• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Malmö University School of Teacher Education KSM: English Dissertation 15 credits Video Games – a Source of Knowledge? - an investigation amongst youths about their thoughts on their video gaming habits Datorspel – en källa till kunskap? - en undersökning bland ungdomar om deras tankar om datorspelande Björn Vintetjärn Lärarexamen 300 hp Examiner: Bo Lundahl KSM: Moderna språk, Engelska Slutseminarium: 2008-06-03 Supervisor: Malin Glimäng 2 Abstract This research is based on the following research question: What are the pupils’ thoughts about their gaming habits and possible learning situations in connection with their gaming? The study is based on literature on the subject and on two interviews with five youths who are between sixteen and seventeen years of age. The conclusions that can be drawn from my research question are: - Learning could take place in different domains and be put into different contexts. Hence, language learnt from playing video games, could be applied on domains outside of the game, i.e. implicit learning in terms of using a foreign language when communicating with other players can become tacit knowledge that the learner can apply on settings outside of the game. Also, social skills learnt from the structure of a game like World of Warcraft can be used in a formal educational setting. As a video game is multimodal in its nature there are benefits from also using other multimodal material in formal education, as many of the pupils are familiar and used to the same sort of text. - There are also problems connected to informal learning. The informants in this study describe how their interest in video games often clashes with their formal education. Another aspect is of course how the quality of the content learnt within an informal setting is being supervised, in contrast to how the formal education works with a trained teacher and a set curriculum that carefully explains how the learning should become available for the learner. Finally, one of the informants explains how his writing skills has become worse because of his informal training of English, since he wants to use smilies and abbreviations in formal text writing. Keywords: ICT, learning, informal learning, video games, computer games 3 4 Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to express my appreciation to all the informants who participated in this study and especially the five boys who volunteered to be interviewed. Secondly, I would like to thank Malin Glimäng who kindly supervised my work and gave me valuable comments and ideas that inspired me in the creative process and Bo Lundahl for his support. Furthermore, I would like to express my gratitude to my friends and family for their support. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Cecilia for helping me with all the facts and figures and for her love and words of encouragement during the process of writing this dissertation. 5 6 Table of Contents 1 Introduction 9 Background 9 Aim 10 Concepts defined 10 ICT and learning 11 Formal and informal learning 12 Genres 12 World of Warcraft 13 2 Method 14 Data Collection 14 Selection 15 First Group of Informants: the Social Studies class 16 Second Group of Informants: Individual Program 16 Third Group of Informants: Internet Café 17 Ethical Concerns 17 Data Analysis 17 3 Literature review 19 Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning 19 Linderoth and Bennerstedt, Living in World of Warcraft - The Thoughts and Experiences of Ten Young People 23 Heith, Texter-Medier-Kontexter 25 4 The study 27 The results of the questionnaires 27 The results of the interviews 29 5 Discussion and conclusion 37 Background and gaming habits 37 Language use and exposure during gaming sessions 37 Possible benefits from playing video games 38 Possible problems or conflicts connected to their gaming interest 40 Conclusions 41 Further studies 42 References 44 Appendices 45 7 8 1 Introduction Background Start. Know your character. Know your terrain. Kill as many enemies as you possibly can. Loot their corpses of any valuables. Secure the area. Keep track of your team members. Check your weapons. Move on to the next level. Kill! Kill! Kill! Level up. Gain more experience points. Kill some more enemies. You get wounded. You die. Game Over. Start again? In another world, this is reality. In another world, this is the reality that you have to get used to, and even learn how to survive in. This is a world in which you can start your life all over if you die. And you have to learn how to live in it if you want to survive. This is a simplified description of a virtual world in a video game. How can it be that so many of us choose to live from a few hours and up to many days per week in such a world? We live in an era when a game like Grand Theft Auto IV can rattle the morals and ethics of what some regard as good taste and manners. At the same time, we live in a world that is to a great extent based on other, more holy, sources that are filled with gruesome murders and genocide, and that are far more widely spread, and socially accepted, than GTA IV. Can it be all bad then, that you flee the reality for a couple of hours and put your effort in a virtual counter-part? I have a strong feeling that it is not that bad. In fact, I have a hunch that you may actually learn something along the way. In this dissertation I will investigate the possibilities of and possible benefits from informal learning through video games. During this study I will also investigate how video games add to the ever ongoing stream of popular cultural references for young people today. In this report, these two directions will merge together into one research project based on interviews with youngsters with a focus on video gaming and possible benefits gained from their gaming, as well as any problems that might be connected with their interest. 9 The subject of the research fascinates me, mostly because of my long time interest in the gaming world and community, and my more recent interest in the pedagogical tools and ideas available for teachers today. The importance of the gaming scene, both in the economic market and the culture that has developed through players and their social connections and communities, makes way for a study of the cultural phenomenon that is gaming in itself but also of the gamers. What impact does gaming have in general on people, and more specifically: how can we as teachers take care of the knowledge and experience that is collected through video gaming? In the discussion of learning taking place outside of the classroom, and in relation to the society in terms of democracy and values, should not media literacy, for example video gaming, also be included in that discussion, as the identity of so many pupils is defined through a virtual world? I hope that this study will contribute to raising the awareness of video gaming as a tool for informal learning and as an important cultural reference for young people today. In this research, the following overarching question serves as my main focus: What are the youngster’s thoughts about their gaming habits and possible learning situations in connection with their gaming? Aim The purpose of this research is to use interviews to present five young gamers in order to describe their English language use in conjunction with their gaming. The aim of these portraits is to gain a deeper understanding of how video gaming can function as a tool for informal learning and how this particular popular text works as an important cultural reference for young people today. Concepts defined Summarized here are some of the concepts that will be touched upon during this study. The concepts of ICT, informal and formal learning and different genres of video games 10 are presented. Also included, is an extended definition of the game World of Warcraft. This game is closely linked to this study, both serving as an example of a popular video game and as being mentioned frequently during the interviews. ICT and learning As the study at hand focuses on alternative methods of learning in connection to video gaming, the subject of ICT (Internet Communication Technology) is important to highlight. Within ICT in connection with learning material, various digital resources can be found and discussed, but here I will focus on digital learning resources. There are two common traditions of defining available teacher's resources, according to Myndigheten för Skolutvecklings article Digitala Lärarresurser (Jan Hylén, 2007) . These include both a narrow definition, which only accounts for material produced for the purpose of teaching, and a wider definition which is based on the learning situation, and where everything that is connected to what the learners and teachers use is viewed upon as learning material (Hylén 7). In the article, the wider definition is of interest. Moreover, the difference between traditional learning material, including text books, and digital learning material is that the latter is multimodal , i.e. it can communicate through sound, vision and text simultaneously (Hylén 7). The article emphasizes that digital learning material does not have to be a finished product, and instead the process of the learning is of interest rather than the result. Thus, different forms of digital resources becomes interesting for teachers to use in such environments, for example by using different web-sites focusing on bogging and forum-talk in the classroom (Hylén 7). These examples of web-sites functions as being edited by the members themselves, and therefore one can study the process of creating something within those sites.

Load more

  51

Copy Link