I currently have in my possession what could quite possibly be the single best source of information possible for my final project. The only problem is that my roommate was the one who stumbled upon it (purely by accident of course), so now I owe him one. I figure if I just stick this up on here as a thank you, we should be even.
The article is by Immaculee Harushimana, an assistant professor at Lehman College, and can be found here. Harushimana presents some great ideas, and conducts analysis on the writings of her adolescent students in order to understand the impact that playing video games has on their writing capabilities. One of the ideas she first introduces is that of New Literacy studies. Basically, the article points out that the term "literacy" as we currently know it today only relates to the ability to read and write printed text because that has been our primary source of conveying and understanding information for roughly two millennia now. We stress this literacy in our school system because printed text (newspapers and books) was the "primary carrier" of information for the world's cultures and societies up to this point. However, New Literacy studies argues that digital technology is rapidly taking print's role as the primary source of information, so a broader understanding of literacy is needed in order to make room for the "plethora of communication media available today." So, the new literacy means that a comprehension in these new technologies is just as important as being able to read and write in this day and age.
I would definitely agree with the premise of New Literacy studies-- just look at way we used to read the news versus how most people read their news (online) nowadays. Through digital technology, we can watch videos of the news, discuss pressing topics with others users via comments, and learn of breaking news faster than ever. The printed newspaper is unfortunately a rapidly dying format, and is proof of the importance found in digital technologies as a carrier of information. When it comes to our traditional printed texts though, I do not want, nor do I expect to see this format suffer the same fate. I am with Harushimana in her search of how to "reconcile the old literacies with the new" so that both video games and printed text have a place in the English classroom.
The most interesting section of the article comes from Harushimana's students' free writing, specifically how 9 of the 12 male students wrote narratives that were based on video games. Her findings pretty much show everything that I intend to discuss in my project: That the plot and characterization of certain titles mirror those found in classical texts, that role-playing games appear to be the most teachable in a classroom setting, and that video games can positively affect a student's writing ability. I am going to deviate from Harushimana's findings and point out something else that I noticed here though: At least 7 of the stories feature an adolescent male as the protagonist (Resident Evil does not, and I can't for the life of me find anything on Knight's Quest). These are the stories that teenagers understand and react to, and there is no reason this should not be used in the classroom.
I did some research over at fanfiction.net (a site where anyone can log on and write sequels, adaptations, or continuations to their favorite books, movies, and video games) and found that out of the top 6 most written about video games, 5 of them star an adolescent protagonist. Writing about this genre of games is so popular, the game Kingdom Hearts has over 63,000 pieces of fan fiction, less than only Harry Potter and Twilight on the entire site (which are coincidentally novels about young adults...seems like we have found the target demographic for the site!). Furthermore, Kingdom Hearts has more fans passionate enough about its storyline to submit an original work than Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and X-Men. And we thought teens didn't like to write? Maybe we were just discussing the wrong material?
I think the article and fanfiction.net's numbers do a great job arguing for the inclusion of video games in a grade 9-13 English curriculum, at least in some fashion. But it leaves the question of exactly how? Maybe compare and contrast? I've compared about 500 versions of Hamlet between text and film (damn you Mel Gibson) over the course of my academic career. Couldn't we compare similar adolescent characters between mediums, like Jimmy from Bully and Holden from Catcher in the Rye? I don't think that is going to be enough though, so more research will need to be done. Another issue, what about the adolescent females? What video games will get them to write, as none of the young ladies in Harushimana's class wrote about anything other than their own personal experiences. Is it because there aren't enough video games out there with females as the target audience? Questions for another day and another post...
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