Video Games for Learning
Course
Games Give Us Communal Affinity [5:49]
Video games give us communal affinity. It gives us a shared set of interests, a topic that we can pick up with a complete stranger but feel a complete amount of closeness to them because of these shared experiences.
Video games give us communal affinity. It gives us a shared experience, a shared set of interests, a topic that we can pick up with a complete stranger but feel a complete amount of closeness to them because of these experiences that we go through together. Often, it is referred to as "gamer talk." The term "gamer talk" refers to the way that video game players use a shorthand back and forth with one another, different terms that are used specifically in video games that are unique to video games. The same terms exist outside of this. In science, we talk about "whale talk" being the language that whales use to talk to one another. Or "ape talk' being the language that apes use to talk to one another.
But in this case, gamer talk is something you'll want to pay attention to. You don't need to be a gamer in order to pick up on the words that the students are using, but by picking up on the words that the students are using, it's showing that you care about their interests, that you are offering them communal affinity in your library because their interests are welcomed. Even when played completely alone, video games and the act of playing video games results in stories that we can tell one another. We can share these experiences. It might be an epic win that you faced when you were playing a game recently or maybe you were playing online with a group of friends and some random, ridiculous experience happened, like the way that one character was able to take down an entire enemy fleet. Who knows?
Those experiences are unique to the people playing them. I can recount from being a child sharing Super Mario Brothers 3. It was a game I hadn't yet purchased on my Nintendo Entertainment System, but everyone around the playground seemed to be talking about it. They talked about getting to the giant level where all the characters, all the enemies were twice the size as normal. They talked about the ice level and a particular jump where everyone was falling off into the water below. My friends talked about this game that I didn't have yet and I wanted to be part of that community. I wanted to be part of that conversation.
When I did get the game, I got to be part of the shared storytelling and sharing different experiences from the same game. We're creating tribes when we play video games, tribes where we feel that sort of affinity, where we have that shared experience, where we can talk about the same resources, the same levels, the same bad guys, the same strategies that we use to execute an objective. Tribe, to a gamer, means sharing the wins that you have accomplished, talking about the trophies that you've earned, sharing discoveries that you've come across while playing through a world. It even means showing playthrough videos on YouTube. I'm willing to bet many of your students are aware of video game playthroughs on YouTube, which is, strictly as it sounds, someone recording their screen while they play through a level of a video game and then sharing it.
We might, on the surface, think that that's silly, why not play the game yourself? But really, it's that I get to watch you playing this story. I get to experience that adventure with you, alongside you. Perhaps you can even show me how to play it better, just by me watching you. Taking what we've just discussed about communal affinity in games let's consider what this could look like in your library.
Imagine a lesson where everyone is valued as an expert, instead of everyone having a job, like recorder or artist or reporter. Those jobs don't serve anyone well, it just gives people a job to do. We need to create a situation where everyone brings something to the table. And that might even require students being more introspective and thinking about, "What can I offer? What perspective, whether it be something that I can do in writing or in creating or just knowledge, that I can share? What can I offer to be the expert in a given situation?"
We can look at how little discoveries can be celebrated as big wins based on the level of impact within that community. And so it might be that someone in your classroom has found a new way to connect literature to other classes. Maybe they are experts on book talking to their friends or in recommending books that everyone seems to want to read. That's the kind of kid that I want to recognize in my library and that I want to make sure feels they are a part of my community.
And that's something I strive to do with each of my students. I want them to know that they all have a place in my library, that they all contribute something and that they all have something new to show me as well. Approach your students that same way and watch what they give back to you. I guarantee that it will make you feel like you're an even deeper part of their community as well.
In gaming, communal affinity is the relationship fostered through the shared experiences of playing games. Gamers relate to each other through game-situated storytelling, language or "gamer talk," and retelling of discoveries, wins, and unique events, sometimes via playthrough videos. In the community and in watching playthroughs (i.e., YouTube recordings of a person playing a game), gamers demonstrate appreciation for fellow gamers. In the school library setting, communal affinity can be shaped by considering all students "experts" in various areas and acknowledging that everyone can bring something to the table. A process of self-reflection can support students in discovering their contributions.
Gaming communities are examples of "participatory culture," environments characterized by five conditions:
- Relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement
- Strong support for creating and sharing one's creations with others
- Some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices
- Members believe that their contributions matter
- Members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created) (Jenkins, 2006 in Hamilton, 2011).
Notice that "members matter" in a participatory culture, aligning with the description of valuing peers in the game or in the library in Winner's Lesson 5. Here, Buffy Hamilton describes what participatory may look culture looks like in the school library setting:
A climate of participation, risk-taking, acceptance of 'messy' learning, and inquiry in the school library creates conversations for fostering organic, responsive, relevant, and dynamic school library programs. When the school librarian is a partner for learning, the boundaries between the traditional classroom and library space become one shared learning space.
1. Read the article where this quote appears.
Hamilton, Buffy J. "Creating Conversations for Learning: School Libraries as Sites of Participatory Culture." School Library Monthly 27, no. 8 (May 2011): 41-43 (provided in Resources below).
2. Make a list of 2-3 "take-aways" from this article to introduce or strengthen communal affinity and participatory culture in your school library.
MLA Citation
Morris, Rebecca J. "Video Games for Learning: What Do You Bring to the Table?" School Library Connection, November 2024, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1985416?learningModuleId=1980803&topicCenterId=2247903.
Entry ID: 2122886
Additional Resources
About the Author
MLA Citation
Winner, Matthew C. "Video Games for Learning. Games Give Us Communal Affinity [5:49]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, November 2015, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1985416?learningModuleId=1980803&topicCenterId=2247903.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1985416?learningModuleId=1980803&topicCenterId=2247903
Entry ID: 1985416