However, parents are on the forefront of their children's gaming experiences with consoles found more commonly in the living room, family room, or child's bedroom; parents funding or buying games directly; parents observing or listening to their adolescent gamers' gaming experiences. Children and adolescents are rapidly becoming experts in this digital, global form of communication, ahead of many of their parents. There are two perspectives of this emerging relationship says Jenkins (2004a): "Myth of the Columbine and the Myth of the Digital Generation," one perspective triggered by fear, the other by simplistic hope. He suggests that there is a middle, grey area that needs negotiation and exploration. Researchers (Delpit, 1988, 1993; Freire, 1987; Gee, 2003) have raised the point that we should value all forms of knowledge and communication, even outside of our own cultural affiliations, yet I would argue that many parents and others in our communities, such as politicians, policy makers, and educators will need education on how to best approach acknowledging and valuing alternative ways of knowing since much of their own educational experiences will have promoted specific knowledge and valued particular skills. Parents will need to know more about the learning happening in video games and how to support their children as they become producers of cultural artifacts (Gee, 2003; Jenkins, 2000; Squire, 2003, 2005; Prensky, 2001, 2006). Study This research project explores the experiences that parents have encountered around video games and their adolescent children. Approximately 9 parents will have participated in 3 individual interviews and a focus group interview in which they identify and examine their concerns about video games, their perceptions about their adolescent's gaming practices, and question the legitimacy of video games in their adolescent's life. This research project aims to contribute to understandings about parental awareness and knowledge of video games, the role of parent/child relationships in regards to video games, and parental concepts of learning and literacy when considering adolescents' video gaming practices.
... We are well aware that video games are ca using educators to take a second l ook at t he e ducational value o f games, technology, and the social interactions involved (de Castell & Jenson, 2004; Gee, 2 003;Shaffer, Squire, Halverson, & Gee, 2005) but what does that learning look like, how does that l earning o r w ay of knowing happen, a nd what do the gamers h ave to say abou t th eir learning? Wh at are the implications f or t hese gamers an d for e ducation sy stems when we begin to value t he powerful l earning i nvolved i n video gaming cultures? ...
Games & Learning We are well aware that video games are ca using educators to take a second l ook at t he e ducational value o f games, technology, and the social interactions involved (de Castell & Jenson, 2004; Gee, 2 003; Shaffer, Squire, Halverson, & Gee, 2005) but what does that learning look like, how does that l earning o r w ay of knowing happen, a nd what do the gamers h ave to say abou t th eir learning? Wh at are the implications f or t hese gamers an d for e ducation sy stems when we begin to value t he powerful l earning i nvolved i n video gaming cultures?
... Researchers, professionals, and students alike, acknowledge the need for students to be engaged throughout the learning process (Castell, 2004). Educational video games must posses the advantage of effects on attention, concentration and entertainment, without neglecting instructional aspects (Hubbard, 1991). ...
This paper investigates the benefits of learning from educational video games compared to learning by reading from a text document. The participants were exposed to Lewis and Clark expedition via a video game or text document. During the learning task, playing the game or reading, participants wore a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) device to gather their level of engagement. After the learning sessions, post-experiment questionnaires were used to assess the amount of information retained after each session. The results of this study suggests that the educational video games might not be significantly engaging, and also that learning by reading a handout may be better for retaining information. Furthermore, this paper briefly discusses the BCI device, and how it can be used to measure engagement of the participants.
... -Learners themselves are hugely diverse and varied in their needs, in turn affecting the instructional outcomes that may be appropriate for them. Increasingly learners demand greater accommodation to their learning needs and preferences (see de Castell & Jenson, 2004). Raising the bar 6 Many readers, acknowledging the complexity of real-life instructional settings, are likely asking at this point: But how do we prioritize, how do we manage the complexity? ...
... This is the case even when tools are redefined to reflect Latour's (2007) thinking on human and nonhu-man actants. Regardless of whether those actions are socially distributed or directed at individuals, networked digital media technologies ensure that social practices associated with online production, distribution, and consumption are partially dependent on one's audience-whether approving or even disapproving audiences (de Castell & Jenson, 2004). ...
The purpose of this integrative review of theory and research is to assess the economic impact of digital media in ways that are unreached by instrumental means of measuring economic activity. Specifically, we use three overarching arguments identified from a review of the literature that broadly defines the economic force of digital media content in contemporary society. We contextualize those arguments in terms of current issues in the field and gaps in the research base before concluding with a discussion of the implications of what we learned for education, civic engagement, social practice, and policy.
... Higher education's participation in the -new marketplace‖ draws them into an extended use of technology. Castells and Jenson (2004) found that higher education has been influenced by the technological conditions of the -new marketplace‖ and the many options offered regarding the distribution of information. Academic capitalism has impacted higher education by influencing the use of technology as a reflection of, and membership in, the current marketplace. ...
... Furthermore, the over-integration of the technical features of the IWB can cause teachers and students to lose focus of the objective of the lesson (Armstrong et al., 2005;Cogill, 2003;de Castell & Jenson, 2004;Hodge & Anderson, 2007;Sakar & Ercetin, 2005). Cutrim Schmid (2008) identified in her research that she sometimes "tended to use hyperlinks more as an instrument of power than as a way of encouraging learners' active participation" (p. ...
The focus of this research was to examine the impact of the use of interactive whiteboards (IWB) on the engagement of students with intellectual disability in early reading lessons. Case studies of five students with intellectual disability were carried out using an alternating treatments design. Detailed coding of video recordings of lessons was carried out at 30-second intervals across 10 lessons in each of the IWB and traditional desk-top lessons. All students acquired knowledge in the aspect of reading taught. Upon analysis of the levels of engagement, no consistent pattern of difference was observed between the lessons using an IWB and those taught using a more traditional desk-top style delivery. However, the extent of oral language production during lessons did differ between the two conditions, with there being evidence of a higher level of relevant verbal elaborations in the lessons taught away from the IWBs. This result is important as production of language, particularly elaborated or connected language, helps to build knowledge networks and deepen understanding of the task and therefore comprehension. The elaborated language in the non-IWB lessons was found to be up to twice that of the IWB lessons.
... With each passing year for the last two decades, networked digital media technologies have ensured that social practices associated with online production, distribution, and consumption are partially dependent on one's audience-whether approving or even disapproving audiences (de Castell & Jenson, 2004). This factor, plus a growing awareness in the field of education that it is the quality rather than the quantity of attention that matters, have influenced the direction of Ian O'Byrne and Greg McVerry's (in press) work with adolescents who collaborate as curators of other people's work in the process of constructing their own online texts, many of which are remixes. ...
The purpose of this integrative review of theory and research is to assess the economic impact of digital media in ways that are unreached by instrumental means of measuring economic activity. Specifically, we use three overarching arguments identified from a review of the literature that broadly defines the economic force of digital media content in contemporary society. We contextualize those arguments in terms of current issues in the field and gaps in the research base before concluding with a discussion of the implications of what we learned for education, civic engagement, social practice, and policy.
... A child's school readiness skills (Duncan et al., 2007) and social skills (Murphy, Laurie-Rose, Brinkman, & McNamara, 2007) are just two elements of a child's life influenced by attention. Unfortunately, a child's ability to attend can be damaged by the prevalence of technology in the modern world (Barr, Lauricella, Zack, & Calvert, 2010; Castell & Jenson, 2004; Schmidt, Pempek, Kirkorian, Lund, & Anderson, 2008). However, as suggested in this study, teachers can enhance children's attention and engagement skills by enabling children to choose their activities or toys within a proper and developmentally appropriate classroom. ...
This study examined the mean duration of child attention across three teaching conditions (child choice, adult choice, or adult presentation) of 63 preschool-age children. A repeated-measures ANOVA was used to compare the means across the three teaching conditions, indicating a statistically significant difference between the teaching conditions. It was also found that children attended for a longer period of time when given more choice, with child attention decreasing more as less choice what given. Results suggest that teachers should consider environments that allow children the opportunity to make choices in order to maximize their attention.
... Other promising research directions for increasing the attention span of learners who watch online video lectures include the use of badges (Gibson, Ostashewski, Flintoff, Grant & Knight, 2015) and elements of gamification (De Castell & Jenson, 2004). ...
Aim/Purpose As online video lectures rapidly gain popularity in formal and informal learning environments, one of their main challenges is student retention. This study investigates the influence of adding interactivity to online video lectures on students' attention span. Background Interactivity is perceived as increasing the attention span of learners and improving the quality of learning. However, interactivity may be regarded as an interruption , which distracts students. Furthermore, adding interactive elements to online video lectures requires additional investment of various resources. Therefore, it is important to investigate the impact of adding interactivity to online video lectures on the attention span of learners. Methodology This study employed a learning analytics approach, obtained data from Google Analytics, and analyzed data of two Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that were developed by the Open University of Israel in order to make English for academic purposes (EAP) courses freely accessible. Contribution The paper provides important insights, based on quantitative empirical research, on the following: integrating interactive elements in online videos; the impact of video length; and differences between two groups of advanced and basic learners. Furthermore, it demonstrates how learning analytics may be used for improving instructional design. Evaluating the Impact of Interactivity in Online Video Lectures 216 Findings The findings suggest that interactivity may increase the attention span of learners, as measured by the average online video lecture viewing completion percentage, before and after the addition of interactivity. The impact is significantly stronger for the more advanced course. However, when the lecture is longer than about 15 minutes, the completion percentages decrease, even after adding interactive elements. Recommendations for Practitioners Adding interactivity to online video lectures and controlling their length is expected to increase the attention span of learners. Recommendation for Researchers Learning analytics is a powerful quantitative methodology for identifying ways to improve learning processes. Impact on Society Providing practical insights on mechanisms for increasing the attention span of learners is expected to improve social inclusion. Future Research Discovering further best practices to improve the effectiveness of online video lectures for diverse learners.
... Much of the existing literature on gaming and gender has suggested a connection between gaming and enthusiasm toward computing careers (Wajcman, 1991;Cassell and Jenkins, 2000;de Castell & Jenson, 2004;Kerr, 2003;Beavis & Charles, 2007;Carter, 2006). More recently, similar cases have been made for studying the gaming habits of young men who fall outside of the typically white, middle-class "geek" stereotype, and how gaming habits might affect their interest in Computer Science (DiSalvo & Bruckman, 2010). ...
Studies of gender in videogame culture have often suggested that games provide a source of informal learning about technology, and that the perceived masculinity of the medium means that this benefit goes mainly to boys. The author’s research interrogates and expands upon this “technosocialization” theory of games. This paper presents a case-study based on interviews with male students (n = 18) studying ICT (Information and Communications Technology) in the UK, and illustrates the complexity of relationships between gaming and their interest (or indifference) toward computing careers.
... Furthermore, the over-integration of the technical features of the IWB can cause teachers and students to lose focus of the objective of the lesson (Armstrong et al., 2005;Cogill, 2003;de Castell & Jenson, 2004;Hodge & Anderson, 2007;Sakar & Ercetin, 2005). Cutrim Schmid (2008) identified in her research that she sometimes "tended to use hyperlinks more as an instrument of power than as a way of encouraging learners' active participation" (p. ...
My reflection on transforming from a student/researcher to a researcher/publisher brings to mind an image of a tadpole metamorphosing into a frog. I feel at this moment my tail is shrinking and I am developing my hind legs. The water that once supported me (the guidance of my supervisors) will soon hold less significance as I move from the watery environment of being a student to land in my role as published researcher.
The popularity of video games has transcended entertainment crossing into the world of education. While the literature base on educational gaming is growing, there is still a lack of systematic study of this emerging technology’s efficacy. This quasi-experimental study evaluated a teacher created video game on genetics in terms of its affective and cognitive impact on student users. While statistical results indicated no differences (p > .05) in student learning as measured by our instrument, there were significant differences (p < .05) found in the participants’ level of engagement while interfacing with the video game. Implications on this emerging line of inquiry are discussed.
In this paper, I examine the immersive and performative potential of new media for reading, writing and representing poetry to encourage an exploration of the relationship between text, image and sound and discuss how these are used to mediate meaning making. Based on the premise that poetry is meant to be lifted from the printed page and experienced in multimodal ways, the research explores the notion of poetry as digital performance.
New technologies have taken by storm most aspects of the 21st century life. Modern education is not excluded from this principle. Currently, a transition from the utilization of ICT to that of digital games has been attempted. Learning via digital games is considered a learning trend of the future. Computer games are not just a useful tool for the educator but the core of the learning process. The aim of the present thesis is not only to showcase the advantages of digital games in education and particularly Minecraft, but also to examine whether the greek education system and greek educators are ready to implement this particular model. A questionnaire was administered to primary school teachers in order to measure their knowledge and opinion about digital games, especially Minecraft. Results showed that greek educators do not take advantage of educational digital games. This occurs due to various reasons. To begin with, there is not any organised support system, educators lack readiness, knowledge and time, while at the same time technical infrastructure in schools is inadequate. Despite this educators would like to include computer games in teaching. In conclusion, computer based learning, having many advantages for educators and students alike, has been implemented by an ever growing number of educational systems in the world. In Greece this model has not received enough recognition in order a shift to be made towards its implementation.
A self‐study methodology is used to explore the impact of introducing interactive whiteboard technology to a primary school classroom. Several key insights, described as ‘nodal moments’, provided the impetus for the teacher to review her practice, reconsider her students’ learning approaches and explore the relationship between the introduction of a new technology and the teaching and learning that was occurring in her classroom. In particular, she considers the nature of engagement and the ways in which the technology initially moved her away from an active pedagogy.
Engaging middle-school students in scientific inquiry is typically recognized as important, but difficult. Designed to foster learner engagement, this method used an online, problem-based, science inquiry that investigated the West Nile virus during four weeks of collaborative classroom sessions. The inquiry prototype was authored in WISE, the Web-Based Science Inquiry Environment headquartered at UC, Berkeley. Online materials, readings, and class sessions were augmented with interactive electron microscopy images and an introduction to nanoscale science through the ImagiNations Web site at Lehigh University. This approach proved highly engaging and generated design and development guidelines useful to others interested in designing for student engagement in middle school science.
This paper provides teachers and teacher educators with food for thought by developing a broad, contemporary re-evaluation of the often-used analogy between teaching and the theatre. It does so by synthesizing insights from scholarly works in education with insights from writing about theatre, including both historical work and published interviews with practicing stage actors. This approach throws into relief particular ways in which teaching does and does not resemble acting as described by its present-day practitioners. A key parallel is observed between the central challenges faced by teachers and actors: acting requires being truthful in imaginary circumstances, while teaching requires being genuine in artificial circumstances. Using work on bildung, the nature of this challenge is examined, and a call is made to help teachers and students better appreciate the intimate, reciprocal and shared nature of good teaching – a challenge in a culture where corporate interests aggressively promote personalized and “anytime, anywhere” learning. The paper also addresses the phenomenon of massive online courses, which enthusiasts like to believe teach themselves. This idea, I suggest, is as absurd as the notion that a great theatre building could obviate the need for a strong cast. .
When performing a task in the classroom, it is essential to place the focus on learning. In the classroom, it is possible to distinguish between time spent by students on-task and off-task. The former is the time in which the student is focused on the learning task; the latter is the remaining time in which they focus on other activities. Understanding the relationship between the two is a concern for teachers, especially for those who teach mathematics and other subjects that are often considered unattractive by students. Given the opportunity afforded by educational video games to motivate and engage math students, an educational drill-and-practice video game was used in this study to practice second-grade arithmetic and study the students' on-task and off-task behavior. We found that when practicing arithmetic using an educational drill-and-practice video game, time on-task decreases during an activity (30 minutes) as well as over the course of the school year (March to December). This study has implications for the length of mathematics classes at schools as well as the need to vary activities during a class.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of computer-aided facilities management (CAFM) in the delivery of knowledge management solutions. It aims to highlight the increasing problem of “attention” as a limited resource amongst facilities stakeholders. The paper attempts to describe the findings of a study to establish the types of CAFM functionality sought by facilities management practitioners. Design/methodology/approach – The study involved a structured questionnaire study of 110 respondents in Scotland (from 395 administered questionnaires) using a stratified sample. The objective was to obtain a profile of early-adopters and to identify barriers to further adoption. Findings – The findings indicate that the use of information technology in the form of CAFM is more likely amongst dedicated FM service providers than organisations with in-house FM delivery and that medium-sized enterprises (between 51 and 250 employees) are least likely to be using CAFM. A limiting factor in continued adoption appears to be the diminishing returns resulting from information overload. “Attention” appears to be the limiting resource in an increasingly complex and information hungry environment. Research limitations/implications – The findings are based on a national survey in Scotland and may have limited reproducibility outside of the UK. Nevertheless the general findings are relevant to the international context. Practical implications – This paper provides an indicative analysis of current trends in the computer-aided facilities management (CAFM) arena. It identifies an increasing need to capture “tacit” as well as “explicit” knowledge in such systems. Originality/value – This work develops the idea of the “attention economy” in the context of facilities management, highlighting the current impasse for information systems aspiring to become knowledge management systems.
Educational theories for informal learning and media educationists attempt to separate participation in life-long learning from the obligation to attend educational events. On the basis of programmatical texts, this article outlines the differences between the organisational forms for participation in informal learning and media-based education and explores the possible variants in the relationship between the two. The participation options which arise from the establishment of these organisational forms are omnipresent, and this leads to new questions for a changed empirical observation of life-long learning.
This research looked at Biba: a suite of mobile games intended to get kids back out to playgrounds and engaging in more moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Year after year, annual national surveys report a general decline in physical activity amongst children and a corresponding increase in screen time. Further to this, time spent outside by children has been reported to be on the decline since the 1980s. Recent work has suggested that in order to ‘maintain the outdoor recreation participation of children across America, park and recreation professionals may need to embrace the expanding role of technology’. This research tested Biba in precisely this regard, deploying a 20-subject within-subject experimental design that compared Biba playground gameplay with typical free play playground sessions, measuring heart rate activity in them. The outcome demonstrated that Biba playground play results in greater amounts of MVPA with a difference in heart rate that was significantly higher in the Biba play session than in the free play session t(19) = 2.41, p< 0.05.
This chapter explores the various facets of screenPLAY, an interactive video intervention for at-risk teens, which presents social skills in a medium that is both familiar and motivating to this age group. The chapter begins with a discussion of the pedagogical ideas that motivated the creation of screenPLAY, from the necessity to move away from a skill-driven to a content-driven social-skill intervention, to promoting learning from experience, and then to the importance of clarifying learning objectives. In addition to the adoption of a constructivist perspective, a case is made for including cognitive and linguistic concomitants with social skill acquisition. A description is provided of how these additional two variables relate to behavior and the way they are integrated in the structure of the intervention. A cognitive skill is embedded in each of the eleven templates used to present content. Video clips displaying vignettes employing student actors are analyzed in a context that requires users to record their responses, thoughts, and observations in audio or text files that are uploaded to be accessed later by other users. The anonymity of both users and actors is protected, first, by the provision of an avatar to represent the user, and then, by having the video clips transformed into a comic book look. The technical details of the construction of this digital platform are provided, as well as a dialectic analyzing how the obstacles, encountered along the way, ultimately contributed to the overall innovative functionality. Future directions are examined in the context of screenPLAY's modular structure that allows the addition of content and functionality.
The use of eLearning resources is becoming increasingly widespread in medical education because of its numerous advantages. They awaken interest in students can be reused without loss of quality and give students added control over their own education by allowing them to review content in their own time. This article describes the development and evaluation of an innovative eLearning animation for the curriculum of the pathology class at the University of Dundee School of Medicine.
Assuming no knowledge of linguistics, Understanding Digital Literacies provides an accessible and timely introduction to new media literacies. It supplies readers with the theoretical and analytical tools with which to explore the linguistic and social impact of a host of new digital literacy practices. Each chapter in the volume covers a different topic, presenting an overview of the major concepts, issues, problems and debates surrounding the topic, while also encouraging students to reflect on and critically evaluate their own language and communication practices. Features include: • coverage of a diverse range of digital media texts, tools and practices including blogging, hypertextual organisation, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, websites and games. • an extensive range of examples and case studies to illustrate each topic, such as how blogs have affected our thinking about communication, how the creation and sharing of digital images and video can bring about shifts in social roles, and how the design of multiplayer online games for children can promote different ideologies. • a variety of discussion questions and mini-ethnographic research projects involving exploration of various patterns of media production and communication between peers, for example in the context of Wikinomics and peer production, social networking and civic participation, and digital literacies at work. • end of chapter suggestions for further reading and links to key web and video resources. • a companion website providing supplementary material for each chapter, including summaries of key issues, additional web-based exercises, and links to further resources such as useful websites, articles, videos and blogs. This book will provide a key resource for undergraduate and graduate students studying courses in new media and digital literacies. © 2012 Rodney H. Jones and Christoph A. Hafner. All rights reserved.
Playing digital games is an important leisure activity for a large number of us. Research shows that a large number of children play digital games for leisure purposes. One of the games played is Minecraft. This chapter outlines how Minecraft is being used in junior year settings by referring to academic literature as well as communities of practice available on the internet. The authors outline a set of activities incorporating Minecraft aimed at seven year olds which were designed to introduce a series of curricular topics in a class in a Maltese school. Following qualitative data analysis the chapter outlines a series of outcomes that were extracted from this project
Much has been written about the crucial role attention plays in the digital economy and how to enhance technological features to better sustain user attention for commercial applications. However, we know very little about how myriad factors other than technological ones shape the structure and flow of online attention, and what significant implications the attention economy bears for such authoritarian regimes as China that heavily censor the web. This article fills the gap by investigating how Sina.com - the leading news and entertainment web portal in China - innovatively capitalizes on the attention economy and plays a leading role in popularizing blogging in China. This article proposes the concept of ‘professional digital attention agents’ and investigates in detail the role that these agents play in structuring, directing and publicizing online content. It argues that professional digital attention agents not only effectively popularize blogs as a new self-publishing medium in China, but also foster the ascent of critical voices from a commercially oriented Chinese blogosphere.
Improving Classroom Learning with ICT examines the ways in which ICT can be used in the classroom to enhance teaching and learning in different settings and across different subjects. Weaving together evidence of teachers' and learners' experiences of ICT, the authors: explain why the process of integrating ICT is not straightforward; discuss whether hardware and infrastructure alone are sufficient to ensure full integration and exploitation of ICT investment; emphasise the pivotal role that teachers play in supporting learning with ICT across the curriculum; argue that teachers need a greater understanding of how to put ICT to use in teaching and learning; highlight that out-of-school use of ICT has an impact on in-school learning; consider what kinds of professional development are most effective in supporting teachers to use technologies creatively and productively. Case studies are used to illustrate key issues and to elaborate a range of theoretical ideas that can be used in the classroom. This book will be of interest to all those concerned with maximising the benefits of ICT in the classroom. © 2009 Rosamund Sutherland, Susan Robertson and Peter John for selection and editorial material. All rights reserved.
This chapter introduces an inquiry designed to foster learner engagement in science and literacy in using new media. The design included an online, problem-based, science inquiry that investigated environmental pollution at the Lehigh Gap, a U.S. Superfund Site. During five weeks of classroom sessions, several sessions were enhanced by remote access to an electron microscope to analyze Lehigh Gap samples. This access allowed the students to capture images from the microscope, known as micrographs, and furthermore, allowed them to perform an elemental analysis of samples from the polluted area. Additionally, an introduction to nanoscale science and nanotechnology used for remediation of heavy metal contamination was explored. Students contributed the artifacts they generated during their research to a university database and presented them to researchers at the university working on similar problems. This approach proved highly engaging and generated design guidelines useful to others interested in student engagement, introducing nanotechnology, and using remote electron microscopy in middle school science.
History is often considered by students to involve the unstimulating memorisation of boring events, rather than the intriguing and dramatic narrative of our ever-developing cultural identities. Accordingly, I wanted to see if the use of virtual reality (VR) could more effectively engage students in history lessons, not only by showing them the places and events of the past more vividly, but by offering them access to the perspectives of those who experienced them. For this, I found a theoretical basis in the writings of Kolb and Dale. From asking four students to compare their experiences using VR and written sources, I found the former encouraged very high levels of engagement and the development of substantial interest in the content. VR thus appears to be powerful tool for helping students to develop connections with the past and firing their enthusiasm for historical inquiry and for students lacking the resources for gaining such experiences first hand through travel it also democratises students’ access to a range of historical experiences.
The integration of technology into Canadian public schools remains an illusive goal for policy-makers and educators who believe that investment in computers yields concrete results. Policy Unplugged documents the realities of computer use in schools and unveils the often hidden barriers to teachers' integration efforts. The authors conducted a two-year study on the implementation of computer technologies, including in-depth interviews and classroom observation at thirty-two elementary and secondary schools across Canada. Based on this research, Policy Unplugged explores the intersections and disconnections between provincial technology policy, school board policy, and school-based practices. The authors consider the ways in which technology policy has become "unplugged" from daily experience, showing that teachers, students, and administrators are part of complex pedagogical and social systems that have been badly served by the enforced and hasty introduction of technology. They also show how small, often unquestioned practices and power relations in schools can create seemingly insurmountable impediments to technological implementation.
Computer games, which are currently very popular among students, can affect different cognitive abilities. The purpose of the present study is to examine undergraduate students' experiences and preferences in playing computer games as well as their mental rotation abilities. A total of 163 undergraduate students participated. The results showed a significant difference between students' mental rotation abilities in terms of their experiences and preferences in playing computer games. Moreover, 2D or 3D computer game preference was shown to be dependent on gender. This study also explores the quantity of time spent by undergraduate students playing computer games.
Effective and sustainable science education is enriched by the use of visuals, auditory, and tactile experiences. In order to provide effective learning, instruction need to include multimodal approaches. Integrating ICT supported narrations into learning environments may provide effective and sustainable learning methods. Investigate in this research is the effect on students’ achievements, self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes towards science from ICT supported fables and “Force and Motion” topics used in a 6th grade science course. A quasi-experimental (Pre-tests and post-tests with control group) research design was adopted to conduct the study. Participants were 44 (23 of experimental and 21 of control) 6th grade middle school students. Multiple choice “force and motion achievement test”, “science self-efficacy perception scale” and “attitudes towards science scale” were applied. Parametric (Independent samples t-Tests and paired samples t-Test) and nonparametric (Man-Whitney U test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test) were used via SPSS statistical analysis software (v.16.0). As results, it has been emerged that the application had positive effect on students’ achievement, self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes towards science.
Throughout history, the ongoing technological progress has caused the economy to change in many aspects; furthermore, at times it triggered the dawn of a new era. In the 1980s, this happened for the last time and the digital economy has emerged over the last decades. Since then, the significance of approaches to technology enhanced learning (TEL) has increased rapidly. However, the relations between the digital economy and technology enhanced learning are hardly investigated. Therefore this study points out the known relations between technology enhanced learning and the digital economy by reviewing 1089 publications. Thereby one could recognize that the relations between the regularities of the digital economy and the field of technology enhanced learning have not been thoroughly researched yet.
Suggests that the production and consumption of information, including the information called psychology, require investments of attention. Yet attention is a limited resource, so, as more information is produced, more products must compete for the limited attention of consumers. Ideally, the competition should lead to better information and should lead consumers to pay attention only to the best. However, as more information is produced, there is more digression from these progressive ideals due to the nature of attention and the principles of attentional economics governing information exchange. If these trends continue, they may cause the disintegration of psychology as a discipline. Means of reducing information production through changes in academic reward systems are outlined. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Good computer and video games like System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Pikmin, Rise of Nations, Neverwinter Nights, and Xenosaga: Episode 1 are learning machines. They get themselves learned and learned well, so that they get played long and hard by a great many people. This is how they and their designers survive and perpetuate themselves. If a game cannot be learned and even mastered at a certain level, it won't get played by enough people, and the company that makes it will go broke. Good learning in games is a capitalist-driven Darwinian process of selection of the fittest. Of course, game designers could have solved their learning problems by making games shorter and easier, by dumbing them down, so to speak. But most gamers don't want short and easy games. Thus, designers face and largely solve an intriguing educational dilemma, one also faced by schools and workplaces: how to get people, often young people, to learn and master something that is long and challenging--and enjoy it, to boot.
John Hartley: Before Ongism: "To become what we want to be, we have to decide what we were" Orality & Literacy: The Technologization Of The Word Introduction Part 1: The orality of language 1. The literate mind and the oral past 2. Did you say 'oral literature'? Part 2: The modern discovery of primary oral cultures 1. Early awareness of oral tradition 2. The Homeric question 3. Milman Parry's discovery 4. Consequent and related work Part 3: Some psychodynamics of orality 1. Sounded word as power and action 2. You know what you can recall: mnemonics and formulas 3. Further characteristics of orally based thought and expression 4. Additive rather than subordinative 5. Aggregative rather than analytic 6. Redundant or 'copious' 7. Conservative or traditionalist 8. Close to the human lifeworld 9. Agonistically toned 10. Empathetic and participatory rather than objectively distanced 11. Homeostatic 12. Situational rather than abstract 13. Oral memorization 14. Verbomotor lifestyle 15. The noetic role of heroic 'heavy' figures and of the bizarre 16. The interiority of sound 17. Orality, community and the sacral 18. Words are not signs Part 4: Writing restructures consciousness 1. The new world of autonomous discourse 2. Plato, writing and computers 3. Writing is a technology 4. What is 'writing' or 'script'? 5. Many scripts but only one alphabet 6. The onset of literacy 7. From memory to written records 8. Some dynamics of textuality 9. Distance, precision, grapholects and magnavocabularies 10. Interactions: rhetoric and the places 11. Interactions: learned languages 12. Tenaciousness of orality Part 5: Print, space and closure 1. Hearing-dominance yields to sight-dominance 2. Space and meaning 3. Indexes 4. Books, contents and labels 5. Meaningful surface 6. Typographic space 7. More diffuse effects 8. Print and closure: intertextuality 9. Post-typography: electronics Part 6: Oral memory, the story line and characterization 1. The primacy of the story line 2. Narrative and oral cultures 3. Oral memory and the story line 4. Closure of plot: travelogue to detective story 5. The 'round' character, writing and print Part 7: Some theorems 1. Literary history 2. New Criticism and Formalism 3. Structuralism 4. Textualists and deconstructionists 5. Speech-act and reader-response theory 6. Social sciences, philosophy, biblical studies 7. Orality, writing and being human 8. 'Media' versus human communication 9. The inward turn: consciousness and the text John Hartley: After Ongism: The Evolution of Networked Intelligence
Digital Game-Based Learning, by Marc Prensky, is a strategic and tactical guide to the newest trend in e-learning - combining content with video games and computer games to more successfully engage the under-40 "Games Generations," which now make up half of America's work force and all of its students. The book fully explores the concept of Digital Game-Based Learning, including such topics as How Learners Have Changed, Why Digital Game-Based Learning Is Effective, Simulations and Games, How Much It Costs, and How To Convince Management. With over 50 case studies and examples, it graphically illustrates how and why Digital Game-Based Learning is working for learners of all ages in all industries, functions and subjects.
More Than We Can Know: The Attentional Economics of Internet Use
- Warren Thorngate
Warren Thorngate, ''More Than We Can Know: The Attentional Economics of Internet Use,'' in Culture of the Internet, ed. Sara Kiesler (Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1997);
On Paying Attention,'' in Recent Trends in Theoretical Psychology
- Warren Thorngate
Warren Thorngate, ''On Paying Attention,'' in Recent Trends in Theoretical Psychology, eds. William J. Baker, L. Mos, Hans van Rappard, and Henderikus J. Stam (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1988), 247–264;
The Political Economy of Attention and the Limits of Pedagogical Technologies,'' in Technology/Pedagogy/Politics: Critical Visions of New Technologies in Education
- Warren Thorngate
- Fatemeh Bagherian
and Warren Thorngate and Fatemeh Bagherian, ''The Political Economy of Attention and the Limits of Pedagogical Technologies,'' in Technology/Pedagogy/Politics: Critical Visions of New Technologies in Education, eds. Lee Easton and David Hyttenraugh (Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press, 1999).
Literacy in the New Media Age; Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy; Lankshear and Knobel
- Kress
Kress, Literacy in the New Media Age; Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy; Lankshear and Knobel, New Literacies.
Instruction of Preliterate Cultures
- See
- Eric Example
- Havelock
See, for example, Eric Havelock, ''Instruction of Preliterate Cultures,'' in Language, Authority and Criticism, eds. Suzanne de Castell, Allan Luke, and Carmen Luke (London: Falmer Press, 1988), 223–232;
- Steven Poole
- Trigger Happy
Steven Poole, Trigger Happy: Video Games and the Entertainment Revolution (London: Fourth Estate,
2000), 178.
Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London: Methuen, 1982); and Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
- Walter J See
- Ong
See, for example, Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London:
Methuen, 1982); and Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1964).