Learning at the Cutting Edge? Help-seeking and Status in Online Videogame Fan Sites

Whiteman, Natasha 2008. Learning at the Cutting Edge? Help-seeking and Status in Online Videogame Fan Sites. 9 (1), pp. 7-26. https://doi.org/10.7459/ites/09.1.02

TitleLearning at the Cutting Edge? Help-seeking and Status in Online Videogame Fan Sites
TypeJournal article
AuthorsWhiteman, Natasha
Abstract

There is growing interest in the social contexts within which videogames are situated. Educationalists in particular have responded enthusiastically to the emergence of online fan sites devoted to the discussion and celebration of videogames. It has been suggested that these sites signal the future of education by exemplifying ideals of situated and collaborative distanced learning, housing expertise and supporting apprenticeship. Much of the work to date, however, has focused on documenting examples of educational productivity, rather than interrogating the social manoeuvring that goes on within these settings. This article suggests that in order to refine existing understandings of the relationship between schooling in formal and informal domains we need to approach these informal settings in a more critical way, and pay closer attention to the micro-level negotiation of status that goes on within them. The paper then explores the negotiation of status within help-seeking activity on the forums of the videogame fan site Silent Hill Heaven. Extracts of posting activity gathered during a two year observational study of the setting are presented to suggest the ways that expertise and learning are embedded within wranglings over authority and legitimacy on this site.

Keywordsauthority
education
help-seeking
player communities
status
Journal citation9 (1), pp. 7-26
ISSN1037-616X
Year2008
PublisherJames Nicholas Publishers
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.7459/ites/09.1.02
Publication dates
Published01 Jan 2008

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