Video Game Narratives: A “Walk-Through” of Children’s Popular Culture And Formal Education

• Main Authors: Rut Martínez Borda, Pilar Lacasa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Autónoma de Baja California 2008-05-01
• Series: Revista Electrónica de Investigación Educativa
• Subjects: Videojuegos; narrativas; teatro; nuevas alfabetizaciones.
• Online Access: http://redie.uabc.mx/redie/article/view/178

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; display: inline !important; float: none;">The general aim of this presentation is to explore how video games, supported by conversations and theatrical performances in the classroom, contribute to the development of narrative thought as present in written compositions. Given that one of the primary ecological influences on children is the mass media, we need to consider how media messages create an environment that can teach people about society’s rules, attitudes, values and norms (Bakhtin, 1981; Gee, 2003, 2004; Jenkins, 2004). From a methodological point of view we assumed an ethnographical and action research perspective. An inductive approach to the data was taken, in order to define analytical categories that consider participants’ activities in specific contexts. Main results show that children’s reconstruction of computer games stories is dependent on specific contexts.</span>