UKLA conference

Just returned from the UKLA conference at Greenwich, which was excellent. Many highlights, including Lynda Graham’s symposium with Martin Waller and Angela Colvert sharing their excellent classroom practice in relation to digital literacies, and Angela Thomas’s keynote on Macbeth in Second Life. Also fabulous was Alex Kendall’s presentation on the work she has been doing with Julian McDougall on young men’s practices using Grand Theft Auto IV – they have developed the concept of ‘baroque showman’ to describe the hyper-masculine performativity which goes on in the game. You can find a paper on this work here – absolutely brilliant stuff. There was so much else I couldn’t get to as I was involved in lots of sessions myself as presenter or discussant, and this level of choice served to highlight to me how important the conference is for showcasing current work in relation to digital literacy. The perfect place, therefore, to launch Victoria Carrington’s and Muriel Robinson’s exciting new book. And just when I thought the weekend couldn't get better, I wandered into Greenwich market and found these gorgeous handmade handbags...so all in all, a very successful conference. See you next year in Winchester?

Social gaming

Another useful report has been published by Pew Internet and American Life, this time on young people’s use of computer games. It contains some interesting statistics that rebuke the usual hype about children, gaming and social isolation. Instead, we find that only 24% of teens in the survey reported playing games alone and the rest play games with others at least some of the time. 65% reported playing games with other people who are in the room with them. I have found this in my research on young children’s use of virtual worlds – many of the children I interviewed reported playing in ‘Club Penguin’ with their siblings, either in the same room or in a nearby room in the same house. Maybe we are getting sufficient data now from across a number of projects to ensure that media reports will be a little more balanced in the future? Unfortunately, I guess it isn't that easy...but certainly today's report should get wide coverage.

Google generation?

The report from the CIBER research team, commissioned by the British Library and JISC, entitled 'Information behaviour of the researcher of the future' ' is an interesting and refreshing read in that it counters many myths that have developed with regard to the notion of 'digital natives', or the 'google generation'. It states, for example, that there is no evidence that young people today need instant digital gratification, and 'power browsing' appears to be a practice adopted by young and old alike. Given this welcome balance in the report, I was rather disappointed to read, on page 18, that the team were 'concerned about the current interest in using games technologies to enhance students' learning'. I looked again at the methodology employed in the study and, no, there had been no measure of learning and no examination of pedagogies. Not one school or classroom visited. A pity, then, that the authors felt that they could make a judgement about this issue, as there are enough ill-informed pronouncements made about the use of games in education as it is.

Education versus fun?

It may be no surprise to many, but it seems that computer games focused on educational objectives may not be the most effective way to learn. A game entitled 'Arden, the World of Shakespeare' was developed with a $250,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation and now its creator claims that 'It's no fun'! Of course it is not possible to draw any conclusions from one instance, but it is an interesting reminder that simply adopting a popular genre/media for educational means is not always successful. I don't think it is impossible, however, to combine education and digital pleasures, we only have to look at the work on blogging going on in many schools as examples of that. One of my favourites is 'Interactive chatting teddies', a development of the common activity in many primary schools of teddies accompanying children on trips and sending postcards back to the classroom - here, the children blog the teddies' adventures!

Children and video games

I was a little concerned to hear that Boris Johnson MP is standing for election as London's Mayor, against Ken Livingstone. Have you read Johnson's ill-informed rant about children and computer games? Scary stuff. Maybe Boris hasn't read the review which highlights the inconsistencies in research that purports to demonstrate causality between playing computer games and violence. Let's hope the majority of London voters have more sense...