IN-PERSON Prague Research & Teaching Conference

Abstract

We live in a dual world—one that undulates between and through physical and digital spaces. For many of us in education, though, these digital worlds seem inauthentic, digital communication seems insincere, and digital communities are not real. As we increasingly rely on digital communication and interaction, fear of social atomization and alienation abounds. Social media subsumes diversity and richness in favor of curated escapism and false consciousness. This discourse pervades our public consciousness. However, whether we are prepared or not, equipped or not, digital worlds are real for those who inhabit them. Drawing on Édouard Glissant’s concepts of the chaos-world and creolization, I ask, how can digital gaming worlds act as spaces to imagine different ways of knowing and being? Specifically considering Hermitcraft, a group of YouTube content creators who play Minecraft and publicly share their shenanigans, I ask how Hermitcraft might serve as a catalyst of discussion and informal learning? This is a new world for many–a new language–but it is one in which our children, our students, are growing up, and live and work and play. We teach in the presence of this world and its languages and our younger generations are fluent. Without at least trying to understand, how will we connect with those we teach and who will move even our physical world forward? Considering how Hermitcraft members work and play together can offer us insights into these new ways of being and knowing.