Abstract
Games are viewed as embodying core principles of good pedagogy and learning, however, it is essential that games are not understood simply as ‘learning machines’. Rather, good gameplay is active, socially situated and purposeful, and intimately linked with issues of ownership, commitment and identity. This chapter focuses particularly on the textual dimensions of games and gameplay, within the context of the New Media Age, Multiliteracies and literacy constructed as design, and the ways in which the capacity to read and act upon multimodal literacies enables reasoning and analysis, and the successful progress of play. It takes the example of the citizenship education mobile learning game, Statecraft X, to explore and illustrate matters such as these. It explores and illustrates some of the multimodal forms of reading, literacy and interactions required to make sense of the game, the ways in which doing so enabled students to arrive at new insights and understandings about governance and citizenship, and the kinds of investment, reasoning and assumptions required to do so.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Apperley, T., & Beavis, C. (2013). A model for critical games literacy. E-Learning and Digital Media, 10(1), 1–12.
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2013). The Australian Curriculum 7.1: Mathematics. http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/mathematics/content-structure. Accessed 23 Jan 2015.
Barton, D., & Hamilton, M. (2000). Literacy practices. In D. Barton, M. Hamilton, & R. Ivanic (Eds.), Situated literacies: Reading and writing in context. New York: Routledge.
Bogost, I. (2007). Persuasive games: The expressive power of videogames. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Chee, Y. S. (2011). Learning as becoming through performance, play, and dialog: A model of game-based learning with the game Legends of Alkhimia. Digital Culture and Education, 3(2), 98–122.
Chee, Y. S., Tan, E. M., & Qiang, L. (2010). Statecraft X: Enacting citizenship education using a mobile learning game played on Apple iPhones. In U. Hoppe, R. Pea, & C. C. Liu (Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th IEEE International Conference on Wireless, Mobile and Ubiquitous Technologies in Education (pp. 222–224). Los Alamitos: IEEE Computer Society.
de Castell, S. (2011). Ludic epistemology: What game-based learning can teach curriculum studies. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 8(2), 19–27.
de Castell, S., & Jensen, J. (2003). Serious play. Curriculum Studies, 35(6), 649–665.
de Castell, S., & Jensen, J. (2010). Real time playback: Multimodality in virtual worlds. Keynote address, multimodality and learning conference 2010, London Institute of Education, July 6–7, London. Retrieved from http://sites.google.com/a/lkl.ac.uk/cmr/conference-july-2010/keynote-suzanne-de-castells-jennifer-jenson. Accessed 23 Jan 2015.
Derryberry, A. (2007). Serious games: Online games for learning (White paper). San Jose: Adobe Systems Incorporation. http://www.adobe.com/resources/elearning/pdfs/serious_games_wp.pdf. Accessed 23 Jan 2015.
Dodlinger, M. J. (2007). Educational video game design: A review of the literature. Journal of Applied Educational Technology, 4(1), 21–31.
Erstad, O., & Sefton-Green, J. (2013). Digital disconnect? The ‘digital learner’ and the school. In O. Erstad & J. Sefton-Green (Eds.), Identity, community and learning lives in the digital age (pp. 87–106). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Gee, J. P. (2007). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy (Revised edition). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kankaanranta, M. H., & Neittaanmaki. P. (Eds.). (2010). Design and use of serious games. Lexington: Springer.
Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. London: Routledge.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press.
New Media Consortium. (2012). NMC Horizon Report 2012 K-12 Edition. http://www.nmc.org/publications/2012-horizon-report-k12. Accessed 23 Jan 2015.
Pappert, S. (2002). Hard fun. Bangor Daily News, Maine. http://www.papert.org/articles/HardFun.html. Accessed 23 Jan 2015.
Perrotta, C., Featherstone, G., Aston, H., & Houghton, E. (2013). Games-based learning: Latest evidence and future directions. Slough: NFER.
Roth, W.-M. (2010). Language, learning, context: Talking the talk. New York: Routledge.
Shaffer, D., Squire, K., Halverson, R., & Gee, J. (2005). Videogames and the future of learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 87(2), 102–111.
Steinkuehler, C. (2006). The mangle of play. Games and Culture, 1(3), 199–213. doi:10.1177/1555412006290440.
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2007). The play of imagination: extending the literary mind. Games and Culture, 2(2), 140–172. http://www.johnseelybrown.com/playimagination.pdf. Accessed 23 Jan 2015.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Young, M. F., Slota, S., Cutter, A. B., Jalette, G., Mullin, G., Lai, B., Simeoni, Z., Tran, M., & Yukhymenko, M. (2012). Our princess is in another castle: A review of trends in serious gaming for education. Review of Educational Research, 82(1), 61–69. doi:10.3102/0034654312436980.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under Linkage Grant LP110200309: Serious Play: Using digital games in school to promote literacy and learning in the twenty-first century. Research Team: Catherine Beavis, Michael Dezuani, Joanne O’Mara, Leonie Rowan, Sarah Prestridge, Jason Zagami, Yam San Chee. Research Assistance: Roberta Thompson, Christy McGillivray, Colleen Stieler-Hunt. Particular thanks to Peter, his students, Principal and school, and to Yam San Chee, Liu Qiang, Jason Zagami and Roberta Thompson.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Beavis, C. (2015). Multimodal Literacy, Digital Games and Curriculum. In: Lowrie, T., Jorgensen (Zevenbergen), R. (eds) Digital Games and Mathematics Learning. Mathematics Education in the Digital Era, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9517-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9517-3_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9516-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9517-3
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)