As childrens digital lives become more relevant to schools and educators, the question of play and learning is being revisited in new and interesting ways. Childrens Virtual Play Worlds: Culture, Learning, and Participation provides a more reasoned account of childrens play engagements in virtual worlds through a number of scholarly perspectives, exploring key concerns and issues which have come to the forefront. The global nature of the research in this edited volume embraces many different areas of study from school based research, sociology, cultural studies, psychology, to contract law showing how childrens play and learning in virtual spaces has great potential and possibilities.
| Acknowledgments |
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vii | |
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1 Introduction: The changing landscapes of children's play worlds |
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1 | (9) |
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2 Post-industrial play: Understanding the relationship between traditional and converged forms of play in the early years |
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10 | (16) |
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3 Developmental implications for children's virtual worlds |
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26 | (12) |
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4 Stardolls and the virtual playground: How identity construction works in the new digital frontier |
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38 | (21) |
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5 Breaking the ice: Play, friendships and online identities in young children's use of virtual worlds |
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59 | (20) |
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6 "Cause I know how to get friends---plus they like my dancing": (L)earning the Nexus of Practice in Club Penguin |
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79 | (20) |
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7 Virtual day or virtual play: Identity shaping, consumer building and corporate affiliation versus literacies affordance inside barbiegirls.com |
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99 | (20) |
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8 May the force be with you: Harnessing the power of brain-computer games |
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119 | (14) |
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9 "Hey! Can you show me how to do this?" Digital games as a mediator of family time |
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133 | (18) |
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10 Digital play structures: Examining the terms of use (and play) found in children's commercial virtual worlds |
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151 | (22) |
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11 Green pixels to green behaviours: Sustainability literacy in virtual worlds for children |
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173 | (27) |
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12 An argument for assemblage theory: Integrated spaces, mobility, and polycentricity |
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200 | (17) |
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217 | (4) |
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| Contributors |
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221 | |
Anne Burke is an Associate Professor in Literacy Education and Early Learning at Memorial University. She has a PhD from the University of Toronto. She is a multiple Canadian SSHRC grant scholar and maintains a strong research presence in Canadian schools researching new literacies and the role of social media in childrens lives. She has authored and co-edited a number of books in the areas of childrens literate play lives, new literacies studies, and popular culture. Recent book titles include Play to Learn (2010) and Assessing New Literacies: Perspectives from the Classroom (2009). Jackie Marsh (BA, PGCE, MEd, PhD) is Professor of Education at the University of Sheffield, UK. Recent publications include Changing Play: Play, Media and Commercial Culture from the 1950s to the Present Day (with Bishop, in press), Handbook of Early Childhood Literacy, 2nd edition (co-edited with Larson, 2012), and Virtual Literacies: Interactive Spaces for Children and Young People (co-edited with Merchant, Gillen and Davies, 2012). She is an editor of the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy.
