Reading and “Gamification”: Joining Guilds, Earning Badges, and Leveling Up

Marianne Martens

doi:10.5860/cal.12n4.19

Reading and “Gamification”: Joining Guilds, Earning Badges, and Leveling Up

Marianne Martens

Abstract

Starting with examples of early gamified transmedia books such as Patrick Carman’s Skeleton Creek series (launched in 2009) and Scholastic’s The 39 Clues series (first published in 2011) and continuing with a look at several book apps and recent books for tweens, this paper explores how “gamification” has entered the realm of books and reading for young people.

Full Text:

PDF

References

Marianne Martens, “Children’s Technology Spaces” (work-in-progress paper for the State Library of California, 2014).

Sonia Livingstone and Kirsten Drotner, “Children’s Media Culture in Comparative Perspective,” in The Handbook of Media Audiences, 1st ed., ed. Virginia Nightingale (Oxford: Blackwell, 2011), 411.

Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984).

“Policy Tool,” American Academy of Pediatrics Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight, accessed May 6, 2014, www2.aap.org/obesity/matrix_1.html; Sue Hubbard, “Kids, Media and Obesity: Too Much ‘Screen Time’ Can Harm Your Child’s Health,” Chicago Tribune, September 30, 2013, www.chicagotribune.com/health/sns-201210020000--tms--kidsdocctnkd-a20121002-20121002,0,2745039.story.

Maria Cahill and Anne McGill, “Selecting ‘App’ealing and ‘App’ropriate Book Apps for Beginning Readers,” Reading Teacher 67, no. 1, (2013): 30–39; Amelia K. Moody, “Using Electronic Books in the Classroom to Enhance Emergent Literacy Skills in Young Children,” Journal of Literacy and Technology 11, no. 4 (2010): 22–53; Eric M. Meyers, Ehlam Zaminpaima, and Aline Frederico, “The Future of Children’s Texts: Evaluating Book Apps as Multimodal Reading Experiences” (conference poster, iConference, Berlin, Germany, March 4–7, 2014).

Carly Shuler, Zachary Levine, and Jinny Ree, “iLearn II: An Analysis of the Education Category of Apple’s App Store” (New York: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, 2012), accessed May 8, 2014, www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/publication/ilearn-ii-an-analysis-of-the-education-category-on-apples-app-store.

Chuck Jones, “Apple’s App Store about to Hit 1 Million Apps,” Forbes, May 8, 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2013/12/11/apples-app-store-about-to-hit-1million-apps.

Lisa Guernsey, Screen Time: How Electronic Media—From Baby Videos to Educational Software—Affects Your Young Child (New York: Basic Books, 2012).

Cecelia Goodnow, “Patrick Carman’s Print-Video Hybrid Targets Readers for a Digital Age,” Seattle P.I., February 26, 2009, www.seattlepi.com/ae/books/article/Patrick-Carmans-print-video-hybrid-targets-1301166.php.

Karen Springen, “The Digital Revolution in Children’s Publishing,” Publishers Weekly, July 19, 2010, www.publishersweekly.com/pw/bytopic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/43879-the-digital-revolution-in-childrens publishing.html.

Marianne Martens, “A Historical and Comparative Analysis of Multiplatform Books for Young Readers: Technologies of Production, User-Generated Content, and Economics of Immaterial and Affective Labor” (PhD diss., Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 2012).

Karen Zickuhr and Lee Rainie, “E-Reading Rises as Device Ownership Jumps: Three in Ten Adults Read an E-book Last Year; Half Own a Tablet or E-reader,” Pew Research Internet Project, January 16, 2014, www.pewinternet.org/2014/01/16/ereading-rises-as-device-ownership-jumps.

Kristen Purcell, “E-reader Ownership Doubles in Six Months,” Pew Internet & American Life Project, June 27, 2011, www.pewinternet.org/2011/06/27/e-reader-ownership-doubles-in-six-months.

Sebastian Deterding et al., “From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining ‘Gamification,’” MindTrek ’11 Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments (New York: ACM, 2011), http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2181037.2181040.

Ibid.

Marc Prensky, Digital Game-Based Learning (New York: McGraw Hill, 2001).

Carolyn S. Brodie and Jim Thomas, “A Moveable Feast: Pop-Ups, Fold-Outs, & Pull Tabs,” School Library Journal (September 1989).

Skeleton Creek: The Ending Pt. 1, YouTube video, posted by “NexSnipez,” July 31, 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz72UTdxIkc.

“About the 39 Clues,” Scholastic, 2008–2014, accessed May 9, 2014, http://the39clues.scholastic.com/info/about.

CobraDark48, “Member Profile,” accessed May 6, 2014, www.the39clues.com/messageboard/show/40011.

Mary Kay Carson, Bats! Furry Fliers of the Night, version 1.2, Mobile Application Software (Story Worldwide and Bookerella), accessed May 6, 2014, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bats!-furry-fliers-night/id494297887.

Allison Pomenta, “A New Digital Divide? Production Costs vs. Consumer Awareness in New Media Publications for Children,” Digital Media Diet, February 18, 2014, http://digitalmediadiet.com/?p=3091.

Beth Bacon, “Some Differences between Ebooks, Enhanced Ebooks, and Apps,” Digital Book World, May 8, 2014, www.digitalbookworld.com/2014/some-differences

-between-ebooks-enhanced-ebooks-and-apps.

PopOut! The Tale of Peter Rabbit, version 1.7, Mobile Application Software (Loud Crow Interactive, 2011), accessed May 8, 2014, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/popout!-tale-peter-rabbit/id397864713?mt=8.

Junko Yokota, “What Works Well Where When? How Various Qualities of Digital and Print Picture Books Shape Reader Response,” YouTube video, posted by “Maastricht University,” September 3, 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNmlk8obTYo.

Dragon Brush, version 1.3., Mobile Application Software (Small Planet Digital), accessed May 9, 2014, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-brush/id525049909?mt=8.

Jennifer Hopwood, “The Gamification of Reading,” ALSC Blog, June 8, 2013, www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2013/06/the-gamification-of-reading.

Barbara Klipper, “Apps and Autism: Tools to Serve Children with Special Needs,” American Libraries, May 6, 2014, www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/article/apps-and

-autism.

Common Sense Media, Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America (San Francisco: Common Sense Media, 2013), www.commonsensemedia.org/research/zero-to-eight-childrens-media-use-in-america-2013.

Ian Bogost, “Gamification Is Bullshit: My Position Statement at the Wharton Gamification Symposium,” blog post, Bogost.com, August 8, 2011, www.bogost.com/blog/gamification_is_bullshit.shtml.

Edward Nawotka, “Does Gamification Turn Readers into Winners and Losers?” Publishing Perspectives, September 19, 2011, http://publishingperspectives.com/2011/09/gamification-winners-and-losers.

Scott Nicholson, “A User-Centered Theoretical Framework for Meaningful Gamification” (paper presented at Games+Learning+Society 8.0 conference, Madison, Wisconsin, June 2012), accessed May 8, 2014, http://scottnicholson.com/pubs/meaningfulframework.pdf.

Ibid.

Andrew Albanese, “Vegetables or Candy? DBW Panel Looks at ‘Gamification’ of Children’s Books,” Publishers Weekly, January 17, 2013, www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by

-topic/childrens/childrens-industry news/article/55546-vegetables-or-candy-dbw-panel-looks-at-gamification-of-children-s-books.html.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5860/cal.12n4.19

Refbacks

There are currently no refbacks.

ALA Privacy Policy