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Hi everyone! I think I have a pretty good grasp on the rest of the choice assignments I’m doing, but I’d appreciate some feedback on my plan for the “possibilities of play” blog post. So far, here are my main ideas:

A space becomes playful when you agree to enter the “magic circle” of play and are able to be creative and experimental. Within this playspace, you agree to following the rules and are able to escape the conventions of the real world. As you become fully invested, the flow of play takes over to the point where your playfulness extends upon what is expected. 

I want to use Huizinga’s explanation of the magic circle and Sutton-Smith’s ideas on rhetoric of play as imaginary to then discuss flow and how playfulness cannot be tamed from Gameful World. 

Then, I think I’m going to discuss how we can consider graduate learning as play as we enter this discourse community and fully invest ourselves in it. 

I’m hoping I will be able to fit this within the word count, but I might need to cut some parts out. I’d appreciate some feedback to help refine my ideas here within the context of the “possibilities of play.” Thanks!

Hi Dr. P and peers! Here is the list of which options I’m doing for the choice project:

Student Created Notes (I think I will do either the chapter on toys or beauty from Play Matters)

Blog: Possibilities of play

Blog: What play can teach us about writing

Blog: Value of studying games as a graduate student

Create a game (I think I’m going to try to turn a short story that I read with my students into a game where they have to make decisions as the narrator while analyzing fictional elements of the story)

I’d appreciate it if you could let me know what you think of these! 

I also have a question specifically about the “Possibilities of Play” blog. I’m having a hard time avoiding being repetitive from my “What is Play?” essay. I feel like I could go on and on about everything that play can do. I’m assuming that I will be more successful if I pick one specific aspect of play to focus on, but I’m worried that I won’t be able to encompass truly how much play can do.

Thanks for the feedback! @npfannen

In Chapter 7 of GBL, the authors discuss how students don’t have a lot of choice or autonomy in their education. Within a game, these barriers are deconstructed as the learner has the opportunity to shift their role to a teacher/expert who contributes to the community. Games are a great solution to breaking this power dynamic, but can we bring the ideas within them to non-game-based learning activities to make them more plausible for real-world application? Within the context of this class and the blog posts we will create, should we keep the conversation within the frame of the activity of a game, or can we expand on the elements of a game in other contexts?

Quote for reference: “‘In many contemporary schools, students are afforded very little facility to reconfigure and restructure their learning materials (e.g., a low degree of ludic affordances) and are rarely encouraged to formulate their own narrative understandings of course materials (e.g., a low narrative affordance)...’” (190) @npfannen

I was thinking of this question in relation to both Chapters 1, 2, and 20 of GBL. There are many examples of games throughout these chapters that have complex designs, a multitude of skills or knowledge that they target, and a social element. What has more of an effect on the learning, the player and what they decide to do with a game, or the elements within the game that motivate and engage the player? When I’m playing games, I gravitate towards more simple ones, but can still find motivation and engagement. Is the idea that you have the possibility to learn more with more complex games, or can you create a depth of learning in a simple game? @npfannen

Hi Dr. P and peers! I have a few questions regarding the “what is writing?” essay. Do I need to bring undergraduate writing into the conversation? I don’t want the essay to feel like it’s comparing/contrasting too much, but rather that the focus is on what graduate writing looks/feels like for the learner. That being said, can I base this in my limited personal experience or should I look to expand that? I was planning to center my examples on personal experiences and explain my thoughts regarding those. Can my examples be more abstract, or should I cite specific classes/assignments? Would it be better if I included secondary sources that illustrate my thoughts in a more direct way? Thanks! @npfannen