Free the sheep: improvised song and performance in and around a minecraft community

Abstract

Abstract Recent work around the use of virtual world video games in educational contexts has conceptualised literacies as communal processes, whilst considering complex notions of collaboration through participants' multiplicity of presence in hybrid virtual / physical locations. However, further research is necessary in order to help us understand how the complex interactions afforded by such spaces influence ‐ and are influenced by ‐ children's social relationships. This article draws upon data from a year‐long ethnographic study, investigating a group of ten and eleven year old children's engagement with the video game ‘Minecraft’ as they collaborate to build a ‘virtual community’. With a particular focus on the children's improvised singing and use of song during the club, I examine how their creative practices ‐ drawing on a wide range of self‐selected resources, played out both in and out of the virtual world ‐ help to fundamentally shape the nature of the space around them. Furthermore, through examination of one particular performance, I demonstrate the importance of ensuring that such details are not written out of accounts of children interactions around technology, if we are to understand the true potential of such environments.

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