REM vol.2 n.1 June 2010

REM

Research on Education and Media

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vol. 2, no.

June 2010

SIX-MONTHLY JOURNAL

Erickson

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vol. 2, no.

June 2010

SIX-MONTHLY JOURNAL

REM

Research on Education and Media

Erickson

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REM Research on Education and Media The magazine is published twice per year (hard-copy in Italian and online in English).

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Subscriptions office Tel. 0461 950690 Fax 0461 950698 info@erickson.it The Review is registred by the Court of Trento at number 1388, 19/06/2009 ISSN: 2037-0849 Editor in Chief Pier Cesare Rivoltella

Editor in Chief Pier Cesare Rivoltella Scientific Committee Ignacio Aguaded Gómez (Universidad de Huelva) Andrew Burn (London University) Ulla Carlsson (Göteborg University) Maria D’Alessio (Sapienza Università di Roma) Thierry De Smedt (Université de Louvain) Luciano Galliani (Università di Padova) Walter Geerts (Univerisiteit Antwerpen) Pierpaolo Limone (Università di Foggia) Laura Messina (Università di Padova) Mario Morcellini (Sapienza Università di Roma) Nelson Pretto (Universidade da Bahia) Vitor Reia-Baptista (Universidade do Algarve) Mario Ricciardi (Politecnico di Torino) Pier Cesare Rivoltella (Università Cattolica di Milano) Luisa Santelli Beccegato (Università di Bari) Jeffrey T. Schnapp (Stanford University) Editor Pier Cesare Rivoltella Referees Committee The referees committee includes 20 well-respected Italian and foreign researchers. The names of the referees for each printing year are disclosed in the first issue of the following printing year. The referral process is under the responsibility of the Journal’s Editor in Chief.

Referral process Each article is anonymously submitted to two anonymous referees. Only articles for which both referees will express a positive judgment will be accepted. The referees evaluations will be communicated to the authors, including guidelines for changes. In this case, the authors are required to change their submissions according to the referees guidelines.

Articles not modified in accordance with the referees guidelines will not be accepted.

Secretary Alessandra Carenzio, CREMIT, Largo Agostino Gemelli, 1 - 20123 Milano.

Tel.: (0039) 02-72343038 Fax: (0039) 02-72343040 E-mail: rem@educazionemediale.it Note to the Authors Submissions are to be sent, as MS Word files, to the email address of the Secretary: rem@educazionemediale.it Further information about submission and writing-up can be found at www. erickson.it/rem Editorial office Roberta Tanzi Layout Loretta Oberosler Graphic design Giordano Pacenza Cover Davide Faggiano Printing Esperia srl – Lavis (TN)

This issue has been made possible by contributions from Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Puglia and from Department of Human Sciences, University of Foggia.

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INDEX

Editorial Media consumption and citizenship competencies Pier Cesare Rivoltella

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June 2010

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Dossier: Game and Learning Which game are we playing. Representations and practices of play between childhood and adolescence Pier Cesare Rivoltella and Alessandra Carenzio

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Frontiers and rhetoric of the videogame in schools Monica Fantin

vol. 2, no.

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New games, new spaces Giulio Lughi

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The video game. Questions, taxonomies, similitudes Massimiliano Andreoletti

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Research Studies Between scientific knowledge and cultural beliefs.

The cultural and moral roots of research in children and media Letizia Caronia

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Newspapers in classrooms: A pedagogical approach Vitor TomĂŠ and Maria Helena Menezes

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One-to-one technology: Students leading change Magda Pischetola

Reviews

by Marco Tomassini and Magda Pischetola

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EDITORIAL

REM – Media consumption and citizenship competencies As usual the Ambrosianeum Foundation published the new edition of the City of Milan Report (Zucchetti, 2009).

It is a research report on the situation of the city about those issues that, better than others, are useful to deine their development and areas of social intervention.

This edition is completely dedicated to youths condition.

I was asked to analyse the report results from the point of view of youngsters’ social practices, between real and virtual, or better between old and new media.

I did it starting from some researches developed in the last years by my research centre, CREMIT: this is the case, for instance, of “I-pod, You-tube e noi?”, an action-research project aimed to cyberbulling prevention in the class-room; “Guinzaglio elettronico” (electronic leash), a research about intergenerational utilization of mobile phone into the family (Brancati, Ajello & Rivoltella, 2009); “A che gioco giochiamo” (which game are you playing), a research on playing ehaviours of children and teens aimed to study the relationship between video and outdoor gaming (I talk about this research in this volume of REM with Alessandra Carenzio); inally, “Crescere nel conlitto” (Grow up in the conlict, with Milano Bicocca University), a project aimed to develop a culture of conlict mediation among teens, in the classrooms.

In all these researches it is possible to highlight some of the evidences the Report contains, considering them in relation with educative issues that are important in the development and social diffusion of digital media among youngsters:

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REM – Media consumption and citizenship competencies

– the sense of place; – the relationship problems; – the transgressive behaviours.

On these issues this volume of REM trys to give some iquite original interpretative suggestions (both in its monographic part about gaming and into the other articles of the second part).

1. About the place, the Report — in a correct way —, invites us to by-pass the separation between reality and virtuality. Among social practices made with and whitout technology there is no gap, but continuity. Technology belongs to youngsters lives, it is “real” even if it is the space of a mediated interaction.

We have to adopt a different indicator for describing youngsters’ social practices, that is the dialectic of “inside/ outside”. This means to redeine our idea of what is a public or a private space: the difference between them is becoming really thin thanks to technologies. In the case of youngsters what we have is an orientation to the outside dimension: identities are constructing themselves in the public space.

Finally, about place, we have to highlight how technology is developing itself in the sense of mobility. This implies: – emancipation from place (delocalization), that means that media consumptions of youngsters are abandoning the house; – lack of adult “control” (mainly the parent one); – development of new forms of space (relocalization), as Lughi well explains in his article.

2. About relationship, our researches tell us that addiction and autoisolation (for adopting the same expression of italian psychiatrist Charmet) are quite rare (1% according what British Journal of Developmental Psychology says in volume 1, 2009, voted to study teens media consumption).

This doesn’t mean that we have not to be concerned with that, but to be aware that as educators we have to work more with normality than with pathology.

To study normality means for us to understand that: – technology doesn’t substitute, but extend face to face relations;

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– youngsters need a strong need of resting in touch and do that through technology; – youngsters, if it is possible, like to meet one each other in presence (this is clear when we ask to them if they like outdoor gaming, and the answer is that they play with videogame if they have not the chance to go to the park).

Here we have almost to attentions to have from the educative point of view: – young people tends to prothesize their social competences through technology (this is what happens when I have to say something bad to a friend of mine and I choose to send to him a sms); – technology tends to erase our free-time producing what we could call an escape from silence (this is what happens when I have a free-time and i ill it messaging with my mobile, phoning or playing with my game-boy or with my PPS).

3. Finally we have to talk about transgression. What we can see is that the gap between lawful and unlawful has become slim; it is possible to trespass it, in both of directions, and with the possibility to come back each time (this is common, nowadays, in youth use of drugs; often we have very normal youngsters, that don’t go outside during the week, use drug in the week end, and turn to their normal life on monday). This permeability is fostered by digital media. We can think for instance to the social network (confusion between outside and inside), or to user generated content production (photo and videosharing, blogging). In this perspective I think that a loto of transgressive behaviours of the youngsters could be motivated by: – a bad knowledge of the grammar of the media. If we talk about digital media, it seems to me that youngsters learn quickly to speak, but often in an uncorrect way; – a supericial approach, often not awared of effects and impacts that media activities could have on the other people.

This concerns family’s and school’s resposibilities.

Normally, in front of this new kind of youth sociality,

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REM – Media consumption and citizenship competencies

the choice of educators is to forbid for protecting, or to avoid and eject thinking this could mean to educate.

Doing that, families and schools let youngsters alone with their problem. What we do need, on the contrary, is to develop responsibility; nowadays media literacy is one of the citizenship key-competences we have to foster in our children. Articles of this volume allow us to higlight some dimensions of it.

Questo richiama i compiti della famiglia e della scuola di fronte alla nuova socialità mediata.

Pier Cesare Rivoltella President of SIREM

References Brancati, D., Ajello, A., & Rivoltella, P.C. (2009). Guinzaglio elettronico. Il telefono cellulare tra genitori e igli. Roma: Donzelli.

Zucchetti, E. (Ed.) (2009). Milano 2009. Rapporto sulla città. Milano: FrancoAngeli.

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vol. 2, no. 1 June 2010

Dossier: Game and Learning

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Which game are we playing Representations and practices of play between childhood and adolescence Pier Cesare Rivoltella and Alessandra Carenzio CREMIT, Catholic University of Sacro Cuore, Largo Gemelli, 1 – 20123 Milano.

E-mail: piercesare.rivoltella@unicatt.it; alessandra.carenzio@unicatt.it

ABSTRACT

Man is really a man only when he plays F. Schiller

This article is about a research that CREMIT (Research Centre on Education about Media, Information and Technology) realized in Lombardia on 2500 with 8-16 years youngsters. The aims of the research were mainly two: verify the impact of videogames on outdoor free gaming behaviours; relect on the attitude of adolescents about youngsters playing animation, when involved in activities as educators. From the methodological point of view the research was realized trhough a survey and a second more qualitative phase; this was based on observations of youngsters during workshops that researchers organized with them producing videos together and realizing book-games. The results are quite interesting because they allow to correct some popular misconceptions about gaming and youngsters (like the idea according to which videogames erase time of outdoor free playing activities) and chellenge adults in their educative resposibilities.

Keywords: play; videogames; Media Education; media consumption; media and youngsters.

Edizioni Erickson – Trento

REM – vol. 2, no. 1, June 2010 (11-41)

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Play, development, education: A conceptual framework The starting point of each educative analysis of play and playing is the fundamental idea that playing, for a child, is an exploration of the world, is to make something. This means that playing impacts deeply (and deals with) the main way a child adopts to experience things, that is to touch them. This is so clear when we observe children trying to understand how an electronic device could work: they don’t search for instructions (like their parents do), but simply try and re-try, without any fear to break it. This is what the french teacher and educator Célestine Freinet meant when he deined tatônnement the natural approach of childhood to knowledge (Freinet, 1964): for children it’s natural and true that knowing is touching. This means that playing is a complex cognitive activity, as a lot of researchers, according different points of view, has already demonstrated (Legrand, 1983).

Psychology argued the role of playing in child growth, identifying in a toy the object through which the emancipation from the mother is possible (Winnicot, 1953); in his genetic perspective, Piaget (1962) studied playing like a form of developmental thinking pointing out its great importance for logic and symbolic activities; in another perspective, Freud (1961) commenting the case of little Hans, highlighted the role of playing in its relationship with the deep psychology of human being.

But the individual dimension is not the only one studied by human sciences. A lot of studies were done from a socio-antropological point of view. According to them play and playing make sense with the birth of civilization (Huizinga, 1949) and affect imagination and social order: in this last sense it’s enough to think about Marcuse (1964) and his relection on the power of aesthetic dimension for redrawing social relations. This kind of consideration, that is the possibility to know something through “extramethodic” experiences of truth like art and playing (Merleau-Ponty, 1968), is typical of philosophers whose relection is organized in two main perspectives. The irst one argues that play is both a symbol and an existential for man (Fink, 1968): a symbol, because it deines his whole structure in the same way each one of the two broken pieces (symbola) that friends were dividing between them was able to remind their friendship; an existential, in the sense Heidegger (1996) says when he refers to those characteristics that are really speciic of the deep human structure. The second perspective is clearly shown by Wittgenstein (1999): for the austrian philosopher,

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a play is a world of meanings, that is a mix of rules and codes according to which each of us can “play” one of the linguistic games whose is made our cultural experience. There is no choice for making sense of words without playing one of these games.

We had in mind all these references drawing the plan of our research, but we particularly thought about another philosopher analysis. We mean Hans Georg Gadamer that, in a section of his masterpiece Truth and Method (1975), relects on the main characters of play as he conceives them. They are: – the idea that to play is to be played. This means that is not the player the most important thing, but the game itself. What we like when we play is the lack of a real aim, in presence of a target: to put a ball inside a basket (target) could be amusing even if nobody is going to win anything (aim); – this primacy of playing, this lack of an aim, allows Gadamer to introduce a second aspect of play, that has no costs. We are no paid for playing: playing is an absolutely free activity for which is no necessary to have particular tools or materials. We know since we were children that the most loved games are those ones made with really poor resources; – thirdly, according to Gadamer, playing is good. This is what it has in common with art and aesthetical experience: to play is a pleasure, we really like playing.

These last considerations allow us to individualize some of the reasons for considering playing an educative activity: – playing is a mediation activity; it develops sociality, puts together people just for sharing a target, without second aims or grant expectatives; – playing develops imagination; this is one of the main reasons leading parents and teachers to let children play; this is also what the italian childhood novelist Gianni Rodari means in his Grammatica della fantasia (1973); – to play empowers learning rules. Each game, as Wittgenstein told, has its rules and codes. You need to know them to be able to play; you need to respect them for to make possible that playing could be a social activity. To respect rules playing is a good training for preparing themselves to respect rules in the society: this is what Baden-Powell knew when he built his pedagogical system on great outdoor games;

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– play could be considered a self-technology too. Self-technologies, according to Foucault’s (1988) deinition, are methodologies and techniques with which men could control themselves, managing their emotions (anger, fear, anxiety), knowing their limits, learning to empower their competences. In this way, playing could be considered a real school for youngsters improving their personality and developing their attitudes; – inally, playing could foster problem-solving and some other skillcompetences. This is particularly evident in the case of videogames.

Like Johnson (2005) showed, videogaming is not a stupid activity with which youngsters lose their time to developing addiction. On the contrary, videogaming allows players develop a lot of competences very useful also in other contexts (like school or job). Among them: multitasking (the attitude to pay attention to more activities at the same moment), inference (the attitude to derive conclusions not included in the premises), decision making (when I play with a videogame I have to decide immediately what I have to do because normally there are a lot of enemies trying to kill me while my play-time is passing quickly).

Research plan and methodology The identiication of practices of play is the basic topic of the research: “Which game are playing” held by CREMIT on Summer 2009. It took shape with the following aims: – to study the meaning of play and leisure for children, preadolescents and adolescents (inquiring in this case their practices as “players”, as well as the awareness of their own educational function within groups or communities — as educators); – to know how children and young people relate with play, investigating ways and times, spaces and patterns; – to enable critical relection on the value of play, especially with regard to the possibility of integration of informal educational contexts.

The research sample is based on 2000 respondents (1000 children and preadolescents aged 8 to 13 years, 1000 adolescents aged 14 to 17 years) in Milan, Como, Monza, Varese and the respective provinces. The re14

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Which game are we playing

cruitment area is represented by summer camps held by churches: they are speciic places where young people can gather and spend their summer, especially when parents work and cannot guarantee an educational support in the daytime. This choice on the one hand solved the frequent problem, always encountered when conducting research with children and adolescents, that is to ind a context within which we can meet young people and use research tools with them; on the other hand it allowed to respond to our need to relect on play as a vehicle of education. It is also a context that brings together children from different areas and conditions, allowing to build a sample which, despite the randomness, can offer a good guarantee of representation in relation to social level, type of family background, ethnicity.

With regard to the research tools, the choice fell on the questionnaire, administered in July 2009 in two versions (see Attachments 1 and 2).

Type-A questionnaire, aimed at those aged between 8 and 13 years, is an agile tool with twenty questions preceded by an open question asking subjects to express in three words the meaning of play.

Type-B questionnaire, addressed to adolescents (14-17 years), provides a speciic focus on the type of recreational activity and choices offered to children in their outreach work, on how to prepare activities and the role usually played in these activities.

The administration of both questionnaires was accompanied by the organisation of some workshops that consider play as an opportunity for active involvement and relection. The location of workshops (10 in total) has met the criterion of geographic distribution of the research.1 The irst workshop, addressed to children, was devoted to the method of active-video making, a method of intervention that uses the camera to produce illusions and games in perspective, relying on the corporeality of children and on the discovery of tricks with the camera itself, simple and fascinating for young videomakers.2 The second one, addressed to adolescents, was instead dedicated to the creation of a game-book,3 a product that is easy to build but at the same time very interesting to use to relect on the types of narration that young people return to the research staff.

1 2 3

Workshops, conducted in July, have been guided by CREMIT research staff.

See de Biagi, 1991; Thomas, 2003.

In Italian, see Andrea, 2004.

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Research results To have fun is a game: Children tell us the meaning of play Young people aged between 8 and 13 years agreed to the importance of gaiety and fun (more than 70% use words that belong to the semantic area of entertainment), that characterizes play. These elements were revealed also in the answers to the initial open question, followed by the dimensions of knowledge and relationship. Play is fun and brings joy, but it is also a way to meet and know each other, to meet people and feel good together, spending some time in good company.

Beyond the terms chosen, we can underline the clear idea of play as an activity that relaxes and that is a funny way to spend days, without identifying a speciic choice. There are indeed cases in which the minority of children chooses as keyword a speciic game, and when it happens it refers especially to sports such as football, basketball and dance (the latter is in fact chosen by very few people).

One last interesting note concerns the element of fantasy, or imaginative touch, which returns the sense of play and invention as liberation from the constraints reality imposes: to be someone different, as in symbolic play, but also to take on roles explicitly belonging to fantasy themes where everything takes on a special allure and exceeds the reality, the escape from children limits (not only intrinsic, but also relative to space and choice available to young people).

Directly related to free association, the result of the question (on the reasons related to play situations conirms) the picture. The sample declares to play because they enjoy and have fun (83.3%) and because they spend time with friends (71.3%), followed by the opportunity to relax (16.1%) and avoid homework (12.5%). The other results are shown in Figure 1.

Play seems to occupy most of the time at children’s and adolescents’ disposal, as shown in Figure 2.

Where do children play today? The data (Figure 3) do not say anything signiicantly different than before: when not at home they play at friends’ own home (71.6%) and in church open spaces (68.6%), in the extra-school centres (28.5%), parks (27.7%) and yards (17.6%), fewer children say with grandparents (4.5%) and in recreation toy centres/toy libraries (2.1%).

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Missing 0.91% More than 4 hours 34.17%

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The time of play: How long do you play?

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Figure 3

The spatial dimension of play: Where do you play when you’re not at home?

Children, however, often play by themselves when at home (44.4%), shortly preceded by those who play with brothers and sisters (47.6%). Then we ind those who claim to play with friends (33%), with their father (17.4%) and mother (12.1%). Grandparents (8.2%) and the babysitter (1.7%) close the list (Figure 4).

Games and activities set by children are representative of the digital time we live: videogames, which are appreciated by 94.4% of respondents, win on all other game types with 54.5%, followed by team games (47.8%) — sign of the presence of children on playgrounds — and by two timeless choices: “hide and seek” (29%) and card games (26%). The complete answers to this question can be seen in Figure 5.

Favourite videogames are related to sport and adventure theme (56% and 50%), followed by games inspired by cartoons (26%), from war games (23%), math (13%) and arcade (9.8%).

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Game and toys: Children’s favourites.

The choice of game, basically played on Playstation or Nintendo (often 20%) and much less on the Wii and even rarely online (never 67%, on the contrary we ind a 0.11% using network very often), usually occupies the individual time (rarely they play it with classmates or friends, usually it is and individual use). Often videogames allow children to occupy free time at home, alone, with easy access and guaranteed fun.

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Almost 50% indicate the choice of video game based on the fact that they do not know what to do, followed by the chance to vent (33%), to test and challenge themselves (29%), challenge friends also ofline comparing retrospectively their scores (28.6%), to enter into other realities (20.7%) and recharge batteries (10%).

According to the theme of family presence, besides the already noted lack of contact in play situations, research conirms some referred to parental control in front of videogames, a control attitude detected by 72.6% of children. The answer of the ban here is divided: it is strong in the case of the limitations of time spent in front of videogames, as well as the possibility to play with strangers, but not so effective compared to when they can play (there are no limits in this case, just do not play too long in front of the screen) and even negligible compared to the choice of videogames, collecting very few prohibitions. It is a known issue that other studies have returned with clarity referring to Internet and digital media, so the prohibition applies time, but not how, or rather is not followed by any educational foresight in terms of support of an adult (see Rivoltella, 2006). No matter, we might say, what you play but how long you play, contrary to all claims of researches, giving us back in the 80s of last century when talking about television viewing. The problem, of course, is a different one.

While prevailing a domestic choice (videogames, although portable, tend to be qualiied as a hobby that its at home, in their room or living room if more space to move required, as in the case of the Wii), children still play outdoors: 33% choose open spaces very often, 30% do it often (data are then signiicant if added together), 29.8% do it sometimes, only 4.1% rarely and 1, 4% never.

Outdoor play always involve friends or classmates: it is deinitely reversed compared to the situation found in the case of play at home, where solitary play tends to dominate, that here stands instead of 16%. The presence of mothers is shown in all cases, probably because of the age of children for whom it is dificult to go out alone for safety reasons or because distances do not grant easy movements.

In short, play is fun, especially when in company, but the company is often marked by friends and acquaintances, much less by parents that, when indicated, act as escorts or observers. A fact on which we shall return in conclusion.

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Play is a nice commitment: The word passes to adolescents Play is a nice commitment, as conirmed by adolescents (14-17 years) who largely associate to leisure activity a recreational value and a clear dedication (Figure 6).

The value of relationship in the group is in fact shown more irmly than in the previous sample, as for the theme of sociability and the meaning of socialization that play promotes.

Comparing the results of the question aimed at children to deine the meaning of play, in this case we can reveal a greater variety of terms used, more generally with a greater semantic amplitude and richness, especially with emerging terms related to the theme of the gift: to offer a smile, to be passionate, to give and receive something, to participate and cooperate, to grow. Elements that we easily refer to the value of being educators.

Even teenagers devote much time to play during the week, slightly reducing the time spent playing than the group 8-13 years. In parallel, the reasons given for choosing play give us data that are almost identical: to have fun and being with friends.

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Figure 6

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Play choices: Favourite games for educators/adolescents.

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What changes is the data on the choices of games and play, as expected.

Responses around videogame are identical, with a 0.3% difference in the case of children and young children preferences. This means that worldwide videogaming identiies a common space, a way of conceiving playtime, a chance to spend time having fun. What change certainly refers to contents, and thematic choices, but platforms and timing are actually the same. Today as never before, not only in relation to videogame, adults and young people, youth and children, are linked by the same instruments of mediation (see Brancati, Ajello & Rivoltella, 2008): we use mobile phones or computer that put in place the same mechanisms (sms, access to a search engine), although not always the same meanings. Videogames, but also recreational outdoor activities, in line with what was said just above, but with a slight reduction in the data rate (regarding the collected value about the option “very often”).

Adolescents prefer to play mostly with friends (only 1.4% play alone outdoors) for 82% of the sample; the cases in which parents play with them are deinitely reduced, as that item does not even reach 1% of responses. In fact, the age justiies being alone, so the presence of a parent is no longer necessary, making the interaction with adults in the family unlikely.

Let’s step forward, then, considering videogames, that 22% of respondents do not like. The genres that raise more favours are sports games (52.1%), followed by the kind of adventure (49.8%) and war games (25.1%, with a slight increase compared to children), while videogames inspired by cartoons (19.9%), those related to construction of worlds and the arcade are not so prevalent, because they are obviously easier and less engaging for teenagers and are not considered at home (the arcade game, in fact, let us return to the world of amusement arcades, large joystick and challenges in public places).

Compared to the platforms, the Wii is a marginal presence, while we noted an increase in PC and online games. 10.5% do it often, 9.6% very often (against 0.11% in the case of a sample of young children), 17.9% play online sometimes, rarely and 20.4% 37% never. But this is not always an activity shared with other gamers online, as for 50% it is a solitary practice.

Even for older children, videogame is a way to occupy their time, with greater social connotation — evident in increasing percentages of practices shared with friends (only 15% use videogame often alone, almost more than half of the children). The rates of online videogaming with strangers also increases, by 6%. Mobile phone, however, is not counted among the 22

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100% Videogames

7,2

80%

3,4

No Yes

20,5

60%

32,0 36,9

40%

20%

0%

Figure 7

21,8

Never

28,5

Rarely

26,8

Sometimes

13,5

Often

9,4

Very often

Use of mobile phone to play.

platforms for videogaming: chosen by few people, it is in fact recognized as an instrument of socialization and contact to maintain friendships and relationships with classmates (Figure 7).4 Nevertheless there is a correlation between the frequency with which they play videogames and the use of mobile phone to play, although the data refer to a small fraction of the sample: the more time you spent with video games and the greater you use mobile phone to play. A symptom, perhaps, of a sort of attraction or of the drag effect of videogame practices on the use of other media.

As expected, however, parental control decreased by increasing age, and falls to 62% of cases, with a slight decrease of control for the duration of time (as long as you want), while the prohibition with respect to content includes a minority of adolescents, as in relation to the prohibition of online gaming with strangers (the ban occurs in 50% of adolescents, 78% in the case of younger children). Probably not all parents are aware of this practice, or maybe families are “open-minded” or they discussed with their children and negotiate time and space of consumption, not only with regard to videogames.

4

This fact confirms a datum emerged from an international research conducted in the ’90 (then deepened in Rivoltella, 2001), i.e. the fact that children tends to specialize different platforms to make different things: PC for information, mobile phone to communicate, game console for fun.

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And now we come to the inal two questions that qualify the experience of adolescents surveyed in their role of educators. Play here becomes an educational tool and not an individual choice (or just a shared activity to spend a pleasant time together with the peer group). These activities are chosen to be playful and make children’s afternoon not only fun, but also a signiicant key for their growth, at least in intent.

Games that get more support are in fact team games, that need open spaces (for 91% of the sample), followed by songs and quizzes (34.7% and 30.6%), then skill games, drawings and videogames for 7.1%.

Activities are usually set up with the working group (84.1%), with kids only 7.5% of responses and even less frequent are the remaining options: alone (4.8%) and with priests (2.4%). Working in groups is a reasonable choice, to support creativity in individual works we have to count on a far greater effort.

The role of the educator is anything but a side role: the educators plays with the kids (53.3%), coordinates groups (24%) and observes (10.8%), considering the age factor and the chance to act as an example for younger people.

Play at work: Game-book and video-activity As said at the beginning, the administration of the questionnaire was accompanied by two proposed workshops involving separately the group of children, with an active work on the video, and the group of adolescents, with the construction of the game-book as instrument for fun and education.

We briely describe the proposals and working methods.

The workshop on video is an occasion to help children move their irst steps into the world of moving images, making them understand the difference between reality and representation and making them aware that the images are not neutral representations of reality, but constructions. The activity was introduced as a playful moment during which young spectators could experience the “special effects” they always watched on the screen. The camera was presented as the speciic tool that allows the successful effects with “magic” touch, through simple movements and games in perspective: children who become giants or elves, who sleep upside down like bats, who get into a glass, who are overwhelmed by sudden earthquakes and tsunamis (Figures 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12).

The following frames represent the idea of the workshop.

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Figure 8

The gnomes in the bowl.

Figure 9

The giant hand (1).

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Figure 10 The giant hand (2).

Figure 11 Tsunami.

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Figure 12 The giant and dwarf.

Children, as anticipated, have not deined subject and script of the video to shot (this is not the purpose of active video), but relected on the packaging of images with special effects, made “accessible” and played with the camera. The laboratory, in short, would be a proposal for an education activity (play with images) alternative to other ways of considering leisure time, especially in the area of an oratory or during a normal summer afternoon with fellow players.

The path dedicated to the game-book, aimed at adolescents, arose instead as training intervention itself, to experience irsthand one activity to show their groups, foreseeing summer engagements that soon involving young people who participated in the research. The game-book, in fact, represents a story with crossroads for which the path is indicated by the author, because readers are in fact asked to decide the path leading to different choices by identifying — among the junctions — the ideal path, as simpler, more funnier, more plausible or totally outside the logic of reality (remember that is always a game!).

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Speciically, participants were asked to relect on a common theme: leisure time, as subject of a irst relection to create a suitable environment for the game-book.

The answers collected show the importance of socialization and the need to stay with friends. Going out with friends identiies in fact the most popular option indicated by adolescents (with the 5 groups met, each one gave this instruction as a priority), followed by internet (chat, Facebook, Youtube and Messenger primarily as a hobby at home, when you cannot stay together physically) and hobbies ranging from sports to music (guitar or an instrument).

After sharing an initial discussion on how they managed their personal time, the group was asked to decide — in the plenary — the situation of the story, the characteristics of the protagonist of the story (age, gender, speciicity), the time and space of the initial situation (time of the year and day, home or outdoors, speciic location). Some examples: «It’s the irst day of vacation, you have the entire afternoon at your disposal and you decide to go out…», «It’s a beautiful July day, you’re just out of the Oratory and yet the whole evening is free… what do you do?».

After writing the opening words on a visible billboard, the group was divided into small units, suggesting three different forks from its initial position writing on post-it made available to have the situation at a glance.

After the deinition phase, the groups have returned to work with shared comments and references.

We propose an example of a plot (Figure 13), where the starting situation drive the protagonist to face a decision: «It is a beautiful July afternoon, you’re just out of oratory and yet the whole evening free… what do you do? You go home, go downtown with friends, do some sports and go swimming… if you choose to stay at home go to number I, if you prefer a ride in the city centre go to number II, if you choose to go swimming go to the number III».

If our protagonist decides to go home, for example, he/she could play in the garden, cook, watch TV, play computer games. Choosing the last option he/she is again in front of a new choice: to surf the web, to browse here and there, or to play the new game? If you choose to try the new game we come to irst epilogue: the game works ine and the protagonist is happy to have tried it because he/she can talk with friends and discover new things about the lives of characters in the game. This option is very interesting because it highlights a key aspect of the Net and videogames: they are not solely 28

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Figure 13 Example of structure of the book-game.

tools of isolation. In fact they often represent an opportunity to socialize, exchange and access to the group, talking and being with others , as in the case reported by adolescents.

Some considerations on the stories.

The media are always present (in ive out of ive stories), especially when adolescents decide to set the story at home, a sign of usage in context: when they appear, they’re PCs, game consoles and television, while mobile phone is mentioned only in two cases (to call a friend and agree to go out, to answer the call of friends and receive an invitation to the party organized), perhaps because the phone is an integral part of social life of adolescents, it was naturalized, it migrated to their usual practice and therefore it is not perceived as something “else”. When indicated, in fact, it is always an instrument of connection with friends.

Outdoor activities, however, always include shopping — often shared with peers — and in some cases the money available, a sign of the presence of the theme in their discussions and desires (more money to buy or do different things and fun, like riding on a limo).

In the stories, the reference to adults is quite marginal, and when it occurs it refers to parents (for outputs to be negotiated) and closest relatives (grandmother in the story of the biscuits denied), the blacksmith in the case of forgetting your keys. The “girly” and romantic stories are tipypical of groups made by girls (chance encounters, special friendships).

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Overall they are simple and realistic stories, often involving actual lived experiences: the forgotten keys at home, shopping with friends, the wallet lost at the mall, the power cut that make you loose records while you are playing, going out with friends. Only in one case the events, very daring, lead the hopeless protagonist always to tragic inal epilogues. This is the case of the male group only, for which evidently the register of comedy and tragedy is more interesting.

The workshop therefore acts as a testing method, but also works as an experience to gather some information on the ideas of children. The stories, in fact, always take inspiration from everyday life. The experience has proved to be particularly interesting for several reasons that we gather here before going to the conclusions: – to support self-relection, it is indeed an activity that requires adolescents to relect on their own way to organize their free time; – to help research aims, as game-books are actually a creative tool to involve young people and access their representation of other “themselves”, without imposing rigid contexts of response and feedback; – to gather information on styles (a level closer to a sort of analysis of consumption) typical of adolescents and young people.

Educative remarks Concluding our analysis we can individualize some highlights helping us to move to an educative point of view. Focusing on the practices, we have two chances for the interpretation and intervention: the irst one concerns the consumption activities of youngsters, the second one the practices of educator in front of them. We will try to give each one of them some considerations.

A irst evidence — at the consumption level — is the great success that videogames have with youngsters, but without erasing the importance of team games. Youngsters love both of them. This could seem a strange contradiction. When we think about videogames we imagine an individual situation; people play alone, in front of the screen, without movement, at home (even if portable consoles like PSP and game-boy are usable outside too); team games, on the contrary, are mainly social games, they are played outside (and in the case they are played inside they need wide spaces with

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the possibility for people to move around). From the pedagogical point of view, videogames and team games are opposite too: it seems that videogames are not so good, people think they don’t develop socialization, their contents are carrying negative values and behavior frames; on the contrary, it is common to recognize that team games make to people learn acting in team, respecting their colleagues, being educated to accept ruled and defeat possible. We have here two kinds of logics and experiences quite different.

However, youngsters love both of them. Why? We have almost two possible answers.

Firstly, in both cases we already have a plot: we already have a narrative structure, the game’s story-board, with tactics and strategies the players have to play. In videogame this is its logic of conversation with its pragmatic assignments (it asks you to develop some competences, if you want to be able to play the game and to have your grant); in the case of team-game tactics and strategies have to do with rules and schemes of the game itself. This makes playing an easy activity, a familiar activity; it enables it to become a routine without a particular effort for our immagination.

On the other hand, both in videogame and in team-games, doing is the fundamental thing and this is the logic of agonism itself: there is competition, you can win or lose, you can measure yourself with each other player, you can challenge and ight. This similar function is conirmed by the fact that the most played videogames are the ones based on team-games (such as soccer or basketball); the reason why could be searched in the multimodal contamination of television with its stereotipes. The most played games are the most watched too, on the ground and on Playstation.

The second evidence about playing practices conirms what we already know from last researches about youth media consumption.5 Despite of the social representation and what media say, videogame doesn’t erase the space of other games: it is one of the games that youngsters play. Like other youth consumptions, gaming behaviors of consumption respect the “long tail” theory, that is a graphic telling us that there aren’t few games chosen by many players, but a lot of games played by a small number of players.

In this long tail of youth gaming we ind old and new games, individual and social games: any generalization it’s really impossible. We have here a multi-game diet, into which there is place for a lot of different games. This 5

See Tirocchi, Andò & Antenore (2002); Caron & Caronia (2005); Morcellini (2005); Rivoltella (2006).

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diet has to be matched with other forms of consumption: mobile, internet, MP3 reader, television (always watched by youngsters), outdoor activities (squares, parks, social centres). It’s a really varied diet: this seems to relax the adults, too anxious for the risk that technology could colonize youngsters’ time.

About educative practices we have two more evidences. The irst one is about parental control on gaming activity of the children. Our research conirms once more the data of the more recents inquiries: adults doesn’t play with youngsters, even if he or she stays with them (such as mothers at the park); in the case of videogaming, they control the time that children pass with games but not the contents, so youngsters cannot play more than some hours/minutes for day but they are free to play with any kind of game; inally, the control decreases proportionally with the age of youngsters (when they get older, parents think they need less control).

Despite of this double evidence (adults not gaming with youngsters, no control on contents), adults have a strong perception of the risks and are very anxious about game behaviours of their sons. Here we have a contradiction: they are preoccupied with the effects of gaming on their sons, but they don’t play with him/her and they are not able to control what he/she is doing. The problem is the lack of educative mediation: it needs no control, but competences for managing the relationship between youngsters and technology.

Finally, a last evidence is coming from the branch of the research considering the behaviours of teens involved in education activities. Analyzing the data, it is clear that they make traditional choices about activities they propose to children: team games, songs and bans are the same activities we were involved with when we were children! Otherwise, children have no chance to take part to the choice of these activities. Probably traditional formats are so well known that they become a model; it seems clear too that is the educator who has to propose game activities: sharing ideas with children is probably perceived as a lack of control. On the contrary, the research teaches that participatory activities are really rich because of the creativity of the children: to think together of new formats and activities is useful for renewing the “classic” ones coniguring a more shared and educative setting.

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References Andrea, A. (2004). Costruire i libri-gioco. Come scriverli e utilizzarli per la didattica, la scrittura collettiva e il teatro interattivo. Casale Monferrato: Sonda.

Brancati, D., Ajello, A., & Rivoltella, P.C. (2009). Guinzaglio elettronico. Il telefono cellulare tra genitori e igli. Roma: Donzelli.

Caron, A., & Caronia, L. (2005). Culture mobile. Les nouvelles pratiques de communication.

Montréal: Presse de l’Université de Montréal. de Biagi, E. (1991). Io video. Guida e dizionario del video attivo. Siena: Tomo.

Fink, E. (1968). The oasis of happiness: Toward an ontology of play. In J. Ehrmann (Ed.), Game, play, literature. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Foucault, M. (1988). Technologies of the self. In L.H. Martin, H. Gutman & P.H. Hutton (Eds.), Technologies of the self. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.

Freinet, C. (1964). Les techniques Freinet de l’école moderne. Paris: Colin-Bourrelier.

Freud, S. (1961). Beyond the pleasure principle. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Language.

Gadamer, H.G. (1975). Truth and method. London: Continuum.

Heidegger, M. (1996). Being and time: A translation of Sein und Zeit. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press Huzinga, J. (1949). Homo ludens. London: Routledge.

Johnson, S. (2005). Everything bad is good for you. London: Riverhead.

Legrand, L. (1983). Celestin Freinet. Prospects: The Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, XXIII (1/2), 403-18. (http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/ThinkersPdf/ freinete.pdf).

Marcuse, H. (1964). One dimensional man. Boston: Beacon.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1968). The Visible and the Invisible. Chicago: Northwestern University Press.

Morcellini, M. (Ed.) (2005). Il nuovo mediaevo italiano. Industria culturale, TV e tecnologie tra XX e XXI secolo. Roma: Carocci.

Piaget, J. (1962). Play, dreams and imitation in childhood. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Language.

Rivoltella, P.C. (2002). Televisione ed educazione familiare. In C. Gozzoli (Ed.), Linguaggi televisivi e realtà familiari. Quali spazi di incontro? (pp. 167-202). Milano: Unicopli.

Rivoltella, P.C. (Ed.) (2001). I rag@zzi del Web. Milano: Vita e Pensiero.

Rivoltella, P.C. (2006). Screen Generation. Milano: Vita e Pensiero.

Rodari, G. (1973). La grammatica della fantasia. Torino: Einaudi.

Thomas, H. (2003). Videoattivismo. Istruzioni per l’uso. Roma: Editori Riuniti.

Tirocchi, S., Andò, R., & Antenore, M. (2002). Giovani a parole. Dalla generazione media alla networked generation. Milano: Guerini & Associati.

Winnicott, D. (1953). Transitional objects and transitional phenomena. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 34, 89-97.

Wittgenstein, L. (1999). Philosophical Investigations. London: Prentice Hall.

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ATTACHMENT 1 – QUESTIONNAIRE A – CHILDREN First Name ______________________________________________________________ Date of birth ___________ Oratory _____________________________________________________________________________________________

1. According to me, playing is… (say it with three words). _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. How much time do you spend playing every day during weekdays?

Less than 1 hour 1-2 hours 2-4 hours More than 4 hours 3. Where to play when you’re not at home? Indicates up to three responses.

At home with friends At my grandparents’ house In oratory In the playroom In the courtyard Parks and gardens In sport centers Other 4. Why do you play? Set up two motivations.

I enjoy I have nothing to do I relax To avoid homework To be with my friends To be with my brothers/sisters To invent new things Other 5. Who do you play withwhen you’re at home?

Alone With my brother/sister With my friends With my father With my mother With my grandfather/grandmother With Nanny/babysitting

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6. What are your favorite games? Indicate a maximum of three.

Board games Dolls Outdoor team games Constructions Soldiers Figurines Card games Play with toys tied to movies and cartoons (Gormiti, Transformers, Winx, etc.)

Hide and seek Pretend to be...

Videogames Other 7. Do you play outdoor?

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often 8. Usually who do you play with when you’re outdoor?

Alone With friends With my classmates With children known at the time With my father With my mother With grandparents 9. Do you like videogames?

Yes

No

10. What kind do you prefer? Indicate a maximum of two responses.

Arcade Adventure Sports Mathematics War Construction of worlds and virtual spaces Games inspired by cartoons and movies Other 11. Indicate the titles of the two games that you prefer at the moment. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

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12. Indicate for the following games, how often do you play with them…

Never

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

Console Videogames (Play station, X-box, etc.)

Wii Computer videogames (CD-Rom) Online videogames (with other computers online) Online videogames (with other people online) 13. Usually, do you play videogames…

Never

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Alone With friends With friends online Online with strangers 14. Do you use your mobile phone to play?

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often 15. Do you download games for your phone?

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often 16. Why do you choose to play games? Indicate a maximum of 3 reasons.

I do not know what to do To recharge To vent For new players For interesting stories To challenge my friends Because I am alone To test my skills

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Very often

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To enter another reality To learn Other 17. Do your parents let you play video games‌ Yes

No

How long I want Every time I want With every game I like Online with people I do not know

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ATTACHMENT 2 – QUESTIONNAIRE B – ANIMATORS First Name ______________________________________________________________ Date of birth ___________ Oratory _____________________________________________________________________________________________

1. According to me, playing is… (say it with three words). _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. How much time do you spend playing every day during weekdays?

Less than 1 hour 1-2 hours 2-4 hours More than 4 hours 3. Where to play when you’re not at home? Indicates up to three responses.

At home with friends At my grandparents’ house In oratory In the playroom In the courtyard Parks and gardens In sport centers Other 4. Why do you play? Set up two motivations.

I enjoy I have nothing to do I relax To avoid homework To be with my friends To be with my brothers/sisters To invent new things Other 5. Who do you play withwhen you’re at home?

Alone With my brother/sister With my friends With my father With my mother With my grandfather/grandmother With Nanny/babysitting

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6. What are your favorite games? Indicate a maximum of three.

Board games Dolls Outdoor team games Constructions Soldiers Figurines Card games Play with toys tied to movies and cartoons (Gormiti, Transformers, Winx, etc.)

Hide and seek Pretend to be...

Videogames Other 7. Do you play outdoor?

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often 8. Usually who do you play with when you’re outdoor?

Alone With friends With my classmates With children known at the time With my father With my mother With grandparents 9. Do you like videogames?

Yes No 10. What kind do you prefer? Indicate a maximum of two responses.

Arcade Adventure Sports Mathematics War Construction of worlds and virtual spaces Games inspired by cartoons and movies Other 11. Indicate the titles of the two games that you prefer at the moment. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

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12. Indicate for the following games, how often do you play with them.

Never

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

Console Videogames (Play station, X-box, etc.)

Wii Computer videogames (CD-Rom) Online videogames (with other computers online) Online videogames (with other people online) 13. Usually, do you play videogames‌ Never

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Alone With friends With friends online Online with strangers 14. Do you use your mobile phone to play?

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often 15. Do you download games for your phone?

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often 16. Why do you choose to play games? Indicate a maximum of three reasons.

I do not know what to do To recharge To vent For new players For interesting stories To challenge my friends Because I am alone To test my skills

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Very often

Which game are we playing

To enter another reality To learn Other 17. Do your parents let you play video games‌ Yes

No

How long I want Every time I want With every game I like Online with people I do not know 18. As an animator, what kind of games do you usually organize?

Team games (stealing flag, football, volleyball, etc.)

Skill games Board games Songs and music Quiz Videogames Drawings Other 19. How do you prepare these activities?

Alone With my working group With the pastor With children 20. What role do you usually act while playing?

I play with them I observe I coordinate groups Other

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Frontiers and rhetoric of the videogame in schools Monica Fantin

ABSTRACT

Faculty of Education, University of Santa Catarina, USFC, Florianópolis, SC, Brasil.

E-mail: mfantin@terra.br.com

This article considers the frontiers between traditional games and electronic and digital games that children cross when they integrate their ludic repertories. Upon relecting on the speciicities of the different kinds of games, we emphasize what these games have in common and what they promote in terms of new learning. In this sense, the frontiers of games involve other spaces and relationships between informal learning and formal contexts. To justify the importance of the presence of videogames in school, the text discusses some challenges based on the rhetoric of games and the ambiguity that involves their relationship with education. Finally, the text suggests going beyond these frontiers and rhetoric to an ecological perspective of the relationship between children, culture and education.

Keywords: play; videogame; child; culture; education.

Edizioni Erickson – Trento

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The ludic repertoire of children: Traditional, electronic and digital games It seems trite to afirm that children no longer play as they did in the past, that they do not like the things we did when we were children, that they no longer respect adults, etc. Nevertheless, to understand these and other cultural practices, we need to consider the child who realizes these actions and the sociocultural context in which this relationship takes place. If the context is modiied by social transformations, it is inevitable that these practices also change. In this permanent movement of continuities and ruptures, we must face the contradiction of that which remains and that which is transformed.

To think of these relationships in terms of education means revising the challenges of the contemporary world while also reviving certain practices taught by classic education.

In relation to children’s games, if there is evidence of the “disappearance” or transformation of certain ludic-cultural practices typical of historic children in particular social contexts, it is important to recognize the speciicities of children in different cultures — their power of imagination, fantasy, and for the creation of possibilities that subvert the order of things, which transform the real — to understand the speciicity of the practices of play and games.

To think of play involves thinking of the child who plays, and thinking of the child who plays involves thinking of the entire sociocultural context in which the play and games take place. Like all human activities, playing involves the interaction of various factors present in given historic contexts and is continuously transformed by the very action of individuals and by their cultural and technological productions.

For Benjamin, while a rigid naturalism was dominant, there was no need to consider the speciic face of the child who plays, but writing in 1928 Benjamin recognized that it was mistaken to believe that the imaginary content of the toy determined the child’s play. He afirmed that what occurs is exactly the opposite and maintained that the world of children’s perception is marked by vestiges of the older generation, through which children face their games, and it is nearly impossible to construct them solely «in a realm of fantasy, in a fairy tale country of a pure childhood or art» (Benjamin, 1984, p. 72).

In different societies and cultures the relationship between play, education and culture has taken on distinct shapes, according to the conception

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that each culture has of the child, childhood, games, play and education.

Thus, we can perceive that even modiied witches, princes and princesses in their castles, and a wide variety of heroes of the most enchanting and scary stories, are still part of children’s imagination, as are the characters of stories, ilms, television programs, games and many others that permeate childhood on a daily basis.

Although some traditional games with balls, dolls, carts, marbles, kites, tops, hopscotch and many others are still part of children’s ludic repertoire, many others are revised by the repertoire of electronic and computer games.

In this sense, children create their cultures, capturing information of the adult world and in this process «are not limited to interiorizing society and culture, but actively contribute to its production and transformation» (Corsaro, 2003, p. 44).

It would be unlikely for children’s games not to be inluenced by the narratives, ictions and variety of images from television, cinema and cyberspace that provide repertoires of language, aesthetics and contents for play. To understand this dynamic in all its complexity and ambiguity, we cannot forget that children today are not like the children we were, given that today they are readers, television viewers, and producers of content posted on the internet, navigators of cyberspace, etc., and possess a digital culture that we did not have when we were children. For those who work with children’s education, this signiies the possibility of understanding that as important as it is to revive the “images that rise from the old toy box” and from childhood memories of other times, it is also important to revive the understanding of the ludic-cultural repertoire of children today. This leads us to consider electronic and computer games, above all those that were not part of our childhood.

Children from various parts of the world appear to be inluenced by the same electronic and digital games proposed by the so-called economic and cultural globalization. Nevertheless, despite the motivations and interactions that certain games offer, they do not stir the same interest in all children, because the process of appropriation is active and linked to a certain context of consumption, and their uses are inscribed in a speciic culture that varies according to the social environment, gender, age, etc.

In this respect, Brougère (1995, p. 74) afirms that the toy — understood in its material nature — witnesses the importance of the interaction, because the socialization that it promotes cannot be understood to be conditioned

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by the object, but as a process of appropriation and of reconstruction based on this contact with the toy.

Thus, understood as toys, certain games also appear as elements that encourage the assimilation of cultural factors, in which heterogeneity is diluted by children in the act of play, leading us to imagine dialogs between the local and universal and between tradition and modernity.

In addition to the games from the media industry, certain electronic and digital games, and above all on-line games, go beyond the space-time limits of face to face relationships and create new forms of interaction between people, and thus, of people with culture, with nature and with the world.

The new forms of interaction and sociability stimulated by the digital media and more speciically by online electronic and digital games, lead us to consider the networks as the scene of action and space for communication, socialization and learning, as Rivoltella (2003) afirms.

In this scenery, children’s great interest in the internet and electronic media appears to be not only to “interact with the computer” but to interact with other children through technology. Thus, what is of interest are the ties constructed and not the interactivity itself, because children of different sociocultural contexts, and in the most adverse conditions, are learning to play, win, lose, socialize and organize themselves in networks through the media. This gives rise not only to new and diversiied forms of participation of children in culture, but also new forms of consumption and social practices.

Various academic studies conducted in recent years have analyzed the presence of electronic and video games in the lives of children with different emphases. These new forms of participatory culture stimulated by the digital media, particularly by electronic and online games, are analyzed by H. Jenkins (2006a; 2007). Looking at different forms of learning that electronic games can promote, J.P. Gee (in Jenkins, 2006a; 2009), highlights the similarity between some attitudes developed by children when they play video games and the principles of the scientiic method (checking, forming hypotheses, new testing, new thinking). These principles and paths are also emphasized by Orozco (2006) when he relates learning with videogames and the development of theorizing and deductive abilities, essential for the formation of scientiic thinking. Bartle (in Mackey, 2006) describes a typology of games based on the actions of the players in MUD. This emphasis inspires the work of Berry and Brougere (n.d.) who look closely at the types

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of online games in Internet communities and the different postures and manifestations of the players. Related to this universe, Pecchinenda (2010) highlights both the change in the collective imaginary and in the conception of self-provoked by videogames in the context of the culture of simulation.

In this culture, it is common to associate the inluence of electronic games to possible implications that are manifest in violent behaviors, a relection that is made by various authors, and in addition to Pecchinenda, Alves (2005). As support for these and other studies, we cannot fail to mention the work of Oliver and Pelletier (2006), who analyze different theoreticalmethodological approaches to the studies of videogames, and electronic and digital games.

Thus, there are many maps that can be used to study play and analyze certain relationships and cultural practices that children construct when they play. With these maps in hand, we can ask how this diversity of perspectives helps us to understand the multiple production of meanings that children construct and what these practices really promote that is “new”.

In this respect, we question what is modern, recent or new and what remains and transforms life and reality. At times, we are perplexed by the facility with which we adopt and place in circulation languages, metaphors and even clichés that lead us to denominate in another apparently new manner that which we previously recognized in a different form. Thus, many of our concerns that are apparently new are only so because they previously had another name. New languages are certainly necessary to address and name new realities, to discover something truly new. But would this be the case of the attractions promoted by videogames and their explanations?

There are various explanations for the reasons that electronic and digital games attract children. The irst reason that we would like to highlight or suppose is that electronic games are above all a form of play. And as obvious as it may seem, it is good to remember what some pioneer studies about play afirmed before the existence of electronic and digital games.

In an earlier study (Fantin, 2000), we conducted a review of the origin of the concept of play used by various authors and their focuses and characteristics. Let us look at some of these issues.

Huizinga’s (1990) classic book about the issue of play Homo ludens, written in 1938, offered a pioneer deinition of the concept of play, which saw it integrated to that of culture. For Huzinga, play has an autonomous reality and even if there is no general term in language capable of deining it

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play is a function of life but cannot be precisely deined in logical, biological or aesthetic terms. The concept of play should remain distinct from all the other forms of thinking through which we express the structure of spiritual and social life. We must, therefore, limit ourselves to describing its principal characteristics. (Huizinga, 1990, p. 10)

For Huizinga, the fundamental characteristics of play can be synthesized as follows: a) a voluntary activity in which the player demonstrates pleasure (children play because they like to play and the pleasure it causes transforms it into need); b) an activity marked by freedom and liberty of action of the player; c) actions that are not serious; d) a separation from daily phenomenon (evasion of real life to a temporary sphere of activity with its own orientation); e) a limitation of time and space in which play has its own trajectory and meaning; f) the existence of rules in which a slight infraction ruins the game; g) the activity is composed of ictitious elements.

Understanding that play in humans is oriented to future activity, principally of a social character, Vygostkij (1984) emphasized that play is the principal activity of children and constructed a hypotheses about play from a psychological perspective. In a lecture given in 1933 (yet which would only be published in 1966) he highlighted the following elements: a) the fundamental content of play is the system of social relations with adults; b) the central and typical element of ludic activity is the creation of a ictitious situation with transfers of meanings between the objects and actions, through which imagination is born; c) all games involve rules; d) in play, the child operates with meanings that are separated from things, although they are supported by real actions; e) the speciic pleasure of play is related to overcoming immediate impulses, with the subordination to the rule implicit in the role; f) play is the principal, if not predominant activity of the child.

Vygotskij afirmed that children experience desires that are impossible to realize immediately, and to resolve this tension they involve themselves in an imaginary world where the unrealized desires can be realized. A child playing, is thus the imagination in action. «Imagination is a new psychological process for the child, it represents a speciically human form of conscious activity, and is not present in the consciousness of very young children» (Vygotskij, 1984, p. 106). At play, the child creates the imaginary situation, which Vygotskij considered a deining characteristic of play and not only an attribute of it, because in the ictitious situation, the imagination is the route to abstraction.

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Caillois (1990) reafirms some of the points raised by Huizinga and questions others in his work published in 1958. For Caillois, play is essentially an activity that is: a) free/voluntary; b) separated (in time/space); c) uncertain (the results cannot be foreseen); d) unproductive; e) guided by rules; f) ictitious (make believe). In addition, he distinguishes four fundamental categories of games: competition (agon), luck (alea) simulation or representation (mimicry), and vertigo or perceptive disorientation (ilinx). Two principles guide the practice of play according to Caillois. The principle of fun, improvisation and joy, which he calls paidia; and the opposite principle that involves discipline, arbitraryness and convention, called ludus.

We could discuss how child’s play is seen by Wallon and Bruner and many other scholars. But for now, we will use the synthesis presented by Christie (in Kishimoto, 1992, p. 14), which re-discusses the characteristics of play based on more recent studies: a) non-literality: ordinary meanings can be (or are) substituted by others; b) a positive effect: play is characterized by signs of pleasure and joy; c) lexibility: when playing, children become more lexible in the search for alternatives of action and more open to new ideas and behaviors than in other activities; d) priority to play: while playing, children’s attention is aimed at the activity itself and not on its results or effects (educational games dismantle this criteria by giving priority to learning); e) free choice: play is only considered play when chosen freely and spontaneously by the child (if not, it is work or learning); f) internal control: in games, the players themselves determine the events.

In synthesis, we can say that at play — based on free choice, there is an imaginary situation and a storyline through which children assume or represent roles, using substituted objects through which they represent interactions found in society guided by certain rules that are agreed upon by the children themselves who have control of the game.

In this situation, more than understanding ludic culture as a set of practices that make the game possible, the game can also be understood as a second degree activity (Bateson, in Brougère, 1998), that is, an activity in which it is possible to attribute other meaning to the signiications of common life, which relates to the idea of make believe, and of a break with the signiications of daily life. To have a ludic culture is to have a certain number of references that allow interpreting as play activities that could not be seen as such by other people.

In this light, we can see that many of these factors are what appear to justify the attraction to electronic and digital games. But what is necessarily 49

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being promoted by the speciicity of electronic and digital games? Is the difference only the situation of make believe or simulation of action and environments mediated by technology? Is it the possibility of playing with various people at the same time, going beyond space-time limits made possible by on-line games? Is it that they involve games of representation with forged or constructed identities that remain anonymous? Is it the multi-tasking that is part of different actions unleashed by certain types of videogames?

When Murray (2003, p. 116) points to the elements of attraction of games based on aesthetic principles of digital media, he highlights: immersion (projection of feelings, real-fantasy, creation of alternative identities, invention of stories); agency (participation that involves combination between intelligence and courage or problem resolution and a symbolic emotional standard and opportunities for transformation based on experiencing different roles).

Upon highlighting the interests of children in games and the principles of learning incorporated by the videogame, Gee (2009) mentions: identity; interaction; production; risk; customization; problem solving; challenges and consolidation; gradual information; contextualized or localized meanings; pleasure-frustration; thinking of and by systems of relations and not about facts and isolated events.

Johnson (2005), in turn, argued that electronic games attract children above all because of the dimension of challenge, decision making and rules that involve the context of videogames.

For Machado (2007), the interactivity or the agency of the subject is usually the distinguishing mark of digital media, in which what happens on the screens of videogames depends on the decisions, actions and initiatives taken by the player. Nevertheless, the situations that appear in the ield of possibilities of the game are governed by a program and exist as a repertoire of situations handled as a simulation based on actions of this active and immersed subject, now called the interactor, considering that expressions such as user, receptor and spectator are no longer suficient to describe the new participatory situation.

That is, there are many possibilities, justiications and new terms used to understand the appeal of electronic games and the practices of their players.

Some truly concern the unprecedented character promoted by the speciic interactions that electronic and digital games allow. Others appear to explain only the fact that it involves play.

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The fact is that the various perspectives on this phenomenon, in addition to trying to understand the meaning of the cultural practices that electronic and digital games stimulate and promote in various spaces and times of the lives of children, also strive, in a certain way, to ind arguments to support their use in educational mediations. Consequently, they lead us to think of the presence of electronic and digital games in educational contexts, due to their potential for the development of competencies and for alternative forms of learning.

Nevertheless, if there is a consensus about the presence of games in the life of children, the same is not true in relation to their presence in schools.

To think of an entertainment product or object that also has the characteristics of a possible object of education indicates not only the complexity of a didactic transposition, but also implies a series of mediations for it not to be discharacterized and continue to be play.

Challenges of videogames in schools If, as we saw above, in children’s cultural ludic repertoire the borders between traditional, electronic and digital games are not particularly clear, their presence in school assumes other forms. Many traditional games considered to have educational and teaching potential are found in schools and even in curriculums. Others, such as electronic and digital games, are still far from being considered and used in school spaces.

For some scholars, this border can be lowered by the idea of edutainment, a concept that designates products and processes in which education is conducted together with entertainment. The neologism of edutainment was created in the 1970s by Bob Heyman (a documentary producer for National Geographic). In the 1980s, it was used in the marketing of one of the irst home computers, the Oric 1. Edutainment is now a term used to deine initiatives of formal and non-formal education that are based on the supposition that fun and pleasurable experiences give potential to learning.

In these cases, the fun is inseparable from the learning. The content is not presented in an expository manner, but incorporated into ludic situations in which children are invited to interact. Thus, the educational conditions offer not only the effective learning of certain content, but also a pleasant memory of the learning experience.

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Some of these issues about the potential for learning from certain games in education have been discussed by various authors at different times of history. Despite the fact that the debate continues in the ields of psychology, anthropology and education, it seems that certain relection is still required because, while the formats change and vary, the content often remains the same.

Thus, to analyze and question some considerations made until now, we raise seven challenges as inter-related issues concerning the presence of (video)games in school and thee opportunities they create for mediation.

1. A irst consideration about the presence of (video)games in school concerns the rhetoric of the game proposed by Sutton-Smith (1998). When this author, referring to the ambiguity of play, afirms that only children understand or experience the meaning of play and that the rest is speculation, the power attributed to certain types of play can also be mere supposition or promise. He justiies his position by arguing for seven rhetorics — the old discourse about luck/destination/predestination, power, common identity, frivolity and the modern discourse about progress, imagination and construction of self — which we use as a starting point for this relection.

In the case of the rhetoric of the game, it appears that the consensus has become ideology, a type of exaltation of the idea that play is something positive in itself or that it can only be positive, forgetting that there are also “horrible,” harmful and aggressive games (without even considering supposedly politically incorrect ones). Thus, saying that a game is “only good,” hides another side and does not speak of the different modalities of games, of their diversity and totality. Perhaps it is to escape this trap that Gee (2009) emphasizes «good videogames and good learnings», in an attempt to qualify the games and learnings to which he refers.

To destabilize this rhetoric, it is important to study games, investigate and learn about what children do when they play, and we still do not have many studies about this: what children do when they play.

2. Knowing “what children do when they play” involves the analysis of practice that is the second question. That is, it is to analyze the practice of games, escape high discourse to see what is really happening when children are playing (video)games. This involves a complex reality that articulates objective and subjective dimensions, both in the sense of analyzing the practice considering the action of the child and the signiication of the action, because it is this signiication that makes the action play.

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3. In turn, to analyze the practice of playing (video)games necessarily involves the dimension of research and methodological questions such as: – How to observe?

– What tools to use to capture the signiication of the game.

Some techniques for observation and registration, conducting interviews and focus groups allow analyzing the confrontation of and between players, the confrontation of images of their own games and the interactions that they establish in the case of collaborative and on-line games.

There is still little empiric research in this direction. Oliver and Pelletier (2006) highlight some research approaches in this regard. But beyond academic study, it is important that the teacher-researcher interested in observing the relationship between children and games ask: what are they doing there? Are they playing? What meaning are they giving to what they are doing? Is it the same meaning that adults give?

With these questions he can begin to look for other points of view for the responses and listening to children can be a good beginning.

4. The methodological questions allow identiication of two other angles looking at the same question, which are those of learning from play and learning through games.

That is, the discourse of learning is nearly always present when one speaks of games for children. Here there may be a break with the rhetoric of the game seen only as play and leisure. In the dimension of leisure, the concern for education/learning is not present and this would result in a criticism that breaks with that which people expect to hear about play and children.

Studies indicate that upon interrogating children about the possible learning resulting from or within the videogame, they irst respond that “they didn’t learn anything.” That is, spontaneously, they are unlikely to say that they play to learn something. Nevertheless, the question is not so simple.

Those who study children know that many times, what they call play is different than what an adult understands as play. Nevertheless, if the game inds space in the life of children as they deine it, how is learning involved in this case? Or that is, how is learning related to the videogame?

For another understanding of the relationship between videogames and learning, one possibility would be to not isolate the game from other activities that allow children to learn. It is evident that there are various activities 53

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that allow learning, and in the case of research with children and videogames, there are various forms of working with this idea. These include, for example, the procedures and methodological strategies used in some research with children (Rivoltella, 2006; Fantin, 2008). One may ask how they play, and in this case, children generally mention if they play alone or with friends (who they may or may not know), if they play off or on-line, etc. The researcher can ask the children what is needed to know to play a certain game? and in this respect they usually mention if they read the instructions or not before playing and about the abilities and or competencies involved in the action of the game, about which they say for example: «paying attention to various things at the same time»; «thinking quickly»; «agility»; «knowing English»; «having a good memory», etc. We can also ask what do you do while you play or during the game? and in this case they usually respond about the actions and the objectives of the game: «try to get to the next phase» or «solve the problems/riddles in each phase of the game», «choose the strategies of action». In the case of games in pairs or collective games, they say «ask a friend to ind out how he does it». Finally, when they are not able to achieve their objectives, they say «try again and or start again when it doesn’t go right».

If we want to explain the possible learning that occurs when children play, we can ask them directly, is it possible to learn something playing this [or a certain] game, and if what? In this case, they usually respond that «it depends on the game», or that it is possible to «learn English», «discover places», «learn history/geography», and other things, depending on the interest of the interlocutor. Given the possibilities, it is important to highlight that in studies with children (as in those with adults), they often respond with what they think the researcher wants to hear, but there are ways to not fall into this trap (Fantin, 2008).

Knowing what children think and say about what they learn or not with videogames leads us to another issue.

5. The common idea is that learning by experience involves the relationship between informal learning and formal space. A wide variety of situations in life – everyday experiences, in leisure, encounters, travel — are occasions for learning. In them, there are always or can be experiences that involve the development of certain forms of knowledge and certain abilities and competences in the confrontation of challenges and resolution of problems.

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This idea is not new and is developed in the context of informal learning (Rivoltella, 2005; Brougère & Ulmann, 2009). That is, there are situations that are not or were not created to teach, but that are occasions of fortuitous learning that is not programmed or controlled. If we relect on this, we see that we learn a lot in these situations. For example: learning the mother tongue of a family; learning certain tasks or abilities that occur when we watch others doing them or resolving certain problems (at work or at home); learning music and songs we hear at random in different spaces, places, etc.

Beyond this question of intentionalities, the idea is to place the videogame within this logic and to “deconsecrate” the game. That is, to analyze the rhetoric of the exaltation of the educational dimension of the (video) game to accept the idea that what happens there, happens or can happen in other situations as well.

It is clear that videogames occupy space in the totality of experiences of children that permit learning, but we need to advance in this discussion.

Upon working with this dimension of formal and informal learning, Rivoltella (2005), afirmed that when one seeks a more productive relationship with media and technology, and in this case with videogames, it is necessary to situate the issue of education both in formal contexts, such as schools, as well as informal ones, such as family and peer groups.

6. To do so, perhaps it is necessary to look towards concepts and theories from other ields that can are related to and can be applied to our object, such as, the theoretical dimension of the notion of participation. For Rogoff (2005), to learn is to participate and work with others, we learn through belonging to a group and by doing or not what others do. Thus, if there is a relationship of participating in and learning within the game, we can say that a ludic experience is or can be a learning experience. We know that different (video)games, allow for different types of participation and some become spaces that place great emphasis on participation and can act as participatory devices.

But in these cases, what does participation involve? We can say that it is basically constituted by commitment and involvement, because participating is to commit oneself to other people. In addition, participation always relates to a context: on one hand the person who is committed, and on the other, that which is offered (or suggested) to do. This is the notion of Affordance Theory (Gibson, in Brougère, 2009), which emphasizes perception 55

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not only in terms of the form of objects in spatial relationships but also in terms of possibilities for action that the objects promote, or that is, of the perception that guides an action. Thus, affordance implies the relationship between subject and object, that which is understood and that which understands, and how perception implies an action by that which perceives, in the sense of understanding that which is offered depends on the subject interacting with it.

In the case of videogames, the notion of participation of the interactor becomes more complex and has been studied by various authors (Machado, 2007; Draper, 2009). If we apply this to (video)games, we recognize the importance of commitment to a device that causes children to become involved in the game. In this sense, various activities of the videogame can be understood as a means/context that suggests or offers various actions to undertake and they can be quite diverse. In this case, what the media/ context/videogame offers can be a learning opportunity.

For Brougère (2009), the opportunity to deine learning through play relates to three ideas: a) integrating informal learning; b) knowing that learning varies according to the situation and individuals involved — what the situation or game offers one child is not the same it offers another; c) articulating these ideas with the characteristics of the game, particularly in the relationship between learning and play, which is a secondary activity.

For example: when the child is reading, he is learning, and when the child is playing a role (doctor, ireman, football player) in a game of make believe or simulation (mediated or not by technologies) he is also learning. Is this the same thing? How is it different? Does pretending “to be a doctor, iremen or football player” using real, imaginary or “virtual” symbolic, material accessories develop a speciic type of learning? What kind? Is there a relexive dimension to this learning?

Another characteristic related to learning within the (video)game is the importance of decision making (as we saw above). In a videogame situation children make a great number of decisions as they play, alone or in negotiation with others. But what do these situations of decision making offer so that something can be learned?

These are some questions that still require study and research. That is, we need to better understand the particularities of certain (video)games that involve other activities that are not conducted to “learn.”

The interpretation of the ludic spaces that the videogame assures to the idea of informal learning is complex and contradictory. To think of spaces 56

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that preserve the informal dimensions of learning in educational contexts implies being aware of this learning activity and respecting the informal modalities, because if there is learning in this dimension, it takes places with this objective. Nevertheless, the adults who organize these spaces to mediate relations so that there is learning, also need to deal with the dificult idea that learning can take place without being foreseen, programmed and controlled. In this sense, the adult interventions can be indirect and occur by means of the supply and diversiication of videogames, by the organization of time and space for children to play and discuss the games.

In synthesis, in the formal space of the school, the challenge of conserving the informal scope of the videogame requires recognizing that the activity can involve education without transforming it into “educational activity”. Or that is, the school — which is characterized as a space for formal education — needs to accept spaces of ludic activities offered by videogames with the condition of not transforming the idea of leisure/entertainment. To partially “resolve” this dilemma or tension, we return to the concept of edutainment, because at the same time at which schools need to work with the idea of educational intentionality, they need to accept ludic and cultural practices that do not have this intentionality.

7. This implies another question: the frivolity or the “non-productivity” of the (video)game. How can we accept and consider frivolity in the life of children to the degree to which one wants to “make proitable” or “give potential” to each moment of life? How can it be understood that an activity can be frivolous, non-productive and also beneit children?

For Brougère (1998) the relationship between play and education is paradoxical and ambiguous. It is paradoxical because at the same time in which play appears as a potential space for learning because it allows children to conduct experiments with a certain liberty of action, it is the very frivolity that allows it to be the framework of these experiences. It is also ambiguous because certain types of play are organized as a place of conformism and adaptation to existing culture.

Nothing guarantees that innovation, or opening has an important role in it. Thus, the educator can have values that are not satisied by play. This is the paradox: it cannot be totally conirmed in the game, but it cannot be avoided. (Brougère, 1558, p. 208)

Thus, we are not certain of the inal value of play, but we realize that certain types of essential learning appear to beneit from play. This explains 57

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the diversity of favorable or unfavorable reactions in relation to the use of (video)games in school.

Brougère maintains that upon considering the complexity involved with frivolity and its possible implications in the life of children, the act of research “destroyed” and “educated” the frivolity of (video)games. Moreover, even beyond the realm of research, this is a tension that is not easy to resolve.

In school, the frivolity of the game runs the risk of being transformed into a formal learning situation, given that the school presents itself as the legitimate space for undertaking activities in an organized and systematic form. Thus, it would be dificult to ind space in schools for activities that belong to the sphere of informal education, because this could contradict the objectives of schooling.

Even if we can analyze this concept of the school and of the activities of teaching, in different pedagogic ideas and reforms that strive to overcome this dichotomy, the tension concerning informal learning in school remains: if this learning has space outside of school, is it up to the school to guarantee this space in contrast with formal learnings? Is it possible to have informal learning in a formal space? How can the informal spaces be preserved if the school seeks to formalize them? Moreover: how can informal projects be articulated with formal education without formalizing them?

These questions are not new and various experiences have sought to overcome this vision, seeking to integrate the apparent dichotomies and see them in a new dimension not only in relation to play and work, but by integrating and resignifying aspects of informal life in school learning. The perspective of media-education is one of the possibilities that has guided various proposals to pedagogically articulate the uses and appropriations of the medias that cross the frontiers of the informal and the formal in different spaces, in realms for the education of children, in teacher education, as well as in research (Rivoltella, 2009; Fantin, 2009). Tufte and Christensen (2009) also recognize the alternation between formal classroom learning and informal learning that takes place in leisure time.

Nevertheless, there are still other questions that we need to relect on, because if we do not think clearly, we run the risk of not only making play scholastic but also making education trivial and banal. Thus, if we understand that what is offered depends on the form with which the subject interacts with the media, we see that the space of mediation is essential.

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Frontiers and rhetoric of the videogame in schools

An ecological perspective: Beyond the frontiers and rhetoric of videogames In this complex and interesting landscape that we discussed above, there is still much to study about the integration of the informal learning that videogames offer in formal spaces of education. This implies going beyond frontiers and traveling the various routes of play, of ludic culture and of children’s education in the different social spaces in which the learning undertaken in daily life and the margins of the school universe interact.

In this respect, if we emphasize the possibility for an approximation between classic and traditional games and play with contemporary ones, it is because we perceive that a very healthy encounter takes place in children’s ludic repertoire. There is an encounter of nature with culture, of clay with metal, of wood with plastic, of the manual and the electronic, of the analog and the digital. That is, an encounter of the old with the new, of the old with the current, of the classic and traditional with the modern and contemporary, with all the nuances and tensions that these encounters provoke in the movement of permanence and change existing in children’s play and games.

These encounters lead us to think beyond the sense of convergence, and approach an ecological perspective. This idea of ecology can be understood both from the idea of “noosphere” that Pinto (2009) revives from that of Theillard de Chardin — a type of layer around the earth related to creation, art, the spiritual, knowledge, information and wisdom — and from Gregory Bateson’s notion of ecology of mind, which also works with the concept of environment and “new ecology”. Thus, we can use this notion of the ecology of new technologies and media applied to a communications approach in an analogy with games in the lives of children.

To do so, we use different emphases on play used by various authors, seeking approximations and distancing to understand the speciicity of electronic games. Along this path, we ind situations of frontiers and also rhetoric about play that suggest the tension between the ambiguities and paradoxes of theory about play with the possibilities and integrations that children can construct when playing.

We see that in videogames, children interact with other children mediated by technology and by doing so, construct their media competency. This construction takes place in different spaces and for this reason it is important to situate the question of education in the formal and informal spaces of learn-

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ing, seeking a dialog between the cultural practices that take place in the family, the school and in different spaces of peer groups to build new forms of mediation. In this movement, it is possible to think of the emergence of fertile ground for new analyses that will allow a better understanding of the relationships between games, technology and education and the new forms of learning and communication in culture.

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Brougère, G. (2009). Um olhar epistemológico e cientíico sobre o brincar. Conferência na UFSC, Florianópolis.

Brougère, G., & Ulmann, A.L. (2009). Apprendre de la vie quotidienne. Paris: PUF. Buckingham, D., & Willet, R. (Ed.) (2006). Digital generation. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associated.

Caillois, R. (1990). Os jogos e os homens. Lisboa: Cotovia.

Corsaro, W. (2003). Le culture dei bambini. Bologna: Il Mulino.

Draper, S. (2009). Gibson, affordance. (http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/best/gibson. html).

Fantin, M. (2000). No mundo da brincadeira: jogo, brinquedo e cultura na educação infantil.

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Fantin, M. (2006). As crianças e o repertório lúdico contemporâneo: entre as brincadeiras tradicionais e os jogos eletrônicos. Espaço Pedagógico, 13 (2), pp. 9-24.

Fantin, M. (2008). Das questões teórico-metodológicas às questões éticas na pesquisa com crianças e cinema. Anais da ANPED-SUL, Itajaí.

Fantin, M. (2009). A escola e a cultura digital. Anais do XXXII Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação. Curitiba: INTERCOM. Gee, J.P. (2009). Bons videogames e boas aprendizagens. Florianópolis: NUP. Huizinga, J. (1990). Homo Ludens. São Paulo: Perspectiva.

Jenkins, H. (2006). Fans, blogers and gamers: Exploring participatory culture. New York: New York University Press.

Jenkins, H. (2006). The war between effects and meaning: Rethinking the video game violence debate. In D. Buckingham & R. Willet, Digital Generations. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associated.

Jenkins, H. (2007). Cultura convergente. Milano: Apogeo.

Jonhson, S. (2005). Surpreendente. A televisão e o videogame nos tornam mais inteligentes.

Rio de Janeiro: Campus.

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Kishimoto, T. (1992). O jogo, a criança e a educação. São Paulo: FEUSP. Kishimoto, T. (1993). Jogos tradicionais infantis. Petrópolis: Vozes.

Machado, A. (2007). O sujeito na tela: modos de enunciação no ciberespaço. São Paulo: Paulus.

Mackey, M. (2006). Digital games and de narrative gap. In D. Buckingham & R. Willet (Ed.), Digital generations. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associated.

Murray, J. (2003). Hamlet no Holodeck: o futuro da narrativa no ciberespaço. São Paulo: UNESP. Oliver, M., & Pelletier, C. (2006). Activity theory and learning from digital games: Developing na analytical methodology. In D. Buckingham & R. Willet (Ed.), Digital generations.

London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associated.

Orozco, G. (2006). Aprendiendo com videojuegos. Conferencia no III Congresso Educarede, São Paulo.

Pecchinenda, G. (2010). Videogiochi e cultura della simulazzione. Roma: Laterza.

Pinto, M. (2009). Uma orientação ecológica na abordagem das novas mídias e da comunicação. Entrevista. Perspectiva, 27 (1).

Rivoltella, P.C. (2003). Costruttivismo e pragmatica della comunicazione on line: socialità e diddatica in Internet. Trento: Erickson.

Rivoltella, P.C. (2005). Formar a competência midiática: novas formas de consumo e perspectivas educativas. Comunicacion y Educacion, 25.

Rivoltella, P.C. (2006). Screen generation: gli adolescenti e le prospettive dell’educazione nell’età dei media digitali. Milano: Vita e Pensiero.

Rivoltella, P.C. (2009). «Puoi parlare?» Gli adolescenti al tempo del cellulare. In D. Brancati, A. Ajello & P.C. Rivoltella, Guinzaglio elettronico. Il telefono cellulare tra genitori e igli. Roma: Donzelli.

Rogoff, B. (2005). A natureza cultural do desenvolvimento humano. Porto Alegre: Artmed.

Sutton-Smith, B. (1998). The ambiguity of play. London: Harvard University Press.

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Vygotskij, L.S. (1984). A formação social da mente. São Paulo: Martins Fontes.

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New games, new spaces Giulio Lughi

ABSTRACT

Department of Literary Studies, University of Turin.

E-mail: giulio.lughi@unito.it

The aim of this article is to redeine the relationship between games, teens, education, according to function of the space, more precisely its mediatization, and the relationship between phisic and virtual space.

In this sense the age of new media was beed characterized by a process of re-spatialization. This process was led by the new importance of writing, the fostering of ICT and digital interactivity, the development of mobile communication. The article investigates this scenario in three steps: studies the relationships between media and space; reconceptualizes the relationship between playinh and space, despite the role of videogames; inally, relects on all these issues from the point of view of Media Education.

Keywords: play; videogames; Media Education; media consumption; media and youngsters.

Edizioni Erickson – Trento

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Introduction The aim of this paper is to verify whether the relationships between games, adolescents and education should not, in this particular moment of media evolution, take into account an aspect that is gaining ever more relevance: the space factor and more precisely social space, its accessibility, its becoming media, and the relationship between physical space and virtual space.

The basis of this paper will be, therefore, a partial revision of the traditional interpretation that has insisted on the concept of delocalisation, de-territorialisation, etc. as founding characteristics of media culture (Meyrowitz 1985; Thompson, 1995, pp. 52-58).

Naturally, at the beginning, media culture identiied only “mass media culture”, but in truth the prevailing idea of delocalisation was subsequently extended — as if driven by inertia — also to the “new media culture”: extension that was partially due to the fact that interpretative paradigms have a natural tendency to stick, to cross the boundaries of the historical cultural environment in which they were/are born and conquer neighbouring territories; and partially to the undoubted similarity and afinity that connects the mass media age to the new media one; and inally also due to the particular inluence that the beginning of the new media season had on this theoretical focal point, when most of the debate was centred on the phenomena of high visibility and impact (academic, industrial, emotional, on the media, etc.) such as Virtual Reality and its presumed distance from “real” reality.

As we shall see the new media age has developed more and more towards a redeinition of space, guided partly by the advance of the visual representation over the written word; partly by the consolidation of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and by digital interactivity; and partly by the enormous development of mobile terminals and, therefore, by the creation of a fruition scenario that develops naturally within a spatial environment.

At the same time, the importance of the ludic dimension has emerged more and more in contemporary culture: the ludic dimension has progressively lost its negative connotation, acquiring instead a central position in the socio-cultural dynamics and remodelling the concepts of loisir, free time, consumption (cultural and not).

The ability to see the profound connection between these forces, their importance in the historical-critical interpretation of media and new media 64

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phenomena today, and their educational implications, is fundamental to correctly understand the scope of this paper, which will be divided into three parts dedicated to: – briely outline some crucial points of the relationship between media structures and the conceptualisation of space, to provide a starting point from which to think about new media problems in general and the relative social, cultural and educational implications; – examine some aspects and examples of how the relationship between physical space and ludic activity works in the current new media environment, bypassing the monopolistic role that videogames (especially in their cruder forms) have exercised in this ield, so far; – draw some conclusions on how these relections on space and games can provide a contribution in the media education sector, both in terms of theroretic and strategic scenarios and in terms of operational practices.

Media/spaces In this paper we talk about media in a very broad sense, as structured means of communication that support training, social cohesion, knowledge transfer and culture creation, in various ways. In accordance with our point of view the Classical Age and the Renaissance will be merged with the mass media age, as they do not present substantial differences in their management of the textual space; on the other hand we will separate the new media age into two periods, the static one and the mobile one, because the space variable is deinitely the differentiation element between the two periods.

Ancient history and mass media In ancient history the connection between text and space permanently developed with the birth of hand writing, in the moment when the forms of oral communication, aerial, temporary and evanescent were forced to be ixed into the geometrical dimensions of a physical medium.

The process becomes irreversible and binding with the birth of movable type printing, when stability, regularity and replicability are added to spatiality, a process well outlined by Walter Ong (1982). But if Ong observed phenomena mostly tied to the written text, from our intrinsically multimedial point of view it will be necessary to consider also what Renato Barilli 65

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(2002) outlines — following McLuhan’s anticipations — regarding painting and in particular the relationship between painting and writing, as well as the material and mechanical aspects that bind these two “war machines” of Renaissance and western culture: […] modernity rests on two pillars: Gutenberg’s invention, movable type printing, typography, born in 1450 and the homological correspondence that can be found between this technical procedure and perspective as theorised for the visual arts (painting, sculpture, architecture) by Leon Battista Alberti in his De pictura (1435).1

It is usual to underestimate the importance of machines, and therefore, of technology, in the Renaissance and western evolution of our culture, privileging the mentalist and idealistic dimensions according to which written text would guarantee dominion over time and logic and, therefore, the rational and sequential control of things; whereas painting would cover the associative and intuitive spatial dimension, tied more to emotions and immediate perception.

It is worth stressing the fact that the irst rudimental mechanical, technological and media advances in the cultural production processes — to control textual spatiality — were carried out on both planes: with movable type print on the one hand; and with prospective reproduction devices on the other, which were much more widespread and used than normally thought.

We insist on this connection as it is the core, still rudimental but already operational, of that relationship between text, space and technology that is destined to set the foundations of our culture until the changes wrought by mass media, with the advent of the industrial revolution, and then by new media with the advent of new communication technologies; which is the scope of this paper.

With the advent of industrial mass media we certainly witness a progressive advance of visualisation, mostly due to the development of techniques for print reproduction (and consequent production cost reduction). With photography, industrial print and then with cinema and television the iconic dimension gains positions, sometimes greatly modifying the balance of power which until then was biased towards writing: the new images are the realm of articulated space, of depth, multiple planes, overall vision, 1

http://www2.unibo.it/estetica/files/SOMMARI/2002_26.htm.

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panoramic vision that is overwhelming the linear, sequential, string like and chronologic nature of writing, more and more. The old saying pictura laicorum scriptura, attributed to S. Gregorio Magno and stressing the cultural hierarchy of writing over iconism, is becoming untrue.

However, we shall not dwell on these aspects, since writing and iconism — even though very different — simply exercise control over the visibility of space. The turning point for us takes place at the end of the mass media age, and precisely with the advent of the new media.

Static new media In the last quarter of the Twentieth Century, text — which was only visible until then — became practicable, accessible.

We have already emphasised (Lughi, 2001) the singularity of some editorial phenomena that anticipate that particular process deined as book and screen reconiguration. In the last quarter of the Twentieth Century, in fact, we are witness to the progressive appearance of instruments and objects that have transformed these two great knowledge devices — which acted only through the eye and mind — into knowledge devices that could release their knowledge through the hand, since they could be manipulated, managed and controlled by manual, tactile and physical actions, driven by the constructivist movement that had inluenced many ields of knowledge.

Concerning books, we are referring to “object books” that appear in children publishing in the Eighties (inlatable, loating, with see-through pages, or pierced by small holes and cracks, or with small windows, with movable or musical parts, even commanded by battery operated devices, etc.); and in parallel to game-books, labyrinth adventure stories with multiple choices, that in order to be read (and played) required eraser and pencil and the consultation/illing in of tables, scores, maps, route tracks. Anticipators (and competitors) of adventure hypertext and then of videogames, they represented a turning point as opposed to the traditional fruition of books by simply reading them.

At the same time screens (TV and then computer) were reconigured as well, opening up to the hands on dimension with the remote control on the analogical screen initially, and then mostly with the mouse on the digital screen, paving the way to the interactive multimedia dimension.

This transformation of the textual space from visible space to playable space represents the decisive turning point as opposed to the previous mass 67

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media age; turning point that was mostly achieved through the consolidation of the two now dominant paradigms in cultural text: hypertext and 3D graphics. The irst tied mostly to the world of writing, the second to the visual one, but both destined to low into the ever more convergent interactive multimedia forms.

We are not interested in entering into detail regarding these two paradigms, but it is worth considering briely what Lev Manovich (2000, pp.

112 and 248) observes on 3D graphics relating to the distinction between representation and simulation; Manovich offers an interesting point of view on the relationship between text, space, visibility and practicability while leading us back to the Renaissance seen as the fundamental historical focal point regarding the issues that we are interested in.

According to Manovich, representation separates physical space and visual space, whereas simulation tends to mix them. As an example of representation Manovich cites the picture with the frame, typical visual display of Leon Battista Alberti’s theory where perspective is realised by separating the image from reality; while an example of simulation is the frescoed environment or mosaic, illusory space that inglobes the image but is strictly related to the architectural context. Whereas picture and frame are essentially mobile (taken off the wall they can be placed anywhere) but binds the spectator to immobility, the fresco or mosaic allows the spectator to move because the tight relationship between fresco and architecture creates a continuity between real space and virtual space.

Therefore, in line with our considerations and according to Manovich, 3D graphics — spawned exclusively from the computer and new media culture with their immersion and simulation characteristics — reconirm the pre-Renaissance accessibility of text-spaces, reopening — after three centuries of uninterrupted dominion of representation — a scenario in which the new media text becomes totally accessible.

New media in the mediated space However, Manovich still talks about a user/reader/spectator who is sitting in front of a computer, whereas the irst decade of the Twenty-First Century represents instead the phase of mass diffusion of mobile communication devices (mobile phones, smart phones, portable consoles, media players, e-book players right up to the recent success phenomena of the iPhone and iPad), objects that are in full evolution and that have not yet found the 68

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shape and function stability that are necessary to enact a standardisation of production and consumption and have, therefore, still not reached the level of domestication that is needed to place them in people’s social and cultural horizon.

A profound scenery change has occurred anyhow, which needs to be considered carefully if one does not want to miss an extremely important passage: while in the irst part of the new media diffusion — the static new media one — we have the transformation of text into a practicable and accessible space; in the second phase — the mobile new media one — with a sort of specular trajectory, we witness the transformation of physical space into readable, interpretable text which is somehow also writable.

Maybe it was Walter Benjamin (1982), in his labyrinth work on Passages who “saw” — starting from Baudelaire’s intuition, but in a postmodern key — the metropolitan space as a place where the laneur enacts, with his wanderings, an activity similar to textual reading and writing. Subsequent relections (Codeluppi, 2000) on the Disney parks, on theme parks, on nonplaces, on the big commercial malls, continue an interpretative approach whose most important aspect is turning space into text, making it readable, writable and in the extreme, according to Jeremy Rifkin (2000, pp. 195-205), creating sorts of “cultural fences” which surround us today, and — from a wider perspective — the “space of lows” concept that Manuel Castells (2001) talks about when tracing the history and birth of the net society.

Physical spaces as mediated spaces, already anticipated by science iction in Blade Runner (Scott, 1982).

Spaces created subsequently in the irst decade of our Century on buildings such as the Zero Energy Media Wall, built for the 2008 Peking Olympics, which is covered in panels that are able to absorb solar energy by day and by night become enormous screens from which continuous and very spectacular media transmissions are emitted.

This is a sector which is a cross between city planning, design and media production (Borries, Walz & Böttger 2007) that in its various declinations, and depending on the point of view, is deined as media façade, lighting design, façade engineering. So far we have seen urban spaces as media texts, but we have not yet made the following step, where mobile devices come onto the scene.

It must not be forgotten that mobile devices are objects, with which we can communicate, but they are also objects whose physical position can be 69

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exactly determined. This is true for satellite tracking systems such as GPS (Global Positioning System), but this is true also for all the devices that incorporate cell phones, which allow total traceability in the geographical space and user identiication. The applications of this traceability are manifold and range from promotional uses (e.g. special posters, which incorporate a microprocessor that can contact the mobile phones of passersby and allow them to download the video clips of the songs for free, have been attached to launch a music album) right up to the not so futuristic scenario presented in the ilm Minority Report (Spielberg, 2002), where the main character is recognised by the advertisement posters that automatically present him with personalised commercial offers.

Interactivity, targeted distribution of media contents, traceability of the user in motion: these elements are the basis of those extremely frequent processes, which are becoming even more important from an economic standpoint and force us to see real spaces as texts. Consciously or unconsciously the modern laneur equipped with mobile phone, who moves in the urban space, continuously writes tracks of his passage, which will be read by the tracking and data mining systems, creating the powerful underground structure of data and information that binds producers, consumers, digital media and the urban space into a complex network.

Spaces/games Games come powerfully onto the scene with the advent of new media. In this trajectory games have played and play a decisive role, both in the irst phase and in the second, because of the different facets that this mysterious and central human activity is revealing in numerous, in depth, ever more “serious� and above all multilateral researches (Pecchinenda, 2004; Limone, 2006; Bittanti, 2008; Flanagan, 2009; Comunello & Panarese, 2010). The more in depth the relections on games, the more they reveal connections with the guiding mechanisms of the psychological, social, economic, cultural and learning processes, as well as those linked to amusement and leisure time management.

The connection between space and games is physiologic, in the sense that in motion games and street games, as in many sports, the game allows the player to take control over space and territory, it involves the creation of models and the appropriation of external reality.

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Also in this sense, all classic videogames be they ability, adventure or simulation games starting from Pong, Space Invaders and Super Mario, extending to Myst, Tomb Raider, SimCity, The Sims and Spore represent forms and models of control over space. They are the heirs of role playing games, so they take control of the game space, where the adventure takes place, and of the player space, which starting from the last years of the Twentieth Century is commencing to extend to the net due to MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). In this paper only a few examples will be considered, those with a high technological component that somehow are played within mediated spaces, be they within or without the communication devices.

Relating to consoles, Nintendo Wii must be mentioned. The importance of this console rests in the fact that compared to competitors (Microsoft Xbox and Sony Playstation), that seemed unreachable on the market, it based its success on the introduction of the dimension of space not in the text, but outside it. The Wii, by extending the remote control and mouse potential out of the screen, introduced a homology between text and space that well represents on a symbolic level the topic we are discussing.

In the Wii, in fact, the movements of body, arms and legs are read in the real space and reproduced on the screen, but immediately becoming — in real time — feedback to automatically regulate the actions of the player who acts in the environment. Man has always had feedback from the environment, but here we witness an almost coincidence of text and space, where the process does not mirror but instead constantly and cyclically reads-writes and at such speed as to make the process appear continuous.

In fact, the player who moves in the physical space “writes” precise instructions on the text that controls the workings of the game and this text in turn “writes” or better “projects” onto the screen a visual text that suggests to that particular human device that is the player how s/he must move.

We have already mentioned in other papers (Lughi, 2006) the importance of these accelerations in the cyclicity of media, which are useful to fully understand the operational dynamics of new media. Regarding the Wii, as well as speed, there are also processes of fusion, alternation and interchange between the written text and the visual text that represent a further break from the Gutenberg-Alberti paradigm previously set out.

However, it is time to leave static new media (and in truth the Wii belongs to this category even though it allows physical movement) to observe the world of mobile devices. In this case games were initially individual and 71

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necessarily limited by the limited processing capacity of devices, by the rudimental deinition of the screens and by the lack of connection to the net.

The real evolution came about with the diffusion of mobile devices on the net and, therefore, with the spread of multiplayer environments: here, in fact, the net’s virtual space opens out to the real space of the physical environment; in our adventures the opponent or the ally can be a visual character but it can also be a real person that is within our range or within accessible distance.

This aspect is particularly important with adolescent players, for whom the game experience is integrated with — or has to measure up to the experience of socialising in — virtual/real communities, opening up experimental territories that are extremely interesting because they allow us to examine the relationship between socialisation on the net and in person.

This scenario is characterised by pervasive games, an umbrella term that describes many games (location-based game, location-enabled game, location-aware games, augmented reality games, alternate reality game) that we simply cite here as a vast area where to practice, experiment, conduct empirical investigations and try some deinitions. The central point around which these games are played is locating the player by means of a mobile device and the possibility of connecting to other, equally locatable, physical players: from this point the game may present an indeinite series of variables that may include competition, an urban or sub-urban scenario, individual or team play, with all the allegiances, rivalries, agreements and conlicts that can be generated on a double ield of tensions, the virtual ield and the real one on the ground.

Media/spaces/games/education Summarising all the above by points, we would have: 1. when writing was invented, and then especially in the Renaissance with the advent of print, text and images were both communication instruments that materialized within a deined space, they were well differentiated from one another even though they presented the common characteristic of visibility; 2. in the mass media age, text and images start to mix and reinforce one another; however, their main charateristic for the user is still only that of being visible; 72

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3. at the beginning of the new media age text and images, as well as merging and integrating ever more, become practicable and accessible as well as visible; furthermore they become playable texts/spaces; 4. in the more recent new media phase, with the diffusion of mobile devices, we even witness an inversion so — next to mediatic texts to be seen, accessed, used and played — physical spaces turn into textual entities, becoming communication media and, therefore, knowledge vehicles.

This evolutionary chiasm, which is somewhat disquieting but also fascinating, is the terrain on which mediology and Media Education are called to exercise their most effective instruments, since it undermines the secular diarchy on which the transmission of western culture is based, and that is the opposition/allegiance between writing and painting, between verbal language and iconic language. This is not all: projected as we are into a classical postmodern perspective, the hierarchical relationship between production and consumption, between broadcast media and interpersonal communication is undermined too. Also the teacher/pupil relationship is undermined, because it requires new forms of learning based on dynamic paradigms to be used, where as well as the formal dimension the informal one acquires importance. This informal dimension is less controllable, sometimes “wild”, but is surely introduced into a cultural circulation that exercises great inluence on self learning processes and that presents vast areas of tangentiality and overlap with the fruition of media (mass- and new-).

In this sense, and in view of a profound restructuring of research methodologies in participative media (Monaci & Scifo, 2009), a network platform such as Facebook is becoming even more interesting. What started out as a classic social network, is rapidly evolving towards complex forms of identity creation (in Facebook you are generally yourself, the adoption of an avatar is second choice), creation based on an accurate dosing of text or on elaborating one’s own messages adding quotes taken from other mediatic forms (literary, musical, iconographic, cinematographic).

In Facebook it is very frequent to use Flickr, YouTube or other mediatic repositories as microelement databases with which to create one’s messages; mediatic repositories that are integrating more and more creating a “platform space” in juxtaposition to or overlapping with the “space of lows” identiied

by Manuel Castells as a typical example of informationalism.

Not only: as conirmation of the tight relationship between media, spaces and games, Facebook is starting to host real online game areas that multi73

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ply the kaleidoscopic effect of current life on the net and lead towards an increase in the fusion between classic media and social network. Farmville is an example of this (http://www.facebook.com/FarmVille), an agricultural simulation game like SimCity, visited by eighty million people every week, and whose motto is “connecting the world through games”. Farmville has undoubted educational purposes, since it requires planning, risk assessment, decision making relating to investments of time and resources, willingness to cooperate with the other friends-players, that can be called in to help or that can be helped in an emergency.

But coming off (partially) the net, due consideration must be given also to games such as Power Agent (http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=m3FFMynT8HY), that represent the latest pervasive game tendency.

Power Agent is a pervasive game platform conceived as an instrument to stimulate adolescents to take an active role within the family on energy saving issues. In fact, young people that participate to the game are connected via mobile phone, set a new task every day (always on the energy saving theme) and need to co-ordinate their actions to enact effective strategies within their families and households, gathering data, exchanging it, or integrating it with other participants, convincing their families to adopt alternative practices and behaviours and inally verifying with the other players the effectiveness of the strategies adopted. As an impromptu observation, that conirms, however, how much these forces from “below” inluence the classic mass media broadcast dimension too, at the time of writing (April 2010) Italian televisions are broadcasting an advertisement, by an important northern European car manufacturer, of a low consumption and low environmental impact car, in which a little girl gently reproaches her father for having left the tap running for no reason at all...

It is clear — quite apart from an initial evaluation of the effectiveness of this type of project (Gustafsson, Katzeff & Bang, 2009) — that in this example we ind many of the aspects we have dealt with so far: the domestic space as a play area, but also as a source of knowledge regarding energy issues; the inter-domestic space (neighbourhood, city) as the starting point for developing numerous communication relationships with a common objective; the salvaging of the adult-adolescent relationship with a partial inversion of roles as far as knowledge transfer is concerned; new socialisation on two levels: trans-generational within the family, peer to peer on the

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computer network; development of cooperation; new knowledge organisation skills; problem solving; etc.

In conclusion it is clear that videogames are fast becoming a very rich exploration and research terrain for learning purposes, intensely focused on two deinitions of space: internal space within the videogame, as a good terrain where one can experiment with new interfaces, new textuality, new relationships between the learning processes and the narrative processes; but also external space, outside the videogame, in terms of the relationships that the net and/or mobile devices create in the social spaces (strongly texted, we insist on this aspect), where the relationships between people are organised according to various and differing lines of communication, but where the importance of the ludic dimension in the management of knowledge must be recognised.

What was once called a videogame is fast becoming a general cultural product, that is coming out of the age and genre niche where it had been conined, to take on a central mediation role in the development of social and cultural processes. As Pecchinenda states: […] the videogame can be considered… the fundamental and indispensable instrument by means of which the computer and the information technology culture associated with it has spread and has taken root in contemporary society, from the youngest generations to the more mature ones. (Pecchinenda, 2004, p. VIII)

In a wider perspective Pecchinenda (2004, p. 116) reproposes Weber’s idea of disenchantment as the disappearance of the magical dimension in the industrial age, but sees the videogame, or more generally the technological ludic dimension of the post-industrial age, as the bearer of a re-enchantment that will overcome the modern alienation of the Double to reach a composition/re-composition of identity based on simulation as acceptance of the Ego/Other interface. Going back to Barilli (2002), it is advisable not to be tied to the parameters of the “old” modern universe, devoted to the cult of representation: as if the artist’s duty was still that of “representing” what the outside world has to offer, on a surface. This is a rite of observance deriving from Gutenberg, as McLuhan has well demonstrated to us. It is the concept of representation that contemporaneity tends to erase. It makes no more sense to proceed in dualistic terms, there lies reality, here is a sheet of paper or other surfaces on which to collect the image. Today the artist can move

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among things, take them in, handle them (according to Duchamp’s readymade technique), exactly as electromagnetic energy circulates freely, not contained within physical boundaries.2

Barilli talks about artists, but the argument can be extended to those complex characters that modernity — and then postmodernity — has presented to us with an uncertain statute and borderline collocation: irstly the laneur, but then the surfer, the wreader (writer-reader), the spect-actor (spectator-actor), the prosumer (producer-consumer). And in this sense we can think about that mixed public of all ages, that Steven Spielberg selected with great lucidity, and which found in that “middle Earth” that is Fantasy the ideal space to start mixing imagination, genres and themes. Then solidify this mixture with the global connections offered by the internet, with the convergence culture Jenkins (2006) talks about, and with the production techniques that nowadays involve in an incessant production and consumption cycle (Rieser, & Zapp 2002) cinema, videogames, post-television, territorial socialisation, cultural and general consumption.

In conclusion ludic remediation could be the term that best deines what we have talked about so far, drawing on Bolter’s (1999) fundamental relection on the cyclical aspects of the mediatic and cultural processes, and, in addition, acknowledging the decisive re-appropriation role — with irony, with detachment, by doing remakes — which the videogame and its descendants have performed in recent years by re-organising within both the virtual and the real space those cognitive, social, formative and cultural aspects that characterise the relationship between games, adolescents and education.

References Barilli, R. (2002). Marshall McLuhan e il materialismo storico culturale di fronte all’arte moderna e contemporanea. Studi di estetica, III Serie, XXX (26). (http://www2.unibo.it/ estetica/iles/SOMMARI/2002_26.htm).

Benjamin, W. (1982). Das Passagenwerk. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.

Bittanti, M. (2008). Intermedialità. Videogiochi, cinema, televisione, fumetti. Milano: Unicopli.

Bolter, J.D., & Grusin, R. (1999). Remediation. Understanding new media. Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press.

Castells, M. (2001). Internet galaxy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2

http://www2.unibo.it/estetica/files/SOMMARI/2002_26.htm.

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Codeluppi, V. (2000). Lo spettacolo della merce. Milano: Bompiani.

Comunello, F., & Panarese, P. (Eds.) (2010). Business e gaming. Gioco e social network nella rete d’impresa. Roma: Nuova Cultura.

Dena, C. (2008). Emerging participatory culture practices: Player-created tiers in alternate reality games. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 14, 41-57.

Flanagan, M. (2009). Critical play, radical game design. Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press.

Grange Sergi, T., & Onorati, M.G. (2006). La sida della comunicazione all’educazione.

Milano: FrancoAngeli.

Gustafsson, A., Katzeff, C., & Bang, M. (2009). Evaluation of a pervasive game for domestic energy engagement among teenagers. Computers in Entertainment (CIE), 7 (4).

Hutchison, D. (2007). Video games and the pedagogy of place. The Social Studies, January/ February, 35-40.

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

Limone, P. (2006). Videogiochi e pedagogia. Training level ed applicazioni didattiche. In T. Grange Sergi & M.G. Onorati, La sida della comunicazione all’educazione (pp. 129142). Milano: FrancoAngeli.

Lughi, G. (2001). Parole online. Dall’ipertesto all’editoria multimediale. Milano: Guerini.

Lughi, G. (2006). Cultura dei nuovi media. Milano: Guerini.

Manovich, L., 2000, The Language of new media. Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press.

Meyrowitz, J. (1985). No sense of place. New York: Oxford University Press.

Monaci, S., & Scifo, B. (2009). Sociologia 2.0. Pratiche sociali e metodologie di ricerca sui media partecipativi. Napoli: ScriptaWeb. Montola, M., Stenros, J., & Waern, A. (2009). Pervasive games: Theory and design. Burlington (MA): Morgan Kaufmann.

Ong, W. (1982). Orality and literacy. The technologizing of the word. London-New York: Methuen.

Pecchinenda, G. (2004). Videogiochi e cultura della simulazione. La nascita dell’homo game. Bari-Roma: Laterza.

Reid, J. (2008). Design for coincidence: Incorporating real-world artifacts in location-based games. Proceedings of ACM International Conference on Digital Interactive Media in Entertainment and Arts, Athens.

Rieser, M., & Zapp, A. (Eds) (2002). New screen media. Cinema/Art/Narrative. London: BFI Publishing.

Rifkin, J. (2000). The age of access. London-New York: Penguin Putnam.

Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2004). Rules of play. Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press.

Taylor, T.L. (2009). Play between worlds: Exploring online game culture. Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press.

Thompson, J.B. (1995). The media and modernity. A social theory of the media. London: Polity Press. von Borries, F., Walz, S.P., & Böttger, M. (Eds.) (2007). Space Time Play. Computer games, architecture and urbanism. The next level. Berlin: Birkhäuser.

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The video game Questions, taxonomies, similitudes Massimiliano Andreoletti

ABSTRACT

Faculty of Education, Catholic University of Sacro Cuore, Largo Gemelli, 1 – 20123 Milano.

E-mail: massimiliano.andreoletti@unicatt.it

This article, moving from an overview about the technological development of videogame and its forms of consumption, aims to produce relection on the taxonomies according to which the research intends to classify videogames themselves. The outcome is a wide range of chances: an antropological classiication (according to the researches of Caillois about play and playing), a functional one (based on the attantial functions of the narratological research), other ones based on space and time of videogaming. The comparative analysis of these hypothesis of categorization leads to a proposal made of three metaphores. We could consider a videogame such as a mirror: in this case we think to it like a tool able to produce relection about the real life. Om the other hand, a videogame could work like a bridge: it helps the passage between reality and virtual simulated spaces, facilitating learning experiences. Finally a videogame could be considerer also like a seegarden: that is a space wher we can take care of artiicial life. The inal recommendation is about the educative tasks for each one of these metaphores.

Keywords: videogames; Media Education; media consumption; media and youngsters.

Edizioni Erickson – Trento

REM – vol. 2, no. 1, June 2010 (79-100)

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The presence of videogames in our culture dates back up to ive decades ago, but relection pedagogy started moving its irst steps just recently; furthermore, the importance of the gaming medium within the training agencies has still not reached the dimensions that some of the more recent media have already reached. As a matter of fact, the complexity of the world of video games in continuous expansion toward new platforms, types of interface, genres and users/customers, do not ease the work for those who, in the ield of education, are looking to identify an interpretative line of this media that in Italy occupies a respectable place in a family out of three.

A serious consideration of video games by those areas of educational research is not taking place because of a series of critical points: 1. the prejudice towards a digital medium understood only as an environment of fun;1 2. the mistrust in playful structured material for he wouldn’t stimulate imagination and creativity; 3. the insuficient analysis of the potential of the uses and functions which videogame can express in the educational and training ield; 4. the absence of researchers with high skills in video game education ield; 5. the poor presence of projects that integrate video game in training and educational activities.

In the last years, however, a growing number of young researchers see the world of the video games not only as a possible learning tool, but as an environment for education and training.

Questions It is necessary to create an analysis path of the videogames universe in order to make it understandable to those who have never used them and who — mainly because of general disinformation — tend to associate the 1

«There are many forms of prejudice. Some are obvious and therefore easy to spot but others, the more sneaky ones, appear the most difficult to combat. One of the most frequent is the cultural prejudice on the new instruments of communication. Video games, due perhaps to the lack of knowledge in the traditional training agencies, have been the target of this type of prejudice for long time. Opposed, despised, boycotted, video games according to the common language, seem to be the bigger responsible for the valuables and emotional decadence that for some time has undermined the dreams of young generations». Genovesi, 2008, p. 5.

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nature of the subject only to that of general entertainment. It is also important to show the real scale of the videogames world and its potential uses to the users themselves.

From video game as a technology to (video)game The research of a deinition of video game suffers the same dificulties existing for game in general. Despite the presence of literature on the argument, due to its complexity it is almost impossible to give a deinition of a medium in constant evolution (Mäyrä, 2008, p. 23; Nardone, 2007, p. 26).

Over the years, many researchers who operate in the context of Game studies2 have attempted to deine what videogames are, what is their signiicance and functions with the present society, and ultimately which may be the effects arising from their use, and so on.

In the majority of texts on the topic, technology seems to be the central element around which the existence of videogames develops. In this sense it is understood as a game whose rules are automatically managed by an electronic device that uses a human-machine interface based on the display as an output system. […] It has become a true cultural mass phenomenon, a medium or even a visual art in itself; the video game may live thanks to informatics and electronics (both for the software and for the hardware). (http://it.wikipedia. org/wiki/Videogioco)

The anthropological dimension is not even considered, as if the man had no connection with the existence of the game itself. «The key to be able to express the potential of the video game resides in the technologic matrix, the fruit of the digital handling granted by computer» (Alinovi, 2004, p.

35); «the videogame derives from the mode in which this playful activity is done: before a screen, a monitor a player interacts with the actions within the ictitious world of a video game through the joystick or other tools for a man-machine dialogue» (Nardone, p. 26).

The irst attempt to overrun this technologic “bond” is the case of those authors who see technology as an expression of contemporary culture and see in video game aspects connected with all the different parts of the person.

2

Game studies are substantially multi- and inter-disciplinary field with researchers and academics from many sectors, such as computer science, psychology, sociology, pedagogy, anthropology, arts, literature, communication, etc., the interest of study are the games, their players and their role in society and culture in general.

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The video game has a dual nature: on one side is game, and therefore activities, practice. By the other side is video, referring to a view, to an aesthetics. In meaning of practices, the video game maintains its structural continuity, repeated features, marks attributable to those identiied by Roger Caillois in seminal “Man, play and games”. Vice-versa, on the aesthetic side, the video game appears subjected to repeatedly and often radical transformations which in turn relect the rapid succession of technical improvements.

(Bittanti, 1999, pp. 3-4)

The authors that seek the constituent elements of the video game beyond its technological component, recognize in the playful dimension the fact that, irst of all, the video game is a “game”. The video game is considered the equal of any other material that supports playful activities and is to be seen as «an abstract world where some objectives may be obtained following certain rules and where the subject has a central role in all the stages of the game» (Fernández-Majón, 2009). The playful dimension the video game is characterized by a series of elements — «conlict and challenge; imagination and curiosity; perception of progress; progressive dificulty; feedback» (Fernández-Majón, 2009) — that show how the video game can be the point of contact between the anthropological size and the technological dimension.

Some deinitions are going even further, going to seek within video games exclusively the functional elements, fully neglecting the aspects related to digital technology. For Jesper Juul the videogame is a «system based on rules with a variable and quantiiable results, where to different results are assigned different values, the player exercises effort in order to inluence the outcome, the player feels himself emotionally tied to the result and the activity consequences are negotiable» (Juul, 2006, p. 36). Man takes the central role within the (video)playful activities: «the video game is a system, not an activity, an event or a physical object. However, it is inseparable from the players, which are necessary to commit to artiicial conlict» (Mentola, Stenros, & Waern, 2009, p. 9).

But what are the effects associated with the use of video games? Going beyond the controversy on the presence of violence inside the video games, which should be extended to all the cultural “events” mediated and not of contemporary society, some of the authors identify in the emotional component the keypoint. For Matteo Bittanti «video game is a machine of happiness: is specially developed to meet the player by an 82

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immediate satisfaction. […] Video games produce endorphins and reduce levels of stress, anxiety and irritability» (Bittanti, 2008). Ivan Fulco even states that the video game is a democratic psychomedicine. As if to say: it acts on the nervous system, but only if the subject agrees. To see the evidence is suficient to observe any video gamer, expert or newcomer, faced with a good video game. After a phase of preliminary study, in which the attention of the player is limited, something of revolutionary happens. The player ends up merged with the game. He becomes the same thing of the electronics image. In a precise instant, the video game, virtual sponge, absorbs all the cognitive capacities of the user. Just a moment is needed, and his hands are shaking around the controller, the eyes stick to the screen, the answers to external stimuli attenuate progressively, reaching zero». (Fulco, 2007, p. 57)

From entertainment niche to fun for many To have an idea of the level of penetration of the software and hardware we may refer to the data for the sale provided annually by video game industry. In the last years there has been a constant growth of level of penetration of hardware inside of italian families, despite in 2009 there has been a stop mainly generated by international crisis.3 «Over 10 million families have a console» and compared to 2005, where only the 21,8% of the families «owned a platform game, in 2009, the percentage rises to 42%, equal to 10,332,000 families» (AA.VV., 2010, p. 20). Recently, in addition, the large diffusion of the games via web has enabled the video game to join the daily life of many people in a light, almost impalpable way.

The access to environments of game, in a irst time only to the individual and subsequently in multiplayer cooperative/competitive mode, has made us understand that, what initially was considered as “wasted time”, could take on new meanings, helping the evolution of the activities-pastime on the occasion of learning and socialization. In the last events within the social network, the video game becomes social gaming, understood as «a structured activities, which has contextual rules through which users can engage with another user. The social games must be multiplayer and have one or more of the following characteristics: to be casual game, to be based 3

Although the market remained for the third consecutive year over the EUR 1 billion, the decline of more than 10 percentage points is significant but in line with the European trend. AA.VV., 2010, p. 10.

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on shifts, to be inserted inside of a social platform with users with speciic identity» (O’Neill, 2008). Alongside the usual characteristics of a video game, we need to consider the possibility of getting to know new people and/or maintain contact with those we already know.

From single-platform to cross-platform The history of the video games shows a surprising technological evolution for what concerns the variety of environments and media infected by electronic entertainment. In the 1950s and 60s the video game was accessible only on the main-frame (large computer) present at the university research centers and it was a thing only the programmers could understand, but in the 1970s the video game enters in the halls bar and subsequently in the lounges with the irst generation of television consoles. The onset of the irst portable console in the second half of the 1970s4 made us understand that the tie between technology and a physical location was inished and that the expansion to other systems began. In the following decades video games have “colonized” PCs, via satellite and cable televisions, wireless communication devices, the web.

From contexts defined to space and infinite time With the creation of a portable console «Sunday car trips with Mom and Dad change forever» (Herz, 1997, p. 31). We are no longer linked to a physical location and to a given time, characteristics peculiar of arcade and domestic consoles. The game, also, ills all those “empty times”, becoming a possible activity in all those waiting moments (doctor, airport, train station, bus, metro, etc.), transfers (on public and private means), pauses (coffee break, pre/post studying/work, etc.), of relaxation (on the beach under the umbrella, in the mountains after a walk, etc.), of explication of physiological functions (toilet, pre/post rest/sleep, etc.), etc. The ubiquitous gaming, the possibility of playing everywhere and at any time, if on one hand has extended the meaning of video playing, making it much closer to the size of the game that by its nature is not bound to any rule outside the game itself, on the other hand has exposed people, especially those less able to manage time and spaces of his own life, to the danger of an uncontrolled and continuous use.

4

Mattel’s portable console based on LED was launched on the market in 1976.

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From the conscious video gamer to the unawareness of play In the common image the video gamer is male and with less than 18 years old. The data of video game industry validate this idea, pointing out that in Italy 61% of video gamers are male and «the 96% of the children/ kids between 6 and the 17 years old play5, though with different way and intensity» (AA.VV., 2006, p. 19). This concept, however, is to be reconsidered because, with the advent of devices for mobile communication, the possibility to access to video playing content is extended to many more categories of persons — women, adults and elderly in particular -, that until very recently were never approach for several reasons to electronic entertainment and that the video games’ producers identify as “casual gamer” occasional players. According to the AESVI’s 2006 report the average age of the Italian video gamer is 28 years old, the 41% of them has an age between 18 and the 34 years and the 25% between 35 and 54 years old (AA. VV., 2006, p. 19). However, for many of them the use of the “secondary” functions of their more or less evolved mobile phone does not lead to the awareness of being a video gamer, a beneiciary of an activity of game not inalized, free, decontextualized and mediated through a digital technology. At the explicit request if they consider themselves video gamers, the answers tend to deny their video game activities6 and the knowledge of this medium usually derives by observing children/grandchildren working with consoles and computer. The answers also show that they consider digital playing only closely connected with equipment speciically dedicated to playful activity :the access to “simple” video games within the mobile devices or Internet is not even considered.

From the hardcore player to sporadic player The image of video gamer as a young idler that spends a lot of time in front of a screen for many hours is always present. This consideration has its roots in the 1960s and is strengthened in subsequent decades thanks to the presence on the territory of arcades (full of adolescent boys who passed up to 30 hours a week on a video game spending deal of money). With the 5

6

We must highlight that «the penetration of videogame is superior, but not much, in men’s segments in all sections of age, with the exception of the band 6-10 years where the high share of players invests, of course, both male and female». AA.VV., 2006, p.19.

«Most casual gamers do not identify themselves as gamers. “I’m so ashamed, I just played for four hours, but I can’t stop!”». AA.VV., 2009b, p. 5.

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passing of time, however, the public of the video game medium has enlarged and in recent years has seen the access to its use of a series of types of users that until a few years was not considered able to use video games. In this sense it is possible to identify two main categories of video gamers: – casual gamer (occasional player): he/she is a person who plays games designed with a simple gameplay (as Tetris) and that does not spend much time in playful activity. In recent years there has been a signiicant increase in the number of casual gamer,7 with a prevalence of women,8 pushing the software houses to explore online games with this target;9 – hardcore gamer (obstinate player): he/she is a person who devotes most of his leisure time to video play or to read/inform about video games. He prefer to play in very dificult games, requiring a lot of time (on average more than 20 hours per week) to complete or to manage them on highlevel. The competitive aspect is another distinctive element, because he organizes/participates in tournaments and alliance or wishes to achieve the irst places in ranking of a single title.

According to someone, the distinction between the two categories above does not consist in the time taken to video play, but to become experts (mastering) in the rules and in the use of a well-determined title.

The video gamers’ universe is not exhausted in the two main categories, but it’s possible to identify other four: – newbie (beginner player): he/she is the new video gamer or one inexperienced; – retro gamer (nostalgic player): he/she is a gamer who likes to play with (or collect) historical success video games; – import gamer (xenophilous player): he/she is a gamer who likes to play with (or collect) video games products abroad, with particular reference to Japan; – pro gamer (player pro): he/she is the one who plays for money. The transition from hardcore gamer to pro gamer depends in large part by the fact 7

8

9

According to the Casual Games Association (CGA) «more than 200 million people play each month to casual games online through the Internet. In 2009, the industry of casual games over the web earned $3 billion through mobile phones, iPhone, social networks as Facebook, PC, Mac and the Xbox Live arcade platform». AA.VV., 2010, p. 3.

It is interesting that the 51% of casual gamers is female, that the 62% is over 35 years and that 74% of the people charged for using casual games is female, of which 72% is over 35 years old. AA.VV., 2009b, p. 5; Kafai, 2008, p. XI. An example of video games expressly developed for the woman’s public are those belonging to the fitness game genre on the Nintendo Wii console.

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Characteristics

Casual gamer

Hard-core gamer

Who plays

• all ages • men and women • 100% of the population

• 18-35 years • men • 15% of the population

Where he plays

• home • work • means of transport • place of transit

• home

Why he plays

• fun • relax • escape

• exploration • stimulus • adrenaline rush

What he plays with

• puzzle • itness game • life simulator • logic and memory • quiz

• science-iction • extreme violence • horror • suspense • war

How long he plays (sessions of game)

• from 5 to 10 minutes to complete a level

• from 20 minutes to 2 Hours to complete a level

How long he plays (finishing the game)

• 15 hours to complete a game in single player mode

• from 15 to 40 hours to complete a game in single player mode • from 5 to 40 hours/week to complete a game in multiplayer mode

On which platform he plays

• PC • Mac • economic console

• last generation console • last generation PC

Cost of video game

• free-$20

• $29,99-$59,99

How he chooses a video game

• free demo • sale

• marketing • magazine and webzine • previews/presentations

Table 1

Characteristics of gameplay of casual gamers and hard-core gamers (AA.VV., 2009b, p. 4).

that this is inancially dependent on the revenue derived from the game activities.

From single genre to hybridization between genres When, at the end of 1940s the irst game has been created, the differentiation of titles and contamination between the different genres has represented an evolutionary path similar to that of living species. The fact that a successful title was copied in its constituent elements and its distinctive characteristics 87

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were to be incorporated within other titles10, has accelerated the process of hybridization between genres that in the course of just over 50 years has given rise to a huge number of video games, to the point that has become extremely dificult to indicate which gender a title belongs to. The level of growth of the genera is visible by comparing the number of them in the test of Herz of 1997, in which he talks of only six categories11, with the current number available on Wikipedia12, where where nine categories13 with more than 34 sub-categories are present. The need to expand the market, so that we can satisfy the tastes of a growing number of video gamers, has required the developers and producers of video games to insert in each title different characteristics from different genres in a way to increase the gameplay of a title. On the market a title identiiable with a single genre is synonymous with games of modest dimensions, where activity is very limited and speciic.

From entertainment to structured material for knowledge The natural evolutionary path of video games, not over yet, may be interpreted as a trip that pass through four great periods of video game: – symbolic video games age (from origin to 1984): thinking back to the mythical Pong product in 1972 from Atari we must admit that the strong technological limits of hardware outweighed predominantly the creative capacity of the creators of the games, to the point the player has to do a strong conceptual “leap” to be able to identify in the two rectangles two players and in the square the ball; – classic video games age (from 1984 to 1993): with the development of hardware it was possible to produce video games that combined the potential of the machine with the creative capacity of the video games developers; – romantic video games age (from 1994 to 2006): is a period characterized by conlicting trends market by increase in the technological potential, which leads to the dominance of graphic on narrative aspect, and by a signiicant return to stories of the past, because of the weak presence of new ideas (Bittanti, 2004, pp. 39-40); 10

11

12

13

The only Pac-Man, developed for Namco in 1980 by Toru Iwatani, has 22 sequel (last dated 2005 for Nintendo DS) and an unspecified number of clones. Logiudice & Barton, 2009.

The categories are: action, adventure, beat’em up, puzzle, role play game, simulation, sports, strategy.

Herz, 1997, pp. 34-41.

We have chosen not to list all the categories in detail because they are available lightly within of Wikipedia. http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videogioco.

The categories are: adventure, action, quiz, puzzle, role play game, simulation, sport, strategic, musical.

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– natural video games age (from 2007 to present day): the success of the systems based on “motion-sensing” technologies14 has made you understand how much it is important (how to play) compared to the technological performance of hardware supplied.

The success obtained by Nintendo Wii console (67 million of pieces to 31.12.2009), compared to powerful rivals, Microsoft Xbox 360 (40 million of pieces to 31.03.2010) and Sony PlayStation 3 (31,5 million of pieces to 31.12.2009), highlights how the game methods of promoting use of all the body as a whole are particularly appreciated by a wider public. To prevail is the naturalness of play, understood as a moment of liberation from constraints both in the dimension of the everyday life and at the level of playful interface and as a moment of completion of the human dimension at the mental and body level.

Over the years from the concept of entertainment, understood as an activity that provides a momentary expulsion from reality and allows people to have fun in their free time, we moved to a concept of edutainment, with the motto “education through entertainment”. This mode of understanding the multi-media in general is born in the 1990s of the XX century by need to create educational products, which would have had in fun their point of force, but that in reality they had nothing too playful. In recent years an attempt to overcome the concept of edutainment (by introducing a new model of development of video game products dedicated to training was made). Serious games are born with the intention of “educate, form and inform” and their use is important because «they have a clear and well calibrated educational purpose and are not intended to be played primarily for fun» (Abt, 1987, p. 21). This deinition brings us to the subdivision of video games in two sets: the video games “with” and those “without” an educational goal. The risk of creating two macro groups is to think of video game in general as an activity disconnected from a “serious” playful form, as if it was the subject to determine the amount of seriousness of playful activities. «The concept of the game is hardly translatable in operational 14

The first technological system of motion-sensing was EyeToy and it was developed in 2003 by Sony for PlayStation 2. Subsequently Nintendo has revolutionized the concept of “motion-sensing” with the WiiMote controller for the console Wii. Alongside the solution adopted by Nintendo, the other manufacturers of video game consoles (Microsoft and Sony) are developing projects that in the future end of 2010) will flank hardware already present in many homes. Microsoft’s “Project Natal” for Xbox 360 and Sony’s “PlayStation Move” for PlayStation 3 will extend to a growing number of people the chance to play with a greater degree of involvement and immersion compared to the traditional modes of play.

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terms and doesn’t seem to include the “what” it is, but the “way” they have been; it is more an attitude than a particular type of activity» (Braga, 2005, p. 16). In fact, therefore, it is paradoxical to think that video games cannot seriously exist. It is considered that any activity (video)playful is a free activity, decontextualized, not inalized and produced from the interaction with a well-determined material (structured15 or unstructured), in a setting (organized or not organized), all within a context (formal or informal), with a shared time of game (duration deined a priori or left to individual initiative), following rules (internal to the game, given by the game, and external to the game, linked to a cultural context); however, it is the “frame” with which the actors are faced to determine the “playability” or not of a mediated activity if necessary by an object. It is certainly not this object to determine whether a person is playing or not. From this account it can be said that the entertainment with video game is intended as an industrious and voluntary participation to an activity that allows to momentarily detach ourselves from reality, allows people to have fun in their own free time and must be separated from negative conception that intends video playing as a needless loss of time in which nothing is produced and nothing is learned.

Taxonomies In reviewing the literature on video games, we couldn’t help but notice that the single classiication of games is the taxonomy by genres. Given that the videogame is not comparable with other media, we wish to propose a series of classiications that seeks to adapt perfectly to the peculiarities of video game and, at the same time, allows us to look at it from very different perspectives, thus allowing a 360 degrees view of a medium still unknown to many people.

Anthropological It is very interesting the attempt made by Bruno Fraschini to «use the principles proposed by Roger Caillois to illustrate the multifaceted and stratiied nature of the electronic medium» (Fraschini, 2004, p. 101): 15

For most of the people the “structured material for playful activity” is identified as the object dedicated to the game and is called “toy”.

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1. agon (competition): in video games it «is in the form of electronic challenge; against another human being, against the computer (therefore, indirectly, against the maker of videogame) or against themselves». In the irst case «the game is a (symbolic) place in which compete», where the differences compared to a real clash concern tactics, strategies, modes of play, number of participants and physical consequences of playful performance. In the challenge against the machine «competition may be real but mediated (in the case in which the programmer challengesthe player to compete against software’s artiicial intelligence or to solve a puzzle), against oneself», (in this case, «the player is unable to win, but only resist the longest possible) or illusory (the videogame is programmed to lose)» (Fraschini, 2004, pp. 102-105); 2. alea (fate): «the randomness, the world of video gaming, plays a role very limited but very well-deined». This containment is derived from the role that the player assumes within the games dominated by the principle of alea: «the player doesn’t rely on his own ability, but takes a passive role» and the pleasure of play may come «by waiting for a response that the player can neither inluence nor change». However, by the author, «the small universe contained in a videogame is almost always a perfect meritocracy»: this is only a little commitment to be rewarded. «Lose for a random event is one of the few taboos of video games», as for the video gamer «winning or losing must be a matter of skill, not of luck». For this reason alea is present only in games that require it necessarily, as the puzzle game, where luck is the basis of the mechanics of the game and, as in Tetris, the «sense of the game is not waiting for the right piece […] but achieve success with the one that luck offers» )» (Fraschini, 2004, pp. 105-107); 3. mimicry (simulacrum): «in video game, the user has always to do with the efigy», which in some cases can identify with the player and in other cases may differ substantially. Such identiication is through a simulacrum, that Fraschini denominates digital prostheses: «something that gives human beings the chance to make actions in an illusory world where they are not real. Within the video games it’s possible to identify four different kinds of digital prostheses: – transparent or indeinitely: «it gives the opportunity to interact with the simulated environment but does not confer the user additional feature», for example, during a chess game on the computer the mouse pointer

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replaces only the player’s hand and the user’s personality doesn’t suffer any alteration; – vehicle: also in this case «the control of a digital simulacrum doesn’t involve the alteration of the personality of player». In video games in which the aim is to drive a mean of transport, the assumption is that the player does not identify himself with the digital vehicle, but with the pilot of the vehicle; – mask: in some games «the player is called to take a precise identity», for instance a irst person shooter. In these titles the player is totally identiied with his digital prostheses. «This new identity may be more or less deined but generally remains rather unimportant», and the more the character is characterized, the more the player sees him as another himself and is unable to identify; – character: «when his digital simulacrum is particularly deined, he/she can become a character», so the player «does not perceive it as more of a part of itself, but as an external subject with which introduces a collaboration». However the identiication process takes on an ambivalent meaning: on the one hand, the player tends to identify with the character during the events told by the game, on the other hand, «joins emotionally his adventures, but recognizes himself as “other from”» (Fraschini, 2004, pp. 110-114); 4. ilinx (dizziness): «some games fascinate the player for the dizziness and the sense of bewilderment», which is by mean of a strong stimulation of sensory organs, generally produced by two types of effects: – audio: disorientation caused by sound effects (explosions, shouts, strong noises) or repetitive and rhythm music, which causes a kind of trance; – video: disorientation caused by «images that change form and color in a very rapid and radical way» like in racing games or in video games with subjective visual (Fraschini, 2004, p. 117).

Psychological The model for the classiication of video games, designed at the end of 1990s by Francesco Antinucci, relates the fundamental stages of child mental development hypothesized by Piaget to three macro categories of video games: – sensorimotor stage: in video games where manual skills are required there is «the exercise of sense-motor coordination»; 92

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– preoperational stage: «the ability to imagine and invent» is exercised in adventure video games; – formal operational stage: «the ability to think, to deduct in a logical and coherent way» is present in “strategy video games”.

It is possible to claim, therefore, that video games a certain age range may like, are not so popular among another age range (Antinucci, 1992, pp.

18-26). According to author «this deep correspondence between the mind mechanisms and the games’ ones is also probably responsible for the fact that they are so popular: are not random but activities adapted perfectly to fundamental ways to operate of thought» (Antinucci, 1999, pp. 36-37).

Functional A group of researchers of Toulouse University II – Lara (Laboratoire de Recherche en Audiovisuel) and of Toulouse University III – IRIT (Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse) developed a model of functional classiication of the video games.

Starting from the ideas developed the essays of Alain and Frédéric Le Diberder (1998) and of Natkin Stéphane (2004), and based on the methodology adopted by Propp for the morphological analysis of fairy tales, they have conducted a morphological study (Djaouti et al., 2006) using a tool of analysis and a list of 588 titles, and the result was a «criterion of video games classiication where the “basic elements” of video games (the “game bricks”) were highlighted». The different combinations of these bricks appear to correspond to different objectives and rules of a video game. Over the years the number of bricks has changed. The identiied bricks so far are 10: avoid, manage, random, shoot, create, destroy, match, write, move, select (Djaouti et al., 2008).

The number of possible combinations between the different bricks identiied by the French researchers is rather high and on their analysis they have highlighted that some pairs of bricks, subsequently called “metabricks”, often display inside of a large number of video games. They have realized how these “metabricks” may be the basis of a «possible model for the classiication of video games, since they account of the “tasks to play” inside the video game».

Subsequently the researchers have updated «a classiication based on groups of video games within “families”, having identical combinations of “game bricks”. In turn “families” have been grouped together for the 93

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presence or absence of some pairs of “metabricks”. From the analysis they have identiied 21 large families, bringing together the largest number of video games, and from their study has been the conirmation that the objectives are homogeneous for each of the 21 families (Djaouti et al., 2008).

Phylogenetic In many of the volumes dedicated, taxonomy classiication of video games is based on the division by genre. We have chosen here not to indicate speciically the genres in which video games are subdivided, as the issue has been already discussed in the chapter “Questions”, in the paragraph “From single genre to hybridization between genres”.

Temporal A mode of classiication of video games puts in connection the medium with time, and two dimensions are distinguished.

1. Intra-game time: it is the time dimension connected with the video game, measures the pass of time in the game itself and it is divided in two dimensions: – narration: it is the time the author has deined that the game explains throughout its narrative action and responds to question «how long lasts the video game?»; – scanning: it is the time that the author has deined for the individual sessions of the game and responds to the question «How long does a round last?».

2. Extra-game time: it is the time dimension linked to the video gamer, measures the time spent in playful activity and is divided into two dimensions: – fruition: it is the daily time that the player devoted to gaming and responds to question «how many time I use a videogame on a day?»; – duration: it is the time that the player dedicates overall to a game and responds to question «how long I use a videogame?».

The time quantiication varies greatly according to individual dimensions (Table 2).

The crossed action of the “intra-game time” dimensions deines four categories of videogames: 94

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Narration

Scanning

Fruition

Duration

Very short

< 1-30 minutes

< 1-10 minutes

< 1-5 minutes

< 1 day

Short

30 minutes-3 hours

10-30 minutes

5-30 minutes

1-15 days

Medium

3-10 hours

30-60 minutes

30-60 minutes

15-60 days

Long

10-100 hours

1-2 hours

1-3 hours

2-6 months

Very long

100-300 hours

2-5 hours

3-6 hours

6-12 months

Infinite

> 300 hours

> 5 hours

> 6 hours

> 12 months

Table 2

The time of video game and the video gamer.

– video games with short narration-short scanning: these are video games that allow a playful activity “bite-and-lee”; this mode is typical of the puzzle games, casual game; – video games with short narration-long scanning: these are video games that have strong repetition, a simple and short narration, but which can be repeated in a long time; this mode is typical of sports games, music game, quiz; – video games with long narration-short scanning: these are video games where players need a lot of time to reach the inal objective, but that can be consumed in small sessions of game; this mode is typical of the action games; – video games with long narration-long scanning: these are video games where players need a great amount of time to understand the “story” of the game as a whole and to enter in harmony with the game in each stage; this mode is typical of simulation games, adventures games, role games (Andreoletti, 2008).

Spatial In the spacial type classiication the video game is related to the space and three dimensions are distinguished.

1. Sphere, understood as a place of sharing: it is the way in which the video game is used and it is divided in two sub-dimensions: – personal: the game activity remains a reserved experience, not shareable with other persons; – collective: the game activity becomes a group rite, where every involved person participate with different roles to the achievement of the result.

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2. Environment, understood as a place of use: it is the place where you play and it is divided in two sub-dimensions: – private: it is the space which access is reserved to the individual or a few intimates and in which you can live or share a game experience; – public: it is a space accessible to everyone and in which everyone can participate, if invited, or assist to playful activity.

3. Fruition, understood as place of exercise: it is the ambit in which the video game works and it is divided in two sub-dimensions: – online: the game inds its reason within a network (local or global), which is not a technological level but it can be deined as a set of persons linked to the same environment of game; – ofline: the game is thought to be enjoyed only on your station and and a close relationship between game and player starts.

The spatial dimension varies greatly according to the individual technologies that transmit the game activity (Table 3).

Arcade

Videogame

Computer game

Mobile

Browser game

Sphere

collective

personal collective

personal collective

collective personal

collective personal

Environment

public

private (public)

private

public private

private public

Fruition

offline

online offline

online offline

offline (online)

online

Table 3

The space of video game and video gamer .16

The meanings that some terms are in the single situations vary enormously on basis of the technology and the place where public activity plays. To be in a LAN Party17 (collective sphere, public environment, online fruition) or be committed with FarmVille18 (collective sphere, private environment, 16

17

18

The table was revised and updated by Massimiliano Andreoletti. For the original table see Bittanti, 1999, p. 46.

LAN Party is a collective ritual dedicated to multiplayer video games connected through a LAN. The participants, that in certain cases meet taking their own hardware, measure their own video gaming abilities comparing in a kind of infinite match.

FarmVille is a social game online, accessible via browser and it is available on FaceBook o MSN (Microsoft Network).

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online fruition) is not the same thing: in the irst case it is in the middle to hundreds, if not thousands, of other players/viewers, while in the second case the person is by himself in in the privacy of his own room. In recent times new forms of fruition of video game are visible:19 the use of the console within public spaces (sphere collective, public environment, ofline fruition), where the video gaming activity becomes time for socializing and an opportunity to share our playful performance (Andreoletti, 2008).

Similitudes It is dificult to understand the gaming experience by those who have never had the opportunity to immerse themselves in a video game. It is not easy to transmit with words the complexity of all the elements connected to this experience, as in game action all the dimensions of human beings are involved. The same hardcore gamer often cannot deine, and therefore also communicate to others, which are the elements that distinguish the experience within a video game. It is not enough to constantly interact with this medium to get to a full understanding of the relation with the world of video games; we need an interpretative model to understand dimension hardly representabl. The need for similarities becomes essential; therefore, it allows investigating more deeply this report.

Mirror We could compare video gaming entertainment to a mirror, as the video games transmitting “images of the real” put the people involved in front of the contradictions of the today’s reality, with what happens or that potentially could happen in our lives. It is in front of an “augmented reality” adding elements of interpretation, that, with the right way, we are allowed to reach a greater understanding of the surrounding world.

The medium from recreational becomes instrumental.

At the educational level, the possibility of confrontation with a representation of reality provides the opportunity to work on the responsibilities of each citizen/person, whether in daily micro-conlict situations, both in 19

The use of titles of the Guitar Hero/Rock Band series or Wii Sport Resort is becoming increasingly widespread especially within the reality in which the focus is to increase communication between people.

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respect of a macro trend of world’s dynamics to which we often are passive and anesthetized viewers.

As a relective mirror, video games allow elaborating awareness about who we are; what kind of society is developing and what kind we would aspire to; what the most common fears are; what we are running away from and where we can ind a refuge; which prototype of imaginary enemy is built; who represents the Other our self.

Bridge You can think of the video games as a bridge, allowing us to exceed the threshold of physical/material reality, to simulate possible actions in a reality that doesn’t remove, but adds experiences, possibilities, trials. We can prepare to face a situation in which we want to be, or in which probably we will choose soon to be.

The medium from recreational becomes representative.

At the educational level, the constant transition from “actual” to “virtual” and from “virtual” to “actual”, i.e. the round trip through the “bridge”, allows us to face the virtual with the experiences of the actual and to bring back in the actual relections gained in the virtual. The process is achieved through a path that allows us to identify the positive and negative elements of the two worlds, makes us relect on the modalities of interpretation of the two dimensions of the real, allows us to select the appropriate actions and allows us to enrich the own experiential luggage.

Aquarium The video game can be understood as a domestic aquarium in which we keep plants or aquatic animals alive. We cannot play a game we don’t know, as the game always has a correlation with the real world or with its events. In this sense, the video game can be understood as a very complex aquarium, where the designer/developer has tried to reconstruct a reality visible from behind the screen, a window on a world in which virtual lives the player must give sense to, are represented.

Like in an aquarium, where the reproduced ecosystem doesn’t allow prey and predators to live together and the illusion of watching a portion of ocean make you forget that life under water is quite different, in many video games some conditions are modiied, or even eliminated, to avoid that the player could experience situations that would make excessively 98

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dificult to play (or even lead to a premature end of its gaming experience).

The medium from recreational becomes meta-relexive.

At the educational level, the media educator must help the video gamer not to make absolute the video gaming experience as a tool of interpretation of the complexity of the everyday life. He must facilitate him during the process that leads him to the awareness that the reality represented in a video game is a reconstruction of a world wanted by a team of people (developers), which use their values’ dimension to recreate the simulated world, and that the representation is partial and not faithful to the existent world.

References AA.VV. (2006). Secondo rapporto annuale sullo stato dell’industria videoludica in Italia.

Milano: AESVI. AA.VV. (2009a). Kids/tweens market report – North America. Boston: IDG. AA.VV. (2009b). 2007. Casual games market report. Layton: CGA. AA.VV. (2009c). 2009. PEGI Annual report. Bruxelles: PEGI. AA.VV. (2010). 2009. Casual games market report. Layton: CGA. AA.VV. (2010). Rapporto annuale sullo stato dell’industria videoludica in Italia. Milano: AESVI. Abt, C. (1987). Serious games. Lanham: University Press of America.

Alinovi, F. (2004). Serio videoludere. Spunti per una rilessione sul videogioco. In M. Bittanti (Ed.), Per una cultura dei videogames. Teoria e prassi del videogiocatore. Milano: Unicopli.

Andreoletti, M. (2008). Il tempo e lo spazio del videogioco e del videogiocatore. Milano.

Antinucci, F. (1992). Piaget vive nei video giochi. Psicologia contemporanea, CX (3).

Antinucci, F. (1999). Computer per un iglio. Giocare, apprendere, creare. Roma: Laterza.

Bittanti, M. (1999). L’innovazione tecnoludica. L’era dei videogiochi simbolici (1958-1984).

Milano: Jackson Libri.

Bittanti, M. (Ed.) (1999). Per una cultura dei videogames. Teoria e prassi del videogiocatore.

Milano: Unicopli.

Bittanti, M. (2008). I videogiochi e la loro ilosoia, interview by G. Casagrande. (http:// www.wuz.it/intervista-libro/2224/intervista-matteo-bittanti.html).

Braga, P. (Ed.) (2005). Gioco, cultura e formazione. Temi e problemi di pedagogia dell’infanzia. Azzano San Paolo (Bg): Edizioni Junior.

Caillois, R. (1981). I giochi e gli uomini. La maschera e la vertigine. Milano: Bompiani.

Djaouti, D., et al. (2006). Morphological study of the video games. Tolosa: Paper interno.

Djaouti, D., et al. (2007). Towards a classiication of video games. Tolosa: Paper interno.

Djaouti, D., et al. (2008). A gameplay deinition through videogame classiication. International Journal of Computer Games Technology, Volume 2008.

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Fernández-Manjón, B. (2009). Games as a didactic tools. Integrating educational videogames in the learning low. Paper presented at the Conference Edu-Tech 2009. La tecnologia al servizio dell’educazione. Milano, 23 e 24 settembre.

Fraschini, B. (2204). Videogiochi & New Media. In M. Bittanti (Ed.). Per una cultura dei videogames. Teoria e prassi del videogiocatore. Milano: Edizioni Unicopli.

Fulco, I. (2004). Lo zero ludico. Decostruzione del videogioco e fondamenti della pulsione ludica. In M. Bittanti (Ed.), Per una cultura dei videogames. Teoria e prassi del videogiocatore. Milano: Edizioni Unicopli.

Fulco, I. (Ed.) (2006). Virtual Geographic. Viaggi nei mondi dei videogiochi. Milano: Costa & Nolan.

Genovesi, R. (2008). Il fenomeno dei videogiochi in crescita tra pregiudizi e opportunità, L’Osservatore Romano, 11 novembre.

Herz, J. (2007). Il popolo del joystick. Come i videogiochi hanno mangiato le nostre vite.

Milano: Feltrinelli.

Juul, J. (2006). Half Real. Video games between real rules and ictional worlds. Cambridge (USA): The MIT Press.

Kafai, Y. (Ed.) (2008). Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat. New perspectives on gender and gaming. Cambridge (USA): The MIT Press.

Le Diberder, A., & Le Diberder, F. (1998). L’univers des jeux video. Paris: La Découverte.

Logiudice, B., & Barton, M. (2009). Vintage games, a cura di C. Todeschini & S. Gaburri.

Milano: Edizioni Raganella.

Mäyrä, F. (2008). An introduction to Game Studies. Londra: Sage.

Michael, D., & Chen, S. (2006). Serious games. Games that educate, train, and inform.

Boston (USA): Thomson Course Technology PTR. Montola, M., Sternos, J., & Waern, A. (2009). Pervasive games. Theory and design. Burlington (USA): Morgan Kaufmann.

Nardone, R. (2007). I nuovi scenari educ@tivi del Videogioco. Bergamo: Edizioni Junior.

Natkin, S. (2004). Jeux vidéo et médias du XXIème siècle. Paris: Vuibert.

O’Neill, N. (2008). What exactly are social games? Social Times, Technically social. (http:// www.socialtimes.com/2008/07/social-games).

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Research Studies

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Between scientific knowledge and cultural beliefs The cultural and moral roots of research in children and media Letizia Caronia

ABSTRACT

Department of Pedagogical Sciences, University of Bologna, via Filippo Re, 6 – 40126 Bologna; visiting scholar at Department of Communication, University of Montréal.

E-mail: letizia.caronia@unibo.it

This article aims to relect about the “ideological” characters of the research on Media Education. Doing that, it adopts the approach of Media education itself: that is, according to british cultural studies tradition, to analyse critically media and their messages, de-construct their discourse strategies searching for issues and motivations inspiring their meanings. This critical approach is applied to research itself with the result of demonstrating that Media Education research is not context-free, but depends on points of view, values and discourse dispositions interferring with the research itself giving an orientation to its conclusions. For the researcher this means the challenge of developing a clear responsibility.

Keywords: Media Education; media consumptions; media education research; discourse analysis; media and children.

Edizioni Erickson – Trento

REM – vol. 2, no. 1, June 2010 (103-122)

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Introduction This paper addresses the issue of the inevitable ideological nature of research into children and media. It aims particularly to enlighten the responsibility researchers and practitioners have to operate that “cognitive epoché” that allows us to think about the premises which our considerations are built upon, and to see the frameworks in and through which we think, make research and work in media education (Caronia, 1997; Mortari, 2007).

European research on media and — by consequence — Media Education, has been deeply inspired by the Cultural studies approach. This theoretical framework has provided us with deep insight on the subtle and inevitable relationship between poetics and politics in media discourses and media texts (Buckingham, 2008). We all have been trained to recognize that texts are never neutral since they represent one version of reality, which strictly depends on a point of view often related to power relationships and dominant discourses in society (Foucault, 1980). Media and media contents are never value-free and we need to learn how to uncover the implicit ideologies or world-visions they enact. Media Education has been largely inspired by this critical approach, and part of its mainstream tradition consists in developing strategies to teach children how to de-construct media texts (Rivoltella, 2001).

This paper proposes a mind-experiment (Gedanken-experiment). It consists in applying the cultural approach we use to investigate media discourses, to relect on scientiic discourse on children and media. Using this critical way of relecting on our own scientiic practices sheds light on the inevitable cultural roots, ideological matrix, and value-dependent nature of research on children and media. Like any other scientiic practice, research into children and media is not a context/value-free practice, nor may it be considered as a way to provide us with a true description of one speciic reality out there. Scientiic research does not derive from the perspective the philosophers call the “God’s eye view”. Rather, it strongly depends on collectively shared world views, cultural horizons and ethics. Data and results both relect these horizons and contribute to maintaining the cultural beliefs we live by. This cultural analysis of scientiic research on children and media is not intended to weaken the usefulness or reliability of (scientiic) discourse and data. Rather, I would argue that it is precisely the cultural and even the ideological root of scientiic data that makes them relevant as they 104

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Between scientific knowledge and cultural beliefs

support our collective mission of socializing children to become competent members of the community we hope they will belong to.

Children and media: Ideologies at work It may seem vaguely provocative to raise this issue, and to limit this impression I would like to deine, from the very beginning, what I mean by “ideology”. When I talk about the ideological dimension of research into children and media, I am using the term “ideology” without any negative connotation. For ideology I mean: the cultural beliefs and the group of propositions which shape our understanding of the world. In the speciic case of research into children and media, this encompasses the set of assumptions about things like “childhood”, “gender”, “age” or “healthy development of minors” as well as the “intelligence” that orient our thoughts and practices in research into children and Media Education. These ideologies deine the horizons in which people act, think, and establish behavioural norms that are contingent and historically situated, and yet circulate wrapped in a certain aura of normality or obviousness.

I am using the term ideology as a parasynonym of the typically phenomenological notion of world vision (Bertolini, 1987). Ideologies help us to catalogue the social world, and therefore, to move sensibly in it.

Ideology, then, is not something to ight against, nor must it be critically eliminated, whenever possible, from even our everyday actions and thoughts. On the contrary, we cannot do without it since we cannot act without attributing a meaning to the world we live in (Freeden, 2003, p.

2.). The facts, events and social phenomena do not speak for themselves: it is through our — and hopefully diverse — ideologies that we produce and supply competitive interpretations of what the events and facts might mean. The only way out of an ideology is to enter another one, which means that it is not possible to leave the frameworks we use to understand the events. We can, however, focus on these frameworks so that they lose — at least partially — their unquestioned aura of normality and work less as almost natural premises.

Having explained what I mean by inevitable ideological dimension of discourses and practices related to children and media, I would like to develop this topic from two points of view.

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The irst, perhaps the most immediate, deals with the irreducible gap, even if often it is concealed and hidden, between scientiic knowledge (theories of development, research results, data) and educational decisions. This gap is the space in which choices are made, and where there is choice, there is responsibility (parents’, the community’s, legislators’, self-regulation committees’, the individual teacher’s).

The second point is perhaps less immediate: it deals with the inevitable ideological nature of research itself. Scientiic research in general and research on children and media in particular, is not conducted outside this way of functioning that I have called “ideological”. Scientiic research is a cultural practice, and therefore, a practice which is inevitably ideological.

Doing Media Education: Between scientific knowledge and ethical horizons Research provides data with which to create theories. In general theories and their scientiic explanations are, in fact, evidence based: they are not the fruit of individual speculation, but the outcome of rigorous, intersubjectively validated procedures. Scientiic research also provides results screened by the scientiic community that circulate as the storehouse of knowledge used to make decisions. It is healthy, then, and desirable that educational choices regarding media are based on the empirical knowledge of the factors involved. And it must be recognised that in the last 30 years the adults responsible for the development of children have taken major steps to take the educational governance of the media away from commonsense theories.

In reality, however, apart from very general results, research on the consequences of media consumption on children is far from univocal. It is not at all haphazard that both “mediaphile” and “mediophobic” attitudes can count on “data from scientiic research” to support what is — basically — a profoundly cultural choice, which is supported just as much by scientiic knowledge as ethical stances, educational models, common sense and value horizons shared to differing degrees.

In reality, the inconsistency of the results often depends on the noncomparability of data, which in turn depends on theoretical stances, methodological choices and samples. Joanne Cantor, a veteran of research into children and television and particularly interested in clarifying the possible

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negative effects of television violence on children, and wrote that it is not possible, for obviously ethical reasons, to identify a sampling of children for the administration of massive doses of television violence, and then, 15 years later see who has committed violent acts and if these acts occur more frequently than in the rest of the population (Cantor, 2002). What can be done is to conduct correlational studies on children that have watched a lot of television or a certain type of programme, control every other possible variable, and see if some correlation exists between exposure to television use and certain types of behaviour. Correlation does not mean, however, a cause-effect relationship. A correlation is an index of probability that a certain media behaviour will inluence the development. Alternatively experimental studies on short term effects could be carried out. In these cases, the research situation is completely artiicial; it can however, tell us what the effects of the medium and/or the contents are, at least within the speciic laboratory situation. Essentially, these are the two types of research used in medicine. Thanks to correlational and experimental studies we now know that certain types of cancer are found more frequently in smokers than in non-smokers, all other things being equal (the famous ceteris paribus clause).

The characteristics of correlational and experimental studies set their strengths and their limits at the same time. The crucial issue for wide scale correlational studies is obviously the ceteris paribus clause. When it is a matter of â&#x20AC;&#x153;controlling all the other possible independent variablesâ&#x20AC;? and considering the subjects involved as interchangeable with respect to their assigned group, the choice of which variables need to be controlled statistically is decisive. Inevitably some will be taken into consideration and others not. And when dealing with a phenomenon as complex as the role of the media on development, what is relevant for one individual will not necessarily be so for another. Regarding experimental studies, the critical point is in the signiicance of the data whose so-called internal validity is guaranteed only for the experimental conditions, by deinition atypical and deliberately ictitious. Provided that the experimental conditions make it possible to obtain valid results on short term effects of audiovisual content, such data are valid within the experimental conditions. How can they tell us something relevant about what happens in natural contexts of daily life?

Hypothetically, what happens during an experiment (ex. children assigned to an experimental group imitate what they have just seen on the screen; the

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children in the control group do not) may not be indicative at all of what those children would have done if they had consumed the same content in another context.

The limits of scientiic research must — I believe — be constantly kept in mind, to avoid falling into the (reassuring?) belief that research can simplify the very task of making educational choices.

Research provides data, theories, descriptions and explanations, but the use of some data or results or the reference to some theories and scientiic data to justify educational choices is not, in and of itself, a scientiic procedure. Justifying whether or not a two-year-old should use interactive media based on some scientiic results (which in turn, were chosen from the general panorama) is a procedure which is already situated outside the boundary of scientiic knowledge and is, in fact, informed by another and different frame of reference. Ethical horizons, pedagogic orientations, cultural models of a “ little boy” or a “little girl”, ideas tied to what is or must be speciic for the gender or the age as well as scientiic or folk theories regarding intelligence are all involved in decision-making.

For example, all the research on gender stereotypes in audiovisual aids, on the possible effect of modelling, depends on totally cultural ideas about the appropriateness of that particular character or series of characters in adequately representing something as “gender identity”. Yet even our definitions of “intelligence”, of what is appropriate for a certain age group also enter into play, not only in the choice of this or that type of audiovisual, but also — and more subtly — in the signiicance assigned to this or that “package” of theories or scientiic data.

Between scientiic knowledge and educational action there is an irreducible epistemic gap: this is the space where choices are made and must be accounted for, and where there is choice, there is also responsibility. The beneicial positivistic turn that has characterized educational research in the XXth century risks obscuring the irreducible gap between scientiic knowledge and educational practices: behind every procedure in Media Education there in not only (fortunately) data and scientiic theories. There is also, and perhaps especially, a choice inside the paradigm of data and theories, and this choice inevitably depends on a discursive horizon of an ideological-normative nature (Foucault, 1980). We cannot avoid crossing the ford which separates and distinguishes scientiic knowledge and educational practices, but we can cross it, aware of our actions and with-

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out wrapping our practices in Media Education under the false guise of scientiic neutrality.

This ideologically regulatory discursive horizon not only orients the decision about education, but in reality also feeds scientiic research itself.

So we can now move on to the second point of this relection. I would now like to try and shed light on the nature, here too inevitably ideological, of research itself. Once again I am using the adjective â&#x20AC;&#x153;ideologicalâ&#x20AC;? to connote that kind of knowledge that both orients and is oriented by our culture and our world-vision.

Research into children and media: The cultural and ideological roots of a social practice The way we conceive of research into children and media, but also the way we design research on the role and possible impacts of media on children, shape and are shaped by our culture. In extreme synthesis: while research on media and children produces the cultural framework in which we think or re-think the role of the media on children, it is also inevitably the product.

Some years ago Alberto Munari (1993) recalled the attention of researchers in the human sciences to the inevitable cultural, if not even ideological nature of our scientiic undertakings. When we decide which uncertainties are pertinent to deine a particular phenomenon (for example when we decide what to consider an independent variable as opposed to a possible dependent variable) we do it based on a historically rooted knowledge. We constantly make epistemic decisions about what counts as explanans (statements that explain), and explanandum (statements that need to be explained), and these decisions refer to a background made up of cultural beliefs. These cultural beliefs and discursive formations set the possibilities as well as the constraints of scientiic knowledge (Foucault, 1980). In other words, scientiic research is not proved in a social and cultural vacuum: it pays ample tribute to a particular world vision or more precisely, to a particular ideology.

I believe, in other words, that scientiic research into media and children is deeply embedded in that same fabric of interdiscursivity that, for many years some authors have indicated as the root of our way of thinking about the media and interpreting its contents (Buckingham, 1992; Caronia, 2002; Caronia & Caron, 2008). Regarding this point some years ago, Buckingham noted that: 109

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Talk about television is a vital element of our everyday social lives. The production of meaning from television is thus part of a broader “oral culture” (Fiske, 1987). […] What we think about television and how we use it in our daily lives depend to a great extent on how we talk about it with others and the contexts in which we do so. (Buckingham, 1993, p. 39)

According to Buckingham, the meanings that circulate in daily conversations about television become part of the ways a person reads and interprets television contents. What is produced is an interconnection and a game of reciprocal construction between social readings and individual readings to the point that differentiating between one and the other becomes insigniicant (Buckingham, 1993, p. 39).

Paraphrasing Buckingham’s words and shifting from the world of television-in-daily-life to the world of research-on-media-in-daily-life, we could say that the construction of scientiic knowledge about media viewing is part of a wider oral cultural. What we as researchers think about television, the ways with which and the reason that we do research, and even the very questions and hypotheses of research depend to a large extent on the discourses and the contexts we participate in and contribute to building. This is that particular context phenomenologists call the Life-world: an absolutely cultural fabric that we are deeply immersed in, researchers included. This oral culture, this network of talk does not include, support and feed only the common person. It feeds and guides researcher as well. And it works like a dispositive in Foucault’s meaning: a heterogeneous group of discourses, institutions, regulations, scientiic and moral statements that generates the forms of knowledge, but at the same time is also shaped by it (Foucault, 1994, p. 299).

I would like to discuss this argument by examining closely and critically two issues typical of research into children and media. The irst is of an exclusively methodological nature and deals with one of the most common research practices: content analysis of children’s programmes.

The second issue I would like to consider is, instead, of a substantive nature:. It deals with one of the results established by research on children and television: the so-called desensitization of the viewer in relation to violence as the effect of repeated and systematic exposure to television violence.

Using this meta-analysis I would like to show how the methods of scientiic research (content analysis is a method) and the results (desensitization is a result) are inevitably rooted and dependent upon that universe of knowledge, values and sense of orientation that characterize the ideological framework we use to conceive and carry out research.

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Content analysis Let’s consider the impressive amount of data that comes from research that continues to attentively monitor the contents of television programming for children and popular audiovisual products on the market.

I have the honour and the privilege to be part of a research team whose task is to analyse all the children’s programming broadcast in Canada in the two oficial languages of the confederation.1 The irst phase of this research is a typical content analysis. The researchers have elaborated a grid based on those already in use: this is fundamental if we want to follow with a comparative international analysis. The grid is made up of 85 content categories including those for programme descriptions and character descriptions: it has been tested; the most sophisticated systems of measurement of intersubjective agreement have been applied, and we controlled the hazard effect in determining the intersjubjective agreement.

Technically speaking, it satisies the standards required and all the results are statistically signiicant.

I would like, however to critically relect on the entries, which make up this grid. For obvious reasons of space we will examine just a few of these.

For example in the code book dedicated to the analysis of single episodes we ind: V_23 Appearance of Religious Symbols: 0.

1.

2.

3.

No appearance Appeared in the program (as physically portrayed), specify: __________________________________ Mentioned/spoken of by the characters in the program, specify: _____________________________ 1&2

V_24 Appearance of Visible Minorities and Canadian Aboriginal Peoples: 0. No appearance 1. Visible minorities only 2. Canadian Aboriginal peoples only 3. Both 99. Unable to determine

1

The study “A National Study on Canadian Television Programming for Children” is still in progress . It has been commissioned by the Alliance for Children and Television/Alliance pour l’enfant et la télévision , it is directed by André H. Caron (University of Montréal) and carried out thanks to the support of CYMS/ GRJM (Center for Youth and Media Studies/Groupe de recherche sur les jeunes et les médias ) of the Department of Communication at the University of Montréal. I would like to thank André H. Caron for giving me permission to present and critically reflect on some of the study’s methodological dispositives.

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V_25 Presence of New Information Communication Technology (ICT): Code 0=No or 1=Yes for the following list: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Cellular phone (incl. Blackberry and iPhone) Desktop/laptop computer Mp3 player/multimedia player Game console (portable/non-portable) Netbook GPS Futuristic gadget Other (specify: ________________________)

V_26 Reference to Program Website URL: 0. No reference 1. Reference to Website URL (specify: _______________________) Dominance of Positive Program Effects: 0. Absent 1. Somewhat dominant 2. Very dominant 99. Unable to determine V_29 1. The program demonstrates understanding about the world we live in V_30 2. The program demonstrates understanding about Canada V_31 3. The program promotes religious, cultural, national, racial, occupational, and/or gender diversity V_32 4. The program encourages positive social values V_33 5. The program stimulates reflection and critical thinking, creativity, and/or interactivity with the viewer Reference to Human Social Values: 0. No reference at all 1. Some reference 2. A lot of reference 99. Unable to determine V_34 Open-mindedness toward other cultures V_35 Equal treatment of men and women V_36 Friendship with people from other cultures V_37 Respect for the elderly (senior) V_38 Respect for the environment/nature

Table 1

Some categories for content analysis of Canadian television programming for children (G.R.J.M./C.Y.M.S. Université de Montréal. Tous droits réservés. All rights reserved. Copyright ©2009).

In the code book for the analysis of main, secondary and background characters we ind — among others — the following categories: 112

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V_54 Apparent Weight of Human Character: 1. Thin/skinny 2. Medium weight 3. Heavy/obese 99. UD 999. NA V_55 Apparent Race of Human Character: 10. European white – 11. Middle Eastern white – 12. Black – 13. North American Indian, Native, or Aboriginal – 14. South American Indian, Native, or Aboriginal – 15. Other Aboriginal – 16. Asian – 17. Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander – 18. Hispanic/Latino – 88. Other or Mix (specify) – 99. UD 999. NA V_56 Accent: 10. Standard English – 11. Standard French – 12. Standard other language (specify:) – 13.

English-Canadian accent – 14. US accent 15. British English accent – 16. Other English accent – 17. French-Canadian accent – 18. French accent – 88. Other accent (specify) – 99. UD – 999. NA V_57 Headdress: 10. Hat – 11. Baseball cap – 12. Veil – 13. Helmet – 14. Turban – 15. Wig – 88. Other – 99.

UD V_58 Disability: 0. No 1. Yes (specify) 99. UD V_60 Sex-Role Behaviors of Human or Anthropomorphized Character: 10. Housework – 11. Preparing food – 12. Caring for children – 13. Shopping – 14. Working outside, yard – 15. Working outside home in business – 16. Working/conducting business at home – 88. Other (specify) 99. UD 999. NA V_61 Interracial/Intercultural Interaction between Humans: 1. With people from the same race/culture – 2. With people from (a) different race(s)/ culture(s) – 3. 1 & 2 – 99. UD – 999. NA V_63 Quality of Relationship with Family: 0. Not addressed – 1. Good – 2. Bad – 3. 1 & 2 – 4. Neutral – 99. UD V_64 Ecological Awareness/Concern: Check all that apply! (0, 1) 1. Recycle – 2. Conserve water – 3. Take public transportation/bicycle – 4. Save electricity – 5. Refrain from using plastic bags – 88. Other (specify) – 99. UD V_65 Cultural Production/Creation: Check all that apply! (0, 1) 10. Painting/drawing – 11. Handicraft – 12. Writing – 13. Using the computer/Internet – 14.

Performance (i.e., dancing, singing, acting, playing instrument) – 88. Other (specify) – 99.

UD

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V_66 Cultural Consumption: Check all that apply! (0, 1) 10. Reading – 11. Visiting an exhibition, museum or zoo – 12. Attending a performance – 13. Going to the movies – 14. Watching TV – 15. Using the computer/Internet – 88. Other (specify) – 99. UD V_67 Use of New Information Communication Technology: Check all that apply! (0, 1) 1. Cellular phone – 2. Desktop/laptop – 3. Mp3 player/multimedia player – 4. Game console – 5. Netbook – 6. GPS – 7. Futuristic gadget – 88. Other (specify) – 99. UD For Primary Character(s) Only – Role Traits of Human or Anthropomorphized Character in Social Context/Interaction: V_68 Independence: 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 999. NA V_69 Self-Confidence: 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 999. NA Check all that apply! (0, 1)

Table 2

Some categories for content analysis of the content of Canadian television programming for children: characters (G.R.J.M./C.Y.M.S. Université de Montréal. Tous droits réservés. All rights reserved. Copyright ©2009).

It goes without saying that each category corresponds to an operational deinition that all the coders shared and were trained to apply. As stated before, we gained a satisfactory intercoders agreement on what counts as an occurrence of which category.

Without examining in-depth each of the categories taken into consideration, it is enough to note that this descriptive instrument, just like the other analogous instruments generally used for this type of research, is fundamentally the result of a choice regarding the uncertainties pertinent to deining a phenomenon or — in this case — a media landscape (Munari, 1993).

When doing content analysis we decide what to consider (i.e. the presence of religious symbols, the quality of family relationships, the level of a character’s self-esteem, ecological awareness, correlations between the gender of a character and the narrative programme, the accent used in speech) and what to leave out (i.e. the colour of a character’s shoes, rather than the shape of the clouds!), when we decide to measure the frequency of this or that aspect, we are, in any case, applying to the texts what Schutz 114

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would have called a system of relevance (Schutz, 1970). And this applies even though such categories are the outcome of an intersubjective agreement on the appropriateness of the elements to quantify in television programming for children.

This system of relevance does not describe the content for what it is, but the content as it appears to be, depending upon the point of view embodied in the grid. The statistics that are derived from this, as from any content analysis, are condensed accounts and statements and, as always, every account of “the state of things” depends on some decisions about the relevant and distinctive traits and contains cues. These decisions, in turn, depend on the particular world-vision the construction of the content analysis grid is based on.

Let’s take another example of the intimately and necessarily ideological nature of research in children and media.

In recent years we have seen a new generation of audiovisual products for very early childhood. Confronted by these products for children in the 0-2 age group, research has begun to look into the issue (certainly not new) of learning social skills from watching audiovisuals and their alleged modelling effect.

A recent study has examined, for example, the quantity and quality of social interactions presented in a representative sampling of programmes for very small children (Festermacher, Barr, Linebarger, Pempek, et al., 2009).

The issue of the study is crucial because the marketing of these products emphasizes their educational nature. Often this emphasis underlines the precocious development of social and emotional skills and the very fact that this development could beneit from exposure to representations of positive interaction between little boys or girls and caregivers. The results of content analysis reveal that there is little social interaction among the characters (10% concern interactions between an adult and a child, 25% interactions among children). Moreover, only a small number of these interactions can be classiied as positive or as of good quality (active interaction of the child with the adult, cooperative or parallel play among peers). The study concludes by noting the discrepancy between the “educational” packaging of the product and the content presented.

The question of the quality of children’s audiovisuals is not limited to just the DVD market but obviously involves television programming as well. In many countries even the commercial networks must meet require115

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ments for children’s programmes in terms of quality and quantity. One study conducted in the United States dealt with evaluating the “educational” quality of Educational/Instructional programming for children’s programmes broadcast by television networks (Wilson, Kunkel & Drogos, 2009). The researchers conducted a content analysis of some episodes from the most popular educational series on commercial networks. Using a series of criteria associated with children’s learning from television, the researchers concluded that the contents of most of the so-called “educational” episodes were of very little educational value.

Beyond the unquestionable scientiic thoroughness of these studies, I believe however, it is worthwhile to note the inevitable ideological nature of these as analogue content analyses. The decision about what counts as “good interaction” or “quality content”, the deinition of the very categories for content analysis and the construction of grids, always correspond to criteria of a cultural nature and have intimately to do with value choices and moral horizons. The search for the intercoder agreement when applying the chosen categories is generally considered a guarantee of data reliability and a measure indispensable to limit the subjective bias of individual analysts.

What is reached is an intersubjective agreement regarding: 1. the deinition of categories (i.e. “the visible minorities are the non Caucasian or non white people or characters”, “cooperative interactions should involve various characters in the problem solving”); 2. what counts as an occurrence of that speciic category (i.e. which characters are codiied and why as an occurrence of “visible minority”); 3. a reliable result regarding the fact that 10% of the characters in that audiovisual belong to the category of visible minorities or that the audiovisual is an example characterized by a high rate of “social values” or “cooperative interactions”.

But whether to choose to count the frequency of things like “social values” or “cooperative interactions” or “the presence of visible minorities” depends on a cultural framework that establishes that those content features are relevant. What seems to be an analytic “description” of content (recording what is present or absent) is actually, but also inevitably, an evaluation of the product from an intersubjective point of view (it does not necessarily make it objective or neutral).

The classes of content we use to analyse audiovisual products do not occur in a social and cultural vacuum. On the contrary, they are shaped by 116

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ideas about what counts as a cultural product good enough for children.

More or less shared, and more or less related to collective ethical horizons and cultural models of “little boy”, “little girl”, or “society”, these ideas orient also the scientiic analysis that therefore is not (and probably is not intended to be) neutral.

The intimately and inevitably ideological nature of these studies does not discredit their value at all: on the contrary, it in fact attests to its radically historical-cultural nature. And it is the fact that these studies are historically and culturally situated that makes their results pertinent and signiicant for what we here, today, are constantly called to choose for our children.

The thresholds of tolerance towards contents: Desensitization or cultural evolution?

Up to this point we have analysed the ideological dimension of research, examining a typical methodological aspect. Now I would like to relect on a typically substantive aspect. Let’s consider, then, a classic issue in studies on recurrent exposure to television violence. There exists a wide consensus among scholars of this speciic aspect of media consumption that one of the effects of regular exposure to this type of content is so-called desensitization. Studies, results and opinions of both scholars of psychology and paediatricians concur. The phenomenon of desensitization is deined as the process by which prolonged and repeated exposure to certain stimuli, if all activator circumstances (stimuli) are the same, causes individuals not to react with their original emotional, physiological or pragmatic response.

Another commonly discussed psychological process is desensitization.

Desensitization occurs when an emotional response is repeatedly evoked in situations in which the action tendency that is associated with the emotion proves irrelevant or unnecessary. For example, most people become emotionally aroused when they see a snake slithering toward them. The physiological response they are experiencing is part of what is called the “ight or light” reaction — an innate tendency that prepares an organism to do what it needs to do when it’s threatened. But the individual who spends a good deal of time around harmless, non poisonous snakes, knows there is no need to retreat or attack the animal, and over time, the body “learns” not to experience increased heart rated, blood pressure, or other physiological concomitants of fear at the sight of snakes. In a somewhat analogous fashion, exposure to media violence, particularly that which entails bitter hostilities or the graphic display of injuries, initially induces an intense 117

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emotional reaction in viewers. Over time and with repeated exposure in the context of entertainment and relaxation, however, many viewers exhibit decreasing emotional responses to the depiction of violence and injury.

Studies have documented that desensitization results in reduced arousal and emotional disturbance while witnessing violence. More disturbingly, studies have reported that desensitization leads children to wait longer to call an adult to intervene in a witnessed physical altercation between peers, and results in a reduction in sympathy for the victims of domestic abuse.

(Cantor, 2002, p. 2, italics mine)

This deinition is apparently very technical and describes the process in analogical terms. The analogy involves certain basic emotional responses: typically fear. Caution should be exercised with this analogy, just like all analogies, since it leads us to see one phenomenon in the — at times false — guise of another. An analogy hides more than a few cultural premises: one of these premises is that the source and the target of the analogy have enough common features so that the target can be considered and described in the same way as the source. An analogy is thus a gnoseological approach based on ontological premises. In this case, the concealed cultural premise is that a cultural content like a media text may be considered as one of those stimuli which is able to spark that type of primary reaction which makes us similar to many animals.

Cultural content is not a substance; its impact on the mind is not a question of molecules. And as far as the emotional responses that it arouses or should arouse, we know well that we learn to be afraid, and that what we should be or can be afraid of, as well as the very intensity of our physiological reactions associated with fear, vary historically and culturally, and are regulated by precise social, but not genetic, codes. Indeed, we learn not to be afraid of snakes, just as we learn to not react to manifestations of violence.

Yet words are never neutral. Deining this process in terms of “desensitization” and not, for example, as the result of “cultural change or cultural evolution” is an indicator of the fact that we do not consider it appropriate for our reaction to violence to evolve over time. The fact that certain scenes of violence no longer make us react in the same time, the same ways and with the same intensity as we might have reacted in a sort of mythical state of nature, is something that we hope will not happen, just as we hope that over time we will not lose our fear of snakes. Indeed, the words we use to designate things or processes are not neutral: “desensitization” is not a 118

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process, it is a way of deining a particular process that is inherently a way of conceiving it from a speciic point to view (let us do a little experiment and change topic).

If we can think, for example, of how the media portrays other human behaviours; for example, scenes of intimate human affectivity between people of the same sex, or family scenes in which a single father or mother are happily raising their children. It is reasonable to think that media contents like these no longer make us react as strongly or in the same way as we would have in the Fifties. It is reasonable to imagine that this non-reaction is due to, among other things (and certainly not only) the regularity with which we are exposed to this type of scene or content in media. Why is it, then, that research does not talk about desensitization in these cases? Is this a form of desensitization? Desensitization compared to what? To the behaviour we see, or rather to the cultural deinition of this behaviour as immoral or indecent, atypical or abnormal? If we no longer react to some events, phenomena or processes it is because we no longer consider relevant or pertinent the cultural meaning that they had in the past.

I believe that we all tend to consider this “non reaction” less in terms of “desensitization” and more as the result of a cultural change that has lead us to think differently these human behaviours. We deine them differently; we give them a different meaning. And it is this cultural meaning that we react to in a markedly different way. We have not become insensitive: the framework within which we think about “single parents raising children”, the premises by which we think homosexual intimacy and therefore react to images portraying such human behaviours, have changed.

The difference between the so-called desensitization to representations of violence and the new ways we react to representation of phenomena like the new family, mixed couples, or same sex couples, is not a question of process. The process is the same. The product is the difference. In other words, it is purely an ethical or political issue: we do not want our threshold of tolerance of violence to rise while we would like or want our threshold of tolerance of sexual behaviours or family models to grow. In both cases it is a matter of cultural change: the word desensitization helps us and leads us to think of the irst case as undesirable, as a negative effect of audiovisuals.

I do not believe anyone would dare talk about moral desensitization with respect to media representations of single parent families.

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The biologist’s metaphor of desensitization covers a cultural process with the false guise of physiological neutrality, and therefore, risks hiding a choice which is profoundly ethical and thus cultural.

To sum up, what we researchers see as desensitization, the very result of the studies in this sector, what is given to the public as scientiic knowledge that can contribute to decision making is, in fact, fruit of a particular frame of reference that leads us to reading, interpreting, seeing that phenomenon as desensitization. The frame of reference we use to scientiically think about and investigate the world is not “scientiic”: it is a grid based on cultural premises which include values and ideologies, that hold that the change in the threshold of reactivity to television violence is something analogous to an organism’s development of resistance to an antibiotic: one would hope this would not happen.

Scientific research, ethics or common sense? A few concluding reflections It might seem like revealing the intimately and inevitably ideological root of research into children and the media would discredit its value and even its usefulness.

In reality, it is exactly the opposite. The intimately and inevitably ideological nature of these studies does not discredit its value at all. On the contrary, it attests to it radically historical-cultural nature. The very fact that these studies are historically and culturally situated is what gives their results a pertinent and relevant nature for what today we are constantly called to choose for our children. The historically situated nature of the results of scientiic research, their cultural and inevitably ideological character are exactly what guarantees their relevance for us now: the results of research on desensitization or content analyses use, in fact, cultural categories. The results that seem purely descriptive, in reality act as a profound evaluation. As Wittgenstein stressed, descriptions are not static pictures of a static reality; rather, they are «instruments for particular uses». «Thinking of a description as a word-picture of the facts has something misleading about it»: one tends to think only of such pictures as hang on our walls: which seem simply to portray how a thing looks, what it is like (these pictures are as it were idle) (Wittgenstein, 1953, §291). In other words, «descriptions are

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Between scientific knowledge and cultural beliefs

themselves practices that are used to perform a range of activities» (Potter, 2001, p. 41).

Whether they use words or numbers, scientiic descriptions and analysis of audiovisual content are representations: they imply cultural decisions and delineate markedly cultural horizons. This is precisely what makes research results worthwhile and why they are useful to us. They reach us where we are, in a speciic Life-World that has elaborated speciic ideas or beliefs about what is right and what is wrong and why. “Ideological results” help us, then, to think about how to educate children to become competent members of this speciic community. A speciic community in which, for example, we would like children to learn to take offence and react to certain violent behaviours, but we do not want — in general — them to be offended by or react to a passionate kiss between people of the same sex, as if it were an atypical, abnormal or dangerous element in their context.

Scientiic research into children and media is then an authoritative subject of enunciation that, just like any subject of enunciation, is not historically disembodied. Scientiic research is not necessarily value-oriented (and we hope that it is not, otherwise it would be propaganda) but it is not and cannot be value & context-free.

As researchers into children and media, we must not only do research, but also relect and be attentive to the cultural and ethical frames of reference that constitute the premises our research is based on. I do not believe that we can shirk our task of relecting on these epistemological and ethical aspects, and I do not believe that in this particular period in history we can allow ourselves to cultivate the positivistic illusion that sciences are value-free.

They are not. Being aware of the inherent ethical nature of doing research into children and media means, in my opinion, not making the mistake of treating values as if they were facts. Behind every scientiic statement and even behind the apparently neutral statistical statement, there is a moral position. I believe it is worth maintaining these connections visibility: different visual viewpoints produce different organizations of meaning. Scientiic research, just like educational practices, is always based on a point of view.

However, the choice of viewpoint is not a problem of science. It is what connects scientiic research to the world of beliefs on the one hand, and the world of action on the other. Keeping these connections visible means recolouring, day by day, the borders of the areas in which we must make our decisions. And where there is choice, there is responsibility.

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References Bertolini, P. (1987). L’esistere pedagogico. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.

Buckingham, D. (1993). Children talking television: The making of television literacy. London: The Falmer Press.

Buckinghm, D. (2008). Children and media: A cultural study approach. In K. Drotner & S. Livingstone (Eds.). The international handbook of children, media and culture (pp.

219-236). London: Sage.

Cantor, J. (2002). The psychological effects of media violence on children and adolescents. (http://yourmindonmedia.com/index.php).

Caronia, L. (1997). Costruire la conoscenza. Interazione e interpretazione nella ricerca in campo educativo. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.

Caronia, L. (2002). La socializzazione ai media. Contesti, interazioni e pratiche educative.

Milano: Guerini.

Caronia, L., & Caron, A.H. (2008). Television culture and media socialization across Countries: Theoretical issues and methodological approaches. In K. Drotner & S. Livingstone (Eds.), The international handbook of children, media and culture (pp. 371-390).

London: Sage.

Festermacher, S., Barr, R., Linebarger, D., Pempek, T., et al. (2009). Interactional modeling in infant-directed media. Paper presented at International Communication Association Congress, Chicago.

Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge. Selected interviews and other writings. New York: Pantheon Books.

Foucault, M. (1994). Dits et écrits, Vol. III. Paris: Gallimard.

Freeden, M. (2003). Ideology. New York: Oxford University Press.

Mortari, L. (2007). Cultura della ricerca e pedagogia. Prospettive epistemologiche. Roma: Carocci.

Munari, A. (1993). Il sapere ritrovato. Conoscenza, apprendimento, formazione. Milano: Guerini.

Potter, J. (2001). Wittgenstein and Austin. In M. Wetherell, S. Taylor & S. Yates (Eds.), Discourse theory and practice: A reader (pp. 39-46). London: Sage.

Rivoltella, P.C. (2001). Media Education. Roma: Carocci.

Schutz, A. (1970). Relections on the problem of relevance. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Wilson, B., Kunkel, D., & Drogos, K. (2009). Educationally/Insuficient? An analysis of the availability and educational quality of Children’s E/I Programming. Paper presented at International Communication Association Congress, Chicago.

Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophische Untersuchungen (Philosophical Investigations).

Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

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Newspapers in classrooms: A pedagogical approach Vitor Tomé* and Maria Helena Menezes**

ABSTRACT

* Superior School of Education, Castelo Branco, Portugal. ** Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal.

E-mail: vitor@ese.ipcb.pt; helena.menezes@ese.ipcb.pt

This paper presents the results of the research project “Media Education in Castelo Branco – Portugal (2007-2010)” developed in 24 schools with 50 teachers and more than 600 students. The project focuses on the production of online and printed school newspapers with the help of pedagogical resources which were produced, validated and distributed to the schools by the research team. It also presents an in-service teacher training on Media Education in the Castelo Branco region with 130 teachers from different subject areas and teaching levels.

Keywords: Media Education; newspaper in the class-room; teacher training.

Edizioni Erickson – Trento

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Introduction There have been many media used in schools over the years. Among them we would highlight the newspaper, a medium that has been present in pedagogical activities either as an object of study and source of information or as a means of giving voice to students, teachers and the other members of the educational community.

The school newspaper was one of the irst media produced in schools, though its history is not long. The irst well known users developed their work at the beginning of the 20th century. They were the Polish Janus Korzac, the Belgian Ovide Decroly, the French Paul Robin and the American John Dewey. The father of press in schools was the French Freinet, who was inspired by the theories developed by Comenius and Montessori to structure a pedagogical practice based on the school newspaper and the free text. This was the great novelty of a pedagogy whose object was the organization of a global and coherent project through the printing of school newspapers rather than the idea of having invented that printing. As a matter of fact there are reports of printed sheets or newspapers in schools since the 18th Century in France (Gonnet, 1988).

Freinet’s technique won its irst followers in the countries that were geographically nearby such as Italy, San Marino, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Greece, but also included Cuba, Mexico and all of South America. The dissemination of Freinet’s technique resulted in a combination of pedagogical, psychological and social advantages because of school newspaper production. The pedagogue did not refer to Portugal where, in spite of the dictatorship, Freinet’s approach had an impact in the development of school newspapers.

At least it made an important contribution in that direction. The increase in the number of school newspapers in Portugal in the 20th Century cannot be separated from Freinet’s inluence and the modern school movement (Pinto, 2003), that started in the 1930’s. However, «school journalism loods that orientation, as you can see from the existence of different types of school newspapers» (Pinto, 2003, p. 124).

The creation of Freinet’s movement had another merit. It was the irst time the intervention of United Nations Organization for Education Science and Culture (UNESCO) was sought in order to include the production of school newspapers as a pedagogical project in the curricula, which 124

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was made available to different countries: «It would be advisable that with Unesco’s collaboration these experiences were coordinated, enlarged and then integrated in educational formulae» (Freinet, 1974, p. 68).

From the school newspaper as pedagogical model to Media Education In Portugal, for many years, there have been «hundreds of school newspapers», being the newspaper «the most well known media in schools» (Abrantes, 1992, p. 75). School newspapers are still «the most common experiences of journalistic production in schools» (Pinto, 1991, p. 38) and therefore «the most preferred media in schools» (Tavares, 2000, p. 63).

Also a “National School Newspaper Competition”, promoted by the Público newspaper and the Ministry of Education has existed since 1991.

Every year around 400 competitors participate with printed and online versions. The aim of the competition is to: a) bring together school and contemporary life, with particular emphasis on important issues; b) help youngsters to decode media language; c) develop a critical approach; d) encourage the school population to read newspapers; e) guarantee a more active learning of the Portuguese language. The national curriculum of basic education also points out activities to be developed by each teacher in order to help students to develop Media Education skills. Among these activities there is one that foresees the need to establish a narrow link between school, media and ICT (Ministério da Educação, 2001).

It is certain that today the printed newspaper is decreasing mainly due to the use of new technology. But in the future the school newspaper «will probably have two editions, a printed and a digital one that will not overlap but complement themselves» (Gonçalves, 2007, pp. 117-118). Although printed and online versions have different potential, “the actual importance of printed is still huge being too soon to face a cybernetic derive of the school newspaper” as the schools that have online newspapers are no more than 10 per cent of the total (Gonçalves, 2007, p. 109) which is the case, for example, of France (Breda, 2005).

The school newspaper is a means by which students can be heard from their early years as foreseen in article 13 and 17 of The Children’s Rights Convention which refers to «the right to freedom of speech» that «includes 125

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freedom of searching, receiving and expanding information and ideas», and «the role of media companies» assuring «children’s access to information» (UNICEF, 2004, pp. 10 e 12).

This medium often does not fulil its potential role of assuring these two rights due to the lack of teacher training and also to the lack of student training (Gonçalves, 2007, pp. 117-118). But these are only two of the constraints in the production of school newspapers in Portugal. In total we identiied 10 constraints in relation to which we put forward solutions as shown in Table 1: Constraints

Solutions

Lack of teacher training

To create conditions to train and develop pedagogical resources

Lack of student training

To create conditions to train and develop pedagogical resources

Uncarachteristic journalism

It is important that texts in the school newspaper are similar to a journalistic text

Students’ participation in every step of the process

It is necessary to give more time to teachers and students, and space for the production of the school newspaper

Lack of a deontological code of youth journalism

Development of a deontological code of youth journalism

Imposition of topics for the school newspaper

It is necessary to negotiate with students the topics for the school newspaper

Copyright issues

It is necessary to respect copyright and to find solutions for the use of content in schools

Lack of a database/archive

To create a database/archive

Weak quality of printing and reduced number of copies

Support for school newspapers production must be defined

Restricted expansion

To create a post-paid system to the expenditure of school newspapers

Table 1

Constraints to newspaper production and proposal of solutions.

We think that, to overcome the main constraints it is necessary to create from the beginning conditions so that students and teachers are ready to produce media messages (because that production implies the development of relexive production skills about other media messages). It is therefore urgent to develop Media Education and contribute to its integration in the curricula through the production of school newspapers.

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Nowadays there is no consensus in relation to the deinition of this subject (Tomé, 2008). We think of Media Education as the pedagogical activities which are developed with and about media. Media literacy is the outcome (Buckingham, 2003). Media literacy can be deined as “the ability to access the media, to understand and critically evaluate different aspects of the media and media content and to create communications in a variety of contexts (European Commission, 2009). Media Education has also as objective: to preserve the European audio-visual heritage, to contribute to the training of citizens in the Knowledge Society. As with the networksociety (Meszaros, 2004) it is almost impossible to avoid contact with the media. Media Education must include all the media, «the programmes, ilms, images, texts, sounds and websites that are carried by different forms of communication» (European Commission, 2009).

The visibility of Media Education has been progressive, but the truth is that excluding developed countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the ield has been developed by spontaneous movements and individual researchers that started initiatives often without oficial support.

In spite of being considered fundamental in the development of important skills for citizens in the 21st Century, there is a lack of research in the ield, support from governments and real initiatives in the ield. The research that exists mainly comes from outside schools and often faces a lack of means and weak teacher training in the ield (Carlsson & von Felitzen, 2006).

In Portugal, considering all the literature, there were and are quality initiatives in the ield of Media Education. But the situation is similar to many countries where the ield is not developed enough. As is the case internationally, the initiatives in the ield of Media Education had their origins outside the school (Pinto, 2003). Therefore, we consider important to research (in schools with students and teachers) in the production of media messages because nowadays it is not Media Education that is going towards Education, but Education that is going towards Media Education (Rivoltella, 2007).

Media Education through school newspapers The newspaper can have an important role in schools at three levels: 1) it can be “an object of study” under the process of production and analysis

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of the inal product; 2) it can be “a means to study “ because of the variety of contents related to different subjects (Tavares, 2000, p. 63); 3) it can be produced by students (school newspaper) with pedagogical advantages and the development of essential skills for a media literate citizen.

In Portugal newspapers are used in classrooms as Tavares says: «newspapers are the media preferred by the school. The pedagogical approach of the news appears in the curricula since the irst year» and if for that approach a handbook or a photocopy is enough the author asserts that realia is preferred: «newspaper cuttings are used by teachers since the irst days of schools», which is important either for the analysis of graphical composition or letter recognition (Tavares, 2000, p. 63). Also Freixo (2002), in a study with 1034 students and 164 teachers from the junior and secondary levels in two schools of the Viseu region (Portugal), concludes that newspapers are the most used media in classrooms in several subject areas, mainly in the pedagogical study of journalistic texts.

The Portuguese school organizes itself so that the newspaper may be used in the classroom at different teaching levels. This is important because the newspaper can be «a precious pedagogical, didactic support for several subject areas» (Pinto, 1991, p. 7). It is also justiied by «the easy access, the quality of materials, diversity and link to every day life and the opportunity to write» (Pinto, 1991, p. 7). From the newspaper traditional curricular areas (languages, natural and social sciences, mathematics) can be integrated, as well as skills associated with drawing, questioning, image reading and interpersonal relationships can be developed. The activities that use the newspaper as a resource help to educate for diversity, make students more critical readers and consumers who analyse information and build up their opinions autonomously (Lupéron & Giustina, 2007). The newspaper must be, therefore, related to the national curricula in every country (WAN, n.d.).

The option to develop a school newspaper is also related to six advantages.

1. The production of news for a newspaper helps to develop a critical and relexive attitude towards reality, as well as developing essential skills for the comprehension of media messages written by professional journalists.

2. The participation in the production process helps to develop interpersonal skills and to respect differences as well as collecting and dealing with information, oral, written and graphical expression.

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3. The school newspaper makes the external world and its problems more accessible and contributes in this way to the comprehension and interest of the students.

4. The newspaper is an excellent vehicle so that students may communicate their ideas and, therefore, intervene socially, either in school or in the community.

5. The newspaper may contribute to a greater cohesion in the educational community as it may bring students, teachers, parents and other participants closer.

6. The school newspaper helps to relate academic knowledge from different subjects with reality as it contributes to greater interdisciplinary learning besides increasing discussion around the organization of the newspaper.

The option to develop Media Education activities through school newspapers is justiied as it is an up-to-date means of communication, in spite of it being considered part of the traditional media. The newspaper is a means of communication with identical value of television, cinema, radio, photographs, advertising, magazines, recorded music, computer games and the Internet (Buckingham, 2003).

Although, from an historical perspective, new media could signal the disappearance of traditional media «history proves that after a brief faze of public loosing they tend to stabilize. So the book resisted the appearance of newspapers, radio, television, digital media and even the menace photocopiers» (Gradim, 2000, pp. 178-179).

The fact of living in the “second media age” does not mean that there is a gap between digital media and traditional media because their interrelations are still very important (Holmes, 2005, p. 50). Media convergence, the association of text sound and image (Buckingham, 2003), points to complementarities as referred to by Jenkins (2006): «Consumers are using new media technologies to engage with old media content» (p. 169). The replacement of traditional media (newspapers, magazines, television and radio) by digital media has not occurred. «New media have not replaced older media, any more than broadcasting replaced print in the mid-twentieth century» (Lievrouw & Livingstone, 2006, p. 1). Nowadays traditional media and digital media coexist because «mass media has not been replaced by multimedia and digital media… within the information society, the systems of mass communication and the new digital multimedia environment currently exist side by side» (UAB, 2007, p. 5).

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A Media Education project Nowadays it is necessary to develop Media Education in terms of research, creation of resources, assessment and examples of good practices, teacher and student training in the ield, integration in the curriculum, as well as bringing media professionals and schools closer.

Bearing these propositions in mind, by the end of 2007 a research Project called “Media Education in Castelo Branco Region” started. This project was founded by Fundação Portuguesa para a Ciência e a Tecnologia and the European Social Fund.

It is being developed by a multidisciplinary team from several Portuguese and European Higher Education institutions. The project works with more than 50 teachers and 600 students (aged from 11 to 18) in 24 schools from the Castelo Branco region. In terms of literature it involves two media companies (the biggest regional newspaper and a software company) as well as the biggest association for the regional development and the local Government agency (Mediappro, 2006).

It was intended to overcome the lack of research about young people in schools. The project invested in the production of media messages by young people and looked at ecological forms of media concentrated on school newspapers (printed or on-line). The aim is to produce media messages by young people in order to be published in the school newspapers that are the most present media in Portuguese schools.

The research team used two professional reporters as a means to overcome the lack of those professionals in schools. To overcome the lack of expertise of the teachers a DVD was developed to help with the production of school newspapers (Figure 1).

This DVD was previously validated by experts, teachers and students.

To overcome the dificulties of the production of the online newspaper a platform was developed (Figure 2).

A handbook and an internet site were also developed to help with newspaper production (www.literaciamedia.com) (Figure 3).

During the school year 2008/2009, these resources were made available in schools. The reporters and the researchers supported the activities. By the end of the school year the results were not the ones expected: 1. Schools published more editions with more copies: 23 out of 24 schools published a printed newspaper (15 schools published three editions and the others only two) with one thousand copies per edition.

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Figure 1

DVD Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s produce school newspapers.

Figure 2

Online newspaper production platform.

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Figure 3

Internet site of the Project.

2. Only ive schools published an online newspaper and only two used the online platform. Those who did not publish an online newspaper justiied it because of lack of time, the existence of a school Moodle platform, hardware problems and the existence of a PDF edition of the printed newspaper.

3. The DVD was used by the students of the 12 schools that had a journalism club. In three schools a DVD was used by the students only once or during the irst week of classes (3), being locked away afterwards.

In the other schools it was used only by the teachers (4 schools) or it was not used at all. Teachers who did not use the DVD said they had no time or had no instructions.

4. The DVD was mainly used in the computer room, in the journalism club or in regular classrooms with laptops. It was also used in Portuguese and ICT but mainly in non-disciplinary areas (project, citizenship education and accompanied study).

5. Teachers considered the DVD accessible (E8, E24) and they say that it helped to structure the news (E1, E14), and to produce news according to the different journalistic genres (E9, E 10, E12, E24), besides facilitating contact with newspaper layout (E2). It was also used as a 132

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guide (E11, E17, E19, E20), explained where to search for images with no copyright (E9, E14), followed the concept of hypertext (E12) and it was used to teach the units on journalistic text at secondary school level (E14, E22). «11th Grade students looked up chronicles and wrote some.

I think we gave them wings to do and to publish their work» (teachers from school E14).

6. Teachers did not point out dificulties in the use of the DVD, but referred to obstacles in the implementation of the project. Students copied text from the internet and used them as their own (E4), apart from hardware problems (E5, E8, E14). «The Computer Room was not free in the schedule of the journalism club. The room given to the club had computers that did not work properly. The laptops available had lots of viruses» (teacher from school E8).

7. Only 12 out of 24 teachers admitted that the DVD had a positive impact in the production of the school newspaper, mainly concerning the news structure (E1, E15), the quantity of news and improvement for the next edition (E2, E4, E9), in terms of enthusiasm, discovery and novelty (E12) and the students’ autonomy in the production (E15). It was also important because the newspaper contained more news written by the students (E14, E17, E22, E23). «Before the newspaper only had news written by the teachers. The importance is that it becomes a newspaper written by students and that is what a school newspaper should be. And it had sections on Books, Films, Games, sections the students wrote» (teacher from school E14). In the other schools nothing changed in the production of the school newspaper.

8. The handbook given to schools, printed and in PDF format, was only used by ive teachers but not really explored. In the majority of the cases it was kept out of sight and the pedagogical worksheets relating to the use of the DVD were not used. In the schools where it was used it supported the interaction with the online platform.

9. This school year only 16 out of the 24 teachers coordinating the project in the schools were available to work on the project. Three teachers were assigned to other schools, ive teachers that have stayed in the same school said they were tired, had no support and no time to go on developing the Project.

10. In four schools where the project is going on with the same teachers important improvements were veriied: a) in the E19 school they pro133

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posed to the school board a speciic project on the production of media messages; b) in the E16 school the teacher asked the school board have more hours to develop the project; c) in the E21 school, the teacher is going to work with a class was before in charge of the library; d) in the E2 school the Pedagogical Board approved the creation of a journalism club.

In spite of the dificulties in November 2009 the research team had a meeting with 40 teachers that are working in schools. In the meeting the foreign evaluators were also present. As a result of the meeting a Google group was created to exchange experiences among the teachers (Figure 4).

The discussion group started with 40 people that experienced the greatest dificulty â&#x20AC;&#x201D; lack of training in the ield. The research team provided their training.

Teacher training in Castelo Branco (Portugal) The second European Congress on Media Education concluded that teacher training on Media Education should: a) encourage aesthetic and creative dimensions; b) support teachers with blended learning solutions;

Figure 4

Google discussion group of the project.

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c) encourage models (at local level) sharing responsibilities; d) be developed in formal and informal contexts; e) teachers must be encouraged to enroll in training.

Bearing in mind these recommendations we decided to start with an inservice teacher training.

At the moment, 130 teachers (from several levels of training) are attending the course. These teachers come from several subject areas (maths, history, philosophy, portuguese, foreign languages, special needs education, arts and technology). Five of those teachers also help as librarians.

The number of teachers enrolled exceeded the research team’s expectations. The 40 teachers that attended the meeting in November 2009 motivated their fellow teachers about the importance of Media Education and at the beginning of the course we had more than 190 teachers interested in the training. Unfortunately only 150 could attend the course.

The teachers, divided in six classes, started the training the 16th of January. The end of the course is in July. Each class has 25 training hours.

Twelve hours are in class and 13 online, with the discussion group, chat and mail, as well as the Moodle website created for each class. The training is blended as the literature advises.

Contents are centered in the historical Framework of Media Education in the World and Europe. Afterwards, several strategies of inclusion of Media Education in the curricula are discussed. Among these are the strategies proposed by Unesco, and the ones followed by Australia, the United States of America and Denmark.

After this irst part of theoretical framework the resources are explored (DVD, handbook, websites, tutorials that support critical analyses and relexive production of media messages). Among these resources are those from the Project Look Sharp (USA), Centre de Liaison et de l’Enseignement des Médias d’Information (France), Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM), Carta di Treviso (Italy) and the Project Media Education in Castelo Branco Region (Portugal).

Besides exploring these educational resources, there is the issue of approaching media message production from a technical perspective. Although Media Education can be approached by using paper, pencil and photocopies (Kellner & Share, 2007) it is important that teachers feel comfortable with the technology used to produce and disseminate media messages. That is why Rivoltella thinks it is necessary to develop a digital literacy, a media 135

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literacy that includes access, analyses, evaluation, creation, production and dissemination of media messages through technology (Rivoltella, 2008).

The resources are made available to teachers, who are then brought together to develop Media Education activities in their classes. Besides the organization of activities teachers are asked to characterize the group of students they are working with, deine objectives, describe the process, collect products and authentic documents, take ield notes, assess the process bearing in mind the objectives.

Afterwards a face-to-face session takes place in order to discuss outcomes. Teachers are then invited to develop new activities with the students that are discussed in another face-to-face session. The inal goal is to produce a good practice handbook on Media Education to be made available to all teachers.

Conclusion The development of Media Education activities within the classroom can be done through content production for the school newspaper by students and teachers. For that it is important that pedagogical and technological resources may be produced and validated to be available afterwards in schools.

The development of research projects on Media Education in schools is also very important so that teachers can develop activities with their students.

In order to develop practical activities with students, teachers should have validated resources like the DVD Vamos fazer jornais escolares. They should also beneit from the possibility of producing media, i.e., school newspapers (printed or online). However, validated resources and the possibility of producing school newspapers are not enough.

Final data from the outcomes of the project will only be known in November, 2010. But preliminary data show that 23 out of the 24 schools produced printed school newspapers. However, only ive schools published an online edition and two schools used the platform of the project. Reasons for this were lack of time, the use of Moodle, hardware problems and the pdf version of the printed newspaper.

Schools that used the DVD thought it was acessible, helped to improve the structure of the news, to produce news according to journalistic rules and to facilitate contact with printing.

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Besides the problems, we think the results should improve after the second year of the project, once we have delivered in-service teacher training to more than 100 teachers, which includes training with the tools developed by the project.

We also produced an English version of the DVD because we were asked to do that in international conferences, as teachers wanted to replicate the project abroad.

To develop Media Education activities it is fundamental to pay special attention to processes rather than products, because it is when analyzing processes that students may develop critical skills in the analyses and production of media messages. That is why teacher training is so important in this ield. Evaluating teacher practices is, to us, fundamental to improve those practices and to empower students in their interactions with media.

In the media world we live in the development of these skills is necessary so that individuals may be complete citizens.

Besides the evaluation, it is necessary that research projects may be evaluated by their results. This is a way to replicate good practices using resources produced and validated by those research projects.

References Abrantes, J. (1992). Os Media e a Escola: da imprensa aos audiovisuais no ensino e na formação. Lisboa: Texto Editora.

Breda, I. (2005). 50 Mots-clés pour travailler avec les médias. Orléans-Tours: Scéren-Crdp de l’Académie d’Orléans-Tours.

Buckingham, D. (2003). Media Education: Literacy, learning and contemporary culture.

Cambridge: Polity Press and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Carlsson, U. & von Felitzen, C. (2006). Raising media and internet literacy: Activities, projects and resources. In U. Carlsson & C. von Felitzen (Eds.), In the service of young people? Studies and relections on media in the digital age (pp. 313-433). Göteborg: The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media; Nordicom – Göteborg University.

Commission of the European Communities (2009). Commission recommendation on media literacy in the digital environment for a more competitive audiovisual and content industry and an inclusive knowledge society. (http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/media_literacy/ docs/recom/c_2009_6464_en.pdf).

Freinet, C. (1974). O jornal escolar. Lisboa: Editorial Estampa.

Freixo, M. (2002). A Televisão e a instituição escolar: os efeitos cognitivos das mensagens televisivas e a sua importância na aprendizagem. Lisboa: Instituto Piaget.

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Gonçalves, J. C. (2007). Jornal Escolar: da periferia ao centro do processo educativo. PhD thesis not published, Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal.

Gonnet, J. (1988). Journaux scolaires et lycéens. Paris: Retz.

Gradim, A. (2000). Manual de jornalismo. Covilhã: Universidade da Beira Interior.

Holmes, D. (2005). Communication theory: Media, technology and society. London: Sage.

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

Kellner, D., & Share, J. (2007). Critical media literacy, democracy and the reconstruction of education. In D. Macedo & S.R. Steinberg (Eds.), Media literacy: A reader (pp. 3-23).

New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Lievrouw, L., & Livingstone, S. (2006). Introduction to the updated student edition. In L. Lievrouw & S. Livingstone (Eds.). The handbook of new media — Updated student edition (pp. 1-14). London: Sage.

Lupéron, G., & Giustina, S. (2007). Leer y aprender com periódicos – Libro para educadores. Bahia Blanca (Argentina): Periodismo & Educación.

Mediappro. (2006). A European research project: The appropriation of new media by youth.

Brussels: Mediappro.

Meszaros, P. (2004). The wired family. American Behavioral Scientist, 48 (4), 377-390.

Ministério da Educação. (2001). Currículo Nacional do Ensino Básico – Competências essenciais. Lisboa: Departamento da Educação Básica.

Pinto, M. (1991). A Imprensa na escola: guia do professor. Lisboa: Público, Comunicação Social SA. Pinto, M. (2003). Correntes da educação para os media em Portugal; retrospectiva e horizontes em tempos de mudança. Revista Ibero-americana de Educación, 32, 119-143.

Público (2005). Livro de Estilo. Lisboa: Público – Comunicação Social SA. Rivoltella, P. (2007). Realidad y desafíos de la educación en medios en Italia. Comunicar, 28, 17-24.

Rivoltella, P. (2008). Knowledge, culture and society in the information age. In P.C. Rivoltella (Ed.), Digital literacy – Tools and methodologies for information society (pp. 1-25).

New York: IGI Publishing.

Tavares, C. (2000). Os Media e a Aprendizagem. Lisboa: Universidade Aberta.

Tomé, V. (2008). CD-Rom “Vamos fazer jornais escolares”: um contributo para o desenvolvimento da Educação para os Média em Portugal. PhD Thesis not published, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal.

UNICEF (2004). Convenção dos direitos da criança. (http://www.unicef.pt/docs/pdf_publicacoes/convencao_direitos_crianca2004.pdf).

UAB – Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2007). Final report. In UAB, Current trends and approaches to media literacy in Europe. Barcelona: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. (http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/media_literacy/docs/studies/study.pdf).

WAN – World Association of Newspapers (s.d.). Some frequently asked questions about Newspapers in Education (NIE). (http://www.wan-press.org/nie/faqs.php).

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One-to-one technology: Students leading change Magda Pischetola

ABSTRACT

CREMIT, Catholic University of Sacro Cuore, Largo Gemelli, 1 – 20123 Milano.

E-mail: magda.pischetola@unicatt.it

The implementation of low cost personal digital devices represents one of the main educational trends in recent years, alongside the improvement in wireless connections potential. The media attention surrounding the One Laptop Per Child initiative, and its design of the $100 laptop for the developing world, has popularized the concept of one-to-one technology. The project combines the goal of bridging the digital divide with the educational paradigm of discovery learning. This paper focuses on the meaning of innovation in educational systems and its relationship to the use of one-to-one technology in didactics. The main questions are whether innovation takes hold in the contexts where one-to-one technology was launched, and what are the best conditions to make the use of computers meaningful for the students and the teachers involved. It presents a brief review of two different experiences from OLPC deployments, in Italy and Ethiopia, which are particularly interesting for the accountability of the project in changing the studentteacher relationship. The results call for placing value on the role of active students, and their initiative in innovative uses of technology in education.

Keywords: school innovation; one-to-one technology; One Laptop Per Child; students leadership.

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Introduction The paper is divided into four sections: the importance of school capacity in building a knowledge culture; values and limits of what is known as one-to-one technology; two case studies of the OLPC project; indications of some steps to reform the education systems through the one-to-one technology.

School innovation in the Knowledge Society Because of the increased capabilities of technology, the demands of an international economy, the shift in the stability of jobs over a lifetime, the 21st century environment requires the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to be fully integrated in day-to-day education. As we recognize education as the main factor in granting access to knowledge, it is of increasing importance for school to be able to provide effective cognitive development, including the so-called key «digital skills» (Van Dijk, 2005).

Van Dijk describes them as a succession of three types of skills required to work with digital technology. The most basic are operational skills, the capacities to work with hardware and software. The most popular view is that access to technology is certain when these skills are mastered. However, the research of the latest years has called attention to the importance of a second kind of competence, the information skills required to effectively use the ICT, the ability to search and elaborate information. Finally, Van Dijk distinguishes the strategic skills as «the capacities to use computer and network sources as the means for particular goals and for the general goal of improving one’s position in society» (Van Dijk, 2008). This kind of competence requires both knowledge of computer and network skills.

Therefore, to innovate in schools in the Knowledge Society therefore means considering a broader deinition of “literacy”, which would include the operational understanding of the ICT, the ability to apply critical thinking to information access and elaboration, and the general aptitude of learning how to learn (Papert, 1980). According to the European Commission, the broad meaning of innovation is «the successful production, assimilation and exploitation of novelty in the economic and social spheres» (European Commission, 2003), resulting from technology transfer or the development

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of new business concepts. When applied to any working context, either of an entrepreneurial or of a social one, this deinition implies that the introduction of new technologies and tools is not enough to make a change.

Actions taken as if there was a strong cause-effect relationship between technology and innovation should therefore be avoided, as they risk falling into an approach of technological determinism (Smith & Marx, 1994).

Weak educational performance is generally due to underlying problems with resources, structures and incentives rather than simply a lack of technical capacity. The main resources for innovation, on the other hand, are related to human capital, which can be applied to the use of technologies to make it meaningful for the users. Any technological change is likely to produce some social change, but the consequences of it do not depend on technology in itself. In order to grant production, assimilation and exploitation of the ICT, as recommended from the European Commission, it is of a great importance to invest in practices and competence, and that this is concretely realized in terms of planning, monitoring and evaluation.

One-to-one technology in education One-to-one technologies are essentially portable laptops, notebooks or tablet PCs for teachers and students, to be used both in the classroom and at home.

The One Laptop Per Child project constitutes the irst and the largest attempt in the world to promote school innovation through such devices. A key pedagogical thought behind the design of the project is the constructivist educational thinking, which argues that students can generate knowledge from their experiences (Varisco, 2002). An additional component in the philosophy behind the design is to build a community of ICT educators, who are intended to collaborate to develop innovative teaching curricula.

Concretely the basic concept of the initiative implies that: 1. every child owns a laptop, following the idea of a â&#x20AC;&#x153;digital saturationâ&#x20AC;? of a given local community; 2. the laptop becomes a private and personalized property, as opposed to the usual models where ICT are shared among students; 3. the child is not a passive consumer of knowledge, but an active participant in a learning community.

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According to the OLPC vision, «when children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate»1. The pedagogical stance promoted by the project holds that students should learn by doing, while the teacher would adopt the role of facilitator. OLPC applications are in fact tailored to activity-based projects that a child completes either on their own or in a small group environment. Innovation in learning practices is therefore expected to come from exploring, inventing, expressing and discovering by oneself.

The next paragraph will comment on main indings from two case studies conducted in the school year 2008-2009 in some Italian and Ethiopian primary schools, where the OLPC laptop was implemented. The research question that drives them is whether a one-to-one technology approach can bring about the innovative educational change envisaged by the OLPC initiative, and what are the lessons learned, after the irst impact of the technology on didactics.

OLPC case studies in Italy and Ethiopia The comparative research followed a qualitative methodology, based on three different tools: participant observation in the classrooms, focus groups with children, intensive interviews with teachers and coordinators.

The ieldwork data collection was carried out in the school year 2008-2009 and involved 26 classrooms, 13 for each country.

The initial hypothesis is that the development of skills related to collaboration, creativity, problem solving and digital literacy could result in a change in the learning environment (Figure 1).

One-to-one in Italian classrooms: Children skilled in problem solving The youngest Italian generation has been exposed to a wide range of network communications and technological services. The OLPC laptop is an additional tool, which often do not achieve the usual standards of technology

1

http://laptop.org/en.

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MINI LAPTOP

SKILLS

Motivation to discover new features and contents/ Development of social networks/ Change in teacher-student relationship

Collaboration Creativity Problem solving Digital literacy

Figure 1

Initial hypothesis of the field research.

children are used to. However, the majority of students who participated in the focus groups perceived it as a novelty in school life, appreciated the speciic child-centered design of the laptop, and the responsibility they held towards a computer made for them. The activities they like the most on the laptop are the ones related to the use of image, especially the feature of audiovisual recording.

Seventy percent of the teachers interviewed observed some changes in children’s skills during the year. What is primarily noticed is a general development of autonomy in problem solving, which is also connected to an improvement in logical procedures (Figure 2).

I don’t know 12%

ITC skills 18%

Yes 70%

Logics 12%

Autonomy 39% No 19%

Figure 2

Changes of children’s skills observed by Italian teachers.

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According to the teachers’ opinions, the laptop especially helps improving information retrieval and elaboration, as well as motivation to discover new features and solutions. Working through a discovery process allows students to develop their problem solving skills. Furthermore, the ability to manage a new tool, and the greater self esteem children gained seem to have an effect on the general behavior towards class mates, especially in promoting collaboration.

As one teacher says about her students: From being students they became teachers. They had to give the tool instructions to make it work the way they wanted and, by doing this, they acquired security and self-esteem. They also started to collaborate… they didn’t so much before, because the exercise book was very personal. They were used to protect it from the mates’ look, to avoid cheating. Now there’s a great collaboration. They enter in the mesh network,2 chat, and create groups of friends. The concept of “cheating”, even the word itself, does not exist anymore. Cause they just help each other. I also ask them to consult each other with some of the uses. There’s a child, for example, who’s got better competence and his mates ask him, but I also do sometimes!

(Teacher, third grade)

Moreover, many teachers notice how this change in the collaboration dynamics inside the classroom has a positive impact on social inclusion, both concerning students with cognitive problems and the children of immigrants (who represent 17% of the population in the area where the research was conducted).

I saw the improvement especially of those children who have got some difficulties. For example a little girl who has got cognitive problems, is one of those who work very concentrated on the laptop, and she’s faster than the others. And I think she also learns quicker and better. (Teacher, third grade) I would never have expected two children of my class to do so well in this project. I mean, it’s children who’ve always had the role of “followers”.

Cause it was always someone else who was the leader, who knew better how to communicate, etcetera. But now for example, one of these children is a lightning: he goes everywhere, he knows a lot, and he manages the group! (Teacher, fourth grade) Since the project started I have seen how this machine has been positive for children with problems. If you’re able to motivate them… well, they 2

The XO laptop implements a proposed wireless mesh standard. Because of this, the machine can communicate with the other XO laptops switched on in the same local area.

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become teachers of the other mates! Their self esteem increases, because if they can succeed in this case, they learn… it means they can in general.

(Teacher, fourth grade) In our class there’s a vast mixture of cultures. And I can tell you: this laptop improved the relationships among children. Because it’s children who are… who were… relatively emarginated. On the other hand they are very good with this laptop, so the others now call them and ask for help.

(Teacher, fifth grade)

The evidence is that weaker students are more than willing to comply with prescriptions given by teachers when the laptop is the tool to work with.

Many are (consciously or unconsciously) working to bring about change in their learning results, and they end up also changing their relationship with the others.

One-to-one in ethiopian classrooms: Learning as a social output The assumptions concerning the nature of discovery learning intrinsic to the OLPC design, generated some dificulties in the Ethiopian teachers methodology, as the dominant mode of education places high importance to hierarchy and authority (Everts, Herren & Hollow, 2007). Subsequently, the introduction of the laptop in itself did not change the traditional way of teaching, even though some of the teachers observed (23%) demonstrated more openness towards the new technology and tried a more interactive approach with students. While integrating technology in daily lessons means extra work, extra energy and motivation for teachers, children are by nature more curious and eager to learn.

The study showed the awareness pupils have of the potential uses of the laptop, and their great expertise in the most dificult activities uploaded on it. Self initiative, autonomous discovery and social support among peers enhanced students’ communication and negotiation skills. The shortage of connectivity options to the Internet seems to give more value to the one provided by the laptop, which allows communication by chat and ile sharing. Moreover, as teachers prefer the traditional way of teaching, children do not have other support than the one provided by class mates. They always exchange contents, discover new features of the laptop, share their documents, and learn new procedures through an interactive process. This mechanism enables the peer community to share interests and contents. The enthusiasm for the features of the laptop is evident in the following answers given by children during the focus groups: 145

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I saw this one in tv and I recorded it. I also recorded a video of this person, he’s an actor, and the coach of the Arsenal team. Then… I was watching a movie, I saw a beautiful car and I recorded it… This is my area and I also recorded it from tv. When I’m bored I like to watch things again… that’s why I record. (Boy, third grade) I’ve got two pictures, one is a greeting card because I took a picture of my brother’s birthday. I’ve got another camera, but I prefer taking pictures with the laptop, because then I can edit them. (Girl, fifth grade) I like to take photos of historical things in the museum, so I can keep them. I went to the museum with my family during the school break. (Girl, sixth grade) I have this picture of a player from Manchester United on my laptop.

Every time I open it, I remember him. The same is with Obama. Whenever I open my laptop I have his picture in my journal, and I can remember him.

I really like him. (Boy, sixth grade) I will write something in the writing activity and I will combine it with a picture I took. I use google to know more about people like Mandela and also to know more about languages spoken in the world. And also to know about different historical places that are out of Ethiopia. I can read the history. I use the write activity to write my biography, different cities and their name, these kind of things. (Girl, sixth grade)

Using the applications at their disposal, students at the school took the challenge and made the laptop a resource for their interests. This is the best example of an initiative that could be of a great change, whenever integrated in the teachers’ practices. As one World Bank report concludes, «young people can contribute enormously to their own well-being, and that of the nation, if policymakers recognize young people as decision-making agents who deine their own goals and act on them» (World Bank, 2007). If students are engaged as active participants who can contribute to the improvement of the school agenda, they can make a positive difference and be agents of innovation.

Resources to reform the educational system through one-to-one technology The outcomes designed from the presented studies suggest that the oneto-one technology embodies an ethos, in which leadership acts as a driver for change. As noted above, in both contexts examined children were the more active users of the laptop. Their enthusiasm led to: 146

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1) individual problem solving ability; 2) collaboration to realize meaningful procedures; 3) social support to employ effective search strategies.

From these indings, we see that the traditional hierarchal ways of doing things has to be transformed into a culture of disseminated leadership, which allows teachers to challenge students and to celebrate their role as agents of change. Concretely, it means to ensure that students’ advice and ideas are shared among peers and with teachers, and directly inluence decisions that are made day-to-day in the classroom. The clearest advantages of such an approach is the value given to children’s aptitude towards technology. They are very lexible with the use of new devices and motivated from their own discoveries. Their help can be of an enormous importance for teachers, if they allow children to have the role of leaders.

An innovative strategy of implementing ICT in schools will position technology as an assistant tool for teachers, rather than the other way around, whereby the technology becomes the driver of educational change. The development of a successful framework for school innovation is based on the following three main principles.

1. Focus on the transformation, not the technology.

The issue of concern is not simply a question of technological deployment. The end purpose of innovation is not to provide school with the newest devices appeared in the market, but to ensure that everyone has access to the expanded opportunities of the Knowledge Society. This leads to relections on how technology can meet people’s needs, and be useful for their personal purposes and goals.

2. Encourage and facilitate students’ participation, and involvement in didactics.

To foster children’s participation and involvement, teachers have to recognize their talent in using ICT, and their role in leading change of settings and collaboration dynamics. This idea does not mean, however, that teachers will lose their authority or the main goal of their work.

On the contrary, the deinition of children’s needs can only come from teachers. Information technology can help to meet some of these needs, if it is designed and structured in such a way that it helps answer their questions and solve their problems. Otherwise it can be perceived as a barrier and a source of frustration.

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3. Determining a development process for building and sustaining the knowledge culture at school.

The valorization of the active role of children has been suggested in this article, for this purpose. In the student’s hands, ICT can become a powerful engine of change. Thanks to their creativity, technology can contribute to enhance the educational practices. In the future it will be necessary to identify measures and benchmarks to foster favorable conditions to students’ participation and teachers’ openness towards innovation of didactics.

With regards to all these dimensions, technology also has to be interpreted from the culture it is introduced in. While the actual focus of one-to-one technologies seems to be providing schools with new devices, the priorities of the next programs should be encouraging new educational practices, creating new settings for daily work at school, focusing on digital skills, adapting to the culture they are addressed to.

Conclusion This paper describes the need for a vision where the students have a real impact on daily life in school. In the above discussion, motivation, curiosity, leadership have been emphasized as major issues, concerning innovation. The students inluence extends beyond teaching and learning into issues such as social inclusion, the value of collaboration in a team environment, the ability to share ideas to generate new contents, the teacher-student relationship, the individual understanding of technology for personal needs. The main barrier to the student’s role as active leader is the reinforced idea of hierarchy, which in some cultures is particularly embedded.

Since the subject is innovation, the human factor is at its center. To further expand what we called the disseminated leadership model, students should be able to share their talents and make a positive contribution for other mates and for adults. Future work should be associated with two main integrated directions: further reinement of the framework for different types of situations at different levels; and practical development for speciic cases, in order to build mechanisms that will enhance students’ daily experiences, expectations and achievements.

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References European Commission (2003). Innovation policy: Updating the Unionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach in the context of the Lisbon strategy. (http://goo.gl/Va2x).

Everts, B., Herren, M., & Hollow, D. (2007). Ethiopia implementation report. Addis Abeba: Eduvision.

One Lapopt Per Child project. (http://laptop.org).

Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, computers, and powerful ideas. New York: Basic Books.

Smith, M.R., & Marx, L. (1994). Does technology drive history? The dilemma of technological determinism. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.

Van Dijk, J. (2005). The deepening divide. Inequality in the information society. LondonNew Delhi: Sage Publications.

Van Dijk, J. (2008). The digital divide in Europe. In A. Chadwick & P.N. Howard (Eds.), The handbook of internet politics. London and New York: Routledge.

Varisco, B. (2002). Costruttivismo socio-culturale: genesi ilosoiche, sviluppi psico-pedagogici, applicazioni didattiche. Roma: Carocci.

World Bank (2007), World Development Report.

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F. Pasquali, B. Scifo and N. Vittadini (Eds.)

Crossmedia Cultures Giovani e pratiche di consumo giovanili Milano: Vita e Pensiero, 2010

Presenting Crossmedia Cultures, Fausto Colombo states as follows: «The essays included in the volume are the results of an honest, modest and often exhausting ieldwork. They tail the facts instead of creating them, telling us something extremely useful (although not always exciting) about what people think of, do with and preserve of the digital. In all its objective complexity». These few words can be considered an effective summary of the whole book, which unveils the results of a research based on a sample composed by 108 teen (14-19 y.o.) and young people (19-24 y.o.), studied by OssCom — Research Center on Media and Communication at the Catholic University of Milan — during the period between 2006 and 2008. The research was conducted in the context of three main research projects dedicated to audiovisual consumptions, to mediated communications through mobile phones and instant messaging tools, and to the television which unveils the results of a research consumption (both analogical and digital) tout court. All the research was conducted through a lexible and multi-situated approach, inspired by the internet and mobile communication studies, and was aimed at exploring the interconnections between everyday life (on and ofline) and the lows of communications and interactions.

Focusing on methodology, the research comprehended: forty in-depth interviews, carried out in domestic contexts in order to let the researchers observe the material and socio-cultural aspects of media consumption; three sessions of participating observation in as many places which young people use to

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meet each other and have fun (a gym, a playroom and a penny arcade), in order to examine the consumption behaviours in extra-domestic contexts; a monitoring and a thematic analysis of the online discourses concerning the downloading and the ile sharing of audiovisual contents; twelve individual interviews and six collective interviews of micro-networks of friends, aiming at investigating the practices of interpersonal communication (mediated by the internet and by mobile phones) from the inside of peer groups; twelve daily diaries of consumption regarding computer mediated and mobile communications; a set of audiovisual and photographic materials produced by the interviewees to describe their experiences of virtual communication; forty-eight daily sessions of digital ethnography, conduced through instant messaging tools and blogs; four focus groups with digital television users.

Such a rich and heterogeneous approach was required by the extraordinary complexity of contemporary media scenario, deeply inluenced by the digitalizing process. A process that, in the last years, contributed to re-shape the traditional dimensions of media production and consumption, transforming users in distributors and changing the relationships between individual and social memory, offering an unprecedented quantity of cultural contents and, at the same time, fragmenting the shared forms of media consumption. As declared by the authors of the volume, the far-reaching consequences of such processes justify the need to understand the paths of integration of the digital ICTs in the daily lives of individuals, and especially of young people. If teen and young people, in fact, have always had a privileged relationship with the media, it is during the last years that youth cultures have been partially redeined by the usage of digital and convergent media, leaving to the adults the task to understand and explore their practices and the meanings associated to them. To handle that task, the research described in Crossmedia Cultures was grounded on the heuristic model of â&#x20AC;&#x153;domesticationâ&#x20AC;?, particularly helpful to observe how the new digital devices are incorporated in the daily lives of young people and to analyze the intersubjective dimension of the social usage of ICTs. The volume deals with this process of incorporation starting from the analysis of the broad set of technological and symbolic resources that every day young people can count on, characterized by the almost

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full interoperability of the devices, by their lexibility and by the transversal and potentially ubiquitous nature of their contents. Based on this wide set of resources, young people show a strong will to participate (not to the civic and public life but to their networks of friends or of diffused audiences) and a clear tendency towards remediation and manipulation of media contents, in order to make them itter for their individual and collective identity.

Concluding this brief description of the book, the essays of Crossmedia Culture are an attempt to describe what emerged from years of empirical research concerning the relationship between young people and their practices of digital consumption, in the context of an extremely dynamic and complex scenario. To go more into details, the main theme of the irst part of the volume focuses on the relation between young people, social bonds and mediated forms of interpersonal communication, while the second analyzes the performative and expressive facets of the youth digital cultures. Ultimately, the third section of the book is centred on crossmedia practices involving tv contents.

Marco Tomassini

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A. Cattaneo and P.C. Rivoltella (Eds.)

Tecnologie, formazione, professioni Idee e tecniche per lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;innovazione Milano: Unicopli, 2010

By their very nature, Information and Communication Technologies call for innovation. They have great potential for knowledge diffusion, effective learning and the development of more eficient education services. However, this potential will not be realized unless we recognize that a meaningful use of technology is needed.

Those who are involved in the ields of teaching and training face unprecedented challenges. They are being asked to improve the quality and effectiveness of their work, to identify and propagate good practices, to make learning more learner-focused, to foster lifelong learning and independent learning. In this context, the contribution which can be made

by Information and Communication Technologies is evident.

Innovation is about exploiting the full capabilities of technology to open new perspectives for the education professionals.

It is about knowing all the available resources and adapting them to educational and didactic goals. It is about responding effectively to the new demands connected with technology use.

The recent volume Technologies, training, professions is designed to assist education experts with successfully implementing technology into their daily work. It focuses on the pedagogical issues of technology, in order to enhance its use as an instructional and management tool. In the book, grown out of the collaboration between two research centers, IUFFP (Lugano) and CREMIT (Milano), a number of authors look at technologies within the framework of their wider cultural

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impact. A major theme concerns how ICT can create new, open learning environments and what role these environments have in shifting the emphasis from traditional teaching and training methodologies to more innovative practices. The topic implies understanding how the contemporary changes are affecting the social practices of literacy and learning.

Throughout each chapter, teachers, educators, adults’ trainers will ind a wealth of recommended resources to support their use of technology.

The book is comprised of 12 chapters, divided into two sections. Part 1 (chapters 1-4) introduces some theoretical frameworks, starting from the processes of representation, communication and construction, which are the bases of the Information Society. Main themes are the relationship between knowledge and technology, the importance of communication in contemporary society, the conceptualization of learning as a lifelong activity. In particular, the irst chapter (by G. Comi and P.C. Rivoltella) offers a deinition of professional training, revising the idea of the e-learning in a different perspective, which includes Knowledge Management and web 2.0. The three following chapters refer ideally to the verbs “to represent”, “to communicate”, “to build”, understanding them as potential actions of technology. Chapter 2 (by P.C. Rivoltella) examines the representative nature of knowledge and the main consequences of the relationship knowledge-technology. Chapter 3 (by S. Ferrari and P.C. Rivoltella) looks at the challenges, possibilities, theoretical issues related to communication in the web 2.0 practices, as understood in the context of education. Chapter 4 (by A. Cattaneo) recalls the historical theories of learning, in order to conceptualize the role of technology through two pairs of terms: artifact/environment and situation/competence.

Part 2 focuses on evaluation of practices and methodologies, in order to offer a panel of speciic techniques and practical tools for the educational planning. This analysis shows that the evaluation system is made up of two main factors: on the one hand, an overall vision of the system is required, and it can be achieved through both quantitative and qualitative research (chapter 5 by S. Ferrari); on the other hand it is essential to consider the economic aspects of a project, facing the problem of the sustainability of the quality (chapter

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Reviews

REM â&#x20AC;&#x201C; vol. 2, no. 1, June 2010

6 by M. Loi). Starting from these premises, the text presents some examples of ongoing and inal assessment techniques, grouping strategies, classroom computer schedules, and lessons ideas. Chapter 7 (by A. Cattaneo) opens with a description and tables that relate the monitoring process, connected to the logic of research-action. Chapter 8 (by E. Boldrini) addresses the analysis of professional practices, as well as the development of competences. Chapter 9 (by S. Ferrari and L. Piccardi) suggests to employ tools provided by the ield of social psychology, and especially the content and conversation analysis, which can be effectively applied at the computermediated-communication practices.

The remaining three chapters of the book consider the key issues in bringing about constructive change in the educational and didactical methodologies. Chapter 10 (by L. Comaschi and F. Musetti) provides teachers and trainers with useful information to evaluate cinematography resources, and it especially considers the practical aspects of taking on this kind of literacy. Chapter 11 (by A. Carenzio and A. Cattaneo) deals with issues involved in the audiovisual resources for education. Its purpose is to help educators become aware of the potential of this tool, for their personal use and for their lessons. The volume concludes in chapter 12 (by M. Pischetola) with strategies for effectively managing and assessing the use of the different media in the school context. Teachers are here provided with multiple resources and ideas to support their use of technology in the classroom.

Associated to the volume, there is an online section, edited by GLIMI,1 which offers concrete didactic maps and programmes. Thanks to these suggestions, the strategic vision of lifelong learning can be effective, and aim at professional proiciency, not only with the operational dimension, but also with the cultural and critical aspects of technology in education.

1

www.glimi.ch.

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Note to the Authors Submissions are to be sent, as MS Word iles, to the email address of the Secretary: rem@educazionemediale.it.

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Articles submitted by foreign contributors can be published, in print form, either in the original language or in an Italian translation. In the irst case, the submission should include an Italian language abstract, an English language abstract and a full English translation for on-line publication.

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Bibliography Quoted texts must be listed in bibliography following strictly the standards set by APA Publication Manual (http://www.apastyle.org/) – by alphabetic order of author’s names, and in chronological order (from the oldest to the most recent publication) where works by the same author are concerned.

Depending on the kind of work quoted, bibliographical reference should strictly follow these models: a) Journal articles: Messina, L. (2007). Valutazione dei prodotti mediali: il “collaudo” di Gnam! Il cibo in gioco, CADMO, XV (1), 87-114. b) Journal Articles in Press: Ricciardi, M., & Bossi, V. (in press). Convergenza tecnologica e creatività digitale. Economia dei servizi. c) Books: Rivoltella, P.C. (2006). Screen generation. Milano: Vita e Pensiero.

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d) Italian version of a foreign book: – if in the main text, only author and date are quoted: Novak, J.D. (1988). Learning, creating, and using knowledge: Concept Maps as facilitative tools in schools and corporations. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. (Novak, J.D., L’apprendimento signiicativo: le mappe concettuali per creare e usare la conoscenza. Trento: Erickson, 2001).

– if in the main text author, date and page(s) of the Italian edition are quoted: Novak, J.D. (2001).

L’apprendimento signiicativo: le mappe concettuali per creare e usare la conoscenza (pp. 0-0).

Trento: Erickson. (Novak, J.D., Learning, creating, and using knowledge: Concept Maps as facilitative tools in schools and corporations. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1988).

– if in the main text author, date and page(s) of the foreign edition are quoted: Novak, J. D. (1988).

Learning, creating, and using knowledge: Concept Maps as facilitative tools in schools and corporations (pp. 0-0). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. (Novak, J.D., L’apprendimento signiicativo: le mappe concettuali per creare e usare la conoscenza, Trento: Erickson, 2001). e) Books «edited by»: Ricciardi, M. (Ed.) (2008). Interfacce della memoria. Napoli: ScriptaWeb. Rivoltella, P.C. (Ed.) (2008). Digital literacy: Tools and methodologies for information society. Hershey: IGI. f) Contributions to a collection or anthology: Limone, P. (2006). Videogiochi e pedagogia. Training level ed applicazioni didattiche. In T. GrangeSergi, & M.G. Onorati (Eds.), La sida della comunicazione all’educazione. Prospettive di media education (pp. 129-142). Milano: Franco Angeli. g) Congress papers: Galliani, L., & De Waal, P. (2005, June), Learning face to face, in action and on line: Integrating model of lifelong learning. Paper presented at Eden Annual Conference, Bringing e-learning close to lifelong learning and working life: A new period of uptake, Finland, Helsinki.

Messina, L., Personeni, F., Tabone, S., & Manio, S. (2008). Lello & Lella international research project. In L. Gómez Chova, D. Martí Belenguer, & I. Candel Torres (Eds.), INTED2008 Proceedings. International Technology, Education and Development Conference (pp. 216-224). Valencia: IATED. h) Quotes from web sites: Rivoltella, P.C. (2006). Media Education e ricerca. (http://www.ilmediario.it/cont/articolo.php?artic olo=313&canale=Terza&nav=1).

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Editorial Pier Cesare Rivoltella Dossier: Game and Learning Which game are we playing. Representations and practices of play between childhood and adolescence Pier Cesare Rivoltella and Alessandra Carenzio Frontiers and rhetoric of the videogame in schools Monica Fantin New games, new spaces Giulio Lughi The video game. Questions, taxonomies, similitudes Massimiliano Andreoletti Research Studies Between scientific knowledge and cultural beliefs.

The cultural and moral roots of research in children and media Letizia Caronia Newspapers in classrooms: A pedagogical approach Vitor TomĂŠ and Maria Helena Menezes One-to-one technology: Students leading change Magda Pischetola Reviews

by Marco Tomassini and Magda Pischetola

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