Since last April, Adam and Savanna have been producing a weekly podcast about all things related to The Hunger Games.  Savanna’s a writer for Picktainment and founder of Panem Radio. Adam has been instrumental in bringing The Potter Games and The Fandom to fans around the world. In short, they are unstoppable!

For the past year, I’ve been conducting an online ethnography into adolescent literacy, young adult literature, and fan culture.  I’ve had the opportunity to work with some incredible teens in Australia, Canada, and the United States.  They’ve shared their passion for The Hunger Games with me and given me so much insight into how young people are inspired to write Hunger Games fan fiction, produce videos, create art, and take on leadership roles on fan sites.

My research is ongoing, and I’m always looking for more participants.  (If you’re between 13 and 17 and live in one of the countries noted above, please contact me!)  The fan culture related to The Hunger Games is always growing and evolving.  Case in point: Capitol Couture.

Tune into the Fireside Chat on Monday January 30 at 10 pm EST!  Connect via the Website, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and iTunes.

Photo by andrewmalone

As an educator, it was an incredible experience to closely collaborate with my colleague.  Lora’s expertise was instrumental as our students to engage in multimodal composition, and her energy and encouragement helped me develop my digital literacy skills. I really think that if we want to implement technology in schools, we need to value this kind of ongoing, hands-on, collaborative professional development.

I have previously published an article in the International Journal of Learning and Media about this project.  In “‘Just like I have felt’: Multimodal counternarratives in youth-produced digital media,” [PDF], we developed a methodology called multimodal microanalysis that sheds light on the complex ways in which modes operate in young people’s digital productions.

I’m happy to share that Lora and I have just published an article in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, “iPoetry: Creating space for new literacies in the English curriculum” [PDF]. Here, we explore how our approach to teaching digital poetry changed over time. We argue that the iPoetry project enhanced students’ critical engagement, increased their awareness of audience, and encouraged their innovative use of multiple modalities.

We share the digital poem of one of our students, Blair Mishleau. Blair is an incredible young man who will soon graduate with interdisciplinary degrees in journalism and interactive arts and media. He has recently been accepted into Teach for America, and I know that any child would be lucky to be in his classroom!  Here is Blair’s digital poem that we analyze in the article.

Photo by wasimmons

Your Desires by Blair Mishleau from Jen Scott Curwood on Vimeo.

Not only can you submit a proposal for the GLS Conference, the GLS Educator Symposium is also accepting proposals for workshops.  These workshops are targeted at K-12 teachers, administrators, library media specialists, and post-secondary educators.  Previous GLS Educator Symposium workshop topics have featured rapid game prototyping, mobile game development, early literacy learning, civic engagement and gaming, and digital storytelling and media. The full call for proposals for the GLS Educator Symposium is online and as a PDF. The deadline is February 7, 2012.

These are the opening words of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which is co-authored by John Green and David Levithan.  I love to read when I travel, and I picked it up before heading to the Literacy Research Association conference in December.  Let me say this: it’s the kind of book that can make you laugh out loud on a crowded plane.  But it’s also filled with teenage angst, awkwardness, and heartache.  In short, it’s a great mix of everything.

I loved David Levithan’s first novel, Boy Meets Boy, and I’ve used it in class before.  Many of his books are love stories, and it looks like his latest, The Lover’s Dictionary, is no exception.  Every day for the past 23 years, Levithan has written a story for his friends for Valentine’s Day.  John Green is also a well-known young adult author and his work includes Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and Paper Towns.  I read Paper Towns last year.  While the characters and their pranks are over-the-top, I was drawn into the compelling storyline.  Green is also one half of the Vlogbrothers and founder of Nerdfighters.  I purchased Will Grayson in a local bookstore, and a couple of pages in, I found a handwritten note from a local fan.  It thanked me for buying the book and proclaimed, “Don’t forget to be awesome!”  Here’s a Nerdfighters FAQ:

Will Grayson, Will Grayson tells the story of two Will Graysons who live in the Chicago area.  Other than their name, they don’t have much in common.  They meet by chance in a porn shop (which is not as bad as it sounds).  Neither of them really meant to be there, they’re both a bit heartbroken, and admittedly freaked out to meet someone with the same name.  But soon Will is introduced to O.W.G.’s (Other Will Grayson’s) best friend, Tiny Cooper.  As O.W.G. explains, “Tiny Cooper is not the world’s gayest person, and he is not the world’s largest person, but I believe that he may be the world’s largest person who is really, really gay, and also the world’s gayest person who is really, really large.”

Tiny Cooper is a central figure in the story – so much so that the book could have easily been titled Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and Tiny Cooper.  Levithan and Green each write in the voice of a different Will Grayson, and the chapters alternate this first-person narration.  Some of my middle school and high school students used to struggled with books written with multiple narrators, but each Will has a very unique voice and perspective so I don’t think that would be an issue here.  I think that this would be a great addition to any high school teacher’s classroom library, and I can see it be incorporated into literature circles that focus on friendship or relationships.

Over on his blog, John Green talks about his experience with co-authoring a book.  Consequently, I think Will Grayson might be a wonderful example of collaborative writing that teachers could use in their curriculum, perhaps in conjunction with tools like Bubbl.us, Google Docs, or MixedInk.  To open it up to more collaborators and readers, look to Novlet or Protagonize.

Image Credit: John Green

When I’m teaching about literacy and technology, I find it incredibly useful to share videos with my students.  Sometimes, educational research can seem very distant or impersonal to pre-service and inservice teachers.  But when they have the chance to hear scholars talk about their work and see them actively engage in research, it often creates a space for critical discussion.

The New Learning Institute has created a wonderful video series that features noted scholars such as Jim Gee, Mimi Ito, Henry Jenkins, John Seely Brown, and many more.  Here are two recent videos that feature faculty in the Games+Learning+Society research group, Constance Steinkuehler and Kurt Squire.

Constance Steinkuehler from New Learning Institute on Vimeo.

Kurt Squire from New Learning Institute on Vimeo.

In education, we talk a lot about teachable moments. Over the past four weeks, we have all witnessed extraordinary events in Wisconsin. Governor Walker’s proposed legislation has sweeping implications for K-12 and higher education, the environment, and workers’ rights – both in our state and across the nation.

I am disheartened and upset that these events have largely gone ignored in many local schools. Friends who are public school teachers have been explicitly told to not discuss the issues with their students – even when it is relevant to their content area and their lesson plans would meet key state standards. My sixth grade son has engaged in many conversations with his classmates – but those only happen at the lunch table or during recess. As a teacher educator, I was advised to not talk about Governor Walker’s proposed legislation with my pre-service and practicing teachers. (But I did anyway.  I couldn’t, in good conscience, ignore issues that directly affect their current practicum placements and their future careers in public education).

The classroom can be a place where we can teach critical media literacy skills, where we can show students how to really listen and understand divergent points of view, and where we can model respectful discussions.  We need to take advantage of teachable moments – for our sake and for our students.

But there have been many bright moments, too. My son and I have spent a lot of time at the Capitol – marching, chanting, singing, talking with others… and eating pizza, thanks to Ian’s and donations from around the world.

Megan Schliesman, Dawnene Hassett, and I organized a story hour in the capitol and dozens of families joined us.

Evelyn Galindo-Doucette and I have led a weekly run around the Capitol square, 14 laps (~8 miles) in honor of our 14 Democrat Senators.  This Saturday, we’ll run at the same time as a rally and a tractorcade. (Only in Wisconsin!)

It’s been an eventful week here in Madison, with my dissertation defense (passed with no revisions!), the National Council of Teachers of English – Assembly for Research conference, and protests at the state capitol against legislation proposed by Governor Walker that would eliminate collective bargaining for most union members, deny health insurance to 200,000 children, and make our state universities semi-private.

For the past 11 years, I’ve been a union member in Wisconsin, first as a teacher and now as a teaching assistant.  I didn’t vote for Walker, and I can’t support this legislation. Yesterday, our union leaders agreed to take cuts in pay and benefits, if we could preserve collective bargaining.  Walker refused to budge.  Clearly, this isn’t about money: it’s about destroying unions and taking away worker rights.  In response, our state’s citizens have responded in full force.

This week at the capitol, teachers and other public employees were joined by police, firefighters, and countless others who marched, chanted, cheered, and protested this legislation.  My son has joined in the protest too.  (His sign?  “Governor Walker, love our teachers like they love your children.”)  Yesterday, faculty and students from UW-Madison’s School of Education joined together to march from Library Mall up State Street to the capitol.  Our state and our Democratic senators have garnered national and international media attention, and we know that we’re taking a stand not just for ourselves, but for others too. “This is what democracy looks like!”

Five years ago, I began teaching a digital poetry unit in my 10th grade English classes, in collaboration with my school’s library media specialist, Lora Cowell.  With iPoetry, students engaged in a process of multimodal composition where they integrated still images or video with music, voiceovers, text, and transitions.

In the recent issue of the International Journal of Learning and Media, Damiana Gibbons and I worked together to analyze one student’s digital poem.  Drawing on the work of Glynda Hull, Andrew Burn, and others, Damiana explains (and shows) the process of multimodal microanalysis.  As a graduate student, I’ve come to appreciate when authors explicitly present their methodology and walk the reader through their analytical process.  (In the field of literacy education, Karen Wohlwend’s work is an excellent example!)  In this paper, we tried to do the same.

I’m really grateful that my former student, Tommy Nouansacksy, gave us permission to analyze his work and to use his real name.  Tommy is in college now and an avid consumer and producer of social media.  Intentionally or not, he’s a comedian, an activist, and a role model.  (Case in point: a recent YouTube video where Tommy’s promoting the Trevor Project).

I would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers who gave us critical, formative, and insightful feedback.  Their comments led to an substantial revision of the theoretical framework and prompted us to draw on more work related to race and sexuality.  I know that reviewing journal articles can be a time-consuming process, but I think that it is an invaluable one.

Tommy’s digital poem is available on the IJLM website, but it skips sometimes.  I’ll share it here too.  In this poem, Tommy is responding to the work of Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes to describe his America.

I, Too, Sing America by Tommy Nouansacksy from Jen Scott Curwood on Vimeo.

I’m excited to share the latest news about the second annual Games+Learning+Society Educator Symposium, which will be held on Saturday, June 12th.  Not only does this day-long event only cost $10, but we’re also offering one University of Wisconsin – Madison graduate credit for an additional $100.

The GLS Educator Symposium features panel presentations and roundtables from noted scholars in videogames and digital media as well as hands-on workshops in game design, mobile media learning, digital storytelling, and educational videogames. It follows the fabulous Games+Learning+Society conference, which you should definitely check out!

The Symposium runs from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Memorial Union in Madison, Wisconsin.   All participants must register online by May 30th. If you’re interested in the graduate credit, please see the course registration form and the syllabus. Space is limited, so register early.

In the meantime, you’re also welcome to join us on the GLS Educators Network. Questions? Get in touch with me.  See you in June!

Photo Credit: Matt Gaydos from the GLS Photostream.  This was taken during last year’s rapid game prototyping workshop at the GLS Educator Symposium.

The call for papers is now out for the Games+Learning+Society 6.0 Conference, which will be held June 9-11, 2010, in Madison, Wisconsin.  The three conference themes this year are formal and informal science literacy, media production and identity, and game design and learning.  All proposals for papers and posters are due by February 1, 2010.