This article offers an empirically based contribution to the growing body of studies using Conversation Analysis (CA) as a tool for analyzing second/foreign language learning in and through interaction. Building on a sociointeractional view of learning as grounded in the structures of participation in social activities, we apply CA methods to…

Video games and new communication metaphors are quickly changing today's young people habits. Considering the actual e-learning scenarios, embedded in a fully technological enabled environment it is crucial to take advantage of this kind of capabilities to let learning process gain best results. This paper presents a virtual campus created using…

Web 2.0 technology is expanding rapidly from social and gaming uses into the educational applications. Specifically, the multi-user virtual environment (MUVE), such as SecondLife, allows educators to fill the gap of first-hand experience by creating simulated realistic evolving problems/games. In a pilot study, a team of educators at the…

Videogames have become a cultural and commercial phenomenon across the globe. Researchers and educators have been working to understand how to leverage these tools in education. However, there are few training opportunities that focus on the positive attributes of games in education for preservice teachers. This paper describes the preliminary…

Researchers question how and what students learn from commercial digital games. Using a concurrent mixed-methods approach, this study examined 30 students' construction of knowledge and skills while playing a commercial off-the-shelf game for 7 weeks. Quantitative data included students' background survey and pre- and post-assessments for…

Widespread adoption of the Internet during the past two decades has produced the first generation of digital natives. Ninety-five children (M[subscript age] = 10.4 years) completed a questionnaire that measured three clusters of variables: 1) Internet use at home and school, 2) peer, school, and home self-esteem, 3) and cognitive abilities…

The evaluation of educational interventions requires assessments that consistently (reliably) produce data from which accurate (valid) inferences about the test subjects can be made for some stated purpose. Despite codified definitions of all these terms, there remains vibrant debate about the assessment design process and how measures of…

This article addresses practices of textual appropriation in computer games made by young people. By focusing on how young people's production work makes reference to popular media texts, it examines the basis on which such work claims to be legible as a game text: how it claims to be literate in the context of an after-school game-making club.…

This paper addresses the potential for increased deployment of immersive virtual worlds in higher geographic education. An account of current practice regarding popular culture in the geography classroom is offered, focusing on the objectification of popular culture rather than its constitutive role vis-a-vis place. Current e-learning practice is…

Questionnaires were completed by 5th-, 8th-, and 11th-grade public schools students in rural and suburban school districts and by undergraduates at two universities in the United States (n = 1,242). They were asked about their orientation to video games--the amount of time they played, their motives for doing so, and the game types they…

While formal research into the effect various technologies have on vocabulary acquisition is still in its infancy, it is clear that--intentionally or incidentally--students have used various electronic media to learn new words for some time now. Moreover, although it is still far from clear exactly how one acquires vocabulary in a second language…

Video games are potential sources of second language input; however, the medium's fundamental characteristic, interactivity, has not been thoroughly examined in terms of its effect on learning outcomes. This experimental study investigated to what degree, if at all, video game interactivity would help or hinder the noticing and recall of second…

This article provides practical ideas for integrating technologies into the classroom in ways that honor students' out-of-school technology funds of knowledge. The challenges and unintended consequences of integrating technology into the classroom and the role that video gaming can play in helping students find agency and the ability to think…

As professors working in faculties of education for the past ten years researching digital gameplay and the design and development of games for education, the authors have often been asked whether digital games are good or bad for children. The discourse of good/bad is a slippery one and the authors believe that digital games, like television,…

The current study examines the impact of racial representation on character identification and postgame play hostility. Examining data from Black and White participants, results suggest that cueing racial attributes influences identification and elicits stereotyping and hostile outcomes. Specifically, White players displayed more hostile thoughts…