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“Green Washing” the Digital Playground: How Virtual Worlds Support Ecological Intelligence…or Do They?

First author: Meyers
Year: 2012


Abstract

An emerging approach to teaching young people about sustainability is the use of immersive game spaces and virtual environments. This project focuses on children’s virtual worlds with an environmental values orientation to examine the ways these worlds work as vehicles of sustainability literacy. These worlds position themselves explicitly as ethical and sustainable spaces, focusing on environmental responsibility and stewardship. Yet, they contain only a veneer of ecological thinking, rely heavily on consumerist logic, and provide mixed messages for young people about what it means to conserve and consume. We use the lenses of Value Sensitive Design (VSD) and Ecocriticism to interrogate these technologies, exploring how the discursive practices of these spaces support or constrain different visions of a sustainable world.


Details

Language: English
Country of affiliation: Canada


Published in: Proceedings of the 2012 iConference
Publication type: Conference proceeding


Source: https://doi.org/10.1145/2132176.2132308


Games

No Results

Franchises

No Records




Studies

Description: Value Sensitive Design to explore how game supports/limits sustainable thinking, based on observations of paratexts and games'' websites

Research type: Non-experimental
Data type: Qualitative


Comparator: none
Control group: no
Pilot study: no
Pre/post measures used: no
Follow-up: no


Sample type: Game(s)
Sample size: 1
Power analysis: no
Sample countries: null


Games studied: Pixie Hollow


Franchises studied: null


Study outcomes: Reflecting ecological issues