Bridging the Analog-Digital divide: critical literacies and procedural design in young people’s game-making practices

ABSTRACT

Over the past several decades, the concept of critical literacy has been applied to an increasing range of multimodal texts mediated by digital technologies. Expressive forms such as fan-fiction, digital storytelling, and gaming have presented unique opportunities forunderstanding critical literacy practices. Within the more specific field of game studies, a growing body of scholarship demonstrates how issues of ideology, politics, and power are woven into and expressed through the medium of games – whether digital or analog. This paper builds on this tradition by offering a critical analysis of a semiotic resource that digital and analog games share – the designed processes that shape experiences of meaning-making through acts of play. Examining data from a study of teens’ participation in a library-based board game-making workshop, this paper highlights the ways participants engaged in critical literacy practices when asked to address a social issue through game design. The paper draws on techniques of discourse analysis to demonstrate how participants engaged with ideological dimensions of procedural literacy through design-centered discourse. Findings suggest that viewing game-making through the lens of procedurality can be a generative way to explore critical literacy practices in relation to contemporary social issues.

KEYWORDS:

• Design
• critical literacy
• procedurality
• games
• libraries

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings [1623558].

Notes on contributors

Elisabeth R. Gee

Elisabeth Gee is the Delbert and Jewell Lewis Chair in reading and literacy, professor in Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. Her scholarly interests include digital literacies and game-based learning, primarily in out-of-school settings. Her recent research includes an investigation of game design as a means of promoting design thinking among children and families and a study of Mexican-American families’ use of digital media for learning.

Earl Aguilera

Earl Aguilera is an assistant professor at the Kremen School of Education and Human Development at California State University, Fresno. His work examines issues at the intersection of literacy, educational equity, and technology integration, particularly for students from historically marginalized backgrounds. Prior to his time at Fresno State, he worked as a high school English teacher and K-12 reading specialist.