| This dissertation argues that, over the past one hundred years, the U.S. military has exerted a profound influence on the forms, uses, and conceptualizations of literacy in American society. Perhaps most importantly, it has played a key role in the linking of literacy and technology; to cite but one example, the vast majority of instruction-based technologies used in our schools and workplaces today stem from military contexts. Based on this history, I argue that the military's influence is now being made manifest through its extensive use of videogames as training and teaching tools, a use that is likely to be increasingly taken up by our schools, businesses, and government agencies.;Following my introductory chapter, I examine the history of literacy and literacy instruction in the U.S. military from the Colonial era to the present. Drawing on primary documents and secondary sources, I argue two main points: (1) The military has long been an important definer and promoter of literacy in American society, although educators and the general public are hardly aware of it; and (2) Out of this history we can see strong residues in how society views literacy. I then move into the present by focusing on the military's current use of videogames. How, I ask, do the literacy skills required to play videogames match the literacy skills required of soldiers in our tech-saturated armed forces? And how does the military leverage these skills? To answer these questions, I examine the military's current technology-related literacy demands, and the ways in which the "Nintendo Generation's" familiarity with and preference for digital technologies dovetails with these demands.;My fourth chapter presents a case study of America's Army, the first videogame entirely created, designed, and developed by the military. Drawing upon interviews with the game's creator and director, as well as other America's Army personnel, I explore the following questions, among others: What are the historical legacies of literacy that the military is calling upon in justifying and promoting America's Army? And how are the game's particular political, social, cultural, and economic contexts changing and updating these legacies? My analysis is supplemented with material drawn from Pentagon reports.;I conclude by reviewing this dissertation's main arguments regarding the military's use of videogames, its new approach to literacy, and its historical legacies of literacy, after which I examine the implications of the military's use of videogames for teachers of writing in the twenty-first century. |
