DML Case Study

The Opportunities for Connected Learning from Talking About Star Wars Online

Star Wars has become such a big franchise, and with that comes a fanbase just as big. People from all over the world, with different perspectives and different tastes, come together and engage with each other in discussion on the story that they love so much. And now, with a tool as massive and as open as the internet, that engagement has become more powerful than ever before….

If this were just a regular article, that would likely be the end of the story. However, this study is meant to reflect how discussion about Star Wars on the internet has the power to create positive learning, and how creating through this affinity creates more benefits and opportunities than one may realize.

For the purposes of this study, I will simply be discussing the online community of Star Wars fans, but the same principles can and do apply to any fanbase or affinity. The participatory culture of this fanbase provides nearly endless opportunities to get involved and create. Furthermore, the world of digital media and creation-based learning opens up countless opportunities to learn and express themselves. New perspectives are opened up, new discoveries are made, and new connections have the power to be forged. These opportunities can come from anywhere that people engage, connect and create… even when it’s discussing a galaxy far, far away.

Because of content creators in the vein of Star Wars Theory, the online community of fans has become increasingly production-centered, with countless people creating videos or remixing content to share new findings about the lore of the universe, or to critique the stories themselves. I was fortunate enough to get to speak to a couple of up and coming content creators about their perspectives and why they play a part in content creation.

“I love making star wars content, and that’s what I wanna do with my life. Obviously I cannot bank on the fact of that working out so I am going to college. My channel is my end game, me being able to do that for a living is the goal.”

Because of his love for Star Wars, his affinity group if you will, he started his channel as a way to make content for others to share and enjoy. He is sharing his opinions and his ideas through his platform, and is therefore fostering engagement and self-expression. However, because of the ever-changing world of the Internet, and especially YouTube, making a successful channel has a lot more behind it than when the platform first started. There are plenty of factors to consider, and he shared with me that he has learned a lot about those factors when trying to start his channel:

“Since i’ve started youtube i’ve realized if I just post my videos on youtube nothing good will happen….I need to advertise. So I dug around on the internet. And I’ve learned that I should make an instagram, hence why I have one. I should have a tik tok, i should be active on reddit, and i should turn the audio from my videos into podcasts. Being successful on social media I’ve learned is all about clicks. how many different avenues can I have to redirect traffic to my youtube channel right.”

This demonstrates an interest-powered determination to learn. Because of his desire to create Star Wars content, and to make a living doing it, he has actively sought out information on how to run a successful YouTube account, and considered the steps needed to spread awareness about what he’s doing. Since he is connecting his interests to career opportunity, or rather building a career for himself, that makes his findings academically oriented. From studying the algorithm to creating a presence on multiple platforms to “direct traffic” as he puts it, he has clearly put in a lot of research and a lot of thought into how he can build his channel to tell the stories he wants to tell. By using social media to expand his presence, the way that a lot of YouTubers or content creators will do, he is expanding social supports for interests, connecting with other people and fans that he would not have otherwise. And none of this would have happened if it weren’t for his love for Star Wars.

He was another aspiring creator that I discovered through Instagram, much like I did with C1P. He shared a similar sentiment about running a YouTube channel with me:

“I have driven myself insane with all the stuff that youtube does like what time to upload, how often to upload and thumbnails. I mean, youtube is an ART! Nowadays, you can’t just make good content and then upload it and get views, you have to really study it.”

However, when I asked him about potential learning experiences, and learning about/through Star Wars, he said this to me:

“I thought I knew a lot about star wars before I started doing research and my channel, but GEZZ there’s so much I’ve learned! I’m not gonna lie, I don’t think I’ll ever know everything about star wars, there’s just too much!”

This shows the other side of creating content based around Star Wars: the lore of the world itself. Star Wars especially is an ever-changing and ever-growing cultural property, where the universe continues to build and everything is interconnected. As long as there are stories being told, there are people there to talk about it, much like Darth Snow. When a young creator like him shares lore or creates theory, he is creating a distinct “need to know” and “need to tell” for people who may watch his videos, which means that challenge is always constant, as well as opportunities available to share and create.

The final person I talked with is a longtime friend of mine, Keenan. We’ve often shared our love of Star Wars with each other, whether it’s talking about favorite moments or geeking out when a new trailer drops. You can see my discussion with him here:

One of my big takeaways from our discussion was when he talked to me about his gaming endeavors. Keenan plays Star Wars: Battlefront and uses the game to do in-game photography, a newer form of art that creates screenshots out of video game worlds. By continually playing the game and practicing photography through gameplay, learning happens by doing. He also plays the game regularly with a group of friends, and he hopes to use their help to eventually create cinematics, which involves using the game as a way of creating a more theatrical kind of story. Because the online fanbase of Star Wars is so openly networked, he is able to find people that share his affinity and interests, and are interested in learning with him and helping him out with game photography. Brigid Barron, Suzie Wise and Caitlin K. Martin discussed this sort of engagement in another case study, saying that “Online communities that reflect “cultures of participation” (Jenkins, 2006, 2009 ) allow creators to share their work, receive feedback, and expand their social networks” (Barron, Wise, Martin 100). This is even truer now, with the access to technology that young people such as us have at our fingertips. By expanding his social networks, Keenan is able to find and engage with other fans who share his similar gaming interests. He is able to find these people through various other platforms, such as Instagram, and engage with other people based on that shared affinity, as well as driven by it. He is able to find the people that are able to help him, the people who know what he needs to know, because of the increased accessibility to knowledge and learning experiences. Everybody can participate, and through that you are able to find the “experts,” as well as more opportunities to participate. As we discussed in the video, by following and watching Star Wars Theory, I learned about the Vader fan film and decided to send in an audition tape. There’s probably no way I would have found that out if I didn’t seek it out. That’s the important thing: seeking out information and people because you want to.

What starts out as being a fan quickly turns into so much more, with the limitless tools and access that content platforms continually gives us. A love for Star Wars gives fans, myself included, a shared purpose, and through that discoveries are endless. The Connected Learning Research Network, in a synthesis on research and design, suggests that “participatory and interest-driven online groups, ranging from online video production, fan fiction writing groups, and gaming groups are contexts where young people can connect with peers and mentors who share their passions. They receive feedback and guidance, hone teamwork, and disseminate their work to a broader public (Ito et al., 2009; Thomas & Brown, 2011)” (85). There is discourse, there is disagreement, there is argument, but with that comes countless people who will share their fandom, and their knowledge. By being a fan, you can discover how to write your own stories. By being a fan, you can learn what makes a successful YouTube channel. By being a fan, you can find a community of gamers and hone in your photography skills. The possibilities are as vast as that far away galaxy.

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