Turtles, Gobos, Greeps and Brick Blocks: Design-based Learning Models in Informal Settings

Keith Braafladt · Cynthia Matthias · Brian Myers · Ricarose Roque

Thu., June 10, 3:30–4:30, Inn Wisconsin

This session will explore the implementation of media-rich content creation workshops in several informal settings and explore how aspects of these workshops might enhance the learning experience in formal environments. It will also report on the preliminary results of Media MashUp, an 18 month (2008–2010) Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)— funded Nation of Leaders Demonstration grant that is establishing best practices in the design and implementation of innovative library-based technology programs such as digital art and game design workshops.

As noted by Gee (2004) and Jenkins (2006), informal learning cultures (or affinity spaces) provide a uniquely engaging social and collaborative context for learning. Jenkins (2007) has further noted how these learning cultures represent ideal environments for the acquisition of particular 21st century literacy skills, including transmedia fluency and the range of collaborative and playful attitudes needed to lead fully participatory lives now and in the decades to come.

Presenters will share models of successful interactive rich media exploration and creation programs offered to youth and teens through informal settings including libraries, after-school enrichment programs, museums, and game clubs. We will demonstrate how such programs can be structured to nurture a culture of shared endeavor and provide opportunities for 21st century literacy skill building and engagement of youth as co-teachers.

Projects and presenters will include:

The rich learning potential afforded through engagement in playful design activities has been widely explored in recent years (e.g. Hayes, Kafai, Klopfer, Resnick, Squire, Steinkuehler — see references). Recent inquiry has highlighted how the iterative dynamic between creative production and critical assessment establishes an active learning spiral through which learners continually construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current or past knowledge (Kafai & Resnick, 1996; Resnick, 2006). Many researchers have further observed that digital design activities provide a media-rich, multidisciplinary context for nurturing important 21st century literacy skills. Although often familiar with these findings, educators in formal settings are challenged to establish a framework for these activities due to the competing claims of a high-stakes standardized, test-based curriculum. Innovative initiatives, such as the MacArthur-funded Quest to Learn and Gamestar Mechanic projects, attempt to bridge these models by introducing an immersive, design- and games-based pedagogy into the overarching structure. Leveraging the diversity of models, platforms and methods represented on our panel, we will attempt to identify those elements of affinity-based, interactive media design workshops that successfully provide a framework for the construction of essential 21st century literacy skills, and explore how these models might be implemented to playfully and engagingly enhance formal pedagogic frameworks.

References

Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan.

Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated language and learning: A Critique of traditional schooling. London: Routledge.

Hayes, E. & Games, I. (2008). Making computer games and design thinking: A review of current software and research. Games & Culture 3(3–4), 309–332.

Hayes, E. (2008). Game content creation and IT proficiency: An exploratory study. Computers and Education 51(1), 97–108.

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press.

Jenkins, H., Clinton K., Purushotma, R., Robinson, A.J., & Weigel, M. (2007). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Chicago, IL: The MacArthur Foundation.

Kafai, Y. & Resnick, M. (1996). Constructionism in practice: Designing, thinking and learning in a digital world. Hillside NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Klopfer, E. and Begel, A. (2003). StarLogo in the classroom and under the hood. Kybernetes 32, 15–37.

Klopfer, E. (2003). Technologies to support the creation of complex systems models – Using StarLogo software with students. Biosystems 71, 111–123.

Klopfer, E., Begel, A., McCaffrey,C., & Wendel, D. (2006). Teaching game programming through StarLogo TNG. Paper presented at the International Conference for the Learning Sciences, Bloomington, IN.

Resnick, M. (2006). Computer as paintbrush: Technology, play, and the creative society. In Singer, D., Golikoff, R., and Hirsh-Pasek, K. (Eds.). Play = Learning: How play motivates and enhances childrens cognitive and social-emotional growth. London & New York: Oxford University Press.

Shaffer, D. W., Squire, K.D., Halverson, R., & Gee, J.P. (2005). Video games and the future of learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 87(2), 105–111.

Squire, K. & Steinkuehler, C.A. (2005). Meet the gamers. Library Journal, 130(7), 38–41.

Squire, K. (2008). Open-ended video games: A model for developing learning for the interactive age. In K. Salen (Ed.). The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation series on digital media and learning (pp. 167–198). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Steinkuehler, C. (2008). Cognition and literacy in massively multiplayer online games. In D. Leu, J. Coiro, C. Lankshear, & K. Knobel (Eds.), Handbook of research on new literacies (pp. 611–634). Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Steinkuehler, C. & Johnson, B. Z. (2009). Computational literacy in online games: The social life of a mod. The International Journal of Gaming and Computer Mediated Simulations, 1(1), 53–65.