Massively multiplayer online games & education: an outline of research

For those with a vested interest in online technologies for learning, the knowledge and skills that constitute successful participation in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) places them squarely among the most promising new digital technologies to date. In this paper, I broadly outline the qualitative results of a two and a half year cognitive ethnography of the MMO Lineage and describe the current trajectory of research we are now pursuing, based on those findings: (a) the empirical investigation of focused research questions in order to document and analyze those core practices that constitute gameplay in virtual worlds, and (b) the development of educational activities for after school clubs that capitalize on those capacities found throughout our research. This essay concludes with a reflection on the multiple relationships between games and education, highlighting the potential for such technologies to transform not only the means of education but also perhaps the goals.

[1]  Constance Steinkuehler,et al.  Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as "Third Places" , 2006, DiGRA Conference.

[2]  Constance Steinkuehler,et al.  The Mangle of Play , 2006, Games Cult..

[3]  T. L. Taylor,et al.  Book Review: T.L. Taylor, Play Between WorldS: Exploring Online Game Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006. vii+197 pp. ISBN 0262201631, $29.95 hbk , 2007, New Media Soc..

[4]  James Paul Gee,et al.  What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy , 2007, CIE.

[5]  K. Squire,et al.  Replaying history: learning world history through playing civilization iii , 2004 .

[6]  Constance Steinkuehler,et al.  Cognition and Literacy in Massively Multiplayer Online Games , 2008 .

[7]  C. Geertz,et al.  The Interpretation of Cultures , 1973 .

[8]  Constance Steinkuehler.  Cognition and learning in massively multiplayer online games: A critical approach , 2005 .

[9]  T. L. Taylor.  Does WoW Change Everything? , 2006 .

[10]  Constance Steinkuehler,et al.  Learning in Massively Multiplayer Online Games , 2004, ICLS.

[11]  Constance Steinkuehler.  Massively Multiplayer Online Video Gaming as Participation in a Discourse , 2006 .

[12]  Glenn M. Parker.  Cross Functional Teams: Working with Allies, Enemies, and Other Strangers , 1994 .

[13]  Sherry Turkle,et al.  Constructions and reconstructions of self in virtual reality: Playing in the MUDs , 1994 .

[14]  T. L. Taylor,et al.  "Whose Game Is This Anyway?": Negotiating Corporate Ownership in a Virtual World , 2002, CGDC Conf..

[15]  E. Hutchins.  Cognition in the wild , 1995 .

[16]  Constance Steinkuehler,et al.  Meet the Gamers: They Research, Teach, Learn, and Collaborate. So Far, without Libraries. , 2005 .

[17]  Constance Steinkuehler,et al.  Why Game (Culture) Studies Now? , 2006, Games Cult..

[18]  R. Oldenburg.  The Great Good Place , 1999 .

[19]  Edward Castronova,et al.  Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier , 2001, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[20]  John Suler,et al.  The psychology of cyberspace , 2004 .

[21]  Andrea A. diSessa,et al.  Changing Minds: Computers, Learning, and Literacy , 2000 .

[22]  Constance Steinkuehler,et al.  Fostering Scientific Habits of Mind in the Context of Online Play , 2006, ICLS.

[23]  S. Barab,et al.  Eat Your Vegetables and Do Your Homework: A Design­ Based Investigation of Enjoyment and Meaning in Learning , 2005 .

[24]  A. Giddens.  Runaway World: How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives , 1999 .

[25]  Susan Ashworth.  The DAEDALUS Project , 2003 .

[26]  Julian Dibbell,et al.  My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World , 1998 .

[27]  Dan Hunter.  Cyberspace as Place, and the Tragedy of the Digital Anticommons , 2002 .