Presented at the Electronic Literature Organization Conference (30 May 2022 - 1 June 2022), hosted annually by the Electronic Literature Organization. Connects Ian Bogost's concept of procedural rhetoric to a university 'Digital Storytelling' classroom. Full script available upon request.

1. PEDAGOGY
the procedural rhetoric of
A Reflecti on on Teachi ng
Di gi tal Storytelli ng
i n a UK Uni versi ty
Leah Henrickson
L.R.Henrickson@leeds.ac.uk
twitter.com/leahhenrickson

2. DESIGNING AND DELIVERING
A DST MODULE
What does Bogost's 'procedural
rhetoric' mean in teaching
contexts?
What about institutional
infrastructure and expectations?
A visually chaotic Rundown of this Paper

3. PROCEDURAL RHETORIC
Ian Bogost's
Animal Crossing is a game about everyday life in a small town. It is a
game about customizing and caring for an environment. It is a game
about making friends and about collecting insects. But Animal
Crossing is also a game about long-term debt. It is a game about
the repetition of mundane work necessary to support contemporary
material property ideals. It is a game about the bittersweet
consequences of acquiring goods and keeping up with the Joneses.
Animal Crossing accomplishes this feat not through moralistic
regulation, but by creating a model of commerce and debt in which
the player can experience and discover such consequences. In this
model, the game simplifies the real world in order to draw attention
to relevant aspects of that world (Bogost, 2008: 119).

5. UK 'RULES'
intense pressure to deliver teaching in this hellish world

6. INSTITUTIONAL
'RULES'
Active and inclusive approaches to
learning
Integrated and effective use of digital
technologies
Authentic assessment strategies that
support and assess student
understanding and skills development
'Digital by default' assessment

7. MODULE 'RULES'
they brought the good vibes
I brought the structure

8. CONTENT
module
1-hour lectures; 2-hour practicals
'Produce a digital story in a format of your choosing.'
Classical DST
internet poetics
Story Structures
(Hyper)text
Storyboarding
character development
interactivity embodiment everyday storytelling

9. CONSTRAINTS ARE IMPORTANT,
BUT THOSE CONSTRAINTS SHOULD BE
PROCEDURAL, NOT PERSONAL.
WE HAVE SO MUCH TO LEARN
FROM OUR STUDENTS.

10. E.G. NETPROV
You're attending a wacky family
reunion on Gather.Town!
Create your character.
Determine your relationships with
others.
Embrace the (structured) chaos.
Constraints are important

11. But those constraints should be procedural, not personal.
The Internet provides ‘a simple way of
hearing about – and developing a
sense of comfort and familiarity with –
groups, activities, meetings and
projects, making it considerably easier
to overcome the emotional and
psychological hurdles to participation’
(Gauntlett, 2018: 60).
E.G. THE PLAYLIST

14. PROCEDURALITY
[V]ideogame players develop procedural
literacy through interacting with the
abstract models of specific real or
imagined processes presented in the
games they play. Videogames teach
biased perspectives about how things
work. And the way they teach such
perspectives is through procedural
rhetorics, which players ‘read’ through
direct engagement and criticism
(Bogost, 2007: 260).
the poetics of

15. CONSTRAINTS ARE IMPORTANT,
BUT THOSE CONSTRAINTS SHOULD BE
PROCEDURAL, NOT PERSONAL.
WE HAVE SO MUCH TO LEARN
FROM OUR STUDENTS.

17. L.R.Henrickson@leeds.ac.uk
twitter.com/leahhenrickson
Hit me up, buttercup:
Thanks for listening!