How Playfulness, Popular Culture, and Support of Psychological Needs Sustain Adolescents' Online Writing

• In Event: Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: Media, Culture, and Learning SIG Roundtable: Exploring Media and Social Practices in Many Forms

Abstract

This study examined adolescents’ literacy and social practices in an online role-play-game forum situated in popular culture and fandom surrounding fantasy literature. The ways participants constructed and presented literate identities through role-play (e.g., text, multimodal creations, interactions with other participants) were examined, with particular attention to the role of online spaces and popular culture on their motivation and sustained play. Findings from the study may help researchers and educators better understand adolescents’ literacy practices, as manifest in this forum to better meet needs for the 21st century demands they will face as members of a global community. This reflexive analysis may also provide educators with a path toward increased relevance for academic writing that occurs as part of schooling.

Author

• Kathleen Marie Alley, Mississippi State University