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Learning in context: Digital games and young black men

Abstract:

The authors present an exploratory study of Black middle school boys who play digital games. The study was conducted through observations and interviews with Black American middle school boys about digital games as an informal learning experience. The first goal of the study is to understand the cultural context that Black students from economically disadvantaged inner-city neighborhoods bring to playing digital games. The second goal of the study is to examine how this cultural context affects the learning opportunities with games. Third, the authors examine how differences in game play are potential factors in the discrepancy between White male gamers and Black male gamers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Finally, the authors address several opportunities within the field of informal learning to augment game play by bridging the learning that takes place within game play to the real world. © 2008 SAGE Publications.