Revitalize your teaching with improv!

by | Oct 9, 2024 | Uncategorized

Free Workshop

Led by Carrie Lobman, Gwen Lowenheim and Jiunwen Wang, PhD

Online

Friday, October 25 from 12:00-1:30 MST

Register Here

Looking to make your classroom more inclusive, collaborative, and fun? Improv can do just that—while keeping it rigorous and engaging!

Join us for a hands-on workshop where you’ll discover how improvisation can transform your teaching, spark creativity, and build a vibrant learning community. Using improv’s core principles like “Yes, And…” and “Make the ensemble look good,” you’ll learn how to create dynamic, responsive classrooms that foster deeper connections, curiosity, and **making discoveries** alongside your students.

Walk away with fresh tools and global examples to bring new energy to your lessons and support your students in taking meaningful, collaborative risks. Let’s co-create, perform, and explore new ways to teach and learn together!

 

Carrie Lobman, PhD – Dr. Lobman is an educational researcher, trainer, and teacher educator whose research explores the value of improvisation and play for learning and development. She is a nationally recognized advocate for play and creativity for the education of people of all ages. She is a consultant to educational programs internationally, most recently in Dhaka and Sao Paolo. In 2011 she joined the Board of Directors of the national All Stars Project, where she serves as a consultant to its Institute for the Study of Play.  She currently serves as the pro-bono director of pedagogy for the East Side Institute. Her publications include: Unscripted Learning: Using Improvisational Activities Across the K-8 Curriculum (Teachers College Press) with Matt Lundquist; and Play and Performance (University Press of America) with Barbara O’Neill.

Gwen Lowenheim, MSEd

Gwen Lowenheim is the Founder and Coordinator of International Conversation Groups & its Facilitator Training Program at Pace University where she also supervises a Civic Engagement component for both programs. Gwen is a Writing & TESOL instructor, Organizational & Project Based Coach, Teacher Trainer and co- founder of “Yes, and…” Higher Education Network. 

Gwen trains and supervises educators and social entrepreneurs around the world in a social therapeutic, performance-based learning approach that brings creativity and innovation into classrooms, organizations and community-based programs. Her programs introduce theatrical improvisation, philosophical exploration, remix and group play in developing collaborative teams, leadership development, language learning and stress management.  

Jiunwen Wang, PhD

June is a Senior Lecturer at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, where she adds a dash of creativity to leadership development module in the Human Resource Management Programme. Her research dives into the wonderful world of improv and its magical effects on individuals. Right now, she’s designing  a fresh leadership course that blends improv into the classroom, bringing spontaneity and flexibility to future leaders. She has also published teaching activities utilizing improv and artistic methods, including a thought piece on a flourishing classroom.

In her artistic adventures, June is also exploring Playback Theatre, where stories come alive on stage, and in her spare time, you’ll find her singing her heart out with the Singapore Symphony Chorus!

Sign up today: https://www.eventbrite.com/x/1041332693117/

 

Boo! PlayBook Deadline.

by | Oct 1, 2024 | Uncategorized

Welcome to October. That can only mean one thing:

The deadline for submitting your playful online techniques to the Professors at Play Online PlayBook is only a month away!

We have been collecting playful ideas for making online learning more relevant, engaging and fun! And we want to hear from you. Whether you have a tried-and-true technique you’d like to share or have a brainstorm of something that you think might work, get in touch. You can find all the information about the Online PlayBook here:

https://professorsatplay.org/professors-at-play-online-playbook/

Also, as an update on the production process.

Originally, the PlayBook was going to be published by ETC Press. The ETC team has evolved the platform into a new consortium:  Play Story Press. We will be moving this PlayBook and future publications under the PSP umbrella. You can read more about the new consortium here:

https://professorsatplay.org/new-play-press/

In November, we will edit the PlayBook and produce the final formats and layouts. We plan to have the digital and print versions out early in 2025. No waiting around years to see your work in print! Submit this month and help spread the word that playful pedagogy matters.

Submission information and details are on the Professors at Play website:

https://professorsatplay.org/professors-at-play-online-playbook/

And Happy Halloween! May all your tricks be treats!

 

Play Story Press

by | Sep 25, 2024 | Uncategorized

You might have noticed that The Professors at Play AI PlayBook was put out by Play Story Press and wondered, “Who is that?”

In short, PSP is the evolution of Carnegie Mellon’s ETC Press. The new consortium will carry on the work started with ETC, and will be run by ETC Press’ founder, Drew Davidson.

As an open community publishing consortium, PSP is committed to serving the broader play community through open-access publishing. Professors at Play is delighted to participate as one of Play Story Press’s founding community partners. Leveraging the PSP platform and consortium, we can now publish under the Professors at Play Publications at Play imprint. What does this mean to the P@P community? Several things:

  • Having an academic press publishing partner allows us to make longer-term publishing plans without worrying about where things will end up.
  • The PSP format is super flexible. We will be able to produce non-traditional publications like the AI PlayBook, but we can also support peer-reviewed articles and books as well.
  • More control over the publishing process means we can get things out more quickly!

Check out the Play Story Press website to see the press’ current work and learn more from the press release below:

 

Play Story Press – An Open Community Publishing Consortium

We are excited to announce the founding of Play Story Press™, https://playstorypress.org, an open community publishing consortium of/by/for the field and our community. It is a diamond open-access academic publishing initiative in which contributors retain all of their intellectual property. We work with our contributors in as timely a manner as possible so that we can share ideas that have impact and significance in our society. The common tie for all these is a focus on issues related to stories and play as they are applied across various fields. The concepts of story and play are broad and diverse—from entertainment and narrative to media studies and social studies, games and technology to health and enjoyment, education and learning to design and development, and more. 

Play Story Press is a culmination of 20 years of open-access publishing and collaborating with the community. Our founders started ETC Press in 2005 as an experimental open-access academic publishing imprint, and the success we had was a direct result of all the quality work that was written by our community. Inspired by this, Play Story Press is an evolution to become even more focused on the community and field. The consortium comprises an exceptional group of partner organizations that will work together, shaping and supporting Play Story Press for the field and community. The following groups are committed to this endeavor (and we’re actively in discussions with more potential partners):

 

Analog Game Studies

Association for Computing Machinery

Association for Research in Digital Interactive Narratives

Broke the Game

Connected Learning Alliance

Digital Games Research Association

Digital Storytelling Lab

Game Genius

Games for Change

Games+Learning+Society

Higher Education Video Game Alliance

International Game Developers Association

iThrive Games / History Co:Lab

Joan Ganz Cooney Center

Knowledge Commons

Learning Games Network

Meaningful Play

Professors at Play

Remake Learning

Serious Play Conference

Society for the Advancement of the Science of Digital Games

Take This

Thriving in Games Group (formerly Fair Play Alliance)

 

Play Story Press™ is an independent non-profit organization powered with input and involvement from the consortium, our contributors, and the community at large. This continues our innovations in publishing, and we invite people to participate. Together, we can explore and create the future of open academic publishing, sharing and spreading ideas and knowledge that can help change the world for the better.

 

Online Playbook Submission Deadline

by | Sep 2, 2024 | Uncategorized

Have an idea to make online classes more fun? Well, what are you waiting for? Submit your creative solutions to the Professors at Play ONLINE PlayBook! With a winter 2025 publishing date looming, we are happy to announce the submission deadline: Halloween, October 31st. Talk about fun deadlines.

Before you think, “Gee, I’d love to submit something, I am just not sure I have time”, keep a couple of things in mind:

1. You don’t have to submit a technique that you have tried in class. Have a clever idea? Write it up and send it in. Someone will surely give it a go:)

2. You don’t need to write a long, detailed submission (although that’s fine too).  For example, check out this superb submission from Professor at Play Andrew Davies (who generously offered to share in advance):

Find, or create, a black and white coloring book image. Have this image prominently displayed in your presentation software. Then share your screen so that participants can draw on the image with the annotation tools available in Zoom or other web-conferencing software. 

Quick. Simple and brilliant. Let Andrew be your inspiration. Submit your playful ideas today!

Wanna Play?

by | Jul 20, 2024 | Resources

Are you ready for the Fall term?

Neither are we, but we’re gearing up for an exciting start!

The Professors at Play headquarters might be a quirky space filled with ducks, stickers, and an assortment of other fun items, but it’s also where we’re gathering supplies and preparing to play with you.

That’s right. We want to work with your faculty, your staff and even your administrators to help your school or college or department or campus unlock the power of play. We want to share the value, science and purpose of play. Whether it’s a conversation or a keynote, a collaboration or a workshop, we want to extend the invitation to invite us to share the Professors at Play love in your educational environment. To date, we have provided keynotes and interactive talks, full-on workshops and event planning, consulting and collegial support. We can work with skeptical faculty who need a little convincing to bring play into their classrooms and we love to get engaged with teachers already inventing, creating and playing and want someone to collaborate with. We bring expertise and an open-minded curiosity. We’ve worked online and in person. We mostly love working on play and want to bring that joy and energy to your campus.

That’s right—we want to collaborate with your faculty, staff, and administrators to enhance your school, college, department, or campus. Whether it’s a conversation, keynote, collaboration, or workshop, we invite you to bring Professors at Play into your educational environment. We’ve delivered keynotes, interactive talks, full workshops, and event planning. We’re here to engage with skeptical faculty who need a little encouragement to incorporate play into their classrooms, as well as to collaborate with teachers who are already innovating and looking for a creative partner. We bring expertise and a curious, open-minded approach, whether online or in person. Our passion for play is infectious, and we’re eager to share that joy and energy with your campus.

And yes, if you invite us, we’ll definitely bring the ducks and stickers!

— David and Lisa

Let’s Play: Online Playbook

by | Jun 6, 2024 | Announcements

What? A new Playbook?

Yes, indeed. That’s the plan.

Last year, when we released the original Professors at Play Playbook, we responded to ongoing requests for techniques that profs could use in their classrooms. The response to the call for submissions was fantastic, and the interest in the book exceeded our hopes. With almost 9000 downloads of the free PDF and 1500 sales of ebooks and printed copies, we feel comfortable saying that people want play in their classrooms! (And in transparency, we sold the books at close to cost, so we have not made any money on the project.)

So, the Playbook was an encouraging hit. But what happens when you teach online? What happens to play then?

While the Playbook had many techniques that would either work online, or could be easily converted to work online,  many teachers said they wanted more ideas for the virtual classroom. From that insight the Online Playbook was born.

Over the summer and into the fall, we will collect your ideas and techniques to assemble the Online Playbook for publication with ETC Press in the winter of 2025. Like the original Playbook, authors will retain rights to their work, and the Playbook will be available in a free, Open Resource format and in paid print and ebook editions. 

We are excited about this iteration of the Playbook idea for several reasons. First off, it’s another chance to activate our community and see all the fun everyone is having. Second, we love the idea of focusing future editions of the Playbook on specific areas of need. Online is one of those areas. Large lecture hall is another. Eventually, we’d even like to publish a Playbook dedicated to the design of playful pedagogies.  Third, by expanding the Playbook series, we invite more professors to try play. And at the end of the day, if we are going to have a Playvolution in higher education, we will need a lot of playful allies!

Interested? Have questions? Let us know! Most of all, take some time this summer to consider typing up a technique or two and submitting it. We can’t wait to see what you have to share.

https://professorsatplay.org/professors-at-play-online-playbook/

 

David & Lisa

Summer Playcaction

by | May 7, 2024 | Uncategorized

Remember the sound of the school bell on the last day of class before summer vacation? That bell combined the thrill of freedom with a sense of accomplishment and spiced with the excitement of summer vacation plans.

Things have changed and summer might look more like catching up on research, teaching a summer section or digging into that long list of overdue household chores. But while you are busy adulting this summer, remember to take some time to find that summer joy you had when you were a kid.

Here’s a list of 10 ideas to turn your professorial summer into a Playcation!

 

 

  1. Dream up 10 playful activities you can implement this fall in your classes, but all of them have to include ping pong balls.
  2. Eat at a restaurant serving a cuisine you have never tried before. If you don’t live close enough to a good option, look up a recipe online and order the ingredients from Amazon.
  3. Take $20 to your nearest dollar store. Buy 20 things and then figure out how to integrate them into a class this fall.
  4. Call an old friend you haven’t talked to in at least a year and see how they are doing. And tell them the dumbest joke you can think of.
  5. Pull out lecture slides for a class you will teach in the coming year. Randomly select 12 slides and no matter what is on the slide, make it more fun. If you get stuck, ask AI for help.
  6. Learn 12 words in a language you don’t know. Then, try and drop them into conversation for the rest of the summer. Vivo ludere!
  7. Make a Spotify playlist for a class. Give it a title like: Songs to Study Chemistry By or Term Paper Blues. Save it and share it with your students next time you teach.
  8. Go to a garage sale, antique store or museum and find something you remember having or enjoying as a kid. Spend a minute remembering everything about that time in your life. Remember being a kid.
  9. Head out your front door with your phone. Keep walking until you have found at least one fun thing and take its picture. It could be a funny sign, an eccentric mailbox or a bunch of people playing basketball. Don’t give up until you find some fun. For a bigger challenge, stay out until you have 10 things, and then post them all on social media!4axx
  10. Come up with a list of silly, wacky, goofy and playful activities you can offer your students for extra credit. Feel free to use this list as a starting point!

Embracing life, loneliness, introversion and games

by | Mar 4, 2024 | Uncategorized

By Nanditha Krishna

As I approach my 25th birthday this June, I find myself reflecting on my journey through my turbulent teenage years to the even more tumultuous twenties, with an evolving sense of self-awareness. Over the years, as I have started living my twenties, I have begun to walk down the rather ‘deep alleys’ of my formative years, revisiting and exploring the patterns I picked up as a child, in order to understand why I function today the way I do and how they shape my present self. It’s quite interesting, because the corpus of data one has of childhood memories is not really extensive, leaving one to make sense of whatever little memory exists.

One intriguing realisation that I have come to terms with is my complete lack of childhood friendships, with very few or no memories of companionship with kids my age, simply due to their absence. However, on the brighter side, I also vividly recall moments of joy that I experienced during all those times when my family would gift me toys and puzzles to play with. I would spend countless hours crafting stories, immersed in my own little world playing with these imaginary characters I had created in my head. While the world saw me engrossed with my toys—jigsaw puzzles, trains, doctor play sets, building blocks and LEGO sets (plus countless other play sets)—to me, I was deeply engaged in storytelling, worldbuilding, designing narratives, and weaving tales with my toys. I neither craved nor felt the need for friends; my solitary play was fulfilling enough for me to stay in my shell. Another distinct memory that strikes a chord with me is that of my parents once taking me to a kids’ park, hoping that this attempt of theirs would make me socialise with other children. Their efforts did prove very futile, and I would always swiftly retreat back to my own world upon returning home. Despite my parents’ attempts to encourage social interaction, my aversion to forced socialisation reinforced my preference for solitary play. In hindsight, I now recognize this tendency as introversion.

As I grew up into my early teens, my passion for video games only intensified—Counter-Strike, Mount & Blade, Hitman, GTA, Need for Speed, Road Rash, Rollcage, historical narratives in Age of Empires, Diablo, SWAT, and other gamified narratives; you name it, I played it all. My fascination with narratives deepened as I grew up and matured, intensifying my further immersion into interesting stories. I would eagerly collect video game CDs from my extended family whenever we visited our hometown during vacations. Unfortunately, it was also during this period that societal pressures convinced me that it was time to become ‘serious’, prioritising ‘seriousness’ over playfulness. In retrospect, I realised the world held me back, urging me to suppress my playful self in favour of a more serious demeanour and outlook on life. Looking back, I strongly believe that I lost a significant part of myself to this misguided notion of viewing games with negative connotations, rather than seeing them as interesting pastimes and a natural part of life. This misconception led me to forsake gaming and focus solely on the demands of life, causing me to lose a significant part of myself.

Cut to my 20s now. As I transitioned from my teenage years to my early 20s, what earlier seemed to me like loosely connected abstract events in the last five years now make so much more sense to me. I interned at the Empathic Computing Laboratory, an academic research laboratory at the University of South Australia in Adelaide, Australia and the University of Auckland in New Zealand, where I assisted PhD students with empathic interactional and conversational design in a context-aware empathic virtual reality (VR) photography environment. Additionally, I interned at The Verse, a startup focusing on games and well-being, where I contributed to worldbuilding, narrative design, and community development initiatives. I also freelanced with Playwell Bricks Design Studio providing creative editing support. Furthermore, I served as one of the editors of Media, Arts, and Design (MAD) Anthology-II: MAD Pandemic: Stories of Change and Continuity published in association with the Center for Applied Game Studies at the University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria. It has taken me a while to connect the dots and realise that the common thread linking these instances is, in fact, games. Today, I find it heartening and encouraging that despite conforming to societal norms that emphasise cultivating ‘seriousness’ for a period and losing some years to them, I have not entirely lost my passion for games.

As I now learn to let go of the ‘seriousness’ I previously embraced in life due to social pressures and re-embrace my lost playfulness, I am also consciously unlearning, relearning, and reframing the notion that being playful is not a trait inherent only in children but meant for everybody, regardless of age. I am learning that there is something deeply creative and fulfilling about immersing yourself in games, stepping into the shoes of characters, and, above all, being introverted with a deep passion for games.

Of course, I have carried a sense of solitariness with me from my childhood and teenage years into my early adulthood. However, I am also aware that correlation doesn’t imply causation. In my 25 years of existence, I have realised that while gaming was NEVER the reason for my limited social skills, it did help me a lot in coping with the growing pains of life and the intense loneliness I have experienced over time. In fact, playing games helped me feel a lot less alone. In short, books, stories, art, music, films, and games have been constant presences in my life and indeed helped me unleash my imagination. I have come to believe that introversion and gaming can truly be a highly creative combination.

Learning social skills still remains a challenge, but a great deal of happiness comes from relearning and knowing that it’s okay to be into games, and it doesn’t have to hinder my ability to form connections with people. Instead, it can be a topic of great conversations. Especially knowing myself all too well—that I usually bond through activities with people, and that games could be one of them too. As I also find my way through figuring out failed friendships, forming and sustaining meaningful connections and friendships in my early 20s, figuring out how to retain my highly sensitive, introverted self in this world, it helps to recall that I was okay as a kid and a teen, in my own little world, and that I will be okay as an adult too, no matter how hard adulting right now seems to be.

 

Nanditha Krishna
Integrated Masters (M.A) English Language and Literature (2019-2024)
https://nandithakrishna.home.blog/
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Amritapuri, India

When Play Fails

by | Feb 22, 2024 | Commentary

In my university library you will find a checkerboard table in a comfortable seating section, right next to a kiosk that sells teriyaki and sushi. During the academic year this area is busy with students grabbing cups of coffee, sharing lunch with friends, taking breaks between classes and simply studying. What you won’t find is anyone playing chess or checkers on this table.

Even though someone at some point ordered this table and must have imagined students taking a moment out of their busy day to have fun, day after-day, the table sits playless.

While a noble attempt to create an inviting and playful space for its patrons, the table clearly misses he mark. You could say that maybe the library needs to leave out chess pieces or provide game-oriented programming. You can imagine a chess contest or some sort of activity to bring the table to life. It’s easy to image ways to activate the playless table. Or maybe there is something else wrong. Maybe this table is exactly what it is: A kind of virtue signaling we might as well call  “play signaling”. That is, here is an exampe of an effort to suggest play, but never really commit to it.

Surprisingly, sometimes a little play isn’t better than no play at all. Sometimes a little play is a reminder that play can be an afterthought or merely a gesture on the margin. An empty play table doesn’t invite participation, rather, it sits as a monument to performative efforts to look playful. To quote the great cultural commentator Taylor Swift: “Band-Aids don’t fix bulletholes.” And checkerboard patterns don’t inspire play.

Beating up a poor university space planner on their choice of table top pattern might seem like a lot about too little. And, it is. But it’s also a metaphor for what we face in our own classrooms. For example, an ice breaker on the first class of the term signals play.  But never inviting play back into the lesson plan or the lecture for the rest of the term suggests an anti-play stance. “Yes, I know that play in this class would be fun. That’s why we did it in the first day of class. But I refuse to keep playing for reasons I will never explain.”

We reduce the value we place on play when we teach an overly serious and formal classroom and then surprise the students with a plate of cookies on the last day of class, when we finally show a funny You Tube clip to explain a complex concept or simply march through a tired and boring to lecture in a pair of colorful sneakers or wearing a wacky tie.

See what I mean? 

Increasingly, Lisa and I talk about play as a sort of transformation. Rather than see play in the frame of techniques you can use to raise the classroom clatter for a moment, we see play as a way of thinking about the complexity of life, about the apparent drudgery of academic achievement and the world itself. In our vision, when reality looks playful, every table holds the potential for games, every lecture a chance to play with ideas and every class a potential moment to ignite laughter and learning. And while we recognize that any measure of playful effort helps, the transformative power of play erupts from a continuous and repeated playful commitment. If we really believe in the power of play in our teaching then we can need to trust play and trust the process that ensues by letting play provide the foundation of our approach and not merely as an additive sprinkled on at the end.

 Our advice: Don’t be a lonely checkerboard table in the library. Be a full-on carnival of knowledge and playful pedagogy. We dare you.

Visuals, Themes, and Bitmojis, Oh My!

by | Jan 27, 2024 | Resources

I heart online learing

 

 

by Peggy Holzweiss, PhD

I have a confession to make.

I love teaching fully asynchronous, online courses.

You may wonder how anyone could love teaching online courses. After all, it can be difficult to engage students through a computer screen. Learning alone. Staring at a plain pixeled display for hours. Performing the same assignments in every course (Discussion, paper, test. Rinse. Repeat.). Students frequently choose online learning for its convenience, not because they think it will be fun. Unfortunately, they are often right.

Now I will share a secret.

Online learning can be fun and engaging because play works in the virtual space. And online students appreciate ANY attempt to liven up a digital classroom. Their engagement increases when play is introduced, just like in-person students.

There are a variety of ways to be playful in an online course – and they often don’t require a lot of time or effort.

Consider these Eight Strategies for Online Play:

1. Be Visual
Add color, images, and fun fonts to course documents. If you are short on time or creativity, use templates provided by Microsoft Word or Canva. You can even use new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like Canva’s Magic Studio to create unique images for the documents. Just describe the image you want and let AI design some options. If you don’t like any of them, update your prompt and try again.

2. Try a Theme

Choose a course theme and align visuals, assignment names, slide decks, and other course materials. As an example, I chose a “Willy Wonka” theme for one course. Candy images appeared in the syllabus and all assignment instructions. Assignments received candy-related names, and lecture videos used free slide decks found on sites like SlidesMania and Slides Carnival.

3. Insert Your Bitmoji

Increase instructor presence by inserting a cartoon image of yourself (Bitmoji) throughout the course (i.e., course materials, modules, announcements, etc.). It is a playful way of reminding students you are always around. If you don’t have a bitmoji, create one through the free Bitmoji website. Simply establish your account and follow instructions. Once it is created, you will see a variety of “stickers” using your bitmoji likeness in different settings and poses. Find the ones you like, download them, and use them like any other image.

4. Inject Humor

Invite regular smiles by posting a “funny of the week.” The internet is filled with puns, jokes, images, and videos about the course topic or course theme. You can even let AI (i.e., ChatGPT, Bard) do some of the work by asking it to generate jokes on a desired topic. You can also share “class breaks” by posting something random like one of my favorite videos.

5. Offer Choices

Consider offering different options for course activities and let students choose which one(s) to perform. For instance, if you teach an intro chemistry course, assignment choices could include taking pictures of chemistry in action in daily life (plus narratives about the pictures), interviewing someone who works in a medical lab, sharing a biography of a specific chemist using an infographic format, or creating an instructional video about how chemistry is used in the fashion industry. Make it more impactful with a follow-up assignment where students review or reflect on each other’s projects.

6. Incentivize Play

Busy, online students will choose to play if tasks are short, easy to perform, and have some benefit such as extra credit or useful prizes (free quiz question, one-day assignment extension, etc.). You could use one-time tasks at different points in the course or offer an ongoing opportunity that invites students to play throughout the course. For example, I created a weekly virtual escape room (learn how to create your own on Google Slides) containing a link to a useful course resource, a funny image, and an image with a number. Students used the numbers to answer an extra credit math question at the end of the course. Any student who participated received at least a small amount of extra credit. Students with correct responses received more extra credit.

7. Play Hide and Seek

Hide things for students to find such as funny memes or videos, prizes such as a free quiz question or one-day assignment extension, or icebreaker questions students can answer about themselves. For one course, I hid the same theme-based image every week. It appeared in readings, assignment instructions, submission areas, and even popped up randomly in modules for a few days in the middle of a week. The first student to report the image location each week accumulated points towards extra credit at the end of the course. Students mentioned this little game as one of their favorite parts of the course.

8.Build Community

Build the course community by being intentional about how students interact. One of my favorite online tools is Padlet, a collaborative board where everyone can share images, websites, videos, etc. I use a Padlet board as a community space for students to introduce themselves, share where they found hidden items, answer extra credit questions, and so on. The board mimics what students do on social media and come with embed codes so they can be placed within an online course.

Check out an interactive poster with examples from my own courses then choose a strategy to implement in your online course!

___

Peggy Holzweiss, PhD
Associate Professor Department of Educational Leadership
Sam Houston State University
pholzweiss@shsu.edu

Big Message / Small Package

by | Jan 13, 2024 | Resources

 A  Only Kids and Play Can Save the World book coverBig ideas don’t always need a fancy package.

While higher education loves to present complex concepts in equally complex and detailed packages, sometimes getting the point across requires a bit of simplification to get to the heart of the matter.  

Think about Green Eggs and Ham, Star-Bellied Sneetches and The Lorax. Dr. Suess never compromised on wonder and whimsy when delivering important messages about expanding your horizons, racism and environmentalism.

That’s the approach Lisa has taken with her new children’s book Only Kids and Play Can Save the World. This fun and charming tale finds twins TJ and Maddie realizing something is wrong with their parents. The glazed eyes, the dull routines. Mom and dad’s spark is missing. It doesn’t take them long to diagnose the issue and the solution. Grown-ups need more play!

With colorful images by Sarah Iverson and Lisa’s bouncing prose, this book works as well as a joyful read for kids as it does as a parable for stressed out, glazed-eye grownups.  The story drives to its point as the twin, not content to let evil powers control the world, mastermind a way to win the world back over to play and light the way for the rest of us. A fable and a blueprint.

How do you get people to play more and honor the benefits of play? Let’s add a pointed kids’ book to the list of tools we have to embrace and share the power of play.

2023 Reflections

by | Dec 31, 2023 | Commentary

You know those lists that people use to try and sum up something as big and unmanageable as an entire year? Yup! This is one of those. For us, we think of this as a playful exercise in reflection. After another year diving deeper into playful pedagogy, we reflected on what we learned, what surprised us, and what inspired us. Here’s our list, we’d love it if you would share yours too:

  1. There are more professors playing than we ever expected.

    Every week new professors join our listserv. Right now we have 856 members on that list and have seen 7400 downloads of the Playbook! We regularly hear about new creative and playful approaches to teaching. We meet new professors in our home institutions and receive emails from teachers from all over the world reaching out to connect about play. Each time we hear from someone using playful pedagogy, it lights us up and encourages us to continue to support the far flung (dare we say rebellious) network of playful professors and to recruit even more.

  2. Students will surprise you.

    Last summer, I was teaching a synchronous online course and I started each session with a playful connection-former activity. It was hard to tell for sure, but the students seemed to enjoy them enough. At least no one ever complained. So, I kept doing them. Then, in the middle of the term, I jumped right into the content and forgot to include play at the start of the class. One student interrupted me to ask: “Where is our ice breaker?” Even though I was sure they were just playing along, the truth was: They wanted their play!

  3. Students will surprise you, part II.

    Lisa told me a story about one of her classes where the students decided to bring their own play to the classroom. One group of students took it upon themselves to sign up to lead a playful icebreaker each week. Another class decided to have a hippie-style ritual on the last night of class where all the students and Lisa sat on the floor on a hippie blanket (that a student brought) and played a card game that had each person reflect on their experience in the class and experience of each other. It brought many students to tears. And Lisa had nothing to do with those playful, unexpected moments. Those were all student inspired and created.

  4. Playing is hard work.

    Teaching playfully takes a lot of effort but the creative time spent making teaching more fun is rich and rewarding. But the level of effort it takes to be a playful professor also reminds us that teaching is much more rewarding when we put our heart into it. Every time I decide to rewrite a class to make it more playful, I have that moment where I realize, “I don’t have to do this.” Yet, every semester I teach my more playful class verison, I feel deep satisfaction and connection with my students because I did.

  5. The “play world” is vast.

    Planning the 2024 Playposium has reminded us how big the play world is. While we worked hard to recruit Stuart Brown and Gary Ware to speak at the event, we have been overwhelmed by the unsolicited emails from folks outside the bounds of higher education who are interested in also participating in the event. We simply don’t have enough room to include them all. Guess that means we have already started planning the 2025 Playposium! In our planning, we have met experts of adult play, of play at work, play in K-12, and beyond. While we continue to work towards our mission to induce a playful transformation of the academy, it’s nice to know the movement is bigger and more inclusive than our colleges and universities.

  6. People love stickers.

    Ok. Maybe this shouldn’t surprise us but we’ve given out a lot of stickers this year and people get really excited. From students to fellow professors and senior administrators, at workshops and in book talks – people are diggin’ our sticker game. Who would have thought so many people share our love of stickers?

  7. Change is hard.

    Play is awesome and the benefits are clear but sadly, sharing that aspect is not enough to get people to become more playful. Call us naïve, but when we started sharing our experience with play, we thought the hard cold facts and excitement alone would be enough to get people playing. This year was a bit of a wake up call as we realized that change is hard and there are some deeper, systemic barriers. It takes awareness and deliberate effort. We find ourselves more likely to focus on how to help people change to become more playful than on why they should.

  8. Our students need play now more than ever.

    You’ve probably seen it in your classrooms, we know we’ve seen it in ours. Students are generally not well. It’s notable enough that it makes the news. Our students are struggling. Covid took its toll. The divisive political environment creates scarcity and hopelessness. A gloomy economic outlook saps the enthusiasm for life so learning can’t be a priority. With the external pressures on students’ well-being increasing, the need to light that inner fire–that love of learning and the optimism about changing the world–brings play to the forefront. Play can’t fix the world but it can inspire a new generation of students to trust the people around them, to develop a flexibility of mind and behavior, and inspire optimism that the world needs.

  9. We need play more than ever.

    It’s not just our students who are struggling either. We are tired, burned out and stressed. We can’t lead a class of future change makers if we have to drag ourselves into our classrooms each day. We need to reignite our love of teaching. Play is a pathway to recovering joy and wholeness. Playing with our curriculum, our courses and our assignments brings a spark back to lesson planning. Playing alongside our students rekindles the connection that makes teaching the job we originally fell in love with.

  10. Play is elusive.

    Even though play remains this elemental form of life, it also remains as slippery as a fish. We get reminded all the time that you use it or lose it. You keep track of play or it slips out of sight. Play requires us to stay mindful, intentional, and practice it like a religion or workout program. When it comes to teaching, play is naturally intriguing but also foreign. It’s up to us to invoke, feed, and stay in the dance with play. Otherwise, the spirit of play will dart off to those willing to tumble with it and experience its joy.

 

Have A Wonderful and Most Playful 2024!

What is Play? An Answer

by | Nov 29, 2023 | Uncategorized

What is play? It’s an easy question without an easy answer. 

To try and get to the bottom of that question, and to provide a rationale why it’s an important question to ask, Professors at Play co-founder Lisa Forbes empaneled a group of experts to try and find some answers.

Her initial publication based on her Delphi study with these experts was recently published in the Journal of Play in Adulthood. Not only is this study important in pushing forward our understanding of play and the need to grapple with definitions. It also leaps into new research territory by presenting its findings, playfully as a poem. Check it out! And if you get bored with the meticulous academic prose, skip to the poem. It’s, well, amazing.

enting its findings, playfully as a poem. Check it out! And if you get bored with the meticulous academic prose, skip tothe poem. It’s, well, amazing.

Using a Story Shell to Achieve Whole Course Play

by | Nov 7, 2023 | Resources

by Peggy Holzweiss, PhD

My journey into whole course play began when I heard Roberto Corrada discuss his Jurassic Park simulation during the 2021 Playposium. I loved the idea of students joining a fictitious world, tapping into their creativity, and learning real-world content simultaneously. Inspired, I experimented with a spring 2022 course to see if I could create a fully playful course.

For context, I teach in a fully asynchronous masters program for higher education administration. The students are older and mostly employed full-time on college campuses. The course in question is focused on higher education finance. Students are often fearful of taking the course, so I created a lengthy course project to ease them into budgeting. The project involves small teams creating a college office (i.e., mission, goals, purpose, activities), developing a budget for the office, and adjusting the budget in different ways. Because the project has been perfected for more than a decade and students enjoy it, the focus became designing a story “shell” around the project then incorporating other class activities into the story.

Like Corrada, I turned to popular culture for inspiration. The wizarding world seemed like a good fit since the Harry Potter setting is a wizard school. Yet, I could not invite my older, already employed students to go back to high school. I needed a college setting to replicate their professional experiences. With no wizard college mentioned in the Harry Potter franchise, I decided to create my own college and invite my students to become “staff.” This approach allowed me to borrow from the well-established wizarding world while still introducing new stories that fit course goals.

I started with a name (“Picquery College”), which was inspired by a minor character in the first Fantastic Beasts film. I also created a brief history for the college and an overview of the current campus demographics and academic majors. To better connect with my students’ real-world experiences, the story shell focused on the college’s ongoing struggles with enrollment and retention. The course project became the avenue through which they would address these challenges.

I created a variety of course activities to achieve an immersive learning environment. For example, on the first day of class, students received a digital parchment letter like the one sent to new students in Harry Potter. The letter welcomed students to college, explained why they had been “hired,” and how they would help the college meet its new goals through the “Engaging Picquery” initiative (i.e., the course project). The letter then directed students to a “staff orientation” activity which shared more details about the course. The orientation concluded with a digital escape room prompting students to look for a code which unlocked the first course module. When they successfully unlocked the module, they earned a “Magic Code” prize allowing them extra points or a one-day extension on any assignment.

A “sorting ceremony,” featuring a free online spinning wheel and recorded via screencast, randomly placed students into college “houses” (teams). Each house had a mythical beast mascot (i.e., House of Sphinx, House of Hydra) and a crest depicting the beast. The crests were shared with each team for their use throughout the course.

An optional House Cup competition provided opportunities for extra credit and building team camaraderie. Students could complete short weekly tasks for House points including finding a hidden character in the course materials (“Pickett Pursuit”), answering Harry Potter trivia questions, inserting a designated magical word into a discussion board comment, and brainstorming ideas for a magical college community such as what fast food restaurants the wizard students would visit, what snacks they would eat, etc. The project included additional point opportunities and a weekly leaderboard kept track of team standings.

Other course activities contributed to the playful environment. For instance, a header image in the learning management system and renamed navigation folders (i.e., “email” became “owl post”) reflected the magical theme. A weekly newsletter template shared course reminders as well as an inspirational quote, a funny cartoon about magic, and opportunities to earn House Cup points that week. An embedded Padlet board served as the “common room” where students could share ideas, ask questions, and complete some House Cup activities. Finally, video lectures used slide decks with magical imagery. For students unfamiliar with the wizarding world, a separate resource folder offered term definitions, links to the movie preview videos, and links to fandom websites.

In a final reflection activity for the course, many students used the word “fun” or other similar phrases to describe their learning experience. The comments also reflected strong peer engagement and appreciation for the creative and/or competitive opportunities:

  • I was most excited about scoring House of Ent points because I could be creative, competitive and earn extra credit.
  • The fun aspects and hands-on approach of the Engaging Picquery project definitely made this class one of, if not, my favorite courses I’ve taken throughout the program.
  • Being able to create a new office, team, and budget was truly exciting and interesting to do.
  • Pickett Pursuit!! This activity made me excited to open up Blackboard every Monday. Although it was not directly related to the course content, it was a good way for me to get a glance at what to expect from the week in this class, while also having a bit of fun in the process!
  • I enjoyed the creativity we got to express this semester. Being able to develop your own office for Piquery College and learning what goes into the operations of such an office was really fun and engaging.
  • I absolutely loved working with my group and made the overall class experience more enjoyable.

The team competition offered a quantitative opportunity to assess student engagement. Most activities offered a low number of team points (3 to 10) while the embedded project activities awarded more (up to 50 points). A total of 703 points were possible during the 14-week competition. Teams earning at least 30 points were eligible for extra credit, with the top 3 teams receiving additional credit. All teams reached the 30-point minimum in the 3rd week, with final team standings ranging from 214 to 512 points. Individual engagement varied, with some students performing many activities while others participated as they had time or felt comfortable. Individual point totals ranged from 2 to 233, with an average of 110 – indicating sustained engagement for most of the students.

The experiment was so successful that I have since adapted all my online courses to the whole course play approach. While none meet the same ambition of the original course, they all incorporate a playful course theme and an invitation to engage in different ways throughout the term. These busy, adult students express appreciation for the approach and regularly demonstrate that they are willing and ready to play when given the opportunity.

Peggy Holzweiss, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Educational Leadership
Sam Houston State University
pholzweiss@shsu.edu

Playing with Cards

by | Oct 27, 2023 | Resources

I’m sure like many people my first introduction to card games was playing Snap as a child (or if you
were posher Happy Families) and progressing from their into more sophisticated games such
Cribbage or (Gin) Rummy. Finally, I found myself learning the rules of Bridge, though I didn’t have
three friends, so opportunities to play were somewhat limited. However, once I had children of my
own I discovered the delights of other card games such as Uno and then deck building games, like
Pokemon. As an adult who still enjoys all manner of games, I was also introduced to Hero Realms
and Gloom. I recognise that card games can involve a degree of skill, they’re very engaging, they
provide a high degree of flexibility and in fact cards can be used in a variety of different way.

I once attended a session that started with an ice breaker that involved a table filled with postcards.
We were asked to select a card that had some meaning for us and then talk to the rest of the group
about the card. People are often happier about talking about themselves indirectly in this way and it
can feel less scary. So now I use cards from a game called Dixit for exactly the same activity. Single
cards like this can also be sued for flash activities, for example helping students to recognise various
parts of the body.

Single idea cards can also be put together to create new ideas. For example, an activity I have
participated in asked people to select a card from one of three piles, each pile related to a different
idea: character, location and object. From these we were then asked to create a story, which is a
creative exercise I use with final year advertising students. You can also have single idea cards that
can be used together, for example asking students to match slogans with logos or perhaps
symptoms with a medical condition.

Cards can have related ideas that can be grouped, for example I have a set of cards to help illustrate
a PEST analysis (political, economic, social and technological). Students work in groups to decide
which category to put each card in and then debate with other groups where there is disagreement.
Once grouped they could then be ranked or ordered. For instance, the elements of Bloom’s
taxonomy or Maslow’s hierarchy of needs could be on individual cards and students asked to put
them in the recognised levels. Or, you might have the characteristics of a good manager (or any
other position/title) and then be asked to decide which is the most to least important.

You can also ask students to generate their own ideas, since you can buy blank cards that can be
written on with non-permanent markers. For example, getting them to identify the steps in putting a
dissertation together and then putting these in order, perhaps with links and actions, like in a flow
chart. I’ve been involved in doing this myself when designing a lean system for the student journey
using continuous improvement cards. It can be used to describe other patterns as well, just as in the
game dominoes or Carcassonne (though these might be traditionally thought of as tile games).

Then there is collecting cards, which is closer to the idea of a traditional card game. In the summer of
2022 I created a board game where students had to collect the relevant cards from the marketing
mix (price, product, place and promotion) in order to be able to create a business. Much like the
game Settlers of Catan that requires players to collect resources in order to build settlements or
cities. This year I created a deck building game, where players collect businesses and use actions
based on a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) to affect share prices and
ultimately win the game.

In each of these cases the objective is to help students learn, but in a way that is fun, interesting,
engaging and memorable.

Roger Saunders (he/him) BA (Hons) MLing DipM PGCert SFHEA CMBE
University Teacher Fellow
Associate Professor (Teaching, Learning & Scholarship)
Module Leader in Marketing & Advertising
Leicester Castle Business School, De Montfort University
Reviewer: International Journal of Management Education
https://lisforlecturer.wixsite.com/website
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/landtchatshow

@RogerLecturer

Playposium 20224

by | Oct 18, 2023 | Announcements

After much planning, we are happy to announce our third Professors of Play Playposium. Since we started Professors at Play it’s been our dream to bring people together face-to-face, in person to play and plan and produce the ideas that will help transform higher education. The stars have aligned and with the help of Arizona State University’s Shaping EDU team, we are happy to say that dream is coming true.

You can find all details and register on the Playposium 2024 site. 

What is most exciting to us right now is how important this event is to the Professors at Play mission. When we started the group listserv in June of 2020, we just wanted to stay in touch with what, at the time, we thought were the handful of play-oriented professors interested in what we were interested in. We quickly discovered that we were far from alone. And as the group exploded, we set about to organize the community into a form where we could find each other and start learning as much as we could from our global community. That lead to a pair of virtual Playposiums and the Professors at Play Playbook. And while we couldn’t be more proud of what we have all accomplished together, we know it’s only a start.

Higher Ed faces some strong head winds: Increasing cost, public opinion of education in decline, mental health issues on the rise, mission creep and increasing questions about the value of a formal degree from the academy, to pick some of the big issues. But where others see issues, we see opportunity. It’s a mess to be sure. But we think that play has a place in finding the soul of higher education, helping reform how we teach and howstudents learn. Thorugh play we believe we can demonstrate, once and for all, that higher education is about positive personal transformation.

Seem like a pipe dream?

Remember, a few of years ago Professors at Play was nothing more than a mail list with 6 people on it. Today we are almost 800 strong and growing every day. We are a vibrant and connected community that brings play to our classrooms, our learning designs and our departments on a regular basis. This coming February, a bunch of us are going to get together in LA to have a blast and make plans to change our institutions for the better. If we can make it this far in a little over 3 years, think what we can do in the next 10. We hope you are dreaming big, because we are too.

We hope to get to play with you at Playposium 2024!

David & Lisa
Professors at Play

Where have you been?

by | Jan 12, 2023 | Uncategorized

Professors at Play PlayBookOh hello. Been a while. What have we been up to at the Profs at Play Headquarters? Like you, dealing with post-Covid, getting back to normal, adjusting to the new normal, trying to pretend the past few years did happen. In short, recovering. Rebuilding. And also, finishing the Professors at Play PlayBook. We are beyond excited to share this resrouce with the community. And with that done, now we get back to work–the Playvolution never rests!

Finding Fun

by | Jun 14, 2022 | Uncategorized

We spend a lot of time talking to faculty about their playful techniques as well as coming up with our own. But sometimes you just look outside the classroom and find all kinds of play you can borrow! I was talking to a colleuge the other day about something fun to do in a workshop for a few people. And I remember this funny game and app created by the fellows in the band OK Go. It’s nothing more than two people tryiung to come up with the same word at the same time. Funny. Fun. Playful. Check it out: https://okgo.net/2013/05/09/say-the-same-thing/

Online Fun!

by | May 5, 2022 | Resources

We’ve been busy finalizing the Professors at Play Playbook. But we did take a moment to put some of our playful techniques to use in presentation for the E learning Costorium of Colorado’s annual conference: That Was Fun! Online Edition.

Watch a recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8MRP5yL7gY