ERIC Number: EJ1123687
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2042-7530
EISSN: N/A
Let's Play: Exploring Literacy Practices in an Emerging Videogame Paratext
Burwell, Catherine; Miller, Thomas
E-Learning and Digital Media, v13 n3-4 p109-125 May-Jul 2016
This article explores the literacy practices associated with Let's Play videos (or LPs) on YouTube. A hybrid of digital gaming and video, LPs feature gameplay footage accompanied by simultaneous commentary recorded by the player. Players may set out to promote, review, critique or satirize a game. In recent years, LPs have become hugely popular with young audiences, and currently make up over half the top hundred channels on YouTube. The authors identify LPs as emerging videogame paratexts with pedagogical potential. In particular, they ask how LPs function as sites of new literacies. They answer that question by discussing two key characteristics of LP practices: their emphasis on processes of meaning-making within games; and their mobilization of literacies associated with remix and appropriation. The final section of the article explores how LP practices might inform literacy instruction in schools.
Descriptors: Video Games, Literacy, Educational Practices, Educational Games, Web 2.0 Technologies, Computer Mediated Communication, Online Systems, Social Media, Educational Technology, Teaching Methods
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A