Social Media Good, Video Games Bad? Negotiating the Dialectical Tensions of Digital Interaction Paradigms in Distance Learning

The use of experiential learning virtual worlds in online learning environments is less prevalent than the ‘learning network’ paradigm whereby users aggregate knowledge in a sharable format. One factor explaining this may be the more common ways in which users experience such media paradigms outside of education: video games and social media. These prevailing forms of new media are caught up in a ‘dialectical tension’ defined by media historian Daniel Czitrom as lying between ‘the progressive, even utopian, possibilities offered by new communications technologies and their disposition as instruments of domination and exploitation.’ While this dialectic in social media is an active one with utopianism gaining an upper hand, video games appear to lack a utopian moment. The utopian potential of virtuality itself needs to be recovered in order for the virtual environment paradigm to achieve greater success in higher education.