Each month we will introduce a PLA member through 5 photos telling their Playful Learning journey. This month, we introduce you to…
Daisy Abbott: an interdisciplinary researcher and research developer based in the School of Simulation and Visualisation at Glasgow School of Art.
This picture was taken about 7 years ago. I look badass! I think physicality can be really important for gaming, in my experience it really adds to emotional engagement and therefore fun. Also dressing up is cool.
I play in a large UK Live Action Roleplay (LARP, or LRP if you prefer) game called Empire. I also do their maps – have a look. I have a research interest in map design to encourage game behaviours. It’s very different to representative mapping.
Here I am running a prototype of my game “How to Fail Your Research Degree” at a conference. This is the game that really started me out as a fully-fledged educational game designer. You can find out much more about the game and read about the research behind it.
It’s very, very loosely based on a board game called Galaxy Trucker. I’m really interested in failure as a game mechanic and ‘productive failure’ as a pedagogical method.
Also if you teach postgrads you should get the game. It’s great 😀
I got these dice at the Playful Learning conference in 2018. I traded someone some dubloons for a second die. As soon as I got home I started using them to get my reluctant son to practice his (admittedly boring) piano scales. One die defines the key, the other defines how to play it (both hands parallel, left hand only, chords etc.) A treasure chest means he gets to choose and two chests means he gets a choccy. He’s still using them for this nearly two years later… Gamification works.
Pirating it up at my son’s school during Maths Week in 2019. I created several maths trails using the Actionbound app for kids to do with their parents outside school hours and also arranged a treasure hunt within school hours. It was quite challenging! (Lesson, children will want to steal your treasure props rather than the prizes you have arranged for them to take away… bring extra treasure props!)
I go to escape rooms a lot. It’s an addiction.
Thanks for sharing your story and your photos Daisy.
If you are unlucky, you might be selected as next month’s sacrifice chosen member – we will be in touch!
