Games in Education Symposium

This workshop will focus on experiences in two virtual environments where learners have the opportunity to experience digital citizenship as a direct and lived experience. Workshop participants will explore the issues that surround individual identity, community cultivation, norms and leadership; Quest Atlantis/ Atlantis Remixed and Massively Minecraft. These two environments are representative of safe spaces/games where children are able to tinker with creating their own identity, exploring and cultivating community norms and understanding what it means to engage positively in online social spaces. These games are what Jim Gee refers to as affinity spaces, affinity spaces for both students and teachers, with strong positive values. These projects are designed and managed by educators and bring together students from around the world into one global community. The design of activity in these game spaces is intended to expose learners to positive social interactions and to develop strategies for keeping them mindful of rules and strategies that promote that kind of engagement. Both these game spaces allow learners to to experience positive norms and encourage them to take these out into future online spaces they will inhabit like Facebook and Twitter.