Blog Archive
To the Playposium and Beyond!
by Lisa Forbes In June of 2020, David and I started a Google listserv called Professors at Play. We had 5 members. Five months later, we have 554 members. This summer, there was so much excitement about Professors at Play, we knew we had to do more - create a bigger...
A Word With Your Inner Child
by David Thomas I want to talk to you about your inner child. Or at least the concept that you have an inner child and that child ought to get out sometimes. Go ahead, have an extra scoop of ice cream. Jump in a puddle. Fly a kite. Dive into a cool stream on a hot...
Embodying Playfulness
by Lisa Forbes Embodying Playfulness Oh boy, this is a big topic here. Embodying playfulness. In my recent study, the student participants described an important aspect of their experience of play in learning - the faculty embodying playfulness. Some student...
Play = Fun = Love
by Lisa Forbes Here’s the thing...I believe that play equals love. I know this might seem a little too hippie-ish for some people, but stay with me here. I’m not talking about the mushy gushy romantic love, that’s love in some settings but in terms of higher education...
Fun and Games in Higher Education: A Review
by David Thomas Rarely do you find academics willing to seriously think about fun, much less publish about it. But in their pursuit to find ways to make learning more engaging, authors Nicola Whitton & Mark Langan have produced a fine piece of scholarship both...
Play Languages
How come you don’t like to play? By Lisa Forbes Last night I was tucking my 5-year-old into her bed and out of the blue she said: “mommy, how come you don’t like to play?” You know in the movies when the music stops and the record screeches? That’s what it felt like...
“But, I Don’t Have Time To Play…”
By Lisa Forbes You know what really grinds my gears? When people devalue and dismiss play in adulthood and in higher education. This quote by Stuart Brown from his book Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul should be a lesson to...
Unboxing
Unboxing for Building Connections and Community in Online Learning By Lisa Forbs You all might have seen our call for participants in the Professors at Play Fun Fall Pal Package (FFPP). It was an opportunity to send and receive a physical fun package with fellow P@Ps....
Sir Ken Robinson (1950 – 2020)
Farewell by David Thomas The first time I saw Ken Robinson speak was at an academic tech conference--probably an eCollege gathering. Like the rest of the attendess, I wandered into the keynote to hear a speech by an affiable Brit that I had never heard of. Robinson...
Wacky Covid
By David Thomas If you listen to the dire warnings from the finance office, the gnashing of teeth of faculty and rending of cloth across higher education, you’d get the idea that the COVID pandemic has really put a strain on higher education. And, of course, it has....