Panel —Screen Cultures

Download MP3 of the Screen Cultures Panel (Right click and select "Save Link As")

Friday, June 13, 2008 from 9:00-10:30am

James Paul Gee, Arizona State University
Dan Anderson, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Bill Shribman, WGBH
Lisa Guernsey, Education and Technology Writer

Consider the "screen" as children see and interact with it today. Is it serving primarily as a window onto "pretend" or untouchable worlds? Does it serve mostly as an animated version of another artifact of children's lives—the book? Or is it becoming an interactive and conversational outlet, a mashup of phone and camera? In either case, under what conditions does the screen become a trigger—or trampoline—for play and creative thought? How and when do children find the most delight in interacting with a screen? And when does the screen get in the way? These are the questions that scamper through the heads of those who observe children using screen media today— whether medium is a television program, a video game, a handheld device or some screen yet to be invented. While research on children's interaction with the television screen and the videogame screen have both been around for quite some time, very little of the research in these two fields ever crosses over to the other side. In this panel, we put the two together, with implications for those who develop new screens and windows onto new virtual worlds. By bringing together renowned scholars in television research and videogame research with an innovative producer who has worked in both media, the panel afforded the rare opportunity to make connections between the worlds of videogame and television design, and to think what these two established fields have to tell those who conduct interaction design for children. In this way, we best considered how children think about and interact with the screens in their lives.

James Paul Gee - Arizona State University

What's a Screen Mean in a Video Game?
Video games are not "screen based" activities in the sense in which television and movie watching are. In fact, for reasons I will discuss, players are actually, in a sense, both inside and outside the screen. This allows for the development of what I have called "projective identities", as well as a variety of other effects that cause video games to be interactive and to engage learning in different ways than do television, movies, or books, for that matter. In addition, these differences mean, as well, that narrative works differently in video games than it does in television, movies, and books. However, not all video games work in the way I will describe and, thus, there is not, as far as I am concerned, a general theory of video games, let alone screens.

James Paul Gee is the Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University. He is a member of the National Academy of Education. His book Sociolinguistics and Literacies was one of the founding documents in the formation of the "New Literacy Studies", an interdisciplinary field devoted to studying language, learning, and literacy in an integrated way in the full range of their cognitive, social, and cultural contexts. His book An Introduction to Discourse Analysis brings together his work on a methodology for studying communication in its cultural settings, an approach that has been widely influential over the last two decades. His most recent books What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy and Situated Language and Learning both deal with video games, language, and learning. Gee recently published Good Video Games and Good Learning: Collected Essays. Prof. Gee has published widely in journals in linguistics, psychology, the social sciences, and education.

Dan Anderson - University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Dan Anderson's research focuses on children and television, particularly the cognitive and educational aspects. Anderson is widely published, and his work concerns attention, comprehension, viewing behavior, and the long term impact of television on development. His current research includes toddler understanding of television, and the effects of adult background television on infant and toddler behavior. Anderson was involved in the creation of children's television series including Allegra's Window, Gullah Gullah Island, Bear in the Big Blue House, Blue's Clues, and Dora the Explorer. He has also acted as an advisor to Captain Kangaroo, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, Sesame Street, Fimbles, Go, Diego, Go!, It's a Big Big World and Super Why!. His research is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation.

Bill Shribman - WGBH

Thinking Inside the Box: Tales from the trenches.
Bill Shribman explores some of the key considerations in creating educational content in a lean-back/lean-forward world. TV and computer involve very different kinds of interaction, so how can producers best play to the strengths of each medium? Bill discusses how his team tries to find the right balance between Sticky and Meaningful in making kids' content for the Interweb.

Bill Shribman is the Executive Producer of WGBH's Interactive Kids Group and oversees all WGBH kids' projects, including those in development, for Web and new platforms. Previously he spent 10 years working in video post production companies in both London and Seattle. At WGBH he has produced the internationally recognized sites for Curious George, ZOOM, PEEP and the Big Wide World, Time Warp Trio, and Between the Lions. He is also a content producer and games designer for the Fetch, Martha Speaks, Arthur, and Postcards from Buster sites. Traffic to these sites amounts to more than 10 million visitors every month. He devised and produced the Fin, Fur and Feather Bureau of Investigation at FFFBI.com and is also the creator of WGBH's broadband animated series, The GREENS. His writing for the Between the Lions television series was EMMY-nominated in 2006. He is currently the P.I. and lead producer on a U.S. Department of Education Steppingstones of Technology grant, devising games to help kids with ADHD.

Under Bill Shribman, the WGBH Interactive Kids group has received numerous accolades, including New Media INVISION Awards (Gold and Silver), three Webby nominations, MIMC Gold, Parents Choice Gold, the Flagstaff Arizona Worldfest Silver, the Eddie Award, NAPPA Gold, Japan Prize Silver, MITX Best of Show, and the first Prix Jeunesse awarded to a Web site.

Respondent, Lisa Guernsey - Education and Technology Writer

Screen Cultures: Cross-Pollination between Videogame and Television Research.

Lisa Guernsey is an education, science and technology writer who has contributed to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Consumer Reports, and other publications. Her most recent book is Into the Minds of Babes: How Screen Time Affects Children From Birth to Age 5. She also maintains a blog called Media Minds and writes a quarterly newsletter about new research findings on media and children. Both can be found at www.lisaguernsey.com. She resides in Alexandria, Va., with her husband, their two preschool-age daughters, two cats and a dog.