Literacy Learning through Videogames: Adolescent Boys’ Perspectives
July 2006 – December 2008
Objectives:
We are aware that videogame play can be powerful interactive learning (Mitchell & Savill-Smith, 2004) and we are also aware that it is predominantly boys who engage in these alternative literacy practices. We have a belief that engagement with videogames affects perceptions of the world and of one’s place in the world. But, if this is true, we do not know how it happens, and what the effects are. There is, then, a disconnect between the discourse that suggests that boys are failing in learning literacy skills, and the discourse that suggests the highly sophisticated literacy skills being learned through engagement with videogames.
- What are the literacy skills being learned by boys through videogame play and how do these literacy skills relate to school literacies?
- How can these skills be utilized in informal and formal/school learning situations with adolescent boys as they play and create videogames?
- How can informal and formal learning opportunities be interfaced, using videogame technology and knowledge to enhance educational requirements in meaningful ways, to address critical literacy learning?
