Biosketch: Dr. Jonas Linderoth

Jonas Linderoth holds a PhD in pedagogy since 2004. His research interests concerns digital games and he has previously worked with questions concerning games in education. In his dissertation Jonas showed, by studying patterns in children's game-play, that the game experience is to a lesser degree a matter of handling representations then previous literature had suggested i.e. interactivity does not add realism to a media it offers new ways of framing.

Current projects

Jonas is currently working with issues surrounding high consumption of online games an issue often framed as "computer game addiction." Jonas research aims to go beyond this pre-fabricated concept and look at high consumption from the players' own perspective. This research shows that high consumption is a multifaceted affair, on one hand this time consuming media leads to people neglecting other aspects in their lives, but on the other hand these games also offers a social arena were communication is bodiless which for disabled people can be an opportunity.

Jonas is also writing about game perception from an ecological perspective arguing that games have very specific conditions for learning. How and what you learn from a game are deeply embedded in the specific game design of a certain game. Jonas claims that when the development of persistent avatars are based on time investment instead of skill the player can progress in the game under the "illusion of learning"

Recent publications

Linderoth, J. & Säljö, R. (2008): "In here I am pretty" - online role play, stigma and identity. In R. Säljö & H. Rystedt (Eds.). Lärande och människans redskap: Bildning för hand och tanke. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Ivarsson, J., Linderoth, J., & Säljö, R. Representations in social practices: A sociocultural approach to multimodality in reasoning. In C. Jewitt (Ed.), Handbook of Multimodal Analysis. London: Routledge. /submitted/

Linderoth, J. & Bennerstedt, U. (2007) Living in World of Warcraft - The thoughts and experiences of ten young people. Stockholm: The Media Council