LAN cafés: cafés, places of gathering or sites of informal teaching and learning?

Despite the interest of sociologists and educational researchers in Internet cafés as sites for new cultural and social formations and informal learning, thus far little attention has been paid to the function of café owners, managers and other staff in the mediation and co‐construction of those spaces. Drawing from interviews with managers of commercial Internet cafés in Australia specialising in LAN (Local Area Network) gaming, this article seeks to examine their role and their attitudes more closely; in particular with regard to school‐aged users of their facilities. We contend that LAN cafés are liminal spaces situated at the margins of Australian culture and located at the junctions between home, school and the street, online and offline spaces, work and play. The roles of LAN café managers are similarly ambiguous: in many ways they can be regarded as informal teachers facilitating the process of informal learning.

[1]  C. Luke.  Feminisms and pedagogies of everyday life , 1996 .

[2]  Sonia Liff,et al.  Cybercafés: Debating the Meaning and Significance of Internet Access in a Café Environment , 2003, New Media Soc..

[3]  B. Green,et al.  Literacy and the new technologies in school education: Meeting the l(IT)eracy challenge? , 2000 .

[4]  Kevin M. Leander,et al.  Writing Travelers' Tales on New Literacyscapes. , 2003 .

[5]  John Kirriemuir,et al.  Literature Review in Games and Learning , 2004 .

[6]  Sonia Liff,et al.  Shaping e-Access in the Cybercafé: Networks, Boundaries and Heterotopian Innovation , 2003, New Media Soc..

[7]  Ben Williamson,et al.  More than 'just a game': the implications for schools of children's computer games communities , 2004 .

[8]  James Stewart,et al.  Cafematics: The Cybercafe and the Community , 2000 .

[9]  James Stewart,et al.  Nerdy, Trendy or Healthy? Configuring the Internet Café , 2003, New Media Soc..

[10]  Johannes Fromme,et al.  Computer Games as a Part of Children's Culture , 2003, Game Stud..

[11]  Sarah Lee,et al.  Private Uses in Public Spaces , 1999, New Media Soc..

[12]  G. Kress,et al.  Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication , 2002 .

[13]  Julian Sefton-Green,et al.  Literature Review in Informal Learning with Technology Outside School , 2004 .

[14]  Donald Matheson.  Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication , 2002 .

[15]  Henry A. Giroux.  Disturbing Pleasures: Learning Popular Culture , 1995 .

[16]  Tom Conlon,et al.  ICT, Pedagogy and the Curriculum: Subject to Change , 2002 .

[17]  Catherine Beavis.  'Good game' : text and community in multiplayer computer games , 2004 .

[18]  Bill Green,et al.  Teachers and Technoliteracy: Managing Literacy, Technology and Learning in Schools , 2000 .

[19]  Ilana Ariela Snyder,et al.  Doing Literacy Online: Teaching, Learning and Playing in an Electronic World (New Dimensions in Computers and Composition) , 2004 .

[20]  Karen McFerrin,et al.  ICT, Pedagogy and the Curriculum: subject to change , 2001 .

[21]  M. Gurstein.  Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communications Technologies , 2000 .

[22]  Colin Lankshear,et al.  Planning Pedagogy for i-mode: From Flogging to Blogging via wi-fi , 2004 .

[23]  Drew Tiene,et al.  Addressing the Global Digital Divide and its Impact on Educational Opportunity , 2002 .

[24]  Julian Sefton-Green,et al.  Informal Learning: Substance or style? , 2003 .

[25]  Gill Valentine,et al.  Cool places : geographies of youth cultures , 1998 .

[26]  Kelly Chandler-Olcott,et al.  "Tech-Savviness" Meets Multiliteracies: Exploring Adolescent Girls' Technology-Mediated Literacy Practices , 2003 .

[27]  Nina Wakeford,et al.  The Embedding of Local Culture in Global Communication: Independent Internet Cafés in London , 2003, New Media Soc..