Good Reception: Utilizing Phones and Games in Schooling to Develop Critical Inner-City Agents of Social Change

• In Event: Critical Digital Literacies as Social Praxis: Intersections and Challenges

Abstract

This paper examines the role of mobile media devices in developing critical and academic literacies within formal learning environments. Theoretically, this research draws upon traditional notions of critical literacy (Freire, 1970), sociocultural literacy (Moje and Lewis, 2007), and civic engagement (Dewey, 1916; Wesheimer and Khane, 2004); this work looks at the ways these theories are informing learning within the media-rich environments in which students are immersed. Currently, we see that urban youth have increasing access to technology and many scholars (Norris, 2001; Warschauer, 2003; Ito et al, 2010) have shown that youth are engaging technology outside of school in increasingly sophisticated ways. Because of this, technology and gameplay are being called upon as antidotes to education inequity. These tools are used not only to engage students in meaningful learning experiences, but also to shape ways people participate and interact with the world (Lievrouw, 2011). However, while there is burgeoning research around the role that participatory media play in improving learning, educators are identifying challenges toward implementation. Specifically, “research on teaching in urban schools suggests that teachers’ limited skills and limiting beliefs about their students lead to a steady diet of low-level material coupled with unstimulating, rote-oriented teaching” (Darling-Hammond 2010).
Utilizing youth participatory action research (McIntyre, 2000) and principles of alternate reality gaming (McGonigal, 2008), a class of 9th grade English students in South Central Los Angeles utilized mobile media to investigate, challenge, and begin reframing school & community norms. Examining the impacts of violence, graffiti, pollution, and love within South Central Los Angeles, students incorporated location data, QR codes, and participatory social media into their research methods and practices.
This paper does not merely look at the use of mobile media devices as tools; it questions more broadly the pedagogical implications of mobile media use within formal learning environments. Moving the devices from sources of classroom disruption to portals of engagement, preparing teachers to rethink traditional classroom practices, and responding to concerns from administration and parents all represent significant barriers to equitable, appropriate use of mobile media on a large scale. Utilizing a 9th grade ethnographic case study as a lens, this paper proposes mobile media use for a more critical examination of power within literature and an urban community. Through an ethnographic case study, this chapter questions the role of voice and amplification through technology, and – ultimately – the steps it will take to make critical literacy & civic engagement through mobile media a viable opportunity in schools across America.

Author

• Antero Garcia, Colorado State University