New Literacies in Schome Park

Abstract

In this chapter I deploy a synthesis of methods I term virtual literacy ethnography to investigate the diverse literacy practices of the Schome Park project (SPP). This project worked with teenagers on the first European “closed” (i.e. protected) island in the 3D virtual world Teen Second LifeTM (TSL) as described in the previous chapter. Firstly I introduce an ethnographic perspective on this lengthy, rich project and reflect on my own interpretive approach. Introducing my own focus of interest, the new literacy practices fostered by the environment and in particular activities I judge to be especially creative, I begin to develop the methodology of a “virtual literacy ethnography”. I show how the diverse multimodal affordances of the communicative domains are imaginatively exploited by the students, supported by peers and staff in an environment characterised by “fluid leadership”. I include some analysis of literacy work around a genre traditionally valued by educators, a dictionary, which I was not involved in at the time. I suggest this is an exemplar literacy practice, creative in itself and illustrative of the methodological possibilities and of course limitations linked with the technologies utilised. Traditional distinctions between “reading” and “writing” become permeable in interesting ways as new creative practices, fostered by the environment of the Schome Park programme, emerged. I offer support for Kress’s (2005) claim that changes in writing and reading practices amount to a “revolution in the world of communication.” In conclusion, I claim that virtual literacy ethnography, as I have proposed it here, can be fruitful in exploring the complexity and creativity of the students’ literacy practices, although more developmental work is needed.