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Computer games – pushing at the boundaries of literacy
journal contribution
posted on 2010-02-01, 00:00 authored by Catherine BeavisCatherine Beavis, Joanne O'MaraJoanne O'MaraThe need to expand traditional, print-based versions of literacy to also incorporate attention to multimodal forms of text and literacy in the English curriculum is now well established. Much can be learnt about students and their literacy practices from the exploration of their engagement with digital culture – particularly videogames – from their out-of-school lifeworlds. However, the emerging set of skills and competencies or, the ‘new’ literacies and literacy practices associated with multiple and ever-emerging genres generated through information and communications technologies, present challenges in terms of how they might be conceptualised as literacy (or not) and how the multiple dimensions entailed in gameplay are increasingly a part of what it means to be literate in the 21st century. Drawing on two case studies of classroom work, the paper describes approaches to conceptualising the complexity of digital texts and their access, production and distribution and the opportunity to create spaces where students could interact, socialise and learn in both the real and virtual world. Dimensions such as play, interactivity, action, movement and time raise challenging questions about the limits and possibilities of constructing games and gameplay as texts and literacy practices that push the boundaries of literacy.
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Journal
Australian journal of language and literacyVolume
33Issue
1Pagination
65 - 76Publisher
Australian Literacy Educators' AssociationLocation
Norwood, S. Aust.ISSN
1038-1562Language
engPublication classification
C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2010, Australian Literacy Educators' AssociationUsage metrics
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