The production of knowledge in hypermedia language: the appropriation of digital games in childhood

• Grant number: 13/23888-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: March 02, 2014
• End date: February 01, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications - Theory of Communication
• Principal Investigator: Sérgio Bairon Blanco Sant'Anna
• Grantee: Arlete dos Santos Petry
• Supervisor: Sara M. Grimes
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Toronto (U of T), Canada
• Associated to the scholarship: 11/09778-9 - The production of knowledge in hypermedia language: possibilities for the concept of academic game, BP.PD

Abstract

My current research project, entitled "The production of knowledge in hypermedia language: possibilities for the concept of academic game", is focused on the analysis of games and their effect on the players. It also addresses the interplay between entertainment and learning. The objective is to understand the current expansion of digital games beyond entertainment, applied to various areas such as education, training, health and marketing. Guiding research questions: Are digital games breaking the barriers between play/leisure and work/labor? What are digital games, as cultural artifacts, communicating about our times? If there is a diversity of ways of being-in-games, what does that help us when we think about knowledge production? What is the potential of digital games, as a way of expressing knowledge, to communicate? How do digital games participate in the children's life? This research project develops an important feature of the current research funded by FAPESP in Brazil. It intends to conduct a thorough study on the presence of digital games in the lives of most recent Digital Natives. It also intends to conduct exploratory research that will compare ways in which both Canadian and Brazilian children use digital games. To achieve this goal, this project will investigate whether we can still think of a gap between work and leisure, and reflect on whether the existence or not of this gap has consequences on the production of the rights and norms to use information and communication technologies. The general aim is to investigate the potential of digital games as communication media and their possibilities to generate knowledge. To achieve this aim I intend to pursue the following plan: interviews with and observation of children playing a specific digital game, data comparison between Media Smart and government data to understand the Canadian context and also encompass a comparison of Canadian and Brazilian data on use of digital games by children. Some materials and methods to be used in the research internship abroad will be the same those used in my scholarship project in Brazil, which will be notes in a notebook and recording. Considering my research project in Brazil that have proposed analyses of different kinds of games, I will analyze a game in which children build objects and/or characters while playing. It will be important to know how children have been producing knowledge currently and also to discuss the relations between entertainment/play and learning/work. (AU)