Whether you call it “gamification”, game-based learning or something else, there’s an attraction to using playful pedogogies. University of Michigan calls it “gameful learning” and in this video Dr. Mika LaVaque-Mant, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor & Director of the LSA Honors Program, Dr. Benjamin Plummer, Learning Experience Designer at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business talk about their process and outcomes.
Check out thier presentation:
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 summarizing some of the big themes in fun in higher ed as well as suggesting some interesting possibilities for future study.
In “Fun and games in higher education: an analysis of UK student perspectives” Whitton and Langan propose five themes they distilled from interviewing 37 students about fun and learning: stimulating pedagogy; lecturer engagement; a safe learning space; shared experience; and a low-stress environment. The bulk of the paper details these findings and shows the complex ways that play and fun can support meaningful learning.
The paper is worth a read for any Professor at Play. It’s insights are many and it provides quite a bit of fuel for the playful fires we discuss in this network. For example, the lit review in the paper starts out with a clarifying claim:
“The role of fun in childhood education, particularly early childhood, is uncontroversial. Learning through play is accepted to support learning, imagination, and creativity, but as learners progress through formal, education, a greater emphasis is put on performance and measurable outcomes, and the relationship between fun and education becomes detached.”
Why this happens and what we can do about it is touched on in the paper. But the real value in the research is teasing out what students actually think. The N might be small, but for my money, I bet you’d find similar outcomes in your classes.
Fun is fundamental, and this kind of research into the nature of fun and learning both helps set guideposts for future exploration and adds to the small, but growing scholarship that underlies the Professor at Play belief in the transformational power of play, games, fun, joy and wonder in the higher educational setting.
You can find the paper here:
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. Something playful and tangible to represent our virtual community. Something fun to start of the new semester.
This idea was inspired by some colleagues of ours (and also Professors at Play!) Andrea Laser and Dennis DeBay at the University of Colorado Denver. This past Spring, they hosted a workshop series to unveil their “Unboxing Pedagogy” that suggests sending physical boxes to online students.
They believe there is something about sending and receiving tangible items that builds connection and promotes interaction in interesting ways. Their hope is to make the online learning experience come to life and be more connected and meaningful– in a time when distance learning can feel isolating. They believe that mail and boxes might do the trick.
Check out this video: https://sehd.wistia.com/medias/h8xfyna6av
We love this idea because it breaks the barriers of online learning. Maybe you might adopt a similar approach to your online or virtual classes. . .
If you have more questions about Unboxing Pedagogy feel free to contact Andrea or Dennis!
by David J. Tanis
Professor at Play Kevin Kelly posted a link in our Google Group to David Tanins’ 2012 disseration discussing play in higher educaton.
While I have not had a chance to read the dis, the abstract is compelling and on point:
“The findings revealed that educators associated the following elements with play and playfulness: fun, spontaneity, relationship and connection, silliness or goofiness, creativity and imagination. Furthermore, play and playfulness were most frequently manifested in the classroom through risk taking, storytelling, and physical activities. Students identified cognitive gains in terms of engagement, retention, and understanding. More significantly, students indicated that play and playfulness created a unique learning environment that felt safe and encouraged risk taking. Additionally, play and playfulness iv created positive affect such as fun, enjoyment, and laughter in the classroom environment.”
Wow.
One goal we have for the Professors at Play site and group is start collecting this kind of research in one discoverable place. We are seeking a critical mass of reviewed evidence that fun in higher education, is fundament!
— David
Edited by Alison James and Chrissi Nerantzi
by Lisa Forbes
If you value play in higher education, you need to read this book. If you don’t value play in higher education, you need to read this book. There. Blog complete.
Just kidding, you knew I had more to say. This book The Power of Play in Higher Education is a must read. One of my most favorite parts of this book is that it squashes all those play haters out there! Remember, people throw rocks at things that shine. Anyway, I love this quote:
“There is this belief of those working in universities that higher levels of study should be a deadpan business with little time for fun.” (p. vii).
Dr. James and Dr. Nerantzi challenge the idea that fun and play doesn’t belong in higher education and that somewhere along the way there has been a cultural evolution towards a more serious version of learning. They argue the importance of not losing play in tertiary learning and adopting an increasingly expansive view of education.
“Play has been separated out from education – there’s been a gradual cultural evolution towards a more serious version of learning. In early years, education play is virtually synonymous with learning but as students get older, play is increasingly removed from the experience of school. Once at university, play can be all too often seen as unserious suggesting a lack of quality.”
This book is essentially 41 chapters of examples of play in higher education from over 60 different people. I read this book and not only had a better idea of what play in higher education could look like but it also allowed my creativity to ignite. Although all of these chapters might not have directly related to my discipline, some of the ideas could easily translate but even if they didn’t, I still found joy in reading about play in learning as it fueled my inspiration and creativity to do better in making my teaching more playful.
Check out the book and check out the editor’s websites for more about them and the amazing work they are doing:
by Lisa Forbes
I’m sitting here trying to think about how to write this blog without coming off too dramatic. However, I can’t figure out how to do that when talking about the book Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown because it’s that good. If you are a playful person or think you might be a playful person or just lost it somewhere along the way, read this book and it will all come rushing back.
This book isn’t geared directly toward play in education, although he touches on it. This book describes play and the vitality of it within every facet of our lives. If you read this book and aren’t inspired when you put it down, there’s seriously something dead inside of you. (There’s the drama). It will make you approach your job, your parenting, your relationships, everything, from a new perspective.
You just have to read this book to see for yourself but here are just a few benefits of play that Dr. Brown lays out (these aren’t infinite!):
See the quotes below from Stuart Brown and also check out his website The National Institute for Play.
“If we stop playing, our behavior becomes fixed. We are not interested in new and different things.”
“When we stop playing, we start dying.”
“Play isn’t the enemy of learning, it’s learning’s partner. Play is like fertilizer for brain growth. It’s crazy not to use it. As we grow older we are taught that learning should be serious, that subjects are complicated. Serious subjects require serious study, we are told, play only trivializes them. Sometimes the best way to get the feel of a complicated subject is to play with it.”
