Papers by Vittorio Marone
Qualitative inquiry, May 8, 2024
Discover Education, Dec 10, 2023
Educational landscape reports have historically contributed to advocating for changes that would ... more Educational landscape reports have historically contributed to advocating for changes that would benefit learners, including recommendations for digital technologies and their use. The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably affected education, pushing institutions to quickly adapt to the emergency through the use of technology. This scenario has impacted the discourse on educational technologies and their implementation. Seeking to better understand this discourse and its potential impact on education, drawing from a range of scholarly literature-including discourse analysis, critical discourse studies, and studies on educational technology and change-this study focuses on how technology has been presented in a major yearly publication in 2020, 2021, and 2022. This study adds to the literature by presenting findings that show that technology corporations can play a crucial role in shaping educational technology discourses in landscape reports, including how technology should be adopted and the very future of higher education. Additionally, it reinforces the need for critical awareness of how different publications may push corporate agendas disguised as impartial expert guidance.
Online journal of communication and media technologies, Jan 15, 2015
Creating, sharing, and critiquing user-generated content are increasingly common practices in onl... more 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.
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Dec 1, 2017
The purpose of this study was to examine how different texts and media contribute to the discursi... more The purpose of this study was to examine how different texts and media contribute to the discursive construction of meaning in the context of a Christian church in the United States. Through a discourse analysis (DA) approach, this article analyzed a sermon (streamed live and recorded for an online repository), printed materials, and the website of the church, which includes images and video recordings. The analyzed texts exhibit a sophisticated interconnectedness that conveys a unitary picture structured through intertextual, synergistic, and strategic uses of discourse. The themes emerging from the analysis include the presence of the Gospel in everyday live, the functions of the opening prayer, rhythm and repetition, the use of the war metaphor, and the discursive construction of a "call to action" in the context of the values and mission of the church for a collective goal. Overall, the findings of this study advance the understanding of how church and preaching discourse is structured and how it structures meaning across different texts and media.
Engaging engineering faculty in transformative practices in course design and teaching is critica... more 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.
IEEE Transactions on Education, May 1, 2021
Contribution: This study extends the embedded expert literature by examining a cross-college part... more Contribution: This study extends the embedded expert literature by examining a cross-college partnership between engineering and education faculty and its impact on the engineering faculty’s teaching practices. Background: Previous embedded expert models focused on disciplinary expert models that required extensive educational training to prepare embedded experts to work with instructors to transform courses using active learning strategies. Intended Outcomes: This study employed a novel approach to the embedded expert model by utilizing science, math, and technology education faculty to support undergraduate engineering instructors in transforming teaching practices. Active learning strategies and culturally relevant pedagogy were emphasized in this multisemester transformation process. Anticipated outcomes included decreases in the drop, withdrawal, and failure rates in transformed courses, and an increase in overall GPA for students enrolled in these courses. Application Design: The embedded educational expert approach supported instructors in electrical engineering, biomedical engineering and academic inquiry scholarship, and chemical engineering. Course interventions included adaptive assessment, project-based learning (PBL), peer-assisted learning, and case studies. Findings: Observation, interview, survey, and course level support the multidisciplinary embedded expert model for transforming instructors’ teaching practices and improving student pass rates within multiple engineering departments.
Journal of virtual worlds research, Feb 4, 2016
The goal of this article is to provide a conceptual framework to better understand digital games ... more 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 gamebased 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.
2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings, Sep 8, 2020
Antonio. He earned his doctorate in Education in a dual-degree program between the University of ... more Antonio. He earned his doctorate in Education in a dual-degree program between the University of Padua and The University of Tennessee. He also holds a doctorate in Languages, Cultures, and Societies from Ca' Foscari University of Venice. His research interests include new literacies, youth cultures, games and learning, music technology, and multimodality. He presented his work at national and international conferences such as GLS (Games + Learning + Society) and G4C (Games for Change). He is the author of the book La Quotidianità dell'Assurdo (The Everyday Absurd, Archetipolibri, Bologna, 2010).
E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Oct 15, 2018
The goal of this roundtable presentation is to share–and gain–insights about the challenges and o... more The goal of this roundtable presentation is to share–and gain–insights about the challenges and opportunities of aligning activities, courses, and programs to technology standards in a college of education. The presentation will draw on recent publications on the topic and the experiences and insights of the presenter and the participants to the roundtable. Specifically, the presentation will focus on how the integration of technology standards can impact the use of technology by college instructors, their students (most of them are pre-service teachers), and, potentially, their students’ future K-12 students.
The European Journal of Humour Research, Mar 1, 2015
This article examines the uses and functions of humour in an online community of gamers and nonpr... more 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.
Social spaces in which users create, share, and critique digital artifacts can constitute a chall... more Social spaces in which users create, share, and critique digital artifacts can constitute a challenge for researchers trying to make sense of them. The complex multimodal endeavors enacted in these environments require an integrated approach that considers their interconnected components. I propose a hybrid intertextual methodology that draws upon discourse analysis, studio critique, and design process analysis, in order to interpret the interplay between texts, artifacts, and practices
for their support throughout my Ph.D. and the dual-degree process.
International journal of game-based learning, Jul 1, 2016
In the learning sciences and game studies communities, there has been an increasing interest in t... more 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.
Writing & Pedagogy, Apr 14, 2017
Fanfiction is a work of fantasy in which fans write stories based on original books, movies, TV s... more Fanfiction is a work of fantasy in which fans write stories based on original books, movies, TV series, and other cultural and artistic forms of expression. This study looks into fanfiction dedicated to the popular TV series Breaking Bad. In particular, it examines how fans construct the (spoken) dialogues of their (written) stories. The article explores the pedagogic value of using fanfiction in educational contexts, focusing on the analysis, creation, and enactment of stories inspired by TV series and movies that feature a combination of narration and ‘written speech’. The article also offers practical recommendations for classroom and online activities that support the development of skills and understandings related to writing and orality. The effort of representing speech in a written form (i.e., writing dialogues and descriptions of conversations) can help students reflect, with the aid of the teacher, on the distinctiveness and specificity of written and spoken communication. By comparing, contrasting, and critiquing audiovisual and written texts (e.g., the episodes of a TV series and the transcriptions of its dialogues), and by creating their own dialogue-rich stories, students can improve their understanding of the idiosyncrasies of writing and orality across modes, thus advancing their literacy and critical skills as creative producers, not just consumers, of popular culture and media.
Games and Culture, Oct 28, 2014
In recent years, playful design environments and digital games have been offering increasingly ac... more In recent years, playful design environments and digital games have been offering increasingly accessible programming tools and integrated editors, significantly expanding opportunities for the creation and sharing of user-generated content. These practices have engendered the diffusion of participatory online environments in which users present, discuss, and critique their creations. This study analyzes one of these design-driven environments dedicated to game levels created with the popular series LittleBigPlanet. Findings suggest that participants interact guided by their desire to become skilled designers and be recognized as such by their peers. To do so, they enact situated discursive functions that entail a pervasive use of specialist language, the formation of shared design references, and the valorization of new forms of originality based on remixing and intertextuality. By engaging in multimodal practices in a competent community of peer designers, participants create a safe “discursive studio” that offers a multiplicity of trajectories for learning and creativity.
The European Journal of Humour Research, Jan 29, 2017
Launched in 2013, Vine is a popular microblogging service that allows users to record, edit, and ... more 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 audiovisual 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.
Computers and Education Open
Large corporations active in the field of educational technology shape needs, perceptions, attitu... more Large corporations active in the field of educational technology shape needs, perceptions, attitudes, expectations, and values related to technology use in education. In order to better understand how these corporations frame the role of technology in educational settings, it is crucial to critically analyze how they present and promote their products and services. Through a discourse analysis approach, this study examined the homepages of two of the major players in educational technology, namely Google for Education and Microsoft Education. Findings show that the discourse put forth by these companies positions technology as a transformative agent that can revitalize a stagnant educational system. In this picture, teachers and students are presented as incomplete and lost beings on the path towards an alarmingly indeterminate future, which can be only overcome by the technologies and services offered by these corporations. The potential of these technologies is presented as limitless, low-cost, for everyone, and available anywhere and anytime. In this deterministic "technology as a solution" framework, technology is depicted as an inevitable choice for the advancement of people and society. This study shows that, by critically approaching and analyzing corporate discourse, students, teachers, and other stakeholders can develop an outlook that cuts through marketing strategies and the hype surrounding learning technologies. In turn, this can promote reflective practices, support decision-making processes, and redefine expectations related to the role of technology in education and society.
Computers and Education Open, 2023
Large corporations active in the field of educational technology shape needs, perceptions, attitu... more Large corporations active in the field of educational technology shape needs, perceptions, attitudes, expectations, and values related to technology use in education. In order to better understand how these corporations frame the role of technology in educational settings, it is crucial to critically analyze how they present and promote their products and services. Through a discourse analysis approach, this study examined the homepages of two of the major players in educational technology, namely Google for Education and Microsoft Education. Findings show that the discourse put forth by these companies positions technology as a transformative agent that can revitalize a stagnant educational system. In this picture, teachers and students are presented as incomplete and lost beings on the path towards an alarmingly indeterminate future, which can be only overcome by the technologies and services offered by these corporations. The potential of these technologies is presented as limitless, low-cost, for everyone, and available anywhere and anytime. In this deterministic "technology as a solution" framework, technology is depicted as an inevitable choice for the advancement of people and society. This study shows that, by critically approaching and analyzing corporate discourse, students, teachers, and other stakeholders can develop an outlook that cuts through marketing strategies and the hype surrounding learning technologies. In turn, this can promote reflective practices, support decision-making processes, and redefine expectations related to the role of technology in education and society.
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Papers by Vittorio Marone