Australian Teachers of Media, Qld Youth Council on Mass Media

This past Friday and Saturday, I had the pleasure of working with a group of young people from around Queensland who have been chosen to form a Youth Council on Mass Media. They were chosen after entering a competition in which they had to submit a video recording of themselves answering three questions about young people and the media. The successful students were from Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Cairns and Mt Isa.

The students met for two days during the ATOM Qld State conference 'Connect09'. They discussed aspects of young people's relationship with media and planned and made two one minute videos picking up on the themes they discussed. They then presented these to the conference delegates in the final session on Saturday and took part in a Q&A session. The videos and students' responses to questions were very well received.

The students will now take part in discussions for the Global Youth Council being organised for the Summit on Media for Children and Youth to be held in Sweden in June 2010. The students will take part in discussions in a Facebook group and responses from this space will be taken to the Summit in Sweden.

State library talk

Recently I was invited to present a talk about video games and education as part of the State Library of Queensland's "Open Source" series. The presentation will take place on the 30th July. Details are below:


Serious play – videogames and education

Once regarded as incompatible with the business of serious learning, video games are being increasingly harnessed in the classroom and other education contexts.

Many teachers are leading an educational revolution by tapping into young people’s passion for video games to help them become motivated to learn. In addition, many education experts argue that video games offer a whole new way to learn that should be emulated in schools and classrooms, and incorporated into the curriculum.

This talk will present a holistic view on using video games in the classroom, outlining both their numerous positive impacts as well as addressing a few cautions for teachers, students and parents.

QUT media literacy educator Michael Dezuanni will discuss the ways that games can enhance the learning process, how students can learn complex concepts while designing and producing their own games, and learn to critically reflect on their work. Michael will also provide examples of the brilliant new ways games are being incorporated into the classroom, as well as highlight what games cannot do with respect to learning.


When Thu 30 Jul, 6.30pm
Where slq Auditorium 2, level 2, State Library of Queensland
FREE no booking required

The politics of media literacy

In my film an media curriculum class today a question arose about the role of politics in the media literacy classroom. The focus of the class was on approaches to "controversial" or "disputable" media texts and alternatives to discussion and debate in the media classroom. This was in the context of how a teacher might engage middle years students to critically respond to texts that rely on sexist and racist stereotypes - where students resist "theory" based lessons. I introduced the practice of culture jamming and the students used editing software to remix / jam a controversial video game to change its meaning and draw attention to some of its problematic content. The students agreed that this was a productive and meaningful alternative to respond to such texts. However, the inevitable questions arose - who gets to decide what is controversial and to what extent should a teacher be directly "political" in the classroom?

Of course, media literacy education often deals overtly will political questions, both in the more traditional sense of party politics and in the broader sense of socially and culturally based politics. However, my students put forward a range of views about how overtly political they believed media classrooms should be. Some believed media education should aim to intervene in students' social and cultural roles. Others believed it was wrong for media teachers to overtly 'politicize' the classroom. Particularly interesting was that several of the students indicated that they knew little about politics because they had not learned about it in secondary school and they indicated that they felt the system had let them down.

Personally, I believe that media classrooms are a space in which political ideas should be raise. However, students are unlikely to respond to polarizing viewpoints or soap box positions. Furthermore, the outcome of classroom activities should never be to have students arrive at a predetermined disposition towards an issue. Media classrooms should be spaces in which a range of viewpoints is possible and in which differing positions are accepted. Of course, this is not to say a teacher should not put forward their own position - but it should be recognised as one of a number of positions to take into consideration.

Video Games in the English Language Arts classroom Pt 2

In my last post I suggested that there were three levels on which learning about video games in the English classroom might occur: using conventional textual analysis; through identifying gameplay and games design techniques; and through designing, making, remixing games.

My presentation about this at a workshop with teachers on Friday was well received and they seemed to see the value in the approach. It was interesting that the teachers believed one of the main motivations for introducing games into English was to engage male students who were reluctant readers: the teachers had degrees of success with engagement with games study where they had little success with literature. Our discussions around this focused on the importance of being authentic to gaming culture - with the teachers agreeing that the over-intellectualisation of games was counter-productive.

A concept I introduced - that teachers seemed highly interested in - was that of video games "para-texts". That is, texts that are produced as part of the discussion / critique / discourses around games - for example, forums on games websites; walkthroughs produced by gamers; games reviews and so on. One suggestion was to have students produced voice-over walkthroughs of their own recorded gameplay, with a focus on the ways in which the game engages the player.

I argued that this type of "critical" approach to games was likely to be far more authentic to gamers than exercises in which students are asked to deconstruct games using models borrowed from literary and even film and television analysis.

Video Games in the English Language Arts classroom Pt1

This Friday I am conducting a workshop at the Education Queensland's Innovation Learning Centre with a focus on studying video games as texts in English classrooms. Studying games in English makes sense as a natural progression from teaching literature, popular fiction, film and television. Or does it? Games are not books, television or film. Yes, games are texts, but they are not just texts. Yes, games are multimodal texts, but are not just multimodal. Yes, games are visual, but they are not just visual. Yes, games are interactive, but they are not just interactive.

In many respects gameplay may have more in common with something like playing sport (which also relies on language, narrative, structure, representations) than using books and other types of texts. Therefore why study in the English classroom? I think it is important to study games, but I think the rationale for their inclusion needs to be different than for studying other types of texts, particularly literature. In turn, this will change the types of activities that make sense for use in the classroom.

Games can be simulated worlds; puzzles; challenges; social experiences; affinity spaces; competition spaces (likes sports); they can be extensions of a person’s lived realities; they are spaces for experimentations with identities; they are good fun; and they are spaces which often (purposely) exclude adults – likes some types of popular music. For these reasons, the relationship between students, teachers and games differs (usually) than for students, teachers and books.

So we need to be careful about the motivations / rationales for introducing games into the English classroom. However, there is a level on which games can be “tamed” for use in English classrooms – and if done well, students may even find it enjoyable, will develop their language skills, and be motivated. This includes: Genre analysis; Narrative analysis; and Discourse analysis (including analysis of representations etc). Some approaches from the use of literature, film and television are useful here.

A second level (which probes further) and will make more sense to gamers (but is still a form of intellectualisation that is somewhat at odds with the whole purpose of playing games) Might include: analysis of gameplay (descriptions of levels and challenges – providing “walkthroughs”); Identifying elements of game design (immersion, increasing challenge, avoiding “dead man walking” etc).

A third level is important: This combines analysis of gameplay with game designs, remixes, and fancuts; (but also reflections / explanations of what the student is aiming to achieve (for example, via reflective blogging). This level of consideration also includes the gameplay experience of other (for example, through audience research – why do students enjoy playing, why do others enjoy playing?). This third level draws in questions of identity / subjectivity that are important to consider when studying games in English. More thoughts after the workshop...

ACMA - Digital Media Literacy initiative

The Australian Communications and Media Authority recently established a Digital Media Literacy initiative. The initiative aims to raise awareness about the need for media literacy in the internet era and to conduct / collect research that relates to the effectiveness of various approaches to media literacy.

It will be interesting to see how media literacy comes to be defined within the project. For example, will digital media literacy simply equate to being able to access and use media technologies effectively, or will there be some focus on critically reflective engagement, and creative participation, with new media technologies?

A step in the right direction would be for ACMA to recognise the media education work already being done in school systems across the country and to help raise the curriculum profile of the area.

More thoughts on this as the project develops...

Building an Australasian Commons

Last year I undertook a small research project with some colleagues from QUT's School of Cultural and Language Studies in Education in which we aimed to investigate the role of copyright education in media literacy classrooms. A significant part of the project focused on the Creative Commons copyright framework and how it might be used with students in school contexts as a resource during media production. In a nutshell, Creative Commons allows individual to indicate which copy rights they wish to reserve when publishing their work. Various licenses can be generated from the four basic options of: attribution, non commercial,no derivative works and share alike.

The 'Building an Australian Commons' publication provides an excellent range of case studies of people and groups using CC. It is highly recommended for anyone wanting to get a sense of the range of ways in which CC can be used.

Here's the description of the project from the Creative Commons website:

The 2008 publication Building an Australasian Commons: Creative Commons Case Studies Volume 1 aims to document and provide examples of how Creative Commons licences are being used in Australia and internationally. With more than 60 case studies across the government, arts and education sectors, it provides a snap shot of the current practices of open access creators. Building an Australasian Commons is part of the international CC Case Study Wiki initiative.

The book can be downloaded here.

Review: Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond - From Production to Produsage

Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage
By Axel Bruns
Peter Lang, 2008

Reviewed by Michael Dezuanni

At the 2006 ATOM National Media Education conference, Axel Bruns gave a very well received presentation called Teaching the Produsers: Preparing students for User-Led Content Production, which can still be accessed in digital form on his blog: http://snurb.info/node/604. It will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen the presentation that Bruns’ new book Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage, provides an excellent theorisation of what is increasingly being referred to as participatory culture – the cultures and affordances of Web 2.0 that allow individuals to be producers as well as users of media content.

The central claim of Bruns’ book is that ‘produsage’ (a term he coined) is becoming increasingly prevalent in online, networked cultures and that produsage has the potential to radically alter the ways in which ordinary people interact with the media and a range of other social, cultural and organisational processes. Bruns traces practices of produsage through the open source software movement, citizen journalism and blogging, the writing and rewriting of the Wikipedia, the folksonomies associated with online tagging and filtering, the ‘life caching’ practices of photo-sharing sites like Flickr, the remix and mashup cultures of video sharing sites like YouTube and the user-led production of artefacts in video games and online environments like The Sims and Second Life. Along the way, Bruns discusses issues of access, copyright infringement and copyright alternatives like Creative Commons, the education of produsers and implications for politics and democracy. It is a far-reaching and comprehensive book.

Media teachers will be especially interested in the re-theorisation of the relationship between production and use of media, and the distinctions Bruns makes between the practices of the industrial age and those emerging in new media environments. At the heart of produsage, according to Bruns, are four key principles. Although these concepts seem a little theory-heavy when first encountered, they are extremely well explained and the examples provided make their implications very clear. The principles are: probalistic, not directed problem solving (problems are solved by many from the ground up); Equipotentiality, not hierarchy (authority exists, but through heterarchies and ad hoc meritocracies); Granular, not composite tasks (tasks are completed via small scale contributions); and Shared, not owned content (everyone benefits from access to the ‘product’).

The book does not focus a great deal on what media teachers might call ‘critical literacy’ questions about produsage culture or its social implications, and nor does it deal with broader questions related to some of the more controversial aspects of young people’s online experiences. For example, it does not discuss how produsage might relate to online safety, the ethics of self-representation, online bullying and so on. This is not a criticism – there is substantial critical thinking and analysis of processes, concepts and frameworks in the book. It is just that Bruns focuses on the more immediate issues of how produsage operates and its implications for the industrial models of media production, rather than on the social and cultural implications of produsage.

It would be fair to say the book is cautiously optimistic about produsage, but is aware of its limitations. Bruns sees great possibilities for ‘produsage’ practices to open up opportunities for a democratisation of media cultures so that individuals have more opportunities to be involved in the development of the cultures, knowledge and information they use. However, he cautions against being overly celebratory about this. He warns that for ‘produsage’ to be truly transformative, individuals need to be educated about how to participate and how to effectively ‘read’ the artefacts of produsage. For example, he argues that much of the controversy about the Wikipedia is a consequence of individuals trying to read it as a conventional encyclopaedia, therefore ignoring the entry histories available on the site, which provide a fuller sense of the definitions provided. What will be clear to educators who read this book is that media education needs to respond to participatory culture and the practices of produsage.

Media educators are in a unique position to respond to many of produsage’s possibilities and consequences. We have a head start in engaging students in digital media production and processes of critically reading media. However, produsage also raises a range of new challenges that will only become more pronounced as more young people engage in new media cultures. In particular, media educators need to grapple with the consequences and ethical dilemmas of young people having the almost unfettered ability to represent themselves and others in online spaces; to take the work of others and make it their own; and to distribute and filter their own and others’ work in online environments. In several ways, the priorities and objectives of media education courses will need to change in response to these developments.

I found Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life… to be a highly rewarding read. I have not previously found an account that rivals this one’s explanations of those complex processes that we all suspect are ‘going on’ in online spaces, and yet struggle to understand. I have not previously read an account that has so effectively brought into relief the extent to which these new processes have the potential to change the media scape as we know it. I would recommend this book to all media teachers because it goes a long way to explaining the complex processes many young people are involved in and because it provides an indispensable introduction to participatory culture and specifically Bruns’ theory of produsage, which is likely to be influential within media education for years to come.

Media Remix

Late last year a textbook I have been working on with my colleague, Anita Jetnikoff, was published. It is called Media Remix: Digital Projects for Students. It is aimed at middle years students (years 5-9) and is made up of 24 projects. We wrote to book for a couple of reasons. We wanted to provide our pre-service media education students with a resource that demonstrated how to plan practical media production activities for students. We also felt that there was a real lack of resources for media literacy activities for students in this age range. We also wanted to show how media education concepts could be explicitly taught through practical activities. We are very pleased with the final result and are happy that it seems to be making its way into schools.

A flyer can be downloaded here.

The Contents:

Chapter 1: Remixing Ads
Chapter 2: Remixing Me
Chapter 3: Remixing The School
Chapter 4: Remixing Shots, Composition And Framing
Chapter 5: Remixing The News
Chapter 6: Remixing Style And Story
Chapter 7: Remixing Memories
Chapter 8: Remixing Opinions
Chapter 9: Remixing Stories Through Digital Storytelling
Chapter 10: Remixing The Life Story Of A Community Or Family Member
Chapter 11: Remixing Fiction
Chapter 12: Remixing Gameplay
Chapter 13: Remixing With Stop Motion
Chapter 14: Remixing Celebrity
Chapter 15: Remixing Audiences
Chapter 16: Remixing Sound FX And Soundtracks
Chapter 17: Remixing Fandom
Chapter 18: Remixing Television Genres
Chapter 19: Remixing Issues With One Minute Wonders
Chapter 20: Remixing Debates Through Micro Documentary
Chapter 21: Remixing Video Games Design
Chapter 22: Remixing With Machinima
Chapter 23: Remixing Responses To Media
Chapter 24: Remixing Journalism With Wikis