Year: 2021

Playful Learning Conference

After two years of absence (for obvious reasons) Playful Learning will be back on 6-8th July 2022, in Leicester. The audacious plan is to run three years of conference in one (and also an online-only version). Call for sessions is now open – time to release those pent-up creative juices!

The Call for Sessions for PL20 in 2022 is now open!

Member News

• John Lean and Mark Peace are delivering a seminar for the Manchester Games Studies Network on 19th January, focusing on their work on Man Met’s new co-curricular Rise programme. During this seminar, they’ll explore how its design is influenced by games and play, specifically Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This seminar will offer a playful interpretation of the use of video games in higher education, focusing on the idea of games as metaphors, and will inspire discussion on how we can encourage students to play more with their learning journeys. Sign up on Eventbrite.
  
• Have you created/modded a game (or curated a list of games) specifically for research skills / academic skills / critical thinking in Higher Education? If so, Daisy Abbot wants to hear all about it! She is doing some analysis of research games and working towards creating a range of pedagogical patterns that suit games for higher order thinking skills – make sure your work is part of it! Email D.Abbott@gsa.ac.uk Thanks!
  
• Speaking of research games, if you have been playing the Creative Thinking Quest (or sharing it with your students) it would be great if you could also fill in the survey – Daisy has only had 5 responses so far so why not give her an early Christmas present in the form of precious precious data! You’ll also be helping to improve the tool for its next version. Play now.
  
• Nicola Whitton has had a brilliant response to her survey on adult playfulness, but would still like more, particularly from men, teachers, and anyone not located in Europe or North America. If you can spare 5 mins please help. Please take the survey and share with your networks.

Let’s Play

Last month we offered you a GeoGuessr challenge – congratulations to the top 3 scorers, Martyn, Kat and Pip!

For your December challenge, we invite you to try creating a Christmas Wishlist for a favourite character. Here are some (easy?) ones to get you started:

1. https://tinyurl.com/guesscharacter1
2. https://tinyurl.com/guesscharacter2
3. https://tinyurl.com/guesscharacter3

Have a go at creating your own – please share with Katie (reply to the email) who will add it to this list for everyone to guess!

Dates for your Diary:

We had previously advised you to save the date on Nov 26th 2021 for a regional event. We have taken the decision to postpone this until the spring as we do not feel the time is right yet for in-person events.

But one thing definitely going ahead in-person is the Playful Learning 2020 Conference (yes, the much delayed 2020 conference!) on 6th – 8th July 2022 at the University of Leicester. See the conference website for more information.

Call for Playtesters:

Do you design research or creative projects? Daisy has created a Choose Your Own Adventure which guides players through the different stages of project design and helps to improve rigour. It is particularly suitable for students or ECRs in Higher Education, but you may find something there for everyone!

You can play it here: https://daisyabbottitchio.itch.io/creative-thinking-quest and please consider contributing to the research study to help Daisy improve the quest.

Playful Writing?

Thinking of publishing your work on Playful Learning, check out the Journal of Play in Adulthood and contact the editor, our own Andrew Walsh if interested. While you’re there you can browse through a new double special issue looking at the Playful Academic and Playful Designs.

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If you missed the deadline to be included in this round-up, never fear! Contact Playful Learning on Twitter and we can include you next time!

Guest Blogger: Julia Reeve

The #Integrity task was all about those times when despite our best efforts, we fail to be as inclusive as we could be: judging by the number of responses on the padlet, this is something that struck a chord with many of us. Reading the example about cultural references, where Kermit the frog was unknown to learners, reminded me of a similar faux pas (not a very inclusive term, I know) when I referred to James Bond in a session with international students who looked at me blankly…

Getting inclusivity wrong is difficult to avoid, but the alternative is that we stay with the safe and less playful option: what impressed me about the examples given was the way that everyone was passionate about being as inclusive as possible and highly sensitive to the diverse needs of learners. In order to be aware of ‘failures’ we need to be highly tuned in to matters of inclusivity, and I found these examples inspiring rather than painful (well mostly).

A few key themes jumped out at me, which could be a starting point for a Manifesto for Inclusivity…

Assumptions

Several of the #failbetter examples mentioned assumptions or preconceptions about learners: these ranged from the general, aspects such as language, access to technology and disability to the very specific, for example assumptions about drinking alcohol.

Sometimes I’ve made the mistake of assuming that playful learning is inherently inclusive, when of course that’s not the case. Just like any type of learning, playful activities or games can exclude individuals for all the many reasons given: things like prior knowledge, learning differences or maybe not everyone likes playing (unbelievable but true). I agree with this padlet contributor: “I think its easy to impose your view of why they should play, or write off students as ‘non-playful”. So, how do we balance fun and play in learning with inclusivity and avoid “over-inclusivity paralysis”?

Optionality

The theme of optionality came through strongly as one way of balancing inclusivity considerations with playful pedagogy. Offering choice in activities, the lessons learnt from not offering more options and the clarity with which options are communicated all featured. Word games could exclude some learners including those with dyslexia, movement-based activities could exclude those with mobility difficulties and we may not all be in the same time zone. Being mindful about multiple points of view would appear to be key: “The more needs, and perspectives we consider, the better our output will be” (a tip for the forthcoming manifesto!). How can we have greater awareness of learner perspectives?

Actively seeking feedback

Several padlet contributors wrote about the role that feedback from learners played in making them aware of ways that they could make their playful teaching more inclusive. Feedback resulted in changes such as making Kahoot questions shorter and reducing the volume of music, signposting and explaining multiple options for engagement with content and many more. Having an ongoing dialogue with learners about their experiences appears to be vital in considering inclusion. So what else helps?

Vulnerability and transparency

I was touched by how honest the #failbetter accounts were: these experiences are painful, and I certainly find it hard to think back to those cringe-worthy moments. Some of the examples talked about ‘owning up’ to mistakes openly as a way to demonstrate a commitment to inclusivity. Whether it is thanking someone who has pointed out your error, being honest when things go wrong with technology (I’ve certainly had to use that one recently) or asking students for help, being vulnerable and open demonstrates that we are human and we care.

Final thoughts

Your reflections on those horrible, #failbetter moments have offered me some great ideas to change my practice: often those difficult, emotional experiences can offer important learning, so thanks for your generosity in sharing these.

We may have experienced something like this in the past that still informs our practice, or the memory may be fresh and still smarting: whatever our failing better story, reflecting on and sharing these incidents makes us all more sensitive and inclusive educators.

Of course, this is a never-ending process: just as we feel we have overcome one learning barrier, another appears in front of us. To finish, I’ll share a recent #failbetter experience of my own. In a LEGO Serious Play session I asked learners to choose a brick based on colour: afterwards I learned that one of the group was colour blind and that the task had been completely meaningless to them. Thankfully they helpfully offered their own alternative task based on texture instead. So I learnt something 🙂

Thanks for a fabulous conference, and look forward to seeing you all in person in July 2022!

Julia

Guest Blogger: Rachelle O’Brien

Ahoy! I’m Rachelle, your guest blogger for today. I’m delighted to be blogging about innovation and hope I can do justice to some of the brilliant ideas we’ve seen generated in the last 24 hours.

I expect I am relatively unknown in the playful community. I came to my first playful learning conference in 2019 for one day, because that’s all I had funding for and for a while, I just stood around being awkward and feeling lost. It didn’t take long until I found a space that I could fit into. I ended up spending the day exploring other spaces, and especially enjoying those spaces that were not planned and just kind of happened. This is what I’m really interested in, those spaces in between, the liminal spaces. We could think of them as the gap behind the sofa where the treasure lives (money), or the writing that was never written between the lines of instructions, where we can build interpretation.

Over the past 18 months or so, I’ve spent a lot of my time developing Escape Rooms for use in educational contexts which is considered by some to be innovative. It has been great fun creating and developing these playful activities and watching students, academics, family, friends (and everybody else who has had a go) work through them. But what most people don’t realise is that I’m not so bothered about the Escape Room bit. For me, the Escape Room is the vehicle that enables me to find those little pockets of innovation around the edges. The bits that really test my skills because information is interpreted differently to how its intended and I have to be playful, live, so that the game doesn’t fall apart for the players! The conversations and process and teams of people who have never met before and then suddenly pull together to unpick and understand something which in most cases is abstract and how, irrespective of how abstract it is, they manage to work through it.

My favourite part of these activities is creating spaces for playfulness in what would probably not-traditionally be considered in this way. This is innovation to me. Those spaces in between where new stuff occurs. Which happens all of the time, if only you know how to find it…. I guess you could say that I am an space conductor*.

*I realise this isn’t a thing so am inventing it. It means somebody who create spaces where innovation can happen.

So, on to the task!

The challenge on Tuesday ‘Technology will save us’ was to invent a Learning Technology. We had points for those who suggested a problem which needed a solution as well as points for those who answered with a solution.

So far in the activity feed we have seen requests for help with practical innovations such as a mask that works with hearing aids and ways to stop socks escaping the laundry basket. Requests relating to productivity; including replicating somebody with a remote solution and turning a workspace into a spacecraft cockpit (accordions, swivel chairs and tinfoil apparently). We also had Darkbot complaining about being too lazy to fulfil their ambitions as the ultimate mood hoover. We also have helpful suggestions of cheating to help with playing Monopoly empire and beating teenagers at the game.

Innovation is all around us

Reflecting on the activity feed during the innovation task, a number of things struck me.

Firstly, things need time to develop. I initially took a look as soon as the task was announced and although there were posts and requests for help, there weren’t conversations at that point. I think this is an important point that John also reflected on in the blog from day 1 about the affordances of asynchronous activities and how conversations transform. To me, it seems like conversations slow down and spread out. Making them much more far reaching.

Although the task required an ‘innovation’ be developed, there were far more innovations during these conversations. Reviewing what happened retrospectively really paints a picture of how things unfolded, developed and shifted. In all of these cases, yes, innovative ideas were being presented but there was more than just that. Innovation was happening in the in-between spaces. For example, the creation of robot accordion players and a master plan for the spacecraft cockpit.

Even though these ideas were pitched as ‘innovations’ that are problems to be solved, people were perfectly willing to provide solutions, in some cases working collectively. It made me wonder how much of this is because the stimulus itself is aspirational and playfulness is implicit – does this give permission to play?

It got me to further thinking. How many meetings about meetings could we avoid if we adopt similar strategies? And if we took this approach, would we find a golden thread or would it be chaos? Does it matter either way?

In summary, innovation is happening everywhere, continually. Sometimes all you need is a stimulus, a space and an audience willing to consider it.

What was your experience of the innovation task? Did you find a solution to your problem?

Guest Blogger: John Lean

Hi everyone! I’m John and it’s my pleasure to write the first of the Playful Learning blog entries to reflect on what’s been going on at our 2021 online conference.

Late last night I returned from my own ‘happy place’ (Eskdale in the Lake District) after a too-short holiday with my partner and son, and logged on to the site to check in on what’s been happening. Since then I’ve been following developments on the site obsessively; it’s been nice to have something to replace the football 😒.

Some of you might remember me as the referee for the conference game in 2019, so you’ll know that I’m ever so slightly obsessed with the various ceremonies we invent around competition (my current one is the little robot car that brought out the ball during the Euros). What you might not know was that the game was (partly) an elaborate experiment in forcing people to make friends with each other. Making friends is a vital part of ‘real world’ conferences, but how do we build a sense of community and collegiality when we’re working online? For obvious reasons, this question has been preoccupying many of us for the past year or so; perhaps Playful Learning can provide some new, playful ways of building online collegiality!

The challenge put to delegates on Monday was to collaborate on creating a beautiful thing, specifically with someone new who they hadn’t met before. So far we’ve seen short stories, collages, songs, films and Lego models in the activity feed, and what all of these have in common is that they demonstrate the ways in which participants have broken the ice and started to create together!

Having something playful to do built that immediate sense of collegiality, rather than being dumped in the same Zoom chat and being expected to just learn everyone’s names. At the same time, the asynchronous nature of the activity meant that people could contribute at different times, and there was always something new to see as products gradually came together. Here are some very scrappy reflective thoughts on how that process worked…

• Some people are more comfortable playing than others, and in this activity I noticed that these people naturally became unofficial ‘playmakers‘ for others. All it takes is for someone to put themselves out there, and less experienced/confident people can join in. In this context that’s vital, but more generally I think that activities like this can be deliberately designed to play to the known strengths of participants as a starting point.
• I’m really interested in the ways in which playful practice subverts and transforms existing ways of doing things, even when these are playful in the first place. As a university lecturer in my mid-30s I’m not entirely sure if I understand TikTok (or if I even should), but I could see a clear lineage from TikTok sea shanties to our own What do you do with a boring classroom, not just in terms of format but in terms of how the piece came together in lovely pirate-y layers that built upon previous iterations. This was a perfect model of collegiality developing in real time, in that you could literally hear the contribution that each individual was making. It also proved a good starting point for chat at the launch event; people could lay claim to their own weird noises!
• I appreciated that I was able to see people’s work-in-progress by being nosey and clicking links (editing this blogpost makes me a journalist, right?). This was effectively people ‘showing their sketch’; not focusing on perfecting the product but on the process of getting there. Importantly, through sharing these collaborative links newcomers could see projects that were already underway before contributing themselves, effectively seeing how they might fit into a task. Again, this build the sense of collegiality because the focus shifted away from individuals having to formally introduce themselves, and towards people just getting stuck in.
• Finally, it seems silly but the word ‘beautiful’ does an awful lot of work in that instruction, especially around this idea of focusing on process not product. Sometimes it can be difficult to build collegiality in a short space of time because new people seem more talented or experienced than you (if, for example, they own more accordions), and you worry that your contribution won’t live up to expectations. By making the focus of the task collaboration, that word ‘beautiful’ has let delegates contribute in different ways towards a whole piece that is beautiful precisely because it’s the product of collaboration. Whether your contribution is big or small, you can get involved without worrying, because beauty is guaranteed by definition!

Now if you don’t mind I’m off to stare at some sunsets and cry about my new definition of the word ‘beauty’*. See you for more playful shenanigans tomorrow, folks!

*the football

John

[Home] [Activity] [Players] [Live Tasks][Code of Conduct]

Position	Avatar	Username	Points	Rank
1		Daan van Loon	102	Badger
2		Lee	101	Badger
3		Daisy Abbott	100	Badger
4		Helen Williams	90	Badger
5		Scott Nicholson	81	Chinchilla
6		Rebecca Ferguson	81	Chinchilla
7		Katie Piatt	80	Chinchilla
8		Jo (非凡)	77	Lemming
9		Gosia	76	Lemming
10		Alex Moseley	50	Vole
11		Stephen Dann	47	Squirrel
12		Roger Saunders	45	Squirrel
13		Juliette Culver	40	Squirrel
14		John Lean	37	Hamster
15		Nic Whitton	29	Gerbil
16		Rosie Jones	28	Gerbil
17		Darkbot	26	Gerbil
18		Stylianos	25	Gerbil
19		Helen Ghodbane	24	Gerbil
20		Kate Grafton	23	Gerbil
21		James Charnock	23	Gerbil
22		FieryRed1	22	Gerbil
23		Bernice Beukes	19	Dormouse
24		Liza Penn-Thomas	18	Dormouse
25		Rachelle O'Brien	18	Dormouse
26		Mita Williams	18	Dormouse
27		Kristen	15	Dormouse
28		Kathryn Drumm	15	Dormouse
29		Sally Brown	13	Dormouse
30		Samar gad	13	Dormouse
31		Sarah Honeychurch	13	Dormouse
32		T. Keith Edmunds	11	Dormouse
33		Cheri MacLeod	11	Dormouse
34		Kerrie	11	Dormouse
35		George Robinson	10	Dormouse
36		Simon Grey	10	Dormouse
37		Pen Holland	10	Dormouse
38		Ruth Ng	10	Dormouse
39		Johann Dunn	10	Dormouse
40		Sandie Elsom	10	Dormouse
41		Maarten Koeners	8	Shrew
42		Mia Pledger	8	Shrew
43		Lisa Forbes	8	Shrew
44		Darren Green	8	Shrew
45		Geri Huzar	8	Shrew
46		Mary Leung	8	Shrew
47		Julie Mulvey	8	Shrew
48		Elaine Norton	8	Shrew
49		Billie Coxhead	8	Shrew
50		Susannah Quinsee	8	Shrew
51		Elliott Spaeth	8	Shrew
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55		Shabnam Sukhdev	6	Shrew
56		Graziano Maino	6	Shrew
57		Emily Coyte	6	Shrew
58		Julia Reeve	6	Shrew
59		Martyn	6	Shrew
60		Emma Whitt	6	Shrew
61		Sara Green	6	Shrew
62		Emma Bentley	6	Shrew
63		Ine Agresta	6	Shrew
64		Helen Beetham	6	Shrew
65		Emma Duke-Williams	6	Shrew
66		Julie de Witt	6	Shrew
67		Marie Meskell	6	Shrew
68		Nicola	5	Shrew
69		Andrew Walsh	5	Shrew
70		Laura Barnett	5	Shrew
71		Marie Smith	5	Shrew
72		Kerstin Hoang	5	Shrew
73		Pip Divall	5	Shrew
74		Maha Bali	4	Shrew
75		Chris Morrison	4	Shrew
76		Pip Divall	3	Shrew
77		Walter Patterson	3	Shrew
78		Stephanie (Charlie) Farley	3	Shrew
79		Jackie Oliver	3	Shrew
80		Matt Coward-Gibbs	3	Shrew
81		Kieran "The Bold" Mathieson	3	Shrew
82		Len Scrogan	3	Shrew
83		Joy James	3	Shrew
84		Tim Hinchcliffe	3	Shrew
85		Irene McGinn	3	Shrew
86		Laura Barclay	3	Shrew
87		Emma Flint	3	Shrew
88		Nihra	3	Shrew
89		Gil	3	Shrew
90		Aimee Blackledge	3	Shrew
91		Suzi Wells	3	Shrew
92		Helen Williams	3	Shrew
93		Amanda Whitehead	3	Shrew
94		Louise Clarke	3	Shrew
95		Pauline	3	Shrew
96		eLearningTechie	3	Shrew
97		Peter Whitton	3	Shrew
98		Justin	3	Shrew
99		Emil	3	Shrew
100		Alison James	2	Shrew
101		El Spaeth	2	Shrew
102		Darren Edwards	2	Shrew
103		Playful Learning Conference	1	Shrew
104		Adriana Cardinot	1	Shrew
105		Katie Piatt	1	Shrew
106		Brooke Howland	1	Shrew
107		Andrew Hoang	1	Shrew
108		Jenny Levine	1	Shrew
109		Karen Hickinbotham	1	Shrew
110		Connie Wong	1	Shrew
111		Caroline	1	Shrew
112		Wendy Murphy	1	Shrew
113		Jill Shacklock	1	Shrew
114		monicawilliams	1	Shrew
115		Maria O'Hara	1	Shrew
116		Kari Morley	1	Shrew
117		Laura Alfano	1	Shrew
118		David Thomas	1	Shrew
119		Danielle	1	Shrew
120		Dr. Joanne Ricevuto	1	Shrew
121		Hong Shaddy	1	Shrew
122		Katalin Hanniker	1	Shrew
123		Jess	1	Shrew
124		Edmedical	1	Shrew
125		Sazzle	1	Shrew
126		Sam Nolan	1	Shrew
127		Neil Withnell	1	Shrew
128		Lauren Kelley	1	Shrew
129		Jenny Tetlow	1	Shrew
130		Ching-Li	1	Shrew
131		John Patrick McKeown	1	Shrew
132		Sharon M. Peck	1	Shrew
133		Miriam O Donoghue	1	Shrew
134		George Robinson	1	Shrew
135		Chris Gillies	1	Shrew
136		Viki Veale	1	Shrew
137		Kat Schrier	1	Shrew
138		Brenda Lecklider	1	Shrew
139		Andrew Wilson	1	Shrew
140		Linda Moses-Allison	1	Shrew
141		Wendy Jo Bartkus	1	Shrew
142		Colleen Packer	1	Shrew
143		Deena Godwin	1	Shrew
144		Stephan Caspar	1	Shrew
145		Onlineslot	1	Shrew
146		Alison James	1	Shrew
147		Emily	1	Shrew
148		Liz Johnson	1	Shrew
149		Malcolm E.	1	Shrew
150		Situsslots	1	Shrew
151		jov.bob	1	Shrew
152		Sam Bell	1	Shrew
153		Jessica Ritchie	1	Shrew
154		Siobhán Morgan	1	Shrew
155		Huma	1	Shrew
156		Giskin Day	1	Shrew
157		Susanne	1	Shrew
158		Claire Brett	1	Shrew
159		Roskorbola	1	Shrew
160		Kitty suddick	1	Shrew
161		Teti	1	Shrew
162		Bomedical	1	Shrew
163		Susan	1	Shrew
164		Katharine	1	Shrew
165		Anne-Marie Greenhill	1	Shrew
166		Sarah H	1	Shrew
167		Mélanie Jolivet-Bâlon	1	Shrew
168		nicola@whittons.com	1	Shrew
169		Claire Ashworth	1	Shrew
170		Ralphjesty	1	Shrew
171		Merissa Karr	1	Shrew
172		Minnnieseo	1	Shrew
173		seopackage	1	Shrew
174		Radiourifm	1	Shrew
175		DennisFoele	1	Shrew
176		WarrenTof	1	Shrew
177		Andrea Dalton	1	Shrew
178		WilliamDwelf	1	Shrew
179		MyCreditDom	1	Shrew
180		PatrickFaish	1	Shrew
181		Amanda Hardy	1	Shrew
182		SherylremN	1	Shrew
183		Securityma	1	Shrew
184		HenryMon	1	Shrew
185		JamesSiz	1	Shrew
186		Eriidnjudi	1	Shrew
187		Keith2jat	1	Shrew
188		MarvinAmure	1	Shrew
189		Richjudidn	1	Shrew
190		Eduardotef	1	Shrew
191		ShawnMig	1	Shrew
192		Misbetting	1	Shrew
193		https://www.emailsupport.us/comcast-email-support	1	Shrew
194		Mr furniture	1	Shrew
195		Gustavobex	1	Shrew
196		Maritnasal	1	Shrew
197		monica	1	Shrew
198		Loy Schwartz	1	Shrew
199		Matthewfeefe	1	Shrew
200		https://www.howdoisetup.com/hp-printer-setup	1	Shrew
201		Elijahvoike	1	Shrew
202		Sbobetasia	1	Shrew
203		Tsignprint	1	Shrew
204		Andy Bedford	1	Shrew
205		LuannHOP	1	Shrew
206		LarryAdoth	1	Shrew
207		Jamelbor	1	Shrew
208		Symassage	1	Shrew
209		Romassage	1	Shrew
210		Barryneert	1	Shrew
211		ClintVah	1	Shrew
212		M.J. D'Elia	1	Shrew
213		Edmundolaf	1	Shrew
214		EdwardoXise	1	Shrew
215		Yejudislot	1	Shrew
216		Michaelskymn	1	Shrew
217		Victormer	1	Shrew
218		SteveBap	1	Shrew
219		Justinrix	1	Shrew
220		Williamfloto	1	Shrew
221		MichaelNar	1	Shrew
222		JimmySag	1	Shrew
223		CharlesPibre	1	Shrew
224		CurtisAdask	1	Shrew
225		Pitoytrus	1	Shrew
226		CraigEnade	1	Shrew
227		StevenZex	1	Shrew
228		RaymondCrots	1	Shrew
229		WilliamChity	1	Shrew
230		Lindaapaby	1	Shrew
231		Beth Brownlee	1	Shrew
232		hydraruzxpnew4affeD	1	Shrew
233		Gaohyqrus	1	Shrew
234		Thomasnug	1	Shrew
235		Patrickhal	1	Shrew
236		Davidpek	1	Shrew
237		WalterBaH	1	Shrew
238		JamesAsymn	1	Shrew
239		QuinnCop	1	Shrew
240		Aysu Hazar	1	Shrew
241		galyaniktova	1	Shrew
242		CoomeettaX	1	Shrew
243		JamesGam	1	Shrew
244		casxxgat	1	Shrew
245		xcasxgat	1	Shrew
246		kutikovakl	1	Shrew
247		pinapengat	1	Shrew
248		RaymondDix	1	Shrew
249		Brantors	1	Shrew
250		Xcasin-XSache	1	Shrew

[Home][Code of Conduct]

This page is an archive of the Playful Learning Online Conference 2021.

Conference Programme: [Download a visual overview]

• Day 1 Collegiality Task: 4pm Sun 11 July – 4pm Mon 12 July
  • Opening Reception: 3-4pm Mon 12 July (Zoom)
  • #Collegiality summary blog post
• Day 2 Innovation Task: 4pm Mon 12 July – 4pm Tues 13 July
  • Games Night: 7:30 – 9pm Tues. 13 July
  • #Innovation summary blog post
• Day3 Mischief Task: 4pm Tues 13 July – 4pm Weds 14 July
  • Pub Quiz: 7 – 9pm Weds 14 July
  • #Mischief summary blog post
• Day 4 Rigour Task: 4pm Weds 14 July – 4pm Thurs 15 July
  • Games Afternoon: 12 – 1:30 Thurs 15 July
  • #Rigour summary blog post
• Day 5 Integrity Task: 4pm Thurs 15 July – 4pm Fri 16 July
  • Endgame and Awards 4-5pm Fri 16 July
  • #Integrity summary blog post
• _{All times shown are British Summer Time BST.}

Tasks:

MAKE SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL (with a new friend) #Collegiality (10 points)

Welcome to the first #PlayLearn21 challenge. There are 10 shiny points on offer for everyone who completes this task between 4pm on Sunday and 4pm on Monday.

• Find someone on the site you’ve not met before (or more people if you prefer), create something beautiful together. Your something can be anything: a poem, a photograph, a mime, a sculpture, a new product, dance routine, a three-hour video about bees, whatever you like, and the more creative the better.
• Come up with a way of sharing your beautiful thing in the activity stream and tag your post with #Collegiality to earn your points.
• When you see someone else’s beautiful thing that speaks to you, please show your appreciation.

TECHNOLOGY WILL SAVE US #Innovation (10 points)

Isn’t learning technology wonderful? We don’t have enough new innovations do we? Here’s your chance to invent a Learning Technology to solve a problem you don’t even know you have yet.

Anyone can pose a problem. Here’s a couple of examples:

• Lecturer Bob is fed up with pressing the ‘OK’ button 500 times in the VLE when adding content.
• Mother bear Bobo wants to teach her baby bears to defecate in the woods rather than in their porridge.

Pose your own problem (5 points) and design things to solve other people’s problems (5 points). Don’t be constrained by annoying things like the laws of physics, the Gartner Hype Curve, or your institutional procurement policy.

Share your things with the tag #Innovation. Bonus points might be awarded for creative responses.

STREET SECRETS #Mischief (10 points per artwork)

It’s that time in the conference for a bit of fresh air, optional exercise and a chance to create a piece of GPS Art. Have a look at https://www.nathanrae.co.uk/gpsart for inspiration, tips and instructions.

Go for a walk, run, cycle, or just plot a route and create some art.

Share your GPS art to the activity stream with the tag #Mischief. Up to 10 points available for each piece of art.

ENCYCLOPLAYDIA OF PLAYFUL LEARNING #Rigour (10 points)

Some people think that play is silly, frivolous, and not appropriate in the context of adult learning. Having a robust theoretical frame and evidence-base is crucial when we need to be playful, yet taken seriously.

Let’s co-create a resource that brings together collected knowledge of key underpinning theories and practice of Playful Learning in a handy A-Z format. Cite if you like.

We’ve made a start here: Encycloplaydia of Playful Learning

Add as many terms and/or definitions to the document as you want. Don’t forget to add your name to the list of contributors. All contributors will receive 10 points.

The Encycloplaydia will be published in the Journal of Adult Play with all authors credited.

FAIL BETTER #Integrity (?? points)

We all make mistakes sometimes, it’s part of being human.

Sometimes we fail to be as inclusive as we could be, not on purpose but because we’re busy, distracted, or we just don’t think.

Please tell us a story on this anonymous padlet of when you failed to be as inclusive as you might have been: Fail Better (padlet.com)

We want to create a Manifesto for Inclusivity. Please also look at other stories and add a tip for more inclusive practice that might be learned from one of these fails.

Use your own judgement to award yourself points and add a comment to the activity stream with the tag #Integrity and the number of points you have given yourself.

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD (10 points)

Try our Playful Learning cryptic crossword. 10 points for the first person to post the secret message #Crossword (no prizes for spotting the deliberate mistakes…)
http://pla.playthinklearn.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/playful_learning.pdf

GEOGUESSR – WHERE IN THE WORLD? (5 points)

Here’s a little extra challenge for you this week. You will be randomly dumped somewhere in the world, explore around and see if you can work out where you are and place your pin. Do come back here and post with #GeoGuessr when you’ve done it so we can check your score and award you some points!

https://www.geoguessr.com/challenge/hE0yEJoX0QxmrKle

A GOOGLE A DAY CHALLENGE #Google (5 points)

A challenge proposed by @r3beccaf
Highest score on this http://www.agoogleaday.com/ by 2pm BST will earn you +5 bonus points.
Participation will earn you +2 bonus points.

COVERT CHINCHILLA DUST BATH CHALLENGE #CCC (20 points)

A challenge from our local chinchilla – 20 bonus points at stake

https://www.thinglink.com/card/1472349858948972545

REGISTER (1 Point)

• Join or login to this website (your first point!)
• Friend the Playful Learning Conference to let us know you are in!

GET IN DISGUISE (2 Points)

• Add your profile photo – in disguise – you can edit your profile by clicking your name at the top of the screen (you’ll earn points for this!):

FIND A FRIEND (3 Points)

• Find an un-playful friend to join up with you
• Persuade a friend/colleague/pet to register! Then comment on their new account.

CREATIVE TASK 1 (2 Points)

• What or where is your happy place? Post a picture in the activity stream of your happy place!
• Comment on somebody else’s picture.

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Archived Tasks:

You can still complete these, but you are too late for bonus points and to be included in the day’s reflection blog post.

It’s been a couple of months since our last update, but we figured everyone had enough to digest over Dec/Jan. We hope you all managed to have a good rest, and a chance to relax and play, over the festive period.

PlayDay

The lockdown continues for most of us, of course, but in November we blew away isolation with a great online PlayDay: see our report of the Trials and Tribulations of Playing Online.

Events

Many events, Playful Learning included, are waiting to see how the world is looking later this year, but there are two conferences you might be interested in submitting a paper to, or joining:

• 23-25 June: iGBL2021 is the Irish Games Based Learning conference, normally hosted in Ireland by Patrick Felicia; but this year – as last – it will be entirely online. 23-25th June, see the iGBL site. [note: Call for Papers closes Feb 5th!]
• 23-24 Sept: ECGBL (the European Conference on Games Based Learning) which shifted online last October, is returning to Brighton this year with the promise of a blended approach. See details and call for papers at https://www.academic-conferences.org/conferences/ecgbl/