Blog Archive
All Work and No Play
by David Thomas Do our students want to play? Do they want to have fun in class? Maybe. In the movie The Shining, Jack Nicholson plays a writer who hauls his family into the mountains of Colorado to caretake for a massive, seasonal hotel. His ideas is that while...
My Learning Disability Made Me Do It
by Lisa Forbes Someone recently asked me: “what makes you a different kind of learner?” I am a different kind of learner because I am a disabled learner. The way that formalized education approaches teaching and learning never worked very well for me. I struggled to...
Preparing to Play
by David Thomas The summer term starts next week. And I’m not ready. Oh boy. Even though I study fun, publish about fun and am teaching The Architecture of Fun this summer, I’m really worried that I won’t be, or the class won’t be, or the students won’t have...
The Wall
by Lisa Forbes Let’s talk about the wall. Not the Pink Floyd album but the metaphorical wall that represents what stands between us and some type of change. I’m a mental health counselor so this topic could quickly get into talking about our shame and childhood...
Lecture Breakers
If you have not heard of Barbi Honeycutt's Lecture Breakers Podcast, you are missing out. Dedicated to providing resoures to profs ready to break away from the iron grip of the lecture, her posts and podcasts manage to balance high quyality content with an...
De-Educating Play
by David Thomas I’ve changed my mind about what it really means to be a professor at play. It starts with how natural it is to play, travels through higher education’s participation in the de-education of play and ends up with me seeing a new mission in my teaching....
Emotions and Brain States LOVE Play
Emotions and Brain States LOVE Play by Lisa Forbes Before becoming an educator, I was first a mental health counselor. One of my very first counseling jobs was in an inpatient psychiatric hospital. The patients were struggling with severe mental health concerns –...
A Playvolution…Are You In?
A Playvolution...Are You In? by Lisa Forbes I look at the picture of students listening to a lecture and I think: This is education? Why do we continue to drone on and on at students like this? Where’s the joy? Where’s the fun? Where’s the excitement? I’m sure you...
The Watchmaker of Lilles
The Watchmaker of Lilles The foundation of unlocking play in teaching starts with having a playful soul. It's not enough to deploy techniques, to gamifiy your course or dress up in costumes if you don't start with a playful pose. It's common sense. But we often miss...
ISO Student Engagement
Are you In Search Of student engagement? The Educause Exchange Podcast proposed that topic to a number of higher education leaders and Professors at Play Lisa and David. Listent to thie 11 minute discussion of how to encouarge student engagement, and what playful...