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| Zombie-Horde |
Rogers and Street (n.d.) take an ethnographic approach to literacy where learning is viewed “as activities which everyone engages in in the course of operating within their lifeworlds” (p.2).
In considering this statement, I observe the students in the Hall of Residence where I currently live and work. Most of them are first year university students residing at the hall and living away from home for the first time. What is very interesting to me is their out of class use of social media and other technologies. By other technologies, I include mobile phones, laptops, Nintendos, internet gaming sites and Xbox.
On my floor, there are 42 students. In their time off, most of them spend time in the floor common room playing Xbox games. One game is the standout star of games and involves killing copious amounts of zombies. Up to four students can play this game at a time and the goal appears to be to kill as many zombies as possible. If the students aren’t killing zombies, they are engaged in watching other students kill zombies, usually whilst eating chocolate and potato chips!
Along with the Xbox zombie killing, a new movie is coming out tonight, about… you guessed it, zombies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3ErWNBX9Rc
Students with a student card can go to the premier for free
and there will be prizes awarded for the best dressed zombie, along with free
zombie make-up makeovers at the cinema itself.
Along with games and movies about zombies, Auckland is hosting
a new theatre production that invites you to “experience the zombie
apocalypse” (www.events.nz.com): http://www.eventfinder.co.nz/2013/apocalypse-z/auckland.
If that doesn’t appeal, there is also a fun run called “Run for your Freak’n Life” http://www.eventfinder.co.nz/2013/run-for-your-freakn-life/auckland/karaka where “you’re running from brain-hungry, virus-spreading, Freak’n Zombies” (www.events.nz.com).
If that doesn’t appeal, there is also a fun run called “Run for your Freak’n Life” http://www.eventfinder.co.nz/2013/run-for-your-freakn-life/auckland/karaka where “you’re running from brain-hungry, virus-spreading, Freak’n Zombies” (www.events.nz.com).
I ask the question; are these the student activities, that
Rogers and Streets (n.d.) refer to as “engaging in in the course of operating
within their lifeworlds” (p.2)? If
the answer is yes, which I believe it is, how can I teach, taking an
ethnographic approach, using online media and popular culture as my vehicle?
Bradford (2010) states that when young people play video
games “they do so as embodied subjects whose identities are shaped by the
cultures in which they are situated, the circumstances of their lived
experience, and the particularities of their dispositions, abilities and
interests” (p.54).
Bradford (2010) likens games to fiction, as they “position
their audiences and imply knowledge and skills” (p.56), and suggests players
“negotiate meanings dialectically” (p.54) where players’ experiences are
different from one another, like that of watching a film or reading a book. Bradford
(2010) further argues that games “activate new forms of textual pleasure and
new forms of sociality” (p.63) and Karen (2012) states that players not only
acquire knowledge about the game, they also develop “unique strategies
developed using their critical analysis abilities” (p.1).
Karen (2012) argues that “popular culture permeates almost
every aspect of people’s lives” (p.1) and raises the question of how we
“incorporate students’ interests, skills and motivation acquired on these
platforms” (p.1) into the learning environment. The following
suggestions are offered:
- teachers should firstly learn to play the games themselves
- examine the key values, character portrayal, ideologies, film techniques and assess students understandings of these using Monkey Survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/
- examination of examples of society “norms” against the “hero” and critical reflection on the values and the perpetration of the “‘status quo’ of white supremacy over other cultures” (p.1)
- re-creation of alternative story versions using hypermedia links and printed text to redefine negative values and meanings
- developing blogs to “allow the flow of ideas” (p.1)
- encouraging critical analysis of themes, values and language used
- comparing YouTube videos of past cinematic attempts and the film techniques used to portray “‘shock’ value with regard to feelings” (p.1).
- participating in construction of texts within virtual settings using sites such as Literary Worlds: http://brn227.brown.wmich.edu/literaryworlds/index.html
Exploring
video and online games in more depth as a teaching tool is a valuable literacy
and critical thinking resource.
For a foundation level class of young people, I think video games could
be a valuable resource to engage and foster interest that is in keeping with their
social and “lifeworlds”.
As
teachers, we expect learners to enter our world, so I think it is important
that we also be willing to enter our students’ worlds… the concept of Ako
springs to mind. On that note, I
think it is time to learn a little more about zombies and try out a video game!
DearZombiesBW [Photograph].
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| DearZombiesBW |
References
Bradford, C. (2010). Looking for my corpse: Video games and
player positioning. Australian Journal of
Language and Literacy, 33(1) 54-64.
DearZombiesBW [Photograph].
macotar.blgspot.com. Retrieved
April 10, 2013, from
Hanson, D. (2011, January 28). First Zombie Movie (1964). http://videorevo2.blogspot.com/ [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdPy73mB-F4
Karen, (2012). Implications for teachers when I
incorporating popular cultural texts into the curriculum. Beyond the Lines: Popular Culture, Texts and 21st Century
Learners [Web log post]. Retrieved from
Rogers, A. & Street, B. (n.d.). Using
ethnographic approaches to understanding and teaching literacy: Perspectives
from both developing and western contexts.
Retrieved April 10, 2013, from http://www.videnomlaesning.dk/wp-content/uploads/Brian-Street-og-Alan-Rogers_FINAL.pdf
SummitScreenRoom. (2012, November 9). Warm Bodies – Trailer [Video file].
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3ErWNBX9Rc
TheBunpie. (2012, April 15). Run for your freak’n life [Video file].
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3H6r345UZE
Underneath the Radar [Painting]. Retrieved April 10, 2013,
from http://www.careercafe.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/fear-tv.jpg
When I first read your post this quote came to mind but I couldn’t quite put my cursor on it at the time.
ReplyDelete“It is necessary to respect the language, the way of walking, of talking, of choosing food... the different ways of “reading the world,” because all these things are the different and authentic ways of cultural expression.” (p 99)
It is from a dialogue between Ana Maria Araújo Freire (Paulo Freire’s wife) and Paolo Vittoria speaking about respect and understanding of diversities in a dialectical context, dialogue being one of the instruments for acquiring knowledge, and the tolerance of diversity as the essence of humanism.
A principle of the “Paulo Freire literacy method” is that the speech of what is already known should be the starting point.
So what does that mean in terms of the zombie culture? Or teaching/learning contexts where the speech is distinguished by its impoverishment, the culture is one of abuse, bullying and violence? I don’t have an answer. In such a context/culture one word serves as a multi-purpose expletive, adjective, verb, noun etc. Maybe we could begin with that one word.
As one staff member remarked, “…and to think they eat with the same mouth.”
Araújo Freire, A. M., Vittoria, P. (2007) Dialogue on Paulo Freire. Revista Interamericana de Educaonación para la Democracia/Interamerican Journal of Education for Democracy, 1 197-117 www.ried-ijed.org
Zombies really are far more than just a movie monster. I teach Zombies! Zombies are great to use in an educational context because of their cultural popularity, especially among the school age demographic. As a teacher in the humanities, I have found them to be fascinating philosophically and think that zombies have a lot to teach us about ourselves. I have written about the meaning of zombies at my website (the first post is at http://trentdejong.com/?p=592). This series is a little academic and quite detailed. If you'd like a lighter version I summarized it all in a post called "10 Things Zombies Tell Us About Ourselves." You can find that one here: http://www.squidoo.com/the-meaning-of-zombies2. I hope these resources can help teachers to engage their students.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Drybones very nice posting.It was a advantage to be a part of the organising committee for this event. Many thanks to all all our guests and particularly those who helped us in some way or the other to make this occasion a success! SEO strategies to boost traffic.
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