Playposium Schedule
Friday, November 6th, 8:00am – 4:00 pm MST
8:00 – 8:10am
Welcome and Day Overview
Lisa Forbes, Phd, University of Colorado Denver
David Thomas, PhD University of Denver
8:10 – 8:30am
Warm Up Activity: Knowing Me, Knowing You
Wendy Bartkus, Albright College, Psychology Professor and Michele Mislevy, Chester County Intermediate Unit, Instructional Media Specialist
Break that icy silence at the start of class with some fun interactive icebreakers. Get to know your students and hook them into your content.
8:30 – 9:15am
KEYNOTE:
Karaoke, Play and Other Existential Dilemmas
Alison James, Professor, National Teaching Fellow, Principal Fellow of the HEA and accredited LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator
Hands up if you love karaoke? Hate it? If we were in a room full of people right now you would see such a mixture of arm waving! We are split between whether or not karaoke fills us with euphoria, or makes us want to crawl under a rock. So it is with play. The very word conjures up different responses depending on who you are and what you understand play to be, as well as your own experiences of it. In this talk we will challenge our understanding of the meaning of play, its depth and complexity, and look at how it features in our lives without us even being aware of it. I will draw on my work supporting creative, imaginative and alternative modes of teaching, my collaborations to legitimise play in the academy and make it visible and appreciated, and my current research into the use and value of play in higher education. I’ll also be reflecting with you on how we often play to navigate the tougher times in life, not just the moments filled with rainbows and unicorns. I’ll be sharing many of the tensions and polarities that emerge when you study play in formal adult learning, as well as the myriad ways it is being embedded across all the disciplines from the arts to zoology. Together we will examine our lives as players and educators and look at how these two intertwine.
9:15- 9:25am
BREAK
9:25- 9:45am
TRIZ: Creative and playful
group problem-solving
Maha Bali, PhD, Associate Professor of Practice, Center for Learning and Teaching, American University in Cairo
This activity will demonstrate TRIZ, a Liberating Structure (See www.liberatingstructures.com) done virtually . How can you encourage a group to creatively and collaboratively solve a problem in a short amount of time? Come to this session and try out TRIZ!
9:50- 10:10am
Does Play in the Classroom “Work”?
Liz Pacioles, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Health Sciences, Marshall University
If playful professors need to make a case for using play in Higher Education, how might we measure if play “works”? In this session I will briefly describe a cornhole class activity I used in teaching a Sport Psychology class and some research findings on the activity. This session will provide ideas used to measure learning and engagement in the activity (including flow, enjoyment, and comfort) that other faculty could use for their own research study of their class/game activity.
10:15- 10:35am
The Need to Know: Blending Mystery, Story and Puzzles to Highlight Fundamental Knowledge and Foster Curiosity
Julie L. Stephens de Jonge, PhD, Professor of Spanish, University of Central Missouri
This session shows how adding mystery, story, and puzzles to a course unit or to an entire course can highlight key concepts or knowledge. Through examples that incorporate a variety of digital tools including the Google Suite Apps, Video software (Camtasia and Snagit), Jigsaw Puzzle, and Breakoutedu from my Spanish courses. The examples are applicable to any course. The session will include “how-to” instruction and provide links to instructional videos for more in-depth information about how to use various tools.
10:40- 11:00am
Playing with Fire: Framing Principles of a Playful Pedagogy for Teaching and Learning About Serious Things.
Casey Meehan, PhD, Director of Sustainability and Resilience,Western Technical College and Associate Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Climate change, COVID-19, systemic racism. These are serious topics. To paraphrase the late, great Bernie DeKoven, we ought to approach such weighty topics playfully precisely because they are so serious. Indeed, research on play suggests that it fosters the behaviors and habits of mind we need in order to respond to such topics: bravery, creativity, empathy, problem-solving. But what underlying characteristics of a more playful pedagogy? Think of this session less as a game of Trivia Pursuit and more like a giant inflatable bouncy house where we can bounce ideas around.
FUN CLUB
11:05am – 12:20pm
Smaller groups, more fun!
Session
Room 1
Room 2
Room 3
Room 4
Room 5
11:05 – 11:25
Let’s Play
Janine Rudnick & Fan Chen
From the beginning of class to the end, we believe college classes should be fun and engaging. This workshop will go through examples of using Microsoft products with integrated apps to teach students in a fun way. Each of these can be used in many different ways to create student engagement and to provide assessment and feedback at the same time.
Educational Escape Zoom
Scott Nicholson
During this pandemic, many escape rooms have created video conference-based versions of their games hosted by a live avatar. Experience one of these games by helping Scott Nicholson escape his Basement Surprise in this short educational “escape zoom” and take away a new idea of a way to pep up your remote classes.
The same game will be repeated during each of the three sessions
Musical Chairs Removes Blank Stares
Linnea Lyding
Our students come from so many different backgrounds, it can be hard to connect content to their background knowledge. This activity, which is run similar to musical chairs, helps students connect things in their lives to the new content you are about to teach, and they have fun doing it! It’s a fun easy way to make the material relevant.
Microgames inspired by Fluxus created by students
Rafael Fjardo
See and discuss two PDF, legal-sized, one-page zines of micro-games that each fit on a 3×3 sticky note authored by student game designers during lockdown in June. Play in practice!
Session
Room 1
Room 2
Room 3
Room 4
Room 5
11:30 – 11:50
Let’s Play, continued
Educational Escape Zoom 2
Scott Nicholson
During this pandemic, many escape rooms have created video conference-based versions of their games hosted by a live avatar. Experience one of these games by helping Scott Nicholson escape his Basement Surprise in this short educational “escape zoom” and take away a new idea of a way to pep up your remote classes.
The same game will be repeated during each of the three sessions
3.2.1 Blast Off
Amy Nichols
Movement during class has been shown to increase student engagement and learning retention. This presentation will give an explanation and demonstration on how to have whole class discussions, during live classes, incorporating movement, even in the socially distanced world of COVID.
Building Community Online in Creative Ways
Maha Bali
This is a collection of activities by educators to help any teacher at any level build community online. Some are very brief and can be used any time; others take time and thought… almost all have adaptations you can make to your context (E.g. synchronous or asynchronous). The collection resides at https://oneheglobal.org/equity-unbound and includes videos demoing the activities as well as additional resources like slide decks you can adapt for your purposes.
How I Gamified my College Course
Andrew Davies
You’re probably convinced gamification holds real value for teachers in higher education. But among the many inspirational case studies of individual games or game mechanics, there isn’t a clear step-by-step process for gamifying an entire college level course. Come learn about the process I underwent in creating a gamified course from scratch.
Session
Room 1
Room 2
Room 3
Room 4
Room 5
11:55 – 12:15
Let’s Play, conclusion
Educational Escape Zoom 3
Scott Nicholson
During this pandemic, many escape rooms have created video conference-based versions of their games hosted by a live avatar. Experience one of these games by helping Scott Nicholson escape his Basement Surprise in this short educational “escape zoom” and take away a new idea of a way to pep up your remote classes.
The same game will be repeated during each of the three sessions
STEM-Pals: Math Happens
Dennis J. Debay
Join for a 20-minute session where we will unpack a fun and innovative way to engage students and build community in online spaces. In this session, you will hear about how sending postcards in the mail has the potential to build connections across geographical distance. I will share our experiences to date as well as a discussion on implementation.
Imagine the Conversation: Podcasts at Play
Stephani Richards-Wilson & Jerry Dutscheck
We will share our students’ podcast project which was made possible through innovative collaboration and a joint desire to bring hidden histories to life. This student project was completed in the fall of 2018 and was a major assignment in an undergraduate course called “Women and Leadership.” The students were provided with criteria and guidelines before they contacted the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. Their objective was to assist the Hall by “showcasing great women” and to understand and articulate how these women exercised leadership. This project demonstrates the value of student projects that require creativity, imagination, research, and playful podcasting skills.
12:25- 1:10pm
Featured Speaker:
Jurassic Fun
Roberto L. Corrada, Mulligan Burleson Chair in Modern Learning and Professor of Law at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law
What are “whole course indeterminate simulations”? And what do they have to do with Jurassic Park? Come hear how Professor Corrada teaches administrative law by challenging students to work through regulatory strategies for extinct animal parks! Combining open simulations with roleplaying he has unlocked a unique learning environment in the legal learning landscape.
1:10- 1:20pm
BREAK
1:20- 2:05pm
Keynote:
Tapping into the Power of Play
Deborah McCoy, Assistant Vice President for Education, Woodbury School at the Strong National Museum of Play
2:05- 2:15pm
BREAK
2:15- 2:35pm
Creating a Simple Puzzle Tournament in Google Slides & Zoom
Andrew Davies, Adjunct Faculty in the Communication Arts Dept in the School of Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University.
Adding group games to remote classes brings with it unique challenges. How do you give each participant the ability to contribute, keep the group’s conversations private while still allowing you to monitor everything in real-time? While there a host of platforms and apps that could be pieced together to solve each of those challenges, it’s important to not get overwhelmed and overlook the features available in familiar tools like Google Slides and Zoom. This presentation outlines how the nteractivity of Google slides with Zoom’s breakout rooms work to facilitate a simple puzzle tournament in a Fundamentals of Typography course.
2:40- 3:00pm
Mastering the art of emotions to prepare students for learning difficult skills
Miranda van Tilburg, is an assistant professor of Clinical Research at Campbell University, an adjunct professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina and Affiliate Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Washington.
Some situations universally stress us out. These include manipulating numbers, public speaking and doing anything under time pressure. In fact, these are so universally disliked that psychologists use these situations induce stress in experiments. But what if you need to teach these skills? How can you overcome the students’ natural tendency to fear these situations? In this workshop we explore through hands on activities what emotions your students may bring that hamper learning, how these may change during the course, and how you can incorporate playful strategies in the classroom to increase engagement.
3:05- 3:25pm
How to Make Memes!
Lisa M. Kath, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Psychology at San Diego State University
Memes are really popular and a fun way to engage with students, but I would not have known how to make them if I didn’t have a 17yo kid. I will go over methods using either your computer or smartphone,hands on!
3:30- 3:50pm
Complicating Your Understanding (of Anything!) Through Arts-Based Play
H. Ellie Wolfe, Ph.D, Assistant Professor of Music Education, Drake University
Harness the power of the hundred languages to deepen, broaden, complicate, and clarify your understanding of something (Anything!) through arts-based play. We’ll take a peek at a snapshot of research in this field before diving into a guided tour of one concept together through visual, sound, movement, and literary arts. No need to consider yourself an artist; in arts-based play we focus on the process, not the product. Stick figures and scribbles welcome!
3:50- 4:00pm
Wrap Up and Prizes
Lisa Forbes, Phd, University of Colorado Denver
David Thomas, PhD University of Denver