Critical Electracy

When I laid out plans for my dissertation, I imagined electracy becoming a key element in reimagining critical pedagogy. One of the cornerstones of critical pedagogy is critical literacy: Shor claims, "We can redefine ourselves and remake society, if we choose, through alternative rhetoric and dissident projects. This is where critical literacy begins, for questioning power relations, discourses, and identities in a world not yet finished, just, or humane" ("What is Critical Literacy?" Shor 282). Critical literacy is one of four parts Shor defines as needed for a critical mind; the others being power awareness, permanent desocialization, and self-education/organization. Power Awareness refers to understanding how society was and continues to be formed through various power structures and human actions; permanent desocialization challenges the status quo and examines how democratic and personal transformation can take place; and self-education/organization refers to pursuing knowledge and working towards a cause as both an individual and a group.


Ulmer sees "electracy being to digital media what literacy is to the alphabetic writing." He even develops an intriguing chart: 



Many of the shifts seem to fall in line with my research interests: the role of the affective (body/joy/sadness),  speculative labor (entertainment), new media literacies
(play), and fantasy (imagination in key figures such as Maxine Greene). My problem is that I'm not ready to delve into the deep end of electracy with MyStory or generative acts meant to mine out an understanding of our thought processes and personal schema. Perhaps I am still too wedded to good ol' literacy, but I want to see concrete texts addressing a rhetorical situation.

Reality is Broken

Throughout the course of this semester, I will be exploring and designing assignments/activities for my critical pedagogy 2.0 test class. The first text I am employing in this journey is Reality is Broken. Play is emerging as a key concept for me. Henry Jenkins lists it as a new media literacy; it is tied to John Dewey's experiential learning. Jane McGonigal makes an interesting argument to promote the use of games to engage students socially, asking "What if we decided to use everything we know about game design to fix what's wrong with reality? What if we started to live our real lives like games, lead our real businesses and communities like game designers, and think about solving real-world problems like computer and game theorists" (7).

I have to admit that I am not much of a gamer unless you count Mahjong. I don't understand sitting in front of the computer for hours on end laboring away in online worlds... at least not fictitious worlds. If we could harness the labor of WoW and Halo players, perhaps we could solve the great problems of the world. Could video games be a training ground? Steve Johnson would say yes.

The question is how can I employ a computer game in an online composition class? It will need to be tied to research to fulfill the outcomes and objectives of an English 112 class. The first game I examined is Evoke. It sounds great, but I can't figure out how to play it now. All the information seems to be out of date and my membership has been pending for over a week. I tried a game called Play the News, but after a few minutes I found myself asking, shouldn't a game be fun? If it can't hold my attention, how can it hold the attention of a student?

My quest continues...