Reimagining Numeracies: Empowered, Game-Informed Meaning Making in and beyond the Pandemic Era

Abstract

This article focuses on how a game-informed culture in public school math classes sustained interaction, cooperation, and empowered meaning making when COVID-19 mandates closed school buildings and education went fully online. More specifically, the game-informed learning environment supported the students’ development and discussion of their multimodal numeracies, and the highlighted activity reveals how the generation of math memes can foster students’ engagement in creative and empowered practices. Underscored throughout this article is the importance to embrace the expansiveness of numeracies in order to recognize, value, and support students’ meaning making.

Social, Strutturale e Specializzato: tre significati per comprendere, studiare e utilizzare in classe i meme matematici

“…Il compito dell'insegnante è introdurre gli studenti alla cultura della matematica, e questo processo di inculturazione è più agevole se l'insegnante è più consapevole della cultura da cui provengono gli studenti (Skovsmose, 2005). In questi ultimi anni, la letteratura accademica ha infatti iniziato a rivolgere le sue attenzioni all'esplorazione delle potenzialità didattiche dei meme, sia nel campo della didattica della matematica (Abrams, 2021;Bini et al, 2021;Videla et al, 2022) sia in altri ambiti disciplinari, come la didattica della psicologia (Kath et al, 2022), delle lingue straniere (Romero & Bobkina, 2021) o della farmacia (Brown, 2020). Questi studi hanno mostrato che l'utilizzo dei meme nella didattica può essere efficace sotto diversi aspetti: catturare l'attenzione degli studenti e mantenere l'interesse durante le lezioni; aiutare gli studenti a sintetizzare informazioni, a cogliere l'essenza di un argomento e a ricordare concetti chiave; favorire l'associazione di idee e la memorizzazione; promuovere la creatività e l'interazione tra gli studenti, incoraggiando la condivisione e la discussione di contenuti rilevanti per il programma scolastico.…”

Game-informed meaning making in U.S. math class

“…Perhaps this is because, as Whitton (2012) noted, "all games, digital and traditional, naturally embody a range of techniques that help to create effective learning experiences…The use of games can be an excellent way to support constructivist pedagogies through active learning and participative teaching approaches (p. 252). Nonetheless, there is one more approach that is important to acknowledge, and that is game-informed learning (Abrams, 2021a(Abrams, , 2021bBegg, 2008;Begg et al, 2005;Bronack et al, 2006;Reinhardt & Sykes, 2014) wherein the game is not central to the activity; rather, active learning and participatory problem solving-elements of successful gaming-are essential parts of the activity even if a game is not.…”

“…This article targets a very specific activity-a cooperative testing situation informed by cooperative competition (i.e., a type of interaction related to play and helping opponents, also known as coopertition, Abrams, 2015Abrams, , 2017Abrams, , 2021aAbrams, , 2021b. Thus, the phrase game-informed learning is used to identify that, although gaming was not part of the cooperative assessment, it included behaviors and practices that also appear in or are informed by game play.…”

“…In this study, there were no remote-controlled robots; however, the ethos of coopertition and the emphasis on assisting others was embedded in the in-class cooperative assessments (i.e., math tests high school students completed together in class, see Figure 1). These tests primarily were cooperative in nature and involved opportunities for students to engage in socially responsible behavior, which also was anchored in the classroom culture (Abrams, 2017(Abrams, , 2021a(Abrams, , 2021b. Relatedly, such interactivity hinged on students' movement around the room, their use of manipulatives, their communication with their partners and other classmates, and their ongoing reflective, trial-and-error practices (Abrams, 2017).…”

Artifacts with Feelings/Feeling Artifacts: Toward a Notion of Tacit Modalities to Support and Propel Anthropological Research

“…Her early research included an examination of two tenth‐grade students’ self‐selected artifacts represented in photographs of their desks; photographed items each had a story, including, but not limited to, books (and related podcasts and shows) to learn more about World War II, gifts from grandparents that became learning resources, and a wig and a mask that were part of a failed attempt to connect to others socially (Abrams 2009, 2015). Sandra also has looked at digital instantiations of meaning—from videogaming to discussion posts to memes—and has examined these artifacts in relation to their material and immaterial meaning (2010, 2017, 2021). What Sandra has found is that the digital artifacts, such as Minecraft homes or math memes, are situated across various liminal planes and draw upon affective meanings that are shaped and reshaped in digital and nondigital spaces.…”