Math as Narrative in WoW Forum Discussions
Research Project Overview
Since 2005, we have been exploring the forms of cognition and learning that go into everyday game play in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs)—online videogames played collaboratively in simulated fantasy worlds. Our research focuses on commercially successful game titles such as Lineage II, Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, and RuneScape because our main goal is to better understand the kinds of thinking and learning young people and adults do in their out-of-classroom lives and how those activities intersect (or fail to intersect) with more formal forms of education such as institutions, classrooms, and tests.
To date, we have investigated game-related literacy practices (Steinkuehler 2006b, 2007, 2008), informal science reasoning (Steinkuehler and Chmiel 2006; Steinkuehler and Duncan 2009), computational literacy (Steinkuehler and Johnson 2009), ethical reasoning and socialization (Steinkuehler 2006a; Steinkuehler and Williams 2006; Simkins and Steinkuehler 2008), and even the creation of after school programs based on their use (Steinkuehler and King 2009; Steinkuehler et al. 2009). Such work includes analysis not only of activities within games but also activities beyond them, in the online fandom space around each title. This worked example builds on one such analysis: an earlier study of MMO-related online discussion forums (Steinkuehler and Duncan 2009).
References
Simkins, D., and C. Steinkuehler. 2008. Critical ethical reasoning and role play. Games and Culture 3:333–55.
Steinkuehler, C. 2006a. The mangle of play. Games and Culture 1 (3):1–14.
Steinkuehler, C. 2006b. Massively multiplayer online videogaming as participation in a discourse. Mind, Culture and Activity 13 (1):38–52.
Steinkuehler, C. 2007. Massively multiplayer online gaming as a constellation of literacy practices. eLearning 4 (3):297–318.
Steinkuehler, C. A. (2008). Cognition and literacy in massively multiplayer online games. In Handbook of Research on New Literacies, ed. J. Coiro, M. Knobel, C. Lankshear, and D. Leu, 611–34. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Steinkuehler, C., and M. Chmiel. 2006. Fostering scientific habits of mind in the context of online play. In Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences, ed. S. A. Barab, K. E. Hay, N. B. Songer, and D. T. Hickey, 723–29). Mahwah NJ: Erlbaum.
Steinkuehler, C., and S. Duncan. 2009. Informal scientific reasoning in online virtual worlds. Journal of Science Education and Technology, DOI: 10.1007/s10956-008-9120-8.
Steinkuehler, C., and B. Z Johnson. 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.
Steinkuehler, C., and King, B. 2009. Digital literacies for the disengaged: Creating after school contexts to support boys’ game-based literacy skills. On the Horizon 17 (1):47–59.
Steinkuehler, C., E. King, S. Chu et al. 2009. Identifying protoform practices: Leadership. The International Journal of Learning and Media 1 (2). http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/ijlm.2009.0019 (accessed October 15, 2009).
Steinkuehler, C., and Williams, D. 2006. Where everybody knows your (screen) name: Online games as “third places.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 11(4): article 1. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue4/steinkuehler.html (accessed October 11, 2009).
