Abstract: Given their increasing domination of the entertainment industry and wide spread popularity among a wide range of populations, massively multiplayer online videogames (MMOGs) are quickly becoming the form of entertainment and a major mechanism of socialization. Researchers have taken notice, and educational MMOGs are now beginning to emerge; however, there is a paucity of research on the actual culture/cognition of MMOGameplay, despite its necessity for sound theory and viable design. This paper outlines an ongoing cognitive ethnography of a currently thriving MMOG. Using discourse analytic methods, this project is developing a “thick description ” (Geertz, 1973) of naturally-occurring gameplay, paying particular attention to the forms of socially and materially distributed cognition that emerge, the learning mechanisms embedded within community practice, and the ways in which participation shapes and is shaped by the situated (on- and off-screen) identities of its members. After outlining the data collection and analysis methods used, I present an illustrative analysis of selected data and preliminary findings specific to learning within this new virtual space for play. Massively Multiplayer Online Games? Imagine an entire 3D world online, complete with forests, cities, and seas. Now imagine it populated with

For the current youth generation, the Internet has always existed. Online technologies have profoundly contributed to a dramatic techocultural shift in contemporary society, transforming how we learn, work, play, and socialize. Information from multiple sources on everything from Athabascan birch bark baskets to the calculation of z-scores is there for the googling. Global social networks – made visible, designable, and searchable via services such as “Friendster ”

Computer-mediated communication can be a powerful tool towards literacy development as its text-based nature supports sustained reflection on classroom exchanges. This exploratory study examines the nature of peer exchanges in two partially network-based classes and the conflicts learners face in this situation where all information is text-based and archived. The classes combined computermediated and face-to-face elements in teaching content courses to students completing a BA in Contemporary English Language. This paper provides a picture of how learners used the available technology to interact with peers and their comment on how this mode of delivery extended their traditional notions of learning. Data include archives of discussions, learning logs, the tasks completed, responses provided, and student interviews conducted at the end. The data were inductively analyzed to find emerging themes following a reiterative process of substantiating and elaborating the themes. A variety of responses was evident where students were using situationally-relevant language to interact with and learn from each other. The data indicates that students develop a sense of personal accountability arising from the high visibility on the Web which was seen as unique yet threatening component of this mode. The paper evaluates the powers of the Web in terms of students ' experiences and comments.

When students and teachers discuss subject matter, at least two processes generally occur: Students and teachers become socially identified as recognizable types of people, and students learn subject matter. This article contributes to recent work on how social identification and learning systematically interrelate by describing one complex way in which these two processes can partly constitute each other. The article analyzes data from across an academic year in a ninth-grade classroom, exploring how one student developed a social identity through the same conversations in which students learned aspects of the curriculum.

Semantic change happens both in the long term (over years and decades) and in the very short term (in a single dialogue). This paper outlines an abstract and general formal account of how the meanings of natural language constructs (typically, words) can change as a result of their use in dialogue. The account has two parts, one semantic and one pragmatic. 1

Abstract: In this study, we develop a model of science identity to make sense of the science experiences of 15 successful women of color over the course of their undergraduate and graduate studies in science and into science-related careers. In our view, science identity accounts both for how women make meaning of science experiences and how society structures possible meanings. Primary data included ethnographic interviews during students ’ undergraduate careers, follow-up interviews 6 years later, and ongoing member-checking. Our results highlight the importance of recognition by others for women in the three science identity trajectories: research scientist; altruistic scientist; and disrupted scientist. The women with research scientist identities were passionate about science and recognized themselves and were recognized by science faculty as science people. The women with altruistic scientist identities regarded science as a vehicle for altruism and created innovative meanings of ‘‘science,’ ’ ‘‘recognition by others,’’ and ‘‘woman of color in science.’ ’ The women with disrupted scientist identities sought, but did not often receive, recognition by meaningful scientific others. Although they were ultimately successful, their trajectories were more difficult because, in part, their bids for recognition were disrupted by the interaction with gendered, ethnic, and racial factors. This study clarifies theoretical conceptions of science identity,

classroom discourse in relation to language and literacy events from a microethnographic perspective. It is a timely publication that reflects increasingly strong concerns over issues ranging from gender, race, identity and power relations within and beyond classrooms. The book contains a forward, an introduction and five chapters. The forward by Brian Street begins the book well on a good note. It is in this forward that Street sets a clear tone by introducing some of the important issues concerning the topic with which the authors engage themselves. He swiftly highlights the authors ’ laudable efforts to have successfully built a close link between their analysis of linguistic features of social interaction with what Gee (1999) calls the “social turn” in language study that extends from the social nature of identity (i.e., the construction of identity is socially determined), power relations in classroom events, to the role of multiple literacies, which are important topics in discussions on literacy and multiliteracies (e.g., Luke, 2003; New London Group, 1996). He concludes his forward in a fashion with metaphoric use of language by comparing the authors to what Yeats described in his poem; namely, the authors are “dancers in the dance, their glance and their bodies cannot be excluded from the question of choreography posed by Yeats, which runs throughout this elegant and well balanced book ” (p. xi). Meanwhile, he cautions that, while it is true that the authors approach the classroom

In this article, we critically examine the nature of the “consensus ” reflected in educational standards used to orient high-stakes assessment programs. We analyze two complementary cases of practice in the assessment of teaching. One focuses on the discourse of standards creation and one examines how standards like these are typically used to orient assessment development and judgments about individual performance. We offer two (partially competing) theoretical perspectives that might illuminate and guide our practices in this currently undertheorized and underexamined area of standards development. One is based in the discourse ethics of Jürgen Habermas and one is based in critical elaborations of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics. We argue that conventional consensus-seeking approaches to the development and public review of educational standards tend to mask diversity and relinquish authority for consequential decisions to assessment developers who work in far less public circumstances. We draw on hermeneutic philosophy to offer a more pluralist approach that allows dissensus to be represented and taken into account in the assessment process.

Professional development for teachers has increasingly become a significant factor in improving schools. In the past, professional development has often been left up to outside providers who conduct one-day workshops at a hotel or conference center, and the onus is on teachers to decide whether or not to integrate the newly

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