Abrams.+A+gaming+frame+of+mind

=Abrams, Sandra S. "A gaming frame of mind: digital contexts and academic implications."= //Educational Media International// 46.4 2009. 335-347. Print//.//

**Abstract** When considering the interdisciplinary nature of education, researchers need to acknowledge students' traditional and multimodal literacies and learning environments. Technological changes have brought about new learning spaces and what students learn through their video gaming experiences seems to have important academic implications and applications. This article presents data from three case studies of academically struggling 11th‐grade male video gamers, revealing the academic affordances of the participants' video game playing; the students developed a schema for academic material from their video game playing, fostering meaningful connections to classroom material. Overall, this paper reveals how the virtual gaming environment enabled three gamers to contextualize academic information, thereby making the material personally relevant.

**Argument** To understand how video gaming may inform literate activity, Abrams examines three case studies of adolescent males who benefited academically as a result of using video games in an educational setting. Through the case studies, Abrams explains how gaming can be used to shape academic teachings into information that students find personally relevant and interesting. The visual and engaging nature of video gaming motivates students to learn information, and provides a schema for information to which students can subsequently relate back when in a classroom setting.

**Key Passages** “Authentic learning is achieved when it is “connected to the world that exists beyond the classroom,” and video games and other multimodal texts enable students to draw upon their own experiences and achieve such authentic, meaningful learning. This approach does not discount, devalue, or “[deny] the importance of traditional alphabetic literacies”; rather, the focus on video games not only suggests that contemporary literacy extends beyond the bounds of a traditional context, but also underscores the need to bridge students’ outside and inside school literacies and learning experiences,” (338).

“Because Caleb could relate to his virtual battle on the Normandy beach, he later was able to connect his gaming experience to the discussion of the historic warfare in his history class. In other words, Caleb’s immersion in a particular video game outside school helped him develop a foundational understanding, or schema, which became a valuable comprehension resource as he learned about the battle in school,” (341-42).

“[...] video games can present content in a meaningful way, providing gamers a visual context for the information they encounter. [these] visualization[s] enable [students] to relate to academic material and form a personal understanding of material they otherwise might have found irrelevant,” (343).

“[The students'] experiences suggest that their gaming practices informed their comprehension and recollection of historic information, assigned vocabulary, or simulation features, enabling each student to achieve meaningful learning and, in some cases, participate inside the classroom. In other words, because the students developed a schema for information in a virtual environment, the material came alive when it was later introduced to them in the classroom. Video games have a history of being didactic tools, and these three case studies reveal ways in which the gaming experience was a resource informing student learning; because gaming enabled [the students] to understand and connect with academic material, the learning events became meaningful and relevant,” (344).

“[...] regardless if educators introduce games in the classroom or if they elicit student reflection about gaming, there is an opportunity to harness the learning as a result of gaming, and the viable, virtual learning environment should not be ignored or discounted by educators and gamers alike,” (345).

**Selected Works Cited** Alvermann, D.E. (2002). Effective literacy instruction for adolescents. //Journal of Literacy// //Research //, 34(2), 189–208.

Bartlett, F.C. (1995). //Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology//. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press (Original work published 1932).

Dahlin, B. (2001). Critique of the schema concept. //Scandinavian Journal of Educational// //Research //, 45(3), 287–300.

Gee, J. (2003). //What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy//. New York: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Macmillan.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Norton-Meier, L. (2005). Joining the video-game literacy club: A reluctant mother tries to join <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the “flow.” //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">, 48(5), 428–432.