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Breaking the ice: Play, friendships and social identities in young children’s use of virtual worlds Jackie Marsh, University of Sheffield, UK

Young children and virtual worlds

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Presentation for the VWBPE 2011 Conference

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Page 1: Young children and virtual worlds

Breaking the ice: Play, friendships and social

identities in young children’s use of virtual worlds

Jackie Marsh, University of Sheffield, UK

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32m

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Commercial VWs for childrenPersistent space that offers a range of environments that are navigable through maps

Customisable avatar

Home for avatar

Games which earn in-world currency, generally played individually

Free chat and safe-chat servers

Moderators

Information for parents on website

Link to offline world toys and related texts

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Lauwaert (2009:12) suggests that the ‘geography of play is the sum of core and peripheral play practices and consists of both physical and digital elements, of tactile and non-tactile components,of objects and connections’.

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*Primary school serving a primarily white, working-class community in an area of socio-economic deprivation

*175 aged 5-11 children completed an online survey using Google Docs

*26 children interviewed (aged 5 - 11)

*Three 11-year-old children filmed at home using ʻClub Penguinʼ (CP) over a period of one month,

(8 hours, 48 minutes and 55 seconds of CP activity analysed). These 3 children and their parents

interviewed.

*Analysis undertaken of the literacy practices relating to CP that are conducted in online spaces external to

the virtual world.

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Playgrounds studyAHRC funded study ‘Playground Games and Rhymes in a New Media Age’, conducted by the Universities of London, East London and Sheffield.

180 children at Monteney primary School completed an online survey of media use.

Children drew maps of their online and offline friendships.

11 children, 5 boys and 6 girls, interviewed about these maps.

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Key findings

In 2008 52% of children used virtual worlds on a regular basis. Most popular was Club Penguin, then Barbie Girls

In 2010, 90% of children used virtual worlds. Most popular was Moshi Monsters, then Club Penguin.

49% of these 5-11 year olds had used Facebook, one of the attractions being the virtual world, Farmville

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I like you tube & bebo because I get to tark to my friends. I sometimes go on club peniguin and play the games with my friends!!!!!!!!!!!! (Girl, aged 8)

you can talk to people, you can excplore and you can have fun

with friends. (Girl, aged 9)

I like reading the books. I like playing with other penguins. I like

dressing my penguin up as a pirate. (Girl, aged 8)

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Playing football (Boy, aged 5)

Becayuse you get to make your own penguin and its cool (Boy, aged 7)

Playing minnigames, taklking to people (Boy, aged 8)

Meeting my class mates and like to do up my room and chat to people play

games meeting people around the world (Boy, aged 10)

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i can kill other peopal (Boy, aged 10)

I can chat to people and you can do a virtual kill (Boy, aged 10)

About that you can talk to other people and fight people and KILL THEM!!!!!!!

(Boy, aged 11)

I like explouring around and war games (Boy, aged 9)

U can dow things u cart dow in the real world eg j ump out of buildings and DIE!!!

(Boy, aged 11)

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Who children play

with•Children played with siblings, relatives and classmates, often in pre-arranged sessions

Sally’s father said, “I always find it funny then, you know when they’re going on the same thing. One’s sat in there, one’s sat in there…all in the same room - I can’t stand it. Then they’re shouting, “Suzy do this, Sally do this”.

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John (11): I look at a name and if it sound weird or not right, I always press no, but thatʼs only occasionally because I have only got one friend. If the name is not a normal name, or sounds weird to me, I donʼt normally press it.

Jackie: And what do you mean, a normal name?

John: If itʼs like, a funny name, or like, I donʼt know, their real name, or like coolgirl or something like that, I would normally press yes, but if it is something weird...

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Jackie: When you say you like the look of somebody, what are you looking for exactly?

Sally (11): Looking for their clothes, hair and their posh houses, but it doesnʼt really matter because Iʼve got a lot of plain friends. So heʼs just got little hats and stuff [pointing to an avatar of a user who does not have paid membership], so most people donʼt click on him because heʼs plain. Just because heʼs plain and got a fancy background, they just wonʼt click on him because they donʼt really….think, ʻOh heʼs not rich...I wonʼt go and see him, so Iʼll just leave him outʼ. I just click on anybody.

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Emily (11): Yeah. Some people like try and show off about

doing like crimes sometimes.

Interviewer: And say what?

Emily: Like, “Oh I’ve nicked a car today” or summat.

Interviewer: So what do you say?

Emily: I just...you can add them as your friend but I don’t, I

just have friends who I already know as friends.

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Interviewer: So, your penguin, I’m interested in how you

think about your penguin. Do you think about it as a sort

of toy, as about it being you - is it you, is it a doll, how do

you think about that penguin?

John (11): Well like most websites that I go on, there’s a

version.....like penguin, there’s things that you can make

out of it. I think it’s like representing you. Because if you

dress up as someone completely different or something

completely different you can’t really trust anyone really.

Trust

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Genres of play

Fantasy play

Games with rules

‘Rough and tumble’ play

Socio-dramatic play

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Purpose ExampleLiteracy for accessing or displaying information

Reading newspaper to find out about events/ tips etc.; reading catalogues; using environmental print to navigate the virtual world; reading game instructions; reading clues on quests

Literacy for constructing and maintaining relationships

Communicating to other penguins via chat/ safe chat; using emoticons to express emotions to other users; sending postcards; using Club Penguin to instant message others

Literacy for pleasure or self-expression

Literacy integral to play - fantasy play, socio-dramatic play; reading poems, jokes and stories in the newspaper and submitting copy to it; reading books in the library; language play; searching for Club Penguin machinima on YouTube

Literacy for accessing or displaying information

Communicating to two or more other penguins via chat/ safe chat; using chat in group ritual play

Literacy for identity construction and performance

Choosing avatars’ clothes and artefacts; choosing emoticons and phrases to express identity

Literacy for establishing and maintaining social networks

Literacy in ritualised play; CoPs

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The interaction order (Goffman, 1983)

Frames (principles of structure underpinning social situations) operate across online/ offline

Literacy utilised in the construction/ maintenance of the interaction order

Literacy is used to render transactions in virtual worlds as ‘predictable, reliable, and legible’ (Misztal, 2001:313)

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Online/ offline145 children completed maps of online/ offline friendships Class 3 Offline

A (B)

Online

T (B)

W (B)

M (B)

B (G)

D (G)

L (G)

K (B)L (G)

L (G)

M (B)

M (B)

J (G)

A (G)

J (B)

J (B)

A (B)

B (B)

A (G)

J (B)

E (G)

B (B)

J (B)

M (G)

A (G)

C (G)

A (G)

N (G)

C (G)

68% had online

friends in their class

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Interviewer: Did you ever ask him?

James (7): Yeah but he said still no. When I asked him over and over he said, “No, no, no”.

Interviewer: And did you feel upset or sad about that?

James: No I didn’t thought I was missing owt.

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Interviewer:! So did you choose children to play with in the playground that you played with online, or not?

Carl (7):! No ‘cos....I played with James, I didn’t play with him online.

Interviewer:! Oh right OK. So why didn’t you play with him online, James?

Carl:! Because he didn’t have an account.

Interviewer:! Oh right OK, he didn’t have an account. And did it make any difference to how you felt about him playing in the playground?

Carl:! No.

Interviewer:! No, OK. And do you think he felt any different?

Carl:! No, ‘cos we played a lot in the playground.

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Mary (10):Well usually the people online I usually....the people that are online I usually just play with them, and then if I go out and play in the yard I kind of just play with all my friends and people like if they’re not playing with anyone else and then go and talk to them and see what’s the matter.

Interviewer:!So you don’t seek out people that you play with online?

Mary:!Erm...no.

Interviewer:!Does it make any difference do you think in the playground or play with Moshi Monsters “I’ll play with her today” or do you not think about it or....?

Mary:!No, I don’t usually think about it, I just like go to school and see who’s there and play with them.

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Interviewer:! So how do you think you can tell the children who might break the rules then?

Carl (7):! Because erm....if like they shout out and they thump people in faces sometimes.....

Interviewer:! In the playground?

Carl:!Yeah. And if they’re going to say something like “I don’t like you”, and like Kyle when I’ve gone to his house, my nan-nan lives next door to him and I go to her house every night, Kyle swears when we go round to play football, and that’s why I didn’t ask him to my accounts.

Interviewer:! Oh right OK, because he might get you into trouble.

Carl:!Yeah.

Interviewer:! And get you banned.

Carl:!Yeah. Because if they’re banned we can never add that account on to Moshi Monsters ever again.

Interviewer:! Oh gosh. And did Kyle ever ask to be your friend on the internet?

Carl:!Mmm, about 5 times.

Interviewer:! And what did you say to him?

Carl:!I said, “Sorry, I don’t want to get banned from it”.

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Interviewer: So how do you decide who you are going to play with on the internet and who you’re not?

Allie (8): Because it’s like....I go up to them and talk and see if they’re nice or not, and then if I go on the internet and play with them I know they’re not going to like mess around with my stuff on it.

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Online-offline play

Children owned artefacts and games related to Club Penguin e.g. Nintendo game, cards, key ring.

Children played games based on virtual worlds in the playground e.g a version of tag in which the person caught became a penguin.

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Conclusion

Online and offline worlds closely related for children

Engagement in virtual worlds engenders a range of play and literacy activities

We need to build on these experiences in developing a critical digital literacy curriculum in classrooms