Learning with Mario Bros: Living in virtual worlds outside the classroom

Abstract

This presentation examines, from an ethnographic perspective, how a 5 year old girl performs a process of reflection and implements certain strategies from her activity in a virtual world, supported by an adult. The data come from an ongoing case study aimed at examining children's representations that they constructed from their interactions with specific videogames. We will show how videogames, considered as cultural tools, create new communication environments which can be a good school for learning to think.