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Real benefits from virtual experiences
Descriptive
TypeOfResource
Text
TitleInfo
(ID = T-1)
Title
Real benefits from virtual experiences
SubTitle
how four avid video gamers used gaming as a resource in their literate activity
Identifier
ETD_1595
Identifier
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http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.2/rucore10001600001.ETD.000051103
Language
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eng
Genre
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theses
Subject
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Topic
Education
Subject
(ID = SBJ-1);
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Video games--Psychological aspects
Subject
(ID = SBJ-1);
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Computer games--Psychological aspects
Subject
(ID = SBJ-1);
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Learning, Psychology of
Abstract
This dissertation focuses on the ways four academically struggling adolescent males used their video gaming experiences as a resource to understand other texts. Such an investigation builds upon the idea that learning is socio-culturally situated and, therefore, focuses not only on the texts gamers encountered, but also on how students viewed themselves in relation to the texts they used and to the world in which they lived. Over the course of eight months, I collected data using a variety of methods, such as individual and focus group interviews, participant and classroom observations, stimulated recall of game play, electronic literacy logs, and think-alouds of participants' written texts and photographed learning spaces. I coded the data using descriptors for Discourse, schema, performed identity and projective identity, which brought to light how students in my study recognized academic relevance, gained social acceptance, and experienced a sense competence through their video gaming experiences. I have drawn upon schema and Discourse theories while embracing a multimodal approach to literacy, blending theories usually regarded as independent of each other. In so doing, I have found a fruitful, theoretical middle ground that has allowed me both to examine the diversity of student Discourses and to discuss the affordances of video gaming in concert, not in discord, with traditional theories.
My data reveal that video gaming afforded the participants the ability to assume alternate identities, to collaborate with others, and to achieve feats otherwise unattainable in reality, sometimes to their academic, social, and emotional benefit. For some, video gaming provided authentic, albeit synthetic, experiences that enabled students to contextualize academic information. Engaging in a virtual battle or encountering vocabulary words in a game, students respectively gained foundational understandings of historic events and language use because they encountered the information in a meaningful way. In addition, gaming appeared to grant players access to social membership and/or feelings of competence in real and virtual worlds. This dissertation contributes to the burgeoning field of digital literacies and suggests that the video game experience may help gamers achieve meaningful learning in and outside the classroom.
My data reveal that video gaming afforded the participants the ability to assume alternate identities, to collaborate with others, and to achieve feats otherwise unattainable in reality, sometimes to their academic, social, and emotional benefit. For some, video gaming provided authentic, albeit synthetic, experiences that enabled students to contextualize academic information. Engaging in a virtual battle or encountering vocabulary words in a game, students respectively gained foundational understandings of historic events and language use because they encountered the information in a meaningful way. In addition, gaming appeared to grant players access to social membership and/or feelings of competence in real and virtual worlds. This dissertation contributes to the burgeoning field of digital literacies and suggests that the video game experience may help gamers achieve meaningful learning in and outside the classroom.
PhysicalDescription
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electronic resource
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xiv, 218 p. : ill.
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text/xml
Note
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Ph.D.
Note
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-216)
Note
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by Sandra Schamroth Abrams
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Abrams
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Sandra Schamroth
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1976
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Sandra Schamroth Abrams
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Rowsell
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Jennifer
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chair
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Advisory Committee
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Jennifer Rowsell
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Boling
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Erica
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Advisory Committee
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Erica Boling
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Curran
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Mary
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Advisory Committee
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Mary Curran
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Smith
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Michael
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Advisory Committee
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Michael W. Smith
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Rutgers University
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degree grantor
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Graduate School - New Brunswick
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school
OriginInfo
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2009
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2009-05
Place
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xx
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Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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ETD
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Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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rucore19991600001
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NjNbRU
Identifier
(type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T3H70G2V
Genre
(authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
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Rights
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The author owns the copyright to this work.
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Copyright protected
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Open
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Non-exclusive ETD license
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Author Agreement License
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I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
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Embargo
DateTime
2011-07-11
Detail
Access to this PDF has been restricted at the author's request.
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