Saving Face While Geeking Out: Video Game Testing as a Justification for Learning Computer Science

Abstract

Why would individuals who are capable of learning opt not to? Learning is important for stability and success. It would seem rational that students in groups that are frequently underrepresented or marginalized would be motivated to learn. However, negotiation of multiple identities and self-beliefs can impact motivations to learn. For example, young African American males frequently adopt a “cool pose” in their approach to education. They maintain that they do not care and will not try to be a part of the existing educational system. To better understand these issues, we studied African American males in the Glitch Game Testers program. High school students in the Glitch program worked as paid game testers and took workshops in computer science. More than 65% of the participants went on to study computing after high school. We found that these students persisted with education and computing because they navigated around motivations to not learn by creating many different faces for their involvement with Glitch. In this article, we explore the use and design implications of face-saving tactics these young men used to “geek out” on computer programming, choose computer science for their career, and maintain their current identities with friends and families.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to all of the Glitch guys, the high school students and undergrads, for their commitment to the program. Thanks to Dr. Willie Pearson, Jr., for early and critical feedback on this material.

FUNDING

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CNS-0837733 and by a grant from the Arthur Blank Foundation.

Notes

¹ Jerk or jerk’n is a style of urban street dance that was popular in Atlanta at the time of Glitch.

² The Findings Group, LLC, was the independent firm hired with funds from the National Science Foundation to evaluate the work done in Glitch.

³ Names of participants have been changed to protect their privacy.

⁴ The eight participants who had graduated in May 2010 told us they wanted to be part of the APCS prep because it would prepare them for their introductory CS classes in college.

⁵ Charles Isbell, College of Computing associate dean for academic affairs, is an African American male who positioned himself as having a similar background as the participants.

⁶ Corey Stewart and Markus Austin are former Georgia Tech CS majors who helped manage and teach CS workshops in Glitch. Both are African American males who chose to work with Glitch as a way to “give back” to the African American community.

⁷ Participants often complained about the games they tested because they did not in general consider them fun or cool.