The major objectives and expected outcomes of the workshop:
Play and childhood are deeply entwined; yet children remain largely marginal in digital games studies research and literature. Therefore, this workshop aims firstly to bring together researchers in games studies that focus on children’s digital play in order to build networks and visibility around this area of games research.
Secondly, we also want to use this workshop as an opportunity to establish an interdisciplinary dialogue with scholars from other fields such as sociology of childhood, education, media studies, children’s geographies, and developmental psychology in order to provide a space in which diverse disciplinary perspectives, theories, frameworks and methods in studies of children and digital games can be explored.
Some of the key concerns and themes that guide this interest include:
Challenging debates and (false) distinctions made about the relative value of digital versus non-digital children’s play, and the persistent role of moral assessments in these discourses.
Exploring the increasing complexity of children’s ‘postdigital’ play worlds, in which digital and physical play exist in overlapping ecologies with fluid borders.
Investigating questions of policies and regulation around children’s digital play, especially in relation to what games/play are privileged in both games research and in wider society.
Considering changing digital game interfaces and content, and how research can keep pace with change.
Critiquing the early gendering of children’s digital play and engagement with paratextual material. What role do researchers of children’s play have in contributing to broader efforts aimed at increasing inclusivity and diversity in digital gaming culture?
Justification for the workshop informed by current trends and research:
Digital gaming is an increasingly significant pastime for the vast majority of children between the ages of 3 and 12 (Mavoa, Carter, & Gibbs, under review). However, the digital play of children, as a form of ‘screen time’, is clearly enmeshed with issues of agency, the nature of ‘childhood’, and broader tensions about the role of technology in changing societies and subjectivities. These factors pose unique challenges to studying games in relation to children.
Up until very recently, policy guiding the management of children and screen media, including digital games and play, has centered around the advice of the American Academy of Pediatrics recommending ‘no screen time for under two’s and maximum two hours per day for older children’ (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2013). However, the AAP have now revised their stance, acknowledging that “today's generation of children and adolescents [are] growing up immersed in media” (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2016). The AAP policy statement is highly relevant to the study of children’s digital gameplay, urging researchers and parents alike to shift from focus on time spent using screen based devices to focus on content and context. This shift in focus makes the current proposed workshop timely and necessary.
Prior to this influential shift from the AAP, a growing body of research formed in response to increased opportunities for digitally mediated play by children. This research has primarily, though not exclusively, consisted of: attempts at quantifying children’s engagement with digital games (although, this has been predominantly as part of larger studies of screen media use in general, rather than gaming specific) (e.g Houghton et al., 2015; Ofcom, 2015; Rideout, 2013), the use of games in educational settings (e.g Beavis, Dezuanni, & O’Mara, 2017; Gee, 2007; Steinkuehler et al., 2011) and the documentation of children’s engagement with virtual worlds (e.g Black, Korobkova, & Epler, 2014; Grimes, 2010; Marsh, 2010).
However, younger children (rather than adolescents and young adults) and their ecologies are largely absent from the work of game studies scholars (exceptions to this include the work of Aarsand, 2013; and Giddings, 2014). This represents an opportunity for collaboration, especially in light of current calls for content and context specific information – areas of expertise for game studies scholars.
The format and activities planned for the workshop:
The workshop will be organized in four sessions across the half-day based on the four themes; each session will involve a brief presentation by the panel of presenters selected for each theme who will discuss the topic, key questions, and their research (5 mins each), before an open discussion will be held around each theme.
The workshop cfp is here
Bibliography:
Aarsand, P. (2013). Children’s digital gaming cultures. In D. Lemish (Ed.), The Routledge International Handbook of children Adolscents and the meida (pp. 120–126).
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2013). Children, Adolescents, and the Media. Pediatrics, peds.2013-2656. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2013-2656
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2016). Media and Young Minds. Retrieved from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2016/10/19/peds.2016-2591
Beavis, C., Dezuanni, M. L., & O’Mara, J. (2017). Serious Play : Literacy, Learning, and Digital Games. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.routledge.com/Literacy-Learning-and-Digital-Games-Serious-Play/Beavis-Dezuanni-OMara/p/book/9781138689411
Black, R. W., Korobkova, K., & Epler, A. (2014). Barbie Girls and Xtractaurs: Discourse and identity in virtual worlds for young children. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 14(2), 265–285. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798413494920
Gee, J. P. (2007). Good video games + good learning : collected essays on video games, learning, and literacy / James Paul Gee. New York : P. Lang, c2007.
Giddings, S. (2014). Gameworlds: Virtual Media and Children’s Everyday Play. New York; London: Bloomsbury. Retrieved from http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/gameworlds-9781623568023/
Grimes, S. M. (2010, May 3). The digital child at play: how technological, political and commercial rule systems shape children’s play in virtual worlds (Thesis). Communication, Art & Technology: School of Communication. Retrieved from http://summit.sfu.ca/item/11270
Houghton, S., Hunter, S. C., Rosenberg, M., Wood, L., Zadow, C., Martin, K., & Shilton, T. (2015). Virtually impossible: limiting Australian children and adolescents daily screen based media use. BMC Public Health, 15, 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-15-5
Marsh, J. (2010). young children’s play in online virtual worlds. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 8(1), 23–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X09345406
Mavoa, J., Carter, M., & Gibbs, M. (under review). Children, Digital Games and Minecraft: A survey of young children’s gaming “screen time.”
Ofcom. (2015). Children and parents: Media use and attitudes report 2015. Retrieved October 4, 2016, from http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/other/research-publications/childrens/children-parents-nov-15/
Rideout, V. (2013). Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America 2013 | Common Sense Media. Retrieved August 21, 2015, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/zero-to-eight-childrens-media-use-in-america-2013
Steinkuehler, C., King, E., Alagoz, E., Anton, G., Chu, S., Elmergreen, J., Zhang, B. (2011). Let Me Know when She Stops Talking: Using Games for Learning Without Colonizing Play. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Games + Learning + Society Conference (pp. 210–220). Pittsburgh, PA, USA: ETC Press. Retrieved from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2206376.2206402
Play and childhood are deeply entwined; yet children remain largely marginal in digital games studies research and literature. Therefore, this workshop aims firstly to bring together researchers in games studies that focus on children’s digital play in order to build networks and visibility around this area of games research.
Secondly, we also want to use this workshop as an opportunity to establish an interdisciplinary dialogue with scholars from other fields such as sociology of childhood, education, media studies, children’s geographies, and developmental psychology in order to provide a space in which diverse disciplinary perspectives, theories, frameworks and methods in studies of children and digital games can be explored.
Some of the key concerns and themes that guide this interest include:
Challenging debates and (false) distinctions made about the relative value of digital versus non-digital children’s play, and the persistent role of moral assessments in these discourses.
Exploring the increasing complexity of children’s ‘postdigital’ play worlds, in which digital and physical play exist in overlapping ecologies with fluid borders.
Investigating questions of policies and regulation around children’s digital play, especially in relation to what games/play are privileged in both games research and in wider society.
Considering changing digital game interfaces and content, and how research can keep pace with change.
Critiquing the early gendering of children’s digital play and engagement with paratextual material. What role do researchers of children’s play have in contributing to broader efforts aimed at increasing inclusivity and diversity in digital gaming culture?
Justification for the workshop informed by current trends and research:
Digital gaming is an increasingly significant pastime for the vast majority of children between the ages of 3 and 12 (Mavoa, Carter, & Gibbs, under review). However, the digital play of children, as a form of ‘screen time’, is clearly enmeshed with issues of agency, the nature of ‘childhood’, and broader tensions about the role of technology in changing societies and subjectivities. These factors pose unique challenges to studying games in relation to children.
Up until very recently, policy guiding the management of children and screen media, including digital games and play, has centered around the advice of the American Academy of Pediatrics recommending ‘no screen time for under two’s and maximum two hours per day for older children’ (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2013). However, the AAP have now revised their stance, acknowledging that “today's generation of children and adolescents [are] growing up immersed in media” (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2016). The AAP policy statement is highly relevant to the study of children’s digital gameplay, urging researchers and parents alike to shift from focus on time spent using screen based devices to focus on content and context. This shift in focus makes the current proposed workshop timely and necessary.
Prior to this influential shift from the AAP, a growing body of research formed in response to increased opportunities for digitally mediated play by children. This research has primarily, though not exclusively, consisted of: attempts at quantifying children’s engagement with digital games (although, this has been predominantly as part of larger studies of screen media use in general, rather than gaming specific) (e.g Houghton et al., 2015; Ofcom, 2015; Rideout, 2013), the use of games in educational settings (e.g Beavis, Dezuanni, & O’Mara, 2017; Gee, 2007; Steinkuehler et al., 2011) and the documentation of children’s engagement with virtual worlds (e.g Black, Korobkova, & Epler, 2014; Grimes, 2010; Marsh, 2010).
However, younger children (rather than adolescents and young adults) and their ecologies are largely absent from the work of game studies scholars (exceptions to this include the work of Aarsand, 2013; and Giddings, 2014). This represents an opportunity for collaboration, especially in light of current calls for content and context specific information – areas of expertise for game studies scholars.
The format and activities planned for the workshop:
The workshop will be organized in four sessions across the half-day based on the four themes; each session will involve a brief presentation by the panel of presenters selected for each theme who will discuss the topic, key questions, and their research (5 mins each), before an open discussion will be held around each theme.
The workshop cfp is here
Bibliography:
Aarsand, P. (2013). Children’s digital gaming cultures. In D. Lemish (Ed.), The Routledge International Handbook of children Adolscents and the meida (pp. 120–126).
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2013). Children, Adolescents, and the Media. Pediatrics, peds.2013-2656. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2013-2656
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2016). Media and Young Minds. Retrieved from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2016/10/19/peds.2016-2591
Beavis, C., Dezuanni, M. L., & O’Mara, J. (2017). Serious Play : Literacy, Learning, and Digital Games. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.routledge.com/Literacy-Learning-and-Digital-Games-Serious-Play/Beavis-Dezuanni-OMara/p/book/9781138689411
Black, R. W., Korobkova, K., & Epler, A. (2014). Barbie Girls and Xtractaurs: Discourse and identity in virtual worlds for young children. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 14(2), 265–285. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798413494920
Gee, J. P. (2007). Good video games + good learning : collected essays on video games, learning, and literacy / James Paul Gee. New York : P. Lang, c2007.
Giddings, S. (2014). Gameworlds: Virtual Media and Children’s Everyday Play. New York; London: Bloomsbury. Retrieved from http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/gameworlds-9781623568023/
Grimes, S. M. (2010, May 3). The digital child at play: how technological, political and commercial rule systems shape children’s play in virtual worlds (Thesis). Communication, Art & Technology: School of Communication. Retrieved from http://summit.sfu.ca/item/11270
Houghton, S., Hunter, S. C., Rosenberg, M., Wood, L., Zadow, C., Martin, K., & Shilton, T. (2015). Virtually impossible: limiting Australian children and adolescents daily screen based media use. BMC Public Health, 15, 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-15-5
Marsh, J. (2010). young children’s play in online virtual worlds. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 8(1), 23–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X09345406
Mavoa, J., Carter, M., & Gibbs, M. (under review). Children, Digital Games and Minecraft: A survey of young children’s gaming “screen time.”
Ofcom. (2015). Children and parents: Media use and attitudes report 2015. Retrieved October 4, 2016, from http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/other/research-publications/childrens/children-parents-nov-15/
Rideout, V. (2013). Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America 2013 | Common Sense Media. Retrieved August 21, 2015, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/zero-to-eight-childrens-media-use-in-america-2013
Steinkuehler, C., King, E., Alagoz, E., Anton, G., Chu, S., Elmergreen, J., Zhang, B. (2011). Let Me Know when She Stops Talking: Using Games for Learning Without Colonizing Play. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Games + Learning + Society Conference (pp. 210–220). Pittsburgh, PA, USA: ETC Press. Retrieved from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2206376.2206402