Ben DeVane

Get Some Secured Credit Cards Homey: Hip Hop Discourse, Financial Literacy and the Design of Digital Media Learning Environments

In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, there exists a deficit of compelling financial education curricula in urban schools that serve financially vulnerable working-class students. Part of a design-based research investigation aimed at creating culturally-relevant financial literacy learning environments, this study is a Discourse analysis of a discussion of personal finance on a web-based fan forum dedicated to hip hop music and culture. In this analysis the author claims that the discourse strategies and participant roles present in this discussion are an example of the organic production of what has been called a borderlands Discourse that bridges school-based knowledge of financial literacy with the youth culture of hip hop. The analysis presented here highlights the complex and overlapping ways that discursive hybridity in both representational practices and textual performances of identity figure importantly in the financial literacy practices of community participants. The author further contends that the understandings that emerge from this analysis can help design researchers attempt to ‘engineer’ the values, identities and modes of interaction of hip hop discourse communities into academically-oriented learning environments.

Gamer communities, design, and learning: panel proposal

Though much of the study of games and learning has understandably emphasized the interaction of game players with specific games (e.g., Gee [2003]), recent work has shifted to the understanding the social sphere around games and communities of engaged gamers (e.g., Squire and Giovanetto [2008]; Wright et al [2002]). In particular, online discussions around and supporting games are an increasingly ubiquitous feature of popular games, providing venues for passionate gamers to discuss games, critique each others work, and interact with game designers. We argue that the ways that communities of gamers interact on the Internet show the inextricable nature of a variety of design activities and approaches to learning in contemporary gamer cultures, across a wide range of game genres.