Affinity spacesste mxcon13

Tropf - Anity Spaces Slide
Anity
Spaces as
Learning
Tools
1

About Me
2(Gee, 2004)
Doctoral Candidate: School Psychology @ University
of Florida
Specialization: Program Evaluation
Minor: Research & Evaluation Methodology
Dissertation (Pending): Motivation, Goal Orientation,
and Academic Performance in Educational Games
and Anity Spaces
School Psychology Intern with Alachua County Public
Schools (Gainesville, Florida area)
Co/founder & CEO of Immersed Games (early ed tech
startup)

Agenda
3

1
Agenda
3

1
Literature
Review
Community of Practice
Affinity Space
2
Agenda
3

1
Literature
Review
Affinity Space
2
Research
On Affinity Spaces
for Learning
3
Agenda
3

1
Literature
Review
Affinity Space
2
Research
On Affinity Spaces
for Learning
3
Examples
from Case Studies
& research
4
Agenda
3

1
Literature
Review
Affinity Space
2
Research
On Affinity Spaces
for Learning
3
Examples
from Case Studies
& research
4
Classroom
Implementation
Ideas & discussion
for implementing
Agenda
3

Literature
Review
4

Impacting the way people learn
Children now learn frequently in informal settings
Gee argues:
Learning process is more ecient when the learning
becomes part of a culture
Learner becomes more involved with learning
Technological Changes
5
if students think of themselves as scientists,
how will this impact their practices?
(Gee, 2004)

Tropf - Anity Spaces Slide 6
“Groups of people who share a
concern or passion for something they
do and learn how to do it better as
they interact regularly.”
(Wenger, 2009)

Learning is deeply tied to identity
Identity within a Community of Practice
7
Becoming
Skillful
Developing
an Identity+
one process
membership motivates
& provides meaning
(Lave, 1991)

1
Problems Applying Community of Practice
“Community” has connotations of belonging
& personal ties (not necessarily accurate)
2 “Community” implies people are ‘members’
(not necessarily anymore)
3 “Community of Practice” term broadly used
(makes organizing research dicult)
to online spaces
(Cox, 2005; Gee, 2005; Hayes & Duncan, 2012)

Online environment where people are
organized around a common
endeavor or interest.
Anity Spaces
(Gee, 2004)

Tropf - Defense Slide
Anity Space
Generator
Content Portals
people engage with
content through (such
as forums)
for the content to be about
(such as the game)
10(Gee, 2005)

Features of Anity Spaces
11(Gee, 2005)
Common endeavor, not race, class,
gender, or disability, is primary.
1

12(Gee, 2005)
Newbies and masters and everyone
else share common space.
2

13(Gee, 2005)
Some portals are strong generators.
3

14(Gee, 2005)
Content organization is transformed
by interactional organization.
4
content often changed based on portal discussions
students get a real impact

15(Gee, 2005)
Both intensive and extensive
knowledge are encouraged.
5

16(Gee, 2005)
Both individual and distributed
knowledge are valued.
6

17(Gee, 2005)
Dispersed knowledge is encouraged.
7

18(Gee, 2005)
Tacit knowledge is used
and honored.
8

19(Gee, 2005)
There are many dierent forms and
routes to participation.
9

20(Gee, 2005)
There are lots of dierent routes to
status.
10

21(Gee, 2005)
Leadership is porous and leaders are
resources.
11

Extension of spaces onto social media
Anyone can publish, create a new portal, become a generator
Participation multimodal: videos, user art, podcasts, etc.
Increased expectation for this type of sharing
Even more distributed knowledge - multiple portals
Socializing important (doesn’t all have to be on the endeavor)
Impact of Social Media
22(Lammers et al., 2012)
also lets new members engage with low risk

Characteristics of anity spaces often not present in
classrooms (or more weakly present than online)
Digital natives have access to many anity spaces
Dierent, and possibly more powerful, way to learn & have
identity, with anyone developing skills & becoming a leader
Anity Spaces & Classrooms
23
“What these young people see in
school may pale by comparison”
-Gee
(Gee, 2004; Gee, 2005; Squire, 2008)

Research
24

Most research case studies & individual observation
such as in ethnography and qualitative research
Quick Summary
25
Fields & Kafai (2007) observed
students playing game together
learned by asking questions of
strangers or club members in game or
helping each other oine
Davies (2006) found learning is social,
motivated, embedded in the
participant’s life, enjoyable, and
compelling
social patterns around
sharing information
development of literacy
around games & spaces
Steinkuehler and King (2009) at-risk
boys playing game used literacy for
problem solving, researched and created
resources, and synthesized information
Thomas (2005) students spent hours
improving literacy to improve
engagement online
Steinkuehler and Duncan (2008) found
most posts for game reﬂected scientiﬁc
literacy

Examples
26

Looked at learning through online photography space
Concluded learning taking place was:
Social
Motivated
Embedded in participant’s life
Enjoyable
Compelling
Online Learning Site
27(Davies, 2006)

Observed online role-playing & fan ﬁction around Middle Earth
Literature behavior was the most highly valued form of
participation & ability in community
Students spent hours improving literacy in order to improve
their abilities in the online space
A student explained that since his character was supposed
to sound intelligent, he spent lots of time studying how to
improve his English - in books, society, articulate people
Students didn’t think of their community as being a ‘learning
community’
Tolkein Fan-Fiction
29(Thomas, 2005)

After School Program with World of Warcraft
for at-risk boys
develop literacy practices using forums
Observed students:
using literacy for problem-solving
researching
creating multi-modal game resources online
synthesized information over multiple resources
After-School with WoW
30(Steinkuehler & King, 2009)

Coding WoW forum posts on scientiﬁc literacy framework
86% of posts included “social knowledge construction”
Most (65%) also had evidence of evaluative epistemology
(i.e. treating knowledge as open-ended process of evaluation
and argument)
Examining WoW Forum Posts
32(Steinkuehler & Duncan, 2008)
used systems based reasoning 58% of posts
built on others’ ideas 37% of posts
used counter-arguments 37% of posts
used data and evidence 28% of posts
model-based reasoning 11% of posts

33
does calculations on data
experiments
draws conclusions

Classroom
Implementation
34

Anity spaces can be online or oine
Try to think in terms of these types of interactions
Can you adopt these?
Make Your Classroom Like an Anity Space
35
common endeavor is primary
encourages intensive and
extensive knowledge
many dierent forms and
routes to participation
newbies and masters and
everyone else share common
space
encourages individual and
distributed knowledge
lots of dierent routes to
status
some portals are strong
generators
encouraged dispersed
knowledge
leadership is porous and
leaders are resources
content organization is
transformed by interactional
organization
uses and honors tacit
knowledge
(Gee, 2005)

Remember:
Encouraging distributed/specialized knowledge for projects
Multiple ways to contribute
Multiple ways to leadership (which is ﬂuid)
Encouraging identity with the subject
Can create an informal learning space in the classroom
8th Grade Language Arts Class Example
District 504 around Hunger Games to explore utopian/
dystopia societies, connect with current events (eg:
women’s rights for education), “grati” wall, digital media
beliefs
Make Your Classroom Like an Anity Space
36

dystopian utopian
student-created digital art on social issues
(Bruozas, 2013)

Classroom Wikipedia
Use existing anity space for students to engage in
Find an online portal for your area for students to contribute
to -- or even in person in your local community
Example: Maker Culture (one portal: http://
makerfaire.com)
Create your own online forum with assignments students post
to it -- all of your classes can interact together, or even pair with
multiple teachers
Using Online Spaces
38

Tools for Creating a Portal
40
Name URL About
Edmodo https://www.edmodo.com Free social learning system
Wikispaces http://www.wikispaces.com Free Wiki creating for teachers
Free Forums http://www.freeforums.org
Free forums with lots of features
(advertising supported)
ActiveBoard http://activeboard.com
Easy forums with unlimited user free plan
(advertising supported, $8/mo to remove)
Lefora http://www.lefora.com
Simple free forum, also ad supported or
ad removal

Students who didn’t use an online portal said it was because:
“I felt that I had nothing to contribute.”
“I ﬁnd it’s not a very useful way to get answers.”
“I didn’t really need to.”
If you want participation, may need to guide at ﬁrst
Practical Notes
41(Moore & Iida, 2010)

DISCUSSION
?
42

Beavis, C., Apperley, T., Bradford, C., O’Mara, J., & Walsh, C. (2009). Literacy in the digital
age: Learning from computer games. English in Education, 43(2), 162–175. doi:10.1111/j.
1754-8845.2009.01035.x
Bruozas, M. (2013). Anity spaces at Gray school - Engaging and connected learning!
Retrieved http://ccap-team.blogspot.com/2013/03/anity-spaces-at-gray-school-
engaging.html
Cox, A. (2005). What are communities of practice? A comparative review of four seminal
works. Journal of Information Science, 31(6), 527–540. doi:10.1177/0165551505057016
Davies, J. (2006). Anities and beyond! Developing ways of seeing in online spaces. E-
Learning, 3(2), 217. doi:10.2304/elea.2006.3.2.217
DeVane, B. (2012). Whither membership? Identity and social learning in anity spaces. In
E. R. Hayes & S. C. Duncan (Eds.), Learning in Video Game Anity Spaces (pp. 162–185).
New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
Fields, D. A., & Kafai, Y. B. (2007). Tracing insider knowledge across time and spaces: A
connective ethnography in a teen online game world, 199–208.
Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated Language and Learning: A Critique of Traditional Schooling.
New York, NY: Routledge.
References
43

Gee, J. P. (2005). Semiotic social spaces and anity spaces. In Beyond Communities of
Practice (pp. 214–232). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
Hayes, E. R., & Duncan, S. C. (2012). Expanding the Anity Space. In Learning in Video
Game Anity Spaces (pp. 1–22). New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
King, E. M. (2010). Exploring intersections between online and oine anity space
participation (pp. 486–487). Presented at the International Conference of the Learning
Sciences, International Society of the Learning Sciences.
Lammers, J. C., Curwood, J. S., & Magniﬁco, A. M. (2012). Toward an anity space
methodology: Considerations for literacy research. English Teaching: Practice and
Critique, 11(2), 44–58.
Lave, J. (1991). Situating learning in communities of practice. Perspectives on Socially
Shared Cognition, 2, 63–82.
Moore, K., & Iida, S. (2010). Students’ perception of supplementary, online activities for
Japanese language learning: Groupwork, quiz, and discussion tools. Australasian Journal
of Educational Technology, 26(7), 966-979.
Steinkuehler, C., & Duncan, S. (2008). Scientiﬁc Habits of Mind in Virtual Worlds. Journal
of Science Education and Technology, 17(6), 530–543. doi:10.1007/s10956-008-9120-8
References
44

Steinkuehler, C., & King, E. (2009). Digital literacies for the disengaged: creating after
school contexts to support boys' game-based literacy skills. On the Horizon, 17(1), 47–59.
doi:10.1108/10748120910936144
Steinkuehler, C., Compton-Lilly, C., & King, E. (2010). Reading in the context of online
games, 222–229. Presented at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences.
Squire, K. (2008). Critical education in an interactive age. Mirror Images: Popular Culture
and Education, 105–125.
Squire, K. (2011). Video Games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the
Digital Age. New York: Teachers College Press.
Thomas, A. (2005). Children online: learning in a virtual community of practice. E-
Learning and Digital Media, 2(1), 27–38.
Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems. Organization,
7(2), 225–246. doi:10.1177/135050840072002
Wenger, E. (2009, January 31). Communities of practice: a brief introduction.
Ewenger.com. Retrieved January 12, 2013, from http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
References
45

Affinity spacesste mxcon13

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (18)

Similar to Affinity spacesste mxcon13

Similar to Affinity spacesste mxcon13 (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Affinity spacesste mxcon13