Hannah R. Gerber

Fighting baddies and collecting bananas: teachers’ perceptions of games-based literacy learning

This paper discusses how practicing teachers conceptualize commercial off the shelf (COTS) videogames within classroom-based English language arts instruction. Understanding how today’s teachers perceive virtual worlds and videogames as an instructional tool for schema building within literacy development will help researchers better understand ways to structure games-based learning in classroom environments. Data for this study were drawn from case study research of a graduate pilot course focusing on the intersections of virtual worlds, popular culture, and literacy instruction. Findings indicate that a limited understanding of videogames and virtual worlds does not hinder practicing teachers from desiring to create engaging units of study using videogames as a schema building tool. However, teachers feel that using videogames for schema building in the classroom will lead to negative perceptions of how they are viewed as teachers. This is compounded by the perception that they will not receive adequate financial support in the form of professional development from administration, nor will they receive monies for technological support to implement within instruction. However, despite these findings, teachers desire to use games-based learning and implement it as a schema building exercises with their students.

Maker culture and Minecraft: implications for the future of learning

Collaborative learning environments found with gaming communities can provide excellent structures to study the way that learners act within informal learning environments. For example, many of these gaming communities encourage gamers to create videogames and virtual world walkthroughs and commentaries. Walkthroughs and commentaries provide gamers information that helps them in game play. We refer to this process of walkthrough creation as digital maker culture. This study explored the phenomena of digital maker culture through a multiple case study design by examining five Minecraft walkthrough creators who created walkthrough repositories on YouTube. Findings suggest multiple levels of experience are needed when players are involved in digital maker communities. These multiple levels of experience are (a) to engage in creating designs for immediate prototypes, (b) to belong to cultural environments that foster collaboration and sharing, and (c) use common design standards. This has implications that could inform innovative instructional practices with digital tools in school environments, in order to foster a more collaborative, participatory classroom experience.

From Mario to FIFA: what qualitative case study research suggests about games-based learning in a US classroom

This article explores the impact of using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) videogames in a high school curriculum when developed through a connected learning frame by examining the influence that COTS videogames have on transforming students’ literacy learning in-school. However, it must be noted that transforming literacy in school is about more than bridging in- and out-of-school literacies; it concerns developing a deeper understanding of the meaning of literacy in today’s multimediated world, and the ways that these experiences are connected not only to media, but to traditional texts, peers, and guiding teachers, so that we can better grasp how to harness new learning styles and new ways of making meaning in contemporary classroom spaces. To understand how to capture in and out-of-school practices, we conducted a qualitative case study of two high school students enrolled in a reading intervention class that incorporated a COTS videogames curriculum. Data were analyzed via a constant comparison analysis. Findings indicated that the games-based curriculum created through a connected learning frame enabled students to engage in a constellation of connections among digital media, traditional texts, peers, and guiding teachers.

Educational media: finding common ground around the world

The 64th International Council of Educational Media (ICEM) conference was held from 8 to 10 October 2014 in the picturesque Hungarian city of Eger. It was co-hosted by the ICEM Executive Committee and Esterhazy Caroly College and organised by Dr Csaba Komlo, the current president of ICEM. The conference was jointly held with the International Conference on Information Technology in collaboration with the Open University Malaysia and Delta University for Science and Technology of Egypt and themed: Agria Media 2014. The joint conference attracted participation from a diverse group of delegates, representing different fields of study and international organisations. A truly international and interdisciplinary event, this conference provided a forum for rich knowledge exchange between experts from a variety of educational media and learning technologies fields. The 119 presentations are available here: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=99ITKzUOLfY&index=86&list=PLEcj-NxGCjMlbJnGZSpc YWo34Di6mBmys. The articles selected for this special issue showcase the eclectic mix of ideas, research methodologies, and perspectives on display, contributing to cutting edge innovations and emphasising the interdisciplinary and international nature of ICEM. To have a manuscript considered for inclusion in the special edition, the manuscripts had to first be accepted into the proceedings of the 64th ICEM Conference and had to be an empirical study. The six manuscripts that are included in this volume/special edition of Educational Media International were selected from among the 119 presentations by the editor in chief of the Educational Media International editorial board. Therefore, the manuscripts in this special edition represent a 19% acceptance rate. The guest editors of this special edition represent two of the eightmember ICEM Executive Committee, and were selected by the current Educational Media International editor-in-chief. Across all six of the articles, we see the emergence of a key theme that undergirds current conceptions, debates and theories relevant in today’s contemporary field of educational media: socially imbued personalised learning. The concept of socially imbued personalised learning can be defined as learning that is personally meaningful and collaborative in nature, inviting joint knowledge construction and active knowledge sharing (Abrams & Gerber, 2014). Hence, the connections threaded among the six diverse studies allow us to see the importance of the role of social practices that influence future directions for innovations in education and quality enhancement. This is not to say that each study explicitly makes a case for, nor draws from, social learning theories, nor does each paper explicitly set out to test the waters of personalised learning. Rather, what we see emerge is the perspective that social factors in learning are important when they are made relevant to a student’s personal success. Each of the studies within this special edition showcases this concept of socially imbued personalised learning. Whether it emerges through

Bridging Literacies with Videogames

These diverse topics will provide scholars, teachers, and curriculum developers with empirical support for bringing videogames into classroom spaces to foster meaning making. Bridging Literacies with Videogames is an essential text for undergraduates, graduates, and faculty interested in contemporizing learning with the medium of the videogame. G A M I N G E C O L O G I E S A N D P E D A G O G I E S S E R I E S

Games-based learning: Teacher's perspectives and application of new literacy practice

This workshop will introduce participants to the theories behind game-based learning and will lead participants through conceptualising how game-based learning fits within their curricular and training needs by exploring the nuances of game-based learning in diverse settings. Participants will explore how to implement game-based learning within their classroom/training environment and will critique and understand how to design game-based units/modules/lessons.