Affinity Spaces

This dissertation examines the digital literacy practices of an urban African-American family. Using an ethnographic case study approach (Stake, 2000), this qualitative study explores the multiple ways a mother (Larnee) and son (Gerard) interacted with digital literacies in the home. Situated within the framework of

The fan communities around video games can be valuable spaces for learning. While skills such as programming and digital art creation are often tedious to learn on one's own, they are much more easily learned with the motivation of creating a mod (modification) for a favorite video game. Mods are user created add-ons to games that can change its art or mechanics. Creating this type of content for video games requires technical knowledge, and so creating it can lead to an increased digital literacy as well as spark interest in technology careers. These digital skills will become increasingly important in the new global information economy.

However, men are generally more involved than women in both playing video games and participating in their fan communities. This means that men might be benefiting from these communities more than women. I am looking at one game which has a fairly sizeable female fan base in order to see how women are playing the game, participating in the community, and creating content: the Swedish game Minecraft. I looked specifically at how women participated in the community and whether or not they were creating content for the game.

I chose two mods created by female fans as case studies. I looked at whether or not these women were learning technical skills. I observed the interactions on the forums on which these mods were posted and interviewed these women in order to draw conclusions about how women are participating the community.

This thesis explores the blurring lines between economic and social capital by scaffolding off of interdisciplinary scholarship to construct a quantitative and qualitative case study analysis of tweets from the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement. As a chosen “vehicle” or liminal site of study, Venmo’s social features may deem it a useful tool in supporting social, political, and economic movements by way of economic and social exchange, ultimately drawing a virtual connection between varying affinity spaces with a shared cause and blending lines between economic and social capital. Through an NVivo analysis of 92 tweets containing the search terms “Venmo” and “#BlackLivesMatter,” 21 cities were recognized, 44 unique hashtags were referenced, and 10 affinity spaces were identified which exemplified social capital as a central focus alongside the exchange of economic capital.

Keywords: economic capital, social capital, Venmo, Black Lives Matter, “vehicle” platform, discourse communities, affinity spaces

This article conceptualizes a framework for understanding the discourse and literacy practices generated by players of the video game, Fortnite. As a teacher educator interested in studying how multiliteracies cultivated in social settings can be leveraged toward academic success, my two objectives for this theoretical article are to examine how Fortnite players operate within their digital community and to explore what relationships may be established between the game’s social literacy contexts and formal literacy learning. In light of Fortnite’s connections to reading comprehension, discourse systems, and social learning environments, recommendations are made for future research, including considerations of school-based implementation.

Meme, as Richard Dawkins gives in The Selfish Gene, comes from the Ancient Greek word ‘mimema’- meaning something imitated (commonly related to the mutating properties of genes). In his book he gave this concept a larger scope to fit in all non-genetic behavior and cultural ideas that imitated, mutated and spread over a wide network. This paper, first, categorizes ‘what is a meme?’ and ‘what is not a meme?’ Second, I have tried to trace the role of the development in editing software (photoshop and the like) that led to the rise in popularity of ‘meme’ culture from the 2000’s. Third, in the paper, it could be observed how growth and globalization led to accommodation of local topics, like politics and sports, in the ‘meme’ contents. ‘Memes’ are generally taken as jokes. In a way to “fit in” internet users take the pain of keeping themselves more aware of the present times through News bulletins. This connects us to the last theme of the paper which is concerned about the interdependent reactionary pattern that Trump popularity  achieved through twitter campaigns and  led to a rise in the Internet ‘Memes’ in 2016. I would like to conclude by pointing out that Internet ‘Memes’ are a synthesized reflection version of the real world politics and culture(s), from anytime of the past and present, on the virtual world.

This chapter is a discursive response to the discussions and ideas proposed by Cristóbal Cobo in Knowmad Society (2013) in an attempt to address the "skills and competencies for knowmadic workers." Cobo (2013, p.59), seeks to "explore and outline, the conditions required to foster critical skills, such as problem-solving, reflection, creativity, critical thinking, learning to learn, risk-taking, collaboration, and entrepreneurship." Here, I try to map the landscape of a pedagogical approach that would frame the kind of education expected to nurture the critical skills mentioned above and break through the 'educational iceberg.' Cobo (2013, p.59) suggests five trends to explore the conditions necessary to ensure "multi-skilled profiles" and "multi-contextual learning practices": • The mismatch between formal education and the challenges of the innovation society (informal and flexible learning approaches); • The shift from what we learn to how we learn (lifelong, self-learning, and learning to learn); • The fluctuating relationship between digital technologies and content (ICT and critical thinking skills and new literacies); • The changing conceptions of space-time and a lifelong learning environment (which is rarely time or context dependent); and, • The development of soft skills (global, tacit, and social). In this narrative, I address the aforementioned five trends in respect to a specific educational approach, namely the Multiliteracies Dynamic Affinity Spaces (MDAS) framework, proposed as the theoretical backdrop on which to educate the Knowmad Society. The MDAS framework is a theory-based, empirically-driven foundation, informing my instructional planning and design over the course of my doctoral and postdoctoral research. The framework draws on the role of technology in providing differentiated instruction and ways to capitalize on the potential multiliteracies surrounding us, to develop flexible, multi-skilled learners. The MDAS in particular, relies on a creative overlap between the theory of the New London Group (1996) for a pedagogy of multiliteracies and the theory of affinity spaces proposed by Gee (2004). In 2016, I contributed a chapter for a book edited by Anthony Montgomery and Ian Kehoe, entitled Reimagining the Purpose of Schools and Educational Organisations (2016). The book features a diverse set of perspectives, all focused on questioning the role schools play in society and the role they might play. I specifically addressed the need to re-conceptualize schooling through a multiliteracies affinity lens for it to be relevant and responsive to "evolving ways of communication, interpretation and creation of meaning, which change the learning demands and needs of individuals" (Savva, 2016a, p.46). To examine the feasibility of the framework adopted for re-imagining schooling, I used a vignette. The core of this work draws on my doctoral and postdoctoral research into technology-enhanced learning for culturally and linguistically diverse students, through a synergy of formal and informal learning principles. The text that follows is not a summary of that research, but an expanded discussion of the ideas and interpretations that followed this implementation and evaluation of the theory-driven framework. In this respect, I hope that my viewpoints, being both a primary teacher and a researcher, will offer some insights into the potential of a particular framework to improve education for Knowmad Society.

Currently, evolving ways of communication, interpretation and creation of meaning are challenging the ways people view themselves and the world, altering their learning demands and needs. Closely related to this process of change is the need to re-conceptualize schooling. Working within these realizations, the theories of affinity spaces and multiliteracies pedagogy are brought into the foreground of the discussion to consider: What are the requirements of school for the twenty-first century? What are the potentials of affinity spaces and multiliteracies pedagogy to empower meaningful school-based learning? The core of this chapter reports on the development, implementation and evaluation of a theory based framework named Affinity Multiliteracies Practice (AMP) with the intention to provide an example of a teaching and learning approach to schooling that acknowledges students’ multiple and diverse identities, experiences and capabilities while also equipping them to become the flexible and dynamic learners required in the twenty-first century.

Introduction: "When considering the potential of technology for musical engagement, teaching, and learning, music educators can acknowledge a range of contexts and ways of being musical to inform their practice. Video games offer a compelling locus for musical experience and engagement. Video games are digital, interactive, and immersive multimedia or intermedia that people play, and often in a social context. Characteristics of play, interactivity, immersion, and social engagement are critical to understanding the popularity of video games in contemporary society and their potential in music education. Video games are not simply media objects, but designed experiences with rules and mechanics which create systems that often invite problem solving, creative and critical thinking, and meaning making (Squire, 2006).

Though video games are a popular and established form of media in contemporary society, scholarship addressing video games in relation to music teaching and learning is at an early stage compared to the corpus of research addressing other aspects of music technology such as music creation or performance (Finney & Burnard, 2007; Webster, 2011). Building upon existing discourse in music education, this chapter draws on scholarship beyond the immediate scope of music teaching and learning to address the following three areas: 1) video games and music education; 2) game-based learning and learning theories; and 3) music and musical engagement within video games. Throughout this chapter we refer to video games in their myriad forms along with the devices on which they are played such as console systems, computers, and mobile devices."

Curwood, J. S., Lammers, J. C. & Magnifico, A. M. (2017). From research to practice: Writing, technology, and English teacher education. In H. L. Hallman (Ed.), Innovations in English Language Arts Teacher Education (Advances in Research on Teaching, Volume 27; pp. 121-141). Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. DOI: 10.1108/S1479-368720170000027007

Writers, their practices, and their tools are mediated by the contexts in which they work. In online spaces and classroom environments, today's writers have increased access to collaborators, readers, and reviewers. Drawing on our experiences as English teacher educators and as researchers of digital literacies and online affinity spaces, this chapter offers examples from three English teacher education programs in the United States and Australia to demonstrate how we link our research in out-of-school spaces to literacy practices in school contexts for our pre-service teachers. To do so, we share an illustrative example from each program and consider how in-class activities and assessment tasks can encourage pre-service teachers to learn about: the importance of clear goals and real-world audiences for writers; the value of self-sponsored, interest-driven writing in the English curriculum; and the role of authentic conversations between readers and writers as part of the writing, revising, and publishing process. The chapter concludes with recommendations for class activities and assessments that could be used within English education programs.

Due to their multiple marginalized identities, gay and lesbian students of color have a different developmental experience and journey towards self-authorship. As a result, counterspaces should be equipped to support gay and lesbian students of color. This paper examines the literature that exists on this topic and offers suggestions for improving our counterspaces on college and university campuses.

Στόχος της παρούσας εργασίας είναι να αναδείξει τις πρόσφατες επιστημονικές αντιλήψεις του ρεύματος των Πολυγραμματισμών που αφορούν στη διαδικασία της μάθησης και την εκπαίδευση στο γραμματισμό. Σύμφωνα με τις παραδοχές του επιστημονικής αυτής παράδοσης, γραμματισμός δεν είναι μόνο ο σχολικός, αλλά και όλες οι μορφές γνώσεων και δεξιοτήτων που αποκτούνται στις εξωσχολικές κοινωνικές πρακτικές που συμμετέχουν τα παιδιά. Ακό-μα, μεγάλο ρόλο στην απόκτηση γραμματισμού παίζει το οικογενειακό και κοινωνικό περιβάλλον των παιδιών, μέσω των ευκαιριών συμμετοχής σε ποικίλες πρακτικές γραμματισμού. Στη συνέχεια, το κάθε παιδί είναι αυτό που δια-πραγματεύεται με τον ξεχωριστό του τρόπο τους πόρους που του προσφέρει το περιβάλλον του, ενεργοποιώντας, κατά την εννοιολογία του Gee, συγκεκριμένου τύπου «επαγγελματικές ταυτότητες» (professional identities).
Με θεωρητικό υπόβαθρο τις απόψεις αυτές, η παρούσα εργασία επιχειρεί να εξετάσει σε ποιο βαθμό ισχύουν οι παραπάνω αντιλήψεις και πώς λειτουργούν στην πράξη, μέσα στις ίδιες, δηλαδή, τις εξωσχολικές πρακτικές γραμματισμου των παιδιών. Για το λόγο αυτό, το ενδιαφέρον στρέφεται στο παράδειγμα της ενασχόλησης με τα ηλεκτρονικά παιχνίδια, ως μίας από τις πιο δημοφιλείς δραστηριότητες των νέων στην εποχή μας. Ειδικότερα, αξιοποιώντας τη θεωρία του Gee και, ιδιαίτερα, τις «αρχές μάθησης» των ηλεκτρονικών παιχνιδιών, παρουσιάζεται ένα μέρος από μια ερευνητική δραστηριότητα όπου συμμετείχαν τέσσερις μαθητές από τη μειονοτική κοινότητα της Θράκης. Το επί-κεντρο του ερευνητικού προβληματισμού εντοπίζεται στον τρόπο με τον οποίο μία από αυτές τις αρχές μάθησης, η λεγόμενη αρχή των «χώρων συνάφειας», επιδρά στις κινήσεις των παιδιών πάνω στα ηλεκτρονικά παιχνίδια.
Τα πορίσματα της έρευνας επιβεβαιώνουν ότι ο τρόπος που χειρίζονται και μαθαίνουν τα παιδιά τα ηλεκτρονικά παιχνίδια αποτελεί συνάρτηση των «χώρων συνάφειας» που συμμετέχουν, επηρεάζεται από το εκάστοτε κοινωνικό περιβάλλον τους, καθώς και από το είδος των «επαγγελματικών ταυτοτήτων» που ενεργοποιεί το καθένα κατά την εμπλοκή του. Τέλος, διατυπώνονται προτάσεις, ώστε τα συμπεράσματα αυτά να αξιοποιηθούν γόνιμα και δημιουργικά στη διδακτική πράξη.

Microblogging has emerged as popular tool for networking and communications among millions of users. The most popular microblogging application, Twitter, allows virtual groups to form spontaneously around shared interests and set times to come together to discuss a topic, resulting in what this study terms synchronous microblogging. These chats can result in an overwhelming intensity of discussion reminiscent of “drinking from a fire hose”. This study explored how social aggregation was characterized in this informal learning environment and identified the success strategies and coping mechanisms that chat participants employed. The study broadened the knowledge of the mechanics of successful synchronous microblogging chats and identified ways to motivate individuals to participate. Twitter chats were characterized by low levels of formality, high levels of topic focus, tight and loose relationship-building, high resource sharing, and high structure. The study was unable to determine whether knowledge can be socially constructed within a Twitter chat.

The author argues that since the 1990's efforts to challenge privilege and oppression have moved away from public engagement and toward private and personal forms of redress.  The article examines four online and on campus examples, privilege checking, virtue signaling, affinity groups, and safe spaces, to illustrate how increasingly progressive politics grounds claims in the body ceding public discourse to the far right.

En este estudio se examinan algunas prácticas sociales virtuales que permiten a los usuarios agruparse en comunidades lectoras y formar parte de la cultura participativa. Tengamos en cuenta, en este sentido, que la mayoría de las investigaciones que se han realizado en torno a la lectura digital se han centrado principalmente en dos aspectos: los cambios que, en teoría, ha introducido el soporte digital y las características discursivas, formales, temáticas y pragmáticas que definen los (hiper) textos electrónicos. Sin embargo, apenas ha sido iniciada como línea de investigación el análisis de los mecanismos, estrategias y formas de interacción que pueden generarse en los escenarios virtuales. Los resultados que arroje su estudio pueden mostrar de manera más clara su potencialidad formativa y su valor en el ámbito de la educación literaria. Desde esta perspectiva, debe señalarse que existen plataformas y redes sociales que promueven la participación y la colaboración de sus usuarios. Específicamente, aquellos espacios de afinidad que unen a escritores y lectores generan comunidades muy motivadas con un alto nivel de implicación en el aprendizaje. Esto permite el desarrollo de lectores mucho más competentes formados en contextos de aprendizaje informal basados en la motivación y los intereses lúdicos compartidos entre los usuarios.

Before, during, and after concerts, fans of The Grateful Dead, their associated acts (e.g., Furthur, Phil & Friends, Ratdog), Phish, Widespread Panic, and other improvisation oriented jam bands flock to venues’ parking lots to share experiences, construct fantasy set lists, debate band related lore, buy and sell fan made goods, listen to music, and participate in numerous other scene related activities. By voluntarily situating oneself in and interacting with others in these spaces, an exchange of knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as co-construction of communal language, norms, and behaviors occurs. This interdisciplinary manuscript draws on fields such as education, sociology, and social-psychology to conceptualize parking lots as physical affinity spaces where participants in the jam band fan culture connect through shared interests and activities; as opposed to socially constructed identity markers such as race, socioeconomic class, gender, and sexuality.

Given enough time, a thousand monkeys sitting at a thousand typewriters will produce the complete works of Shakespeare. Under a similar premise, the phenomena that is Twitch Plays Pokemon has set out to see if order can arise from chaos. Can a thousand gamers at a thousand computers can collectively beat the game Pokemon? In this paper we analyse the phenomena of Twitch Plays Pokemon using Gee’s (2003) framework of big G Games ((G)ames).

In this paper, the author reviews the history of the #sschat network, an informal and organic professional development community that emerged on Twitter in 2010 and has grown beyond solely that medium and shifted ever since. The author has served as a co-leader of #sschat since 2012 and therefore tells the #sschat story from an emic perspective. The paper details the rise and evolution of #sschat, responsibilities of co-leaders, efforts of collective resource sharing, organization of face-to-face events, and online network infrastructure. In sharing this history, the author hopes educators and researchers might consider the possibilities and challenges of understanding informal subject-area communities online. He concludes with implications for the field.

Abstract: This paper considers the relation between literacy, social media practices and rhetoric, by focusing on game-related spaces as sites for learning. Studies from various disciplinary research domains like anthropology (eg Ito and Bittanti 2010) and socio-linguistics (eg Gee 2003) connect games and learning. Gee (2003) provocatively claims that games can be considered more powerful learning environments than traditional education. He attributes several learning principles to gaming, thereby also calling attention to affinity ...

This article addresses the identity and educational crisis of hundreds of thousands of children who have grown up in the United States and now attend school in Mexico as a result of deportation and repatriation. The author draws connections between these Otros Dreamers’ realities and the potential realities of hundreds of thousands more students still living in the United States and makes the case for incorporating massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) in schools for providing an interest-based identity and educational sanctuary for these students.

En este trabajo se hace una reflexión acerca de los nuevos procesos de recepción y  producción textuales realizados en espacios de afinidad. Nos centraremos concretamente  en aquellos relacionados con obras de literatura juvenil. Con este estudio se comprueba la  importancia que estos espacios tienen a la hora de lanzar propuestas innovadoras en el
ámbito de la educación literaria.

This book will examine the unique way that fathers around the world contribute to the positive educational outcomes of children. From ages 3 to 18 (Pre K – 12), fathers play a distinct, developmental and directed role in their children's schooling. We seek empirical research-based submissions, both quantitative and qualitative, that highlight what fathers do to help their children get ahead in school. We define fathering as biological or non-biological male parenting. Submissions are not limited to but can include: race, gender, socioeconomic status, and/or comparative analysis from around the world.

Este trabajo se centra en cómo lectores y escritores amateurs encuentran en la red un espacio idóneo para desarrollar prácticas sociales relacionadas con sus centros de interés. Este escenario digital propicia que las actividades de los lectores no se limiten a la recepción de textos, sino que se amplían para abarcar producciones hipertextuales, en sentido genettiano del término. Desde esta perspectiva, se realiza una selección y descripción de propuestas de creación por parte de miembros de comunidades virtuales. Asimismo, se muestra un análisis de las complejas estructuras autoorganizadas de colaboración entre productores y receptores, entre las cuales surgen formas híbridas como las del lector beta.

Abstract: This paper considers the relation between literacy, social media practices and rhetoric, by focusing on game-related spaces as sites for learning. Studies from various disciplinary research domains like anthropology (eg Ito and Bittanti 2010) and socio-linguistics (eg Gee 2003) connect games and learning. Gee (2003) provocatively claims that games can be considered more powerful learning environments than traditional education. He attributes several learning principles to gaming, thereby also calling attention to affinity ...

In 2014, the Turkish National Education Council recommending teaching Ottoman Turkish as a mandatory subject in all high schools. Since that time, this historical register of the Turkish language has been making a popular comeback. This is especially true online, where participants are creating and sharing new content written in Ottoman. This article examines evidence of the revival of Ottoman Turkish in digital “affinity spaces” in order to show it is not only being excavated, but is developing independently from its own historical past. In taking into consideration new calligraphic styles, the political and cultural subtext of memes, and the rewriting of modern Turkish back into the Ottoman lexicon, this paper will identify the form of Ottoman emerging in digital spaces as a unique new iteration of the language.

Drawing upon ethnographic and case study research conducted across two educational settings in the United States, this article examines emergent spaces and practices of education that result from, or are affected by, the presence of minoritized diasporic communities. In light of ongoing currents of xenophobia in the United States and practices of racialization in everyday experiences of schooling, I argue that these diasporic educational spaces work as counterspaces of epistemic possibility, in which conceptions of identity and belonging—ones that are often foreclosed in the mainstream and predominantly white educational spaces—become viable. Examining the cultural production within these spaces troubles the idea that diasporic educational spaces primarily maintain or privilege trans- national ties to “home.” I conclude that these educational spaces highlight two related points: first, diasporic educational sites engender creative possibilities for reworking exclusionary discourses; second, they point to the need for a further decentering and decolonization of pedagogy and curriculum in public secondary schools.

Creating, sharing, and critiquing user-generated content are increasingly common practices in online environments, as users become active producers, reviewers, and promoters, not just consumers, of content. This paper investigates the functions of the opening posts in an online
discussion forum dedicated to user-generated game levels (i.e., mini-games) designed with the LittleBigPlanet digital game series. In the analyzed community, the first post of each
thread plays a crucial role, as authors introduce themselves, present their work, and set the stage for discussion. Findings show that the opening post carries a variety of discursive functions: it serves as a creative presentation of content, a self-reflective disclosure of practices, and a passionate call to participation. Moreover, by artfully using these themes, participants construct the opening post as a “request for absolution.” Through an ethnographic discourse analysis approach that draws on politeness theory, this study furthers the understanding of how users discursively construct and seek to increase opportunities for interaction, peer feedback, and social learning in a creative online space.

En este trabajo se ha realizado un análisis
de las actividades sociales y creativas
llevadas a cabo por seguidores de la saga literaria
Canción de Hielo y Fuego en la página
web Los Siete Reinos. El estudio ha permitido
comprobar cómo los lectores amplían y
manipulan los contenidos textuales para
modificar y expandir la experiencia lúdica y
estética relacionada con las obras literarias:
el receptor se convierte en co-creador de la
obra. Este hecho evidencia la importancia
de los espacios de afinidad en el proceso de
recepción, ya que favorecen una interacción
que va mucho más allá de la comprensión e
interpretación del texto original. Desde esta
perspectiva, se hace una revisión de las prácticas
creativas en este escenario de comunicación
para concluir que poseen un potencial
formativo extraordinario con el que plantear
propuestas innovadoras en el ámbito de la
educación literaria.

Moral education affinity has a very important influence on the smoothdevelopment of moral education activities and the improvement of educationaleffectiveness. From the perspective of psychology, the needs and emotions ofthe educatees are its motivational mechanism, the will of the educatees is itsmaintenance mechanism, psychological compatibility is its guarantee mechanism,and the learning psychology of the educatees is the reinforcement mechanism.The generation of moral education affinity is the process of educators’ activeinterpersonal attraction, the application of positive psychological effect, the changeof educatees’ attitude, and the psychological exchange and interaction betweeneducators and educatees. The main way to cultivate moral education affinity isto fully pay attention to the needs or changes of the educatees, make efforts tostimulate and strengthen the learning motivation, maintain the main status androle of the educatees, and enhance the appeal and affinity of the educationalprocess through the unity of knowledge and action.

To counter inequitable, hierarchical classroom structures, research in the fields of language and literacy studies often looks to the affordances of online spaces, such as affinity spaces, for learning that is collaborative and knowledge that is distributed; yet, researchers continue to locate their
studies in virtual spaces, outside classroom walls. This study, situated in a high school writing class, repositions the familiar classroom practice of peer feedback as a way to access affinity space features. Using qualitative case study design and grounded theory analysis, the study reveals that,
when supported by an emphasis on social connection, the practice of peer feedback served as a portal for students with a range of writing experience and interest to collaborate and exchange honest feedback, practices indicative of affinity space features. Yet, traditional expectations preserved teacher roles and student roles in ways that prevented the class from more fully accessing the affinity space features of distributed expertise, porous leadership, and role flexibility. Discussion expands the field’s understanding of affinity spaces and their application in physical classrooms
by outlining new features, theorizing these classroom spaces, and advocating for a reimagined vision of peer feedback in ELA classrooms where role reciprocity and flexibility resist traditional, inequitable classroom structures.

In 2014, the Turkish National Education Council recommending teaching Ottoman Turkish as a mandatory subject in all high schools. Since that time, this his- torical version of the Turkish language has been making a popular comeback. This is especially true online, where participants are creating and sharing new content written in what they claim to be Ottoman. This article examines evidence of the revival of Ottoman Turkish in digital “affinity spaces” in order to show that rather than being merely excavated, Ottoman Turkish is being revived as a set of new and creative lin- guistic practices that reflect modern sensibilities and developments in modern Turk- ish. In taking into consideration new calligraphic styles, the political and cultural subtext of memes, and the rewriting of modern Turkish words back into the Ottoman lexicon, this article shows how rather than enforcing the traditional language and its attendant cultural politics, the revival of Ottoman has opened up the space for creative language play and experimentation with modern Turkish in these virtual linguistic landscapes.

​André Czauderna beschäftigt sich mit Lernprozessen im Internet am Beispiel eines Forums zum Videospiel Pokémon. In vier objektiv hermeneutischen Sequenzanalysen rekonstruiert er die Strukturmerkmale, die den Prozess des Lernens – verstanden als soziale Praxis – im Rahmen der untersuchten Threads charakterisieren. Schließlich skizziert er die Grundzüge einer soziologischen Theorie des Lernens in Computerspielinternetforen.​

The project ‘Multimedia in science teaching: five years of research and teaching in Portugal’ was  successful  in  featuring  the  national  research  on  multimedia  in  science  education  and  in providing the community with a simple reference tool – a repository of open access scientific texts. The  current  work  aims  to  describe  the  theoretical  background  that  may  allow  creating  and sustainably  developing  an  online  community  on  science  teaching.  The  community  should  be  capable  of  appropriating  and  generating  scientific  peer  review  and  validation  processes,  which would    allow    reflections    on    teaching    practices    in    science    areas    using    information    and communication  technologies  (ICT)  and  improvements  from  a  participatory  science  perspective. Through  an  action-research  process,  the  current  platform  is  being  adjusted  in  the  sense  of implementing strategies able to attract and engage an interested public and progressively to create a community of peers. The project is particularly relevant with respect to the gap between academic production  and  pedagogical  practice  and  the  avenues  that it opens for comparing affinity spaces across different locations and domains of interest.

A great many adolescents and young adults participate heavily in online affinity spaces around videogames. Committed contributors spend upwards of 20 hours each week researching, writing, and editing to contribute to wikis, fan fiction stories, and other literacy-rich online spaces. Many of these individuals hope to leverage their work toward careers as professionals in the gaming and publishing industries (Ochsner & Martin, 2013). Through ongoing case study interviews, this study explores the goals and trajectories that these writers form, using Miller and Slater’s (2000) expansive potential and expansive realization as lenses for analysis. As a part of a broader trajectory, the goal of this research is to reveal how educators and industry professionals can support young affinity group leaders as they work to establish and build careers as professionals.

User-created wikis around popular videogames function as affinity spaces and sites of participatory culture , forming a constellation of literacies and information around the game. In previous research on wiki editors, we determined that many contributors hope to leverage their experience to gain entry into professional industry positions. The question we address in this paper is whether the content created by these editors is comparable to the professionally published guides around games. Based on lexical and Coh-Metrix analyses of game-based wiki texts, our findings would suggest that the texts themselves do stand up to professional texts.