The Role of Play in Learning with Technology
Pages in this wiki: Play Theories, Designing for Play-Based Learning, Bib/Webography, Quotes
Note:
This site was originally developed for a January 2009 Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) pre-conference workshop. We have continued to add to the site, and we have also given several additional presentations on the topic. For your convenience, subsequent presentations are also linked within this wiki in the Bib/Webography section.
Facilitators
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Gail Matthews-DeNatale, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Academic Technology
Simmons College, Boston
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Barbara Draude
Assistant Vice President for Academic and Instructional Technologies
Middle Tennessee State University
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Abstract: From Plato and Piaget to the current day, scholars have noted the critical role of play in learning. Yet the concept of playful learning still encounters significant resistance in higher education. Designing playful learning is a deceptively challenging task, one that requires a sophisticated understanding of play itself. In this workshop, you will hear from faculty about their experiences incorporating play into their courses, consider how technology can support playful learning, and try your hand at designing some "serious play."
Pre-Conference Workshop Agenda
In play a child always behaves beyond his average age, above his daily behavior. In play it is as though he were a head taller than himself.
- Lev Vygotsky
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8:00-8:15 Introductions
8:15-8:30 Overview: Theoretical Models of Play (Gail)
8:30-8:50 Examples from MTSU (Barbara)
8:50-9:00 Stretch Break
It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.
- Leo Buscaglia
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9:00-9:15 What Are You Doing with Play?
9:15-9:30 Designing for Play-Based Learning
Video Interview with Prof. Mary Jane Treacy
9:30-10:00 Refreshment Break
10:00-10:40 Planning Exercise: Try Your Hand
Do not … keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play.
- Plato
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10:40-11:00 Planning Group Reports
11:00-11:30 ELI ARG Sneak Preview
Comments (1)
wikiuser0005 said
at 10:41 am on Jan 20, 2009
Some thoughts: play expands (or loosens) some conventions from real life and contracts (or tightens) others: for example, when I play chess I am limited to certain moves (tightened conventions) but I am allowed to "beat" my opponent (i.e. an expanded or loosened convention -- in real life I'm not allowed to "beat" my opponent). Play involves a tacit contract among the participants with regard to the conventions of the play, and how they differ from the conventions of real life (or how they differ from the conventions of other forms of play). -- Mark Morton mmorton@uwaterloo.ca
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