Séminaire d'Anthropologie du Numérique : technologie, jeux vidéos et mondes virtuels

Teacher(s)

Scheepmans Lionel (compensates Servais Olivier); Servais Olivier;

Language

French
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Content

This seminar begins with a presentation of digital tools and techniques useful in digital anthropology. It continues with reciprocal learning, between male and female participants, based on observations and analyses of human activities produced within the digital space.
The themes addressed during presentations and discussions may concern video games and "virtual" worlds, as indicated in the course title, but also any other digital environment conducive to human experience (dating sites, social networks, collaborative platforms, use of artificial intelligence, Internet fraud, etc.).
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Teaching methods

Following a presentation of the participants and their preferred digital tools, the expected work will be explained on the basis of an example produced by the teacher.
The seminar then continues with a series of 10 weekly tasks to be completed online on the Wikiversité website. The aim of these various tasks is to lead participants to the finalization of their writing work in the form of a web page, produced alone or in groups, and subject to comment by the rest of the participants.

The 15 hours of compulsory face-to-face classes are broken down as follows:

An initial six-hour session on Wednesday February 5, 2025, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, at a venue to be announced later, to introduce the participants and the seminar organization, and to finalize and validate the participant evaluation system. At the end of this first meeting, participants will also have acquired the skills needed to use the Wikiversité platform.

A second day at the Game Center at Quai 10 in Charleroi will enable students to discover the video game industry before trying out some games on demonstration. This second meeting will also be an opportunity to finalize the subject of the work to be carried out. The date of this excursion will be determined during the first class session with all participants, so that everyone can be present.

A final closing day is scheduled for Friday, May 9, 2025, from 4:15 pm to 8:15 pm. This will be devoted to a short oral presentation of the work carried out and the application of a collective evaluation system, based on oral questioning between participants and a ranking of the work according to its quality.
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Evaluation methods

Participation and skills acquired during the seminar will be assessed in three ways:
Attendance at all three class sessions. Each unjustified absence or absence not approved by the teacher will be penalized by the deduction of one point from the final grade.
Completion of weekly assignments until the writing project is finalized. Each task not completed will be penalized by the deduction of one point, and each task completed late will be penalized by the deduction of half a point.
Collective assessment of personal work and understanding of the work of others. The remaining seven points will be awarded following a question-and-answer session between the participants. The authors of a piece of work will question the readers to check that their writing has been correctly read and understood. The teacher and all the participants will then rank the work in order of quality.
It is therefore technically possible to obtain a 20/20 for this course if you do not suffer any penalty points, if you answer without fail the questions asked by the teacher and the other participants during the collective oral exam, and if you are at the top of the ranking following the collective qualitative evaluation. However, this ranking may result in a tie.
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Other information

The use of artificial intelligence in the assessment tests of this course is governed by the rules set out in the faculty memorandum on the subject, available on the faculty intranet in the student information section. These rules will be discussed in detail at the beginning of the course, during the time devoted to the discovery and use of digital tools in digital anthropology.

Online resources

While respecting everyone's wishes and privacy, the Wikiversité project will serve as a digital space for organizing this digital anthropology seminar. All information concerning the seminar, which will take place over the past year 2024, is publicly accessible via the following URL: https://fr.wikiversity.org/wiki/Anthropologie_num%C3%A9rique/Session_UCLouvain_2025

Bibliography

Servais O., Dans la peau des gamers, Paris, 2020.
Scheepmans L., Le mouvement Wikimédia, Wikilivres, 2023

Faculty or entity

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