Gee+-+Approach+to+Literacy+Paper

toc // A Situated Sociocultural Approach to Literacy and Technology // James Paul Gee

[|Wiki-Robots]: Megan Davies, Jennifer Doan, Chris Mock, Stephanie Prado

ED 240, Section A Dr. Vanitha Chandrasekhar

=Introduction = In this paper, the author James Paul Gee presents his theoretical approach to literacy and technology. His approach, which he calls “situated-sociocultral” pulls upon two established models of literacy study. The first model, situated cognition, is based on the belief that “thinking is connected to, and changes across, actual situations and is not usually a process of applying abstract generalizations, definitions, or rules”. The second model looks at language, literacy and technology from a sociocultural perspective. Gee, describes several interdisciplinary movements based on the sociocultural model including: New Literacy Studies (NLS), Situated Cognition Studies, The New Literacies Studies, and the New Media Literacy Studies. He draws a connection between these movements and his final conclusion that technology can be used as a tool to support learning and literacy because technology situates meaning

=New Literacy Studies (NLS) = NLS sees literacy as something people do inside society and not inside their heads. This is in contrast to the traditional psychological approach to literacy that sees peoples’ abilities to read and write as something that occurs in their heads. This is a cognitive approach to literacy defined by mental states and mental processing. NLS however, sees literacy as a sociocultural phenomenon. This comes from the idea that literacy is a social and cultural achievement about participating in social and cultural groups, and not just a mental achievement. In NLS language and literacy never sits by itself, thus literacy must be studied in a full range of contexts: social, cultural, historical, and institutional. An example: You can read the bible in many different ways: for theology, literature, history, or even as a self-help guide.



New Literacies Studies
The New Literacies Studies perceives different digital tools as technologies for giving and getting meaning, similar to language. And such meanings are determined by social, cultural, historical, and institutional practices of different groups of people. These practices of different groups of people involve more than just using a digital tool. It emphasizes that there are different ways of using different digital tools within different sociocultural practices.

=Situated Cognition Studies = Psychological approaches to literacy have evolved Gee points out with his discussion of situated cognition studies. Traditional cognitive psychology looked at learning as an individual phenomenon, but with situated cognition the importance of experiences and thus sociocultural influences are incorporated. The rise of situated cognition studies can also be tied to the realization that memory is not strictly limited like previously thought, but instead almost unlimited. Situated cognition studies highlighted the idea that the mind is furnished not by abstract ideas and concepts but by records of actual experiences. In the words of Glenberg, //**“to a particular person, the meaning of an object, event, or sentence is what that person can do with the object, event, or sentence”**// (Glenberg, 1997: pg. 3) Humans use their previous experiences as a guide, thus situated cognition studies like NLS focus on sociocultural contexts.

An example would be the ability to produce a mental image of a typical bedroom from memory. Say I tell you to visualize a typical bedroom, it might look something like this:



However, if I tell you there is a mini-fridge in the bedroom then you might visualize something more like this:



What This Means In The Classroom
This idea of situated understanding can be applied to classroom as well, when we hope to teach our students the deeper meanings of words and concepts that allow them customize it to different specific situations of use. This level of thinking is much more valuable than the general or verbal understanding that many of even our best students master, yet they cannot use that knowledge to solve problems. The general understanding allows them to express their understanding in terms of other words or general principles, so while they might be able to pass information-focused tests they cannot apply the knowledge to actual situations.



=New Media Literacy Studies: = The New Media Literacy Studies emphasizes the ways in which digital tools and media are transforming society and popular culture. Digital tools are changing the balance of production and consumption in media since many people now have access to be producers, not just consumers. Moreover, digital tools are also changing the balance between participation and spectatorship. Digital tools are also changing the nature of groups, social formations and power. With these digital tools, it is much easier to form and sustain groups. Finally, digital tools have allowed for many individuals to become Pro-Ams, or experts at whatever they have developed a passion for. The point here is that people now are able to be proactive participants of in the media world.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">There are many examples, such as fan fiction. There are over 2,000 posts on the Star Wars: The Clone Wars fan fiction page alone. []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Another example is in journalism, where personal blogs and twitter have become as much a part of the news as CNN. This is why even CNN has [|iReport]where you are able to share your stories and pictures. In fact they have come to rely on such Pro-Am journalists to be first responders for breaking news stories.

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=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Specialist Language =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Popular Culture, Video Games, and Learning
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">In order to understand all these theories and studies, take into consideration an example of a child learning how to read. There is a phenomenon called the “4th Grade Slump” where children cannot read well enough to understand and comprehend academic content even though they can pass general reading tests. The reason behind this phenomenon is the failure to attend to oral vocabulary and skills with complex oral language in the home (Dickinson and Neuman, 2006). This idea is the most important correlate for school success for children. Thus a child’s oral language development is key to a successful trajectory approach to reading, or the notion that the goal in teaching a child to learn how to read is to attain success for the rest of schooling, not just success in the first grade. This early preparation was not for everyday language, but called for language that would be more academic. This is called “specialist language.”

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Specialist Language: An Example
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Consider a conversations between a four-year old boy and his mother. The “M” stands for mother, while the “C” stands for child: //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">C: This looks like this is a egg // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">M: Ok well this... That’s exactly what it is! How did you know? // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">C: Because it looks like it. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">M: That’s what it says, see look, ......Replica of a dinosaur. From the oviraptor. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">M: Do you have a. . . You have an oviraptor on your game! You know the game on your computer? That’s what it is, an oviraptor. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">M: And that’s from the Cretaceous period. And that was a really, really long time ago. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">... // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">M: And this is. . . the hind claw. What’s a hind claw? (pause) A claw from the back leg from a velociraptor. And you know what. . . // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">B: Hey! Hey! A velociraptor!! I had that one my [inaudible] dinosaur. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">M: I know, I know and that was the little one. And remember they have those, remember in your book, it said something about the claws. . . // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">B No, I know, they, they... // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">M: Your dinosaur book, what they use them... // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">B: Have so great claws so they can eat and kill... // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">M: They use their claws to cut open their prey, right. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">B: Yeah. //

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The example of the discussion between a child and his mother is an informal language lesson. It involves interaction, teaching, and stimulates higher-order of cognition. Gee defines an informal language lesson as something that may take the shape and form of a simple conversation, games, television, and other forms of digital media that allow students to learn about language (pg. 24). Based on the features mentioned above, these informal language lessons are crucial in achieving a successful reading trajectory. However, such language lessons must continue throughout reading instruction inside the classroom in order to ensure learning success.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Specialist Language In Popular Culture
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Recent innovations in pop culture for children have made it easier for them to engage in informal language lessons that will prepare them for a trajectory approach to reading. For example, in the late 1990s, the card game //Yu-gi-Oh!// Became social trend that almost all young children participated in. Children debate over the characters, its powers, and how to play the cards. While the language is different from what you might find in a social studies textbook, the specialist-language embedded within these playing cards serves as an informal language lesson. Consider the example below of a Yu-gi-Oh! trading card:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Yu-gi-Oh!

 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.5;">Description: **//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">FLIP: Destroys 1 Magic Card on the field. If this card's target is face-down, flip it face-up. If the ////<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.5;">card is a Magic Card, it is destroyed. If not, it is returned to its face-down position. The flipped card is not activated. //

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">A analysis of this playing card will reveal that the language presented is quite complex. It contains specialist language, vocabulary, and syntax, including 3 consecutive conditional or “if” clauses. Surprisingly, a seven-year old child who plays with these cards could easily understand the language and content because it has situated meaning. While the text may be initially complex, once understood, the language and its meaning is actually clear and fluid—“lucidly fluid language”. However, understanding can only come as a result of situated meaning where hands-on “play” is incorporated.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Magic: The Gathering
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The following video, meant to be only an introduction to Magic, is an example of some of the specialist language involved.

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Video Game Manuals
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Recently, researchers have raised the possibility that what we might call “game-like” learning through digital technologies can facilitate situated understandings in the context of activity and experience grounded in perception (Games- to-Teach 2003; Gee 2003/2007, 2005; McFarlane, Sparrowhawk & Heald 2002; Squire 2006), thus facilitating learning overall.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">One example of this notion is the written texts that come with video games, such as a manual or a booklet. Such written texts associated with video games are more often than meaningless and not lucid, that is until one has actually played the game. Here is a typical piece of language from the booklet that comes with the game //Deus Ex//: //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Your internal nano-processors keep a very detailed record of your condition, equipment and recent history. You can access this data at any time during play by hitting F1 to get to the Inventory screen or F2 to get to the Goals/Notes screen. Once you have accessed your information screens, you can move between the screens by clicking on the tabs at the top of the screen. You can map other information screens to hotkeys using Settings, Keyboard/Mouse (p. 5). //

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">At a literal level, this piece of information makes perfect sense. But at a practical level, this text holds little meaning and may even cause confusion for the player. The key idea here is that when the player can spell out the information in situation-specific terms in the game, then the relationships of this information to the other hundreds of pieces of information in the booklet become clear and meaningful. In other words, meaning of such language is always associated with actions, experiences, images, and dialogue. Specialist language in any domain holds no situated meaning until one has played the game.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">“The key to all of them, though, is that they situate meaning in worlds of experience—the stuff out of which the human mind is made—experience that is ultimately shared, collaborative, social, and cultural” (pg. 39).

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">References =

// 8 Children’s Books About Dinosaurs: Delightful Children's Books //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">. (2012, March 21). Retrieved July 4, 2013, from http://delightfulchildrensbooks.com/2012/03/21/dinosaurs/

// Armed Ninj -Yu-Gi-Oh! //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">. Retrieved July 4, 2013, from http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Armed_Ninja

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Arrested Development Dorm. [Photograph] //Blockheads- Arrested Development Wiki//. []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Bedroom Set. [Photograph] //Bedroom Sets – How to Choose the Most Perfect One//. []

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Dugid (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. //Educational Researcher, 18//(1): 32-42. Clark, A. (1997). //Being there: Putting brain, body, and world together again.// Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Gee, J. P. (2004). //Situated language and learning: A Critique of traditional schooling//.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">London: Routledge. Gee, J. P. (2007). //Good video games and good learning: Collected essays on video games, learning, and literacy.// New York: Peter Lang.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Dickinson, D. K. & Neuman, S. B. Eds. (2006). Handbook of early literacy research: Volume 2. New York: Guilford Press.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Gee, J. P. (2004). //Situated language and learning: A Critique of traditional schooling//. London: Routledge.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Gee, J.P. //A Situated Sociocultural Approach to Literacy and Technology.// Phoenix: Arizona State University. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Glenberg, A. M. (1997). What is memory for. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 20: 1-55.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Learn to Play Magic: The Gathering, Part 1: Welcome to the Multiverse. [Video. January 22, 2010] //Youtube: Wizardsmtg//. Retrieved July 6, 2013 from []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">McFarlane, A., Sparrowhawk, A., & Heald, Y. (2002). Report on the educational use of games: An exploration by TEEM of the contribution which games can make to the education process. Cambridge.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Multicultural children on planet earth, cultural diversity. [Illustration]. Pauljune. (n.d.). @http://www.123rf.com/photo_14557856_multicultural-children-on-planet-earth-cultural-diversity.html

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Shaw (2013, May 7). //Sharpen Your Memory Skills By Playing Video Games: LidTime//. Retrieved from http://www.lidtime.com/sharpen-your-memory-skills-by-playing-video-games/

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.