Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Celebrating #videogamesday - information behaviour in computer gaming

Apparently today is Video Games day, so I will celebrate with some links to a few research articles and dissertations about information behaviour and information literacy in videogames, which is one of my research interests. By that, I mean looking at what information behaviour and information literacy people deploy when they are playing videogames, I don't mean developing games about information literacy.
- Bebbington, S. and Vellino, A. (2015). Can playing Minecraft improve teenagers’ information literacy? Journal of Information Literacy, 9(2), 6-26. https://doi.org/10.11645/9.2.2029 (open access)
- Gumulak, S. and Webber, S. (2011). Playing video games: learning and information literacy. Aslib Proceedings, 63(2/3), 241-255. https://doi.org/10.1108/00012531111135682 (apologies - as I'm coauthor I should have made sure there is an open access version, but I'm afraid there isn't a legal one at the moment).
- Hollister, J. M. (2016). In- and Out-of-Character: The Digital Literacy Practices and Emergent Information Worlds of Active Role-Players in a New Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. PhD dissertation. Florida State University. http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2016SP_Hollister_fsu_0071E_13100 (open access). Although this foregrounds "digital literacy" in fact it is also concerned with information behaviour and information literacy. "Qualitative data was collected from in-game chatlogs, screenshots, audiovisual recordings, and a sampling of community artifacts, such as forums and other community-mediated websites. Additionally, 17 sets of semi-structured interviews were conducted both in- and out-of-character to better understand the intersections between the informants' real and virtual lives. The findings both confirm and expand upon previous work on the social aspects of digital literacy practices of MMORPG players. Role-playing, as a social and creative activity, is highly dependent on the effective exchange of information."
- Martin, C. (2012). Video Games, Identity, and the Constellation of Information. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 32(5), 384-392. https://doi.org/10.1177/0270467612463797 (priced)
- Martin, C. and Steinkuehler, C. (2010). Collective Information Literacy in Massively Multiplayer Online Games. E–Learning and Digital Media, 7(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/elea.2010.7.4.355 (priced)
- Song, J. (2015). Cultural influences on information behavior in gaming. MSc dissertation. University of Sheffield Information School. http://dagda.shef.ac.uk/dispub/dissertations/2015-16/External/Jian_Song.pdf (open access). I have supervised over a dozen Masters dissertations on the topic og gaming and information, and this is one of them.
The illustration is a photo of me playing a hammer game inside the virtual 3D world, Second Life.

No comments: