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She looks at components of children’s online play experiences, including mediated actions, discourses, literacies, sense of belonging, and online restrictions as they moved between digital and nondigital realities. She discusses the future implications of such play—the possibilities of online play groups within other social contexts such as home-schooling communities, hospitals, public schools, and libraries.  \nFinally, she explores group dynamics such as gender and multiculturalism within online play groups. Key words: digital play; discourses; literacies;  \nonline play groups  \nIntroduction  \nPlay is a fundamental component of children’s daily lives. Nevertheless, there has been a noticeable decline of free-play opportunities for children in recent years (Digennaro 2021; Gray, Lancy, and Bjorklund 2023) . As we embark on a new era in which children are immersed in technology through online schooling, video games, and social media, play is the one thing that remains constantly craved by children (Sutton-Smith 1997). And with easy digital access and ample technological options—the gateways of computers, tablets, and phones—connections to social media and virtual platforms have opened an “ever-expanding digital frontier changing the way in which children play… creating multimodal forms of play”(Horrace 2021, 78) .  \nPurpose of the Study  \nAs children share in virtual worlds and explore similar interests, bonding over familiar toys and characters, they are viewed as collaborators, creators, and coconstructors (Marsh et al. 2016; Piaget 1951; Wohlwend 2011a) . However,  \n320  \nAmerican Journal of Play, volume 16, numbers 2 and 3 © 2024 The Strong  \nContact Rebecca Horrace at [rhorrance@gmail.com](rhorrance@gmail.com)  \nadults create typical online environments for children, and the games they construct have specific end goals that do not allow creativity and imaginary play in the same way in-person play groups foster children’s imagination and free-play experiences (Horrace 2023). Therefore, my purpose in this qualitative case study was not to investigate children’s imaginative play in the traditional in-person interactions but rather to explore the interplay developed in online spaces through Zoom that I call “online imaginative play groups,” spaces in which children mediate shared discourses and literacies and demonstrate their digital understanding through their pivots in actions and their reenactments of favorite storylines from their most beloved toys and media.  \nLocal Context  \nTo understand the local context of online imaginative play groups, I begin by redefining local. Typically, when we think of local, we think of a particular area or neighborhood, perhaps even a town or community. However, my research expands the definition of local with the use of technology by converting distant interactions into a common, shared space, truly examining the parallels of children’s play worlds along with the connections they make surrounding favorite toys, media, and stories. As Horrace and Wohlwend (2023) write: “No longer must we be physically local to be locally present as we interact with one another”(55) .  \nDuring the spring of 2021 and the fall of 2022, I hosted four play groups that consisted of children ranging in age from six through eleven with a mix of boys and girls across the United States. I found the children through shared connections such as a large Midwestern university, Facebook homeschooling groups, and friends of friends. Although the children resided in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, and Washington, the Zoom room bridged their physical space with a local, digital context during these hour-long, weekly play group sessions.  \nChildren’s Media: LEGO Ninjago  \nAs I consid","cbCaimitRU16xRWp","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimitRU16xRWp","pdf",320655,26,"English","# Introduction\n## Purpose of the Study\n## Local Context\n## Children’s Media: LEGO Ninjago\n## Theoretical Framework","[{\"question\":\"What is the core focus of the study?\",\"answer\":\"The study examines children’s imaginative play in online spaces, especially how they create shared play experiences through Zoom.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the research define “local” for online play groups?\",\"answer\":\"“Local” is expanded beyond geography by using technology to turn distant interactions into a common shared space where children connect through toys, media, and stories.\"},{\"question\":\"What media is used in the online play groups?\",\"answer\":\"The study uses LEGO Ninjago as the children’s media source for the online imaginative play groups.\"}]","Playing around on Zoom - The Intersection of Imaginary Play with Technology - Qualitative Case Study | PDF",1792073663,66]