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Launched in 2013, Vine is a popular microblogging service that allows users to record, edit, and share six-second videos that loop ad libitum, until another video is selected. At this time, the communicative, expressive, and semiotic affordances of Vine and similar services have still to be fully explored by users and scholars alike. Through a multimodal analysis approach drawing on New London Group’s (1996) work, this paper investigates how people construct humour on Vine by artfully arranging different modes of expression. The analysis focused on user-enacted humour, as opposed to captured comical scenes or bare samples taken from TV shows or movies. The study hypothesises the social construction of a novel humorous language that draws on extant forms of humour and a variety of modes and techniques derived from audio-visual media and computer-mediated communication, as users inventively exploit the framework provided by the Vine platform. Findings show that users create instant characters to amplify the impact of their solo video recordings, use Vine as a “humorous confessional”, explore the potential of hand-held media by relying on “one hand and face” expressivity (the other hand holding the device for the video “selfie”), and use technology, internet slang, internet acronyms, emoticons/emojis, and hashtags to convey humour and complement the messages of the videos they post on Vine. The goal of this study is an exploratory analysis of humour and its discursive functions in an emergent social medium by considering its affordances, as users find new and creative ways to harness its expressive potential.

The widespread access to wireless and mobile connectivity, the increasing popularity of social media, and the pervasiveness of portable devices such as smartphones and tablets are offering unprecedented opportunities for expressing and sharing personal understandings and representations of the world. This technology-mediated and hyper-connected milieu offers a fertile ground for representing, enacting, and counteracting antisocial outlooks and behaviours such as prejudice, discrimination, and bullying. In the introduction, we propose a unified theoretical model to comprehend the idiosyncrasies of prejudice, discrimination, and bullying, in function of the analysis of user-generated Vines related to prejudice, which is presented in the second part of the article. In this study, we posit prejudice as one of the primary seeds of discrimination and bullying, and we then examine its multimodal representations on Vine, a social medium that offers a short-form apparatus for constructing and communicating meaning. This study contributes to the understanding of how prejudice is represented and interpreted on mobile social platforms and opens the field to research on how people depict and perceive sensitive issues through “condensed” forms of computer-mediated communication.

Before, during, and after concerts, fans of The Grateful Dead, Phish, Widespread Panic, and other improvisation-oriented jam bands, gather in venues' parking lots to share experiences, debate band related lore, buy and sell fan made goods, listen to music, and participate in numerous other scene-related activities. The interaction within these spaces, and with these spaces, fosters the social construction of knowledge, language, skills, norms, behaviors, and identities. By applying Gee's construct of “affinity space,” this article analyzes the different trajectories to learning and participation associated with one the most influential fandoms in the United States. The conceptualization of parking lots as affinity spaces sheds lights on informal learning practices experienced in physical settings that transcend the affordances offered by virtual communities, social media, and, more broadly, computer-mediated communication. Focusing on situated learning endeavors enacted in jam band parking lots in relation to formal educational practices, this study advocates for a renewed and joined approach to education and fandom studies through a sociocultural lens.

In the learning sciences and game studies communities, there has been an increasing interest in the potential of game-related “paratexts” and “surrounds” in supporting learning, such as online discussion forums and gaming affinity spaces. While there have been studies identifying how learning occurs in such communities, little research has been done on learning at the aggregate level. This study examined the social construction of knowledge in two sections of the discussion forums in the TUG (“The Untitled Game”) gaming affinity space. Findings suggest that game-like prompts and sections in online discussion forums can spur higher level forms of interaction and learning and can have implications for the design of gaming communities in which the social construction of knowledge is a desired outcome.

Engaging engineering faculty in transformative practices in course design and teaching is critical to student success, especially in fields like engineering where there are challenges with attrition and retention. This paper presents a current course transformation program in which engineering faculty transform the design of their courses and teaching practices to improve learning supported by embedded experts. In this program, embedded experts are education experts who work with engineering faculty in transforming courses to address the needs of their students. This evaluation study investigates the outcomes of course transformations on engineering student achievement and teaching practices. The results show an overall improvement in student achievement outcomes and indicate that it has helped participating faculty become more successful engineering educators.

Purpose – In this paper, the authors present the insights and takeaways related to their experience with the design and development of ProblemUp!, a card game focused on helping higher education students develop personal strategies to overcome challenges in college and in life. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents a case study with analysis of and reflections on the design and development of an educational card game. Findings – The design and development of ProblemUp! has engendered a number of insights to analyze, design and implement games that can help students become successful learners in school and life, beyond subject matter. The authors realized that it is worthwhile to offer different opportunities for players to engage with the game (e.g. alternative sets of rules, face-to-face and online versions), while at the same time keeping the game affordable, accessible and fun to play. Ultimately, ProblemUp! reflects a social and playful approach to learning that can help students become st...

This article examines the uses and functions of humour in an online community of gamers and nonprofessional game designers who present and critique user-generated artefacts created with the popular game series LittleBigPlanet. Findings show that participants use humour and “good humour” to achieve a variety of social goals: to veil statements of ability and effort, alleviate negative comments, present user-generated content, attract new players, support other participants, and overall engender a smiling atmosphere that incentives collaboration, peer feedback, and social cohesion. Far from being a trivial ornament, humour emerges as a community building “cushioning glue” that connects, seals, and buffers different gears of computer-mediated interaction, contributing to defining the boundaries and the identity of the analysed online space.

The goal of this article is to provide a conceptual framework to better understand digital games in learning and creative contexts through the dimensions of play, design, and participation. This framework can be used as a guiding tool for the selection, implementation, and evaluation of game-based approaches in formal and informal educational settings, as well as a blueprint for making sense of playful learning and creativity in virtual worlds and technology-mediated environments. In essence, this article seeks to answer the question “What are digital games and how can we make sense of them for learning and creativity?” The proposed visual model and conceptual framework, here defined as Playful Constructivism, is grounded on the learning theories of Situated Cognition, Social Constructivism, and Constructionism, and draws from play and game studies, design-based learning, and affinity spaces research. This framework is not intended as the “ultimate” conceptualization of game-based learning, but rather as an agile tool that can guide scholars, practitioners, and students through the affordances, challenges, and opportunities of implementing and using digital games in learning and creative contexts.

Creating, sharing, and critiquing user-generated content are increasingly common practices in online environments, as users become active producers, reviewers, and promoters, not just consumers, of content. This paper investigates the functions of the opening posts in an online discussion forum dedicated to user-generated game levels (i.e., mini-games) designed with the LittleBigPlanet digital game series. In the analyzed community, the first post of each thread plays a crucial role, as authors introduce themselves, present their work, and set the stage for discussion. Findings show that the opening post carries a variety of discursive functions: it serves as a creative presentation of content, a self-reflective disclosure of practices, and a passionate call to participation. Moreover, by artfully using these themes, participants construct the opening post as a “request for absolution.” Through an ethnographic discourse analysis approach that draws on politeness theory, this study furthers the understanding of how users discursively construct and seek to increase opportunities for interaction, peer feedback, and social learning in a creative online space.