Nmc Summer2007

Slide 1: Pleasure, Play, Participation and Promise Socio-emotional dimensions of digital culture which are transforming the shape of new media literacies.

Slide 2: Virtual ethnographic research since 1995 •Email •Digital fiction •IRC •Talkers •Palaces •Forums •Fan fiction communuties •Blogs •Second Life •Youtube •Machinima

Slide 3: The significance of affect in providing transformative moments in people’s online lives.

Slide 4: Pleasure and Play Work vs. Play dichotomy: uneasy tensions The opposite of play is not work, it is depression (Brian Sutton-Smith)

Slide 5: Play: An Alternative Framing Play motivates people to learn

Slide 6: Play can provide a context which allows for the cognitive and creative freedoms associated with open-ended experimentation.

Slide 7: A space in which experimentation is safe and possible

Slide 8: A space which allows possibilities of creative thinking, thinking innovative problem solving, solving and

Slide 9: Snapshot of what teens are doing online just to play

Slide 10: ‘i try to be as verbose as possible. i try to use fi gures of aphors and al i erat ons. i try to make my speech, m et lt i language color ful, detailed, full of unexpected turns and twists. just in general, a good read.’ (Kitten)

Slide 11: Play allows opportunities to view situations or problems from various angles allowing one to pivot one’s mind to view the issue from myriad directions (Galarneau)

Slide 14: Manga For the eye, I was attempting to indicate her thinking about Jether and didn't want to draw his whole face. -_- There's a level of emotional content in manga that normal comics don't have in the eyes and the hands. It makes use of subtle imagery, sometimes, to tease the emotions. Such as the randomly popping up flower petals in romantic scenes, an effect I mean to make use of myself... and have a character glare and say \"cut that out\", but that's not the point. I used this by sticking the feathers in. Anime has an intensity to it that I like. Plus manga comics usually have decent plots.

Slide 15: Fusing identities: exploring aspects of self through fictional characters You can tell when people When I am in a poor are feeling depressed. mood, Zhou Wei gets Suddenly they’ll have angry…he tends to lose a accidents in the role- tad of control over his playing so that they get all magic and is often just the attention on them. short and annoying (Hobbitness) (Percirion) ‘…I’ve found that since I’ve been using her as one of my main characters, I have been…well… rubbing off on myself, in a way. I’m more outgoing than I used to be, and Jandalf’s creation and use does figure in that..’. (Jandalf)

Slide 16: “As a spectator I am entertained by my own performance” “Becoming a character in a story is the ultimate narrative experience” (Marie-Laure Ryan)

Slide 17: • My close friend and colleague thinks that since starting this course and spending time as Denver (my avatar), I have “blossomed” offline. • My entire identity has changed – my perceptions about who I am, the way I think and interact, and the way I see the world now - has changed as a consequence of the journey Angela has encouraged us to take

Slide 18: Identity Play aspects of the body: gender, age, race, ethnicity disclose and reveal emotions affiliation and relationships an intertextual self storylines and discourses

Slide 19: Identity Transformations: the authentic expert (Gee) the mantle of the expert (Heathcote) I roleplay roleplaying the “Other” (Lacan) at being famous Thinking like a historian becomes that transformative factor: this is a participatory practice, even if only in the play environment. And once the learner has the sense of being a participant in history and and the investigation of history, the door is opened to learning and thinking critically about it.

Slide 20: Character name: Lady Elianna (aka Lady Eloessa or Turelie) Description: She is one of the few dark-headed among the elves. Her hair is one of her main features; as well as her eyes, which are usually brown but sparkle green when she is angry or startled. She looks rather young, but, being an elf, has that luck. *sticks tongue out at all mortals * She is only about 6'0 and is considered a little short for an elf. Homeland: The Realm that she calls home is Mirkwood, but she does a lot of traveling, and can often be found in the Realms of Rivendell and Lothlorien. Her home before she came to Middle Earth was the Isle of Elenna (Numenor). Weapons and Skills: She loves to fight and is skilled (as all elves are) in the bow and arrow, and also in using the sword. She will almost never back down from a fight, and is willing to lay down her life for those she loves. She holds the powers of being able to easily disguise herself as someone/something else, mind reading, and she can speak with those closest to her without words. She also bears the gift, at times, of foresight, but she cannot predict her own future.

Slide 21: my favorite part... is bringing my character to life Lalaith Elerinna is my favorite character. Lalaith: NO!!!! You touch him, you'll die before you ever see your life. You can trust your mind to it! Back up now or I shall throw my sword into your neck! thats her warrior side. :-) hehe now here’s her romance Lalaith: My heart weeps at the sight of your tears, tell me Tregallien, what makes you cry so?

Slide 23: I have already become quite articulate through using Zhou Wei's intelligent speech(tm). To do this, I read a lot and see how people of my character's 'stature' and 'personality' talk, and I simply pick and copy pieces into Zhou Wei’s speech

Slide 24: Subversive performances of gender, fantasy and desire

Slide 25: Fantasies of Femininity • I’ve never had a boyfriend, as I said, and there's really nothing else to my romantic life. Jandalf is way ahead of me romantically, simply because she’s older. I do imagine I’ll get married and all that someday … and so I paired Jandalf up with my favourite Star Wars male character. Heck, Obi-Wan always was my favourite character period, even before I saw the prequels. I really liked him as an old guy, and when TPM came out…well. Good- looking, too. That’s always a bonus. Heehee.

Slide 26: Play and Risk Taking: The Cost of Failure is Low • I think it is important that I tell you that I am thoroughly loving being every different ‘me’ that I can find, and that I don’t mind taking risks in cyberspace. If I stuff up, there’s always the .q. I don’t take new risks like that in real life; I need to retain my reputation you know! Reputations don't stick as well; if you make a true jerk outta yourself, you can make a new name, start from scratch. • However, irl, you're stuck. ;)

Slide 27: Play as Participation • Interaction as key to engagement and learning underscores the importance of framing the appeal of interactive media within a larger conversation that considers the movement away from passive, spectator- oriented understandings of both educat on and m edi i a.

Slide 28: Participatory Culture: Informal Mentorship • Sometimes Zhou Wei is taken along with lord Xian Jing to diplomacy... sometimes he is invited to a party... Sometimes people come up and talk to him... Sometimes he shimmies over. Some of the game masters are given historical characters... those who really play them according to history I love to play with, because it just makes you glow. My first interaction with historical characters was Yuan Shu, the brother of Yuan Shao. Yuan Shu conducted a fire attack on a city and killed 20,000 innocents. I still love to role-play with them, because it can get so interesting. Sure, I can get angry with the characters (Die, Shu, die) but we smooth it over. Vendettas can be so much fun ^_^

Slide 29: 43 reviews! Contributions matter

Slide 30: The Joy of Participation • I have had some experiences that have made me laugh a lot and others that have moved me to tears. One of these things was the real life death of Luo. In Heroes of Chaos, last game we received an announcement that famed member and role-player Luo had died in a fatal car accident- the other person was drink-driving. He was legendary- I shed my own tears then a whole 4 sims together mourned his loss. • But the real shock came later when Luo appears, and announces his brother had panicked and told them he had died, when he had only broken his arm/ribs. I was crying, but I was also laughing in relief. Even one of the coldest, relief so called meanest Admins on there hugged me in tears before we discovered he was still alive. Luo was probably one of the most emotional experiences of my life. life

Slide 31: Emotional Investment = Engagement

Slide 32: Mutual engagement around a joint enterprise = ‘a privileged locus for the creation of knowledge’ Wenger (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity

Slide 33: Play as Innovation Play allows experimentation outside of limitations of physical practicality or other opportunity barriers

Slide 34: Innovation in art, writing, research, film-making, game design

Slide 37: Nathan (11 years old)

Slide 41: 3D Animations: Frontier Technologies

Slide 42: Pleasure and Power • Relations of power are indeed made and re- made within texts of enjoyment and rituals of relaxation and abandonment.

Slide 43: Fun = Empowerment

Slide 44: The Promise of Participation

Slide 45: • Having fun • Making connections – social, professional, business • Learning, developing, self as identity project • Developing relationships • Being understood • Belonging • Being noticed • Feeling special

Slide 46: Winifred Warburton, 99, said that recording the song was the best day of her life

Slide 47: Transforming New Media Literacies • Leadership – communication, conflict resolution, handling group dynamics, praise, support, scaffolding newbie learning, new forms of negotiation, maintaining community longevity • Communication – from linguistics to multimodal semiotics • Multimodal literacies – understanding how meaning is made at the intersection of semiotic modes • Identity – risk taking, play, reputation management, consciousness of lexical resources, the personal as political • Storytelling and narrative • Code-cracking, hacking, innovation, ‘cool hunting’ • Spaces which allow subversive play, resistance, disruption, crossing boundaries, the insertion of self, parody, satire, dialogue, critique, fantasy and performance of desire

Slide 48: Transforming Pedagogies • Environment which privileges play • Play and experimentation leading to innovation • Active participation and learner responsibility • Leadership and autonomy • Scaffolding, apprenticing • Authentic experts • Team-work and communication • Role-playing, identity play, spaces to imagine and dream

Slide 49: In the end, our dreams are what define us. (Violetta)

Slide 50: Angela Thomas a.thomas@usyd.edu.au http://angelaathomas.com Anya Ixchel