Proposed reasons why play is rarely used in formal educational settings (not exhaustive):
-trained incapacities (Burke, 1954, p. 7) — play is not even considered when evaluating viable modes of learning because it’s beyond educators’ heuristics of recency, frequency, and normativity;
-rustiness — play as a mode of doing and learning is in disuse (while it is used robustly by young children and early childhood educators, that engagement is negatively related to time (i.e., play decreases as children’s age increases));
-fear — of interacting with the foreign that is play in formal educational settings, of suffering negative consequences from this engagement with play (e.g., punishment for such unconventional practice, discomfort from confusion/lack of expertise therein, loss of face from failure/clunky performance)
-perceived lack of credibility — image of play as less competitive/worthwhile than dour drilling
Proposed benefits of practicing silliness for intrapersonal and interpersonal quality of life:
-stress relief
-endorphin release
-thought loop or “work mode” escape
-social bonding
-creative thinking
-pattern recognition
Proposed characterizations of various terms:
-Agenda-less play = tinkering
-Purposeful play = gaming
-Purposeful play beyond pure entertainment = impact gaming
-Unbounded playfulness = substantive silliness
Proposed characterizations of various practices:
Idle play with ideas = daydreaming
Purposeful play with ideas SHOULD = gaming; but usually…
Purposeful play with ideas = working
How do we make purposeful play with ideas more like gaming?
Inspired by Matt Madden’s exercises in style and tickled by my latest attempt(s) to explain who I am, how I got here, and what it is I do exactly. It’s not distortion so much as perspective… although I suppose one’s perspective determines the magnitude of distortion…
Oy. Academia.
From networking email #4982:
I came to this work via my experiences as an early childhood educator, cross-cultural researcher, improvisational comedian, storyteller, and deep thinker about how to make the world a better place. I’ve concluded that it’s most moral and most efficient to nurture individuals from the beginning of their lives, support their development of wonderfully versatile and inexpressibly important social and emotional skills, and use play as the mode for doing so.
According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, social and emotional core competencies include self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Self-regulation, which might be called emotional regulation or even executive functioning, is the core competency that is taught LEAST of all these too-little-taught social and emotional skills. This indicates a gap, clearly, and might indicate an incredibly distressing gap, even an emergency, if one considers self-regulation to be THE most important skill of them all… My research and applied work seeks to redress that.
To learn more about me, I invite you to peruse laurelfelt.org. In prose, here is a short(ish) bio:
“Laurel Felt, a fourth-year doctoral candidate at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, is guided by her desire to support children’s healthy development. Accordingly, Laurel has designed numerous research protocols, pedagogical interventions, and professional development experiences to nurture youths’ social and emotional competence, critical thinking, and meaningful communication.
Laurel’s dissertation will examine Dojo, an impact game created by GameDesk that uses biofeedback to train users (intended for urban adolescent males) in emotional regulation. The project will use a mixed method, experimental + participatory research design to explore intended effects and unexpected outcomes from respectively playing Dojo, engaging with Laurel’s complementary Dojo curriculum, doing both, or doing neither (control group).
Laurel received her B.S. in Education & Social Policy from Northwestern University and M.A. in Child Development from Tufts University. Some organizations that Laurel has worked with include: Nickelodeon; PBSKids Ready to Learn; Hollywood, Health & Society; the BBC World Service Trust; Sénégal’s Réseau African d’Education pour la Santé; India’s Expanding Minds Program; and the U.S. Department of Education. Her research also looks at community development, assessment validity, childhood obesity, and bullying.”
Now in our 6th year, Digital KidsConference 2012 takes place April 25-26, 2012 in Los Angeles, CA. at the Pasadena Convention Center. Digital Kids provides companies the critical information they need to build successful online and mobile products and services for kids. The show features 95 speakers in 5 conference tracks, including:
These experts will share their insight on building, managing and monetizing services, products and interactive content for digital kids and connected youth. This is your opportunity to gain the latest insight on mobile and iPad apps, social games, social media, virtual worlds, and more – all targeting kids and youth.
I combed through the schedule and am particularly interested in these panels…
The event gathered folks from multiple industries to explore such cutting-edge projects as rethinking urban spaces, experimenting with participatory cultures, nurturing industry-academic-government collaborations, remixing environmental data, designing innovative technologies, and imagining 700+ solutions to complex future challenges. Here is the agenda for the Summit’s day-long plunge into theoretical and practical innovation.
In the Henry Jenkins-led session “Experimenting with Participatory Cultures,” I presented/demo-ed the PLAYground, our online platform for the curation, creation, and circulation of user-generated learning. Here is the session, which runs roughly one hour and 20 minutes. I speak from 1:06:50-1:17:15, and my presentation showcases the playful spirit one must bring to working (and presenting!) in the real world.
It was a privilege to learn, play, network, and help myself to sumptuous food! I am a lucky scholar indeed.
(from left) Laird Malamed, Laurel Felt, and George Rose grin post-panel discussion on the business of impact games
On Tuesday, February 28, 2012, I moderated a discussion with Activision executives Laird Malamed and George Rose that considered impact games in terms of business models and market prognostications (as opposed to pedagogy, assessment, design, etc). Co-hosted by USC Impact Games (a cross-campus group that I co-chair) and the USC Marshall Society & Business Lab, this event introduced undergraduate business majors to the field, as well as united like-minded scholars university-wide.
While the definition (as well as the terminology — impact game vs. serious game) is contested, one might characterize an impact game as a game that has been designed for a purpose beyond pure entertainment. While the game must entertain in order to effectively engage users’ attention, it aims to impact users’ knowledge, attitudes, and/or practices. Impact games have taught players about international conflicts (as in USC Impact Games co-chair Susana Ruiz’s Darfur is Dying), emotional regulation strategies (as in GameDesk‘s Dojo, the focus of my dissertation), and the pathways to and protocols for college access (as in USC Collegeology‘s Application Crunch and Mission: Admission). They have provided contexts for exercising (as in the Nintendo Wii and the Xbox Kinect), rehabilitating (as in the work of Marientina Gotsis with the USC Creative Media & Behavioral Health Center), accessing tailored health plans (as in My Fitness Coach 2), and building community (as in USC Annenberg Innovation Lab‘s ParTour).
A FEW TAKEAWAYS According to Laird:
Funding — Sponsorship seems a more reliable source of funding than short-term and/or volatile grants. Find companies that support your goals, that want to support/celebrate these goals — principally for-profit businesses that would benefit from being associated with the project. If the outcome is social awareness/understanding, that’s a tougher sell…
Sustainability — Can’t think of a game in absence of a sustainability model, even going into the concept of it, even outlining/coming up with a design. It’s okay to say, in the case of an impact game, there is no business model for this, but what’s not okay is to add it in at the end (similar argument goes for assessment). When you’re evaluating design and deciding what to cut, you don’t cut the things that you’re selling/marketing/getting sponsored for. Another lens to look through that should be done in an iterative fashion. Take multiple passes to consider technology, art, and sustainability factors. No one lens is the right blanket way to do it.
Horizon — Are you making one per year or one every few years? Does it have to survive more than three years (that’s a long time for an interactive project to survive, it will look dated)? It’s more like you’re creating an event that will be online for a 1000 days vs. creating an enduring product. iPhone games being a good example to look at in terms of life-span synced with business plan and goals.)
According to George:
Product development and marketing — You’re creating a product that does something novel, or does better or more efficiently a legacy product. You must overcome built-in resistance from the idea that games and screentime are frivolous and unnecessary, reading books onscreen isn’t real reading, etc. In-fighting among entrenched, interested entities.
Future directions — Impact games are used robustly in Europe to inform citizens about corporate social responsibility. Stateside, we may see growth in this sector as well as in the areas of exergames and rehabilitation, among others.
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Here is our PR blurb, a better-than-nothing video of the event, our agenda, and a few pix snapped during the discussion and immediately afterwards:
PUBLICITY The Business of Impact Games: A moderated discussion with gaming executives
From Darfur is Dying to Sim City, the field of “impact” or “serious” games is on the rise. Panelists will discuss what it takes to build up a market for these games and offer strategies for developing and selling commercial products. They will also explore these games’ tremendous potential for inspiring global change and bringing awareness to various issues, from education to public health.
Panelists: Laird Malamed, Adjunct Faculty, USC School of Cinematic Arts and President, Creative Learning Technologies; George Rose, former Chief Legal Officer and Chief Public Policy Officer and current Senior Consultant to Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard
Moderator: Laurel Felt, Doctoral Candidate at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
AGENDA
1. Introductions: (5:05-5:10 pm)
Tell me more about your background and experience. Chronologically, please share your titles, affiliations, and years spent in each position.
2. Definitions: (5:10-5:20 pm)
What are “serious” or “impact” games? Why the vernacular distinction? What are the potential problems as well as potential benefits of each term? Considering the interdisciplinary nature of this field, how should we move forward regarding a shared (if not, common) language? Issues of “perception” (i.e. games, in the general public’s mind, are not to be taken seriously).
3. Personal Connections: (5:20-5:35 pm)
Why do YOU care about serious or impact games? What brought you from a more purely commercial origin to working in this philanthropically-influenced domain? Was there a key moment or insight, a seminal piece of literature or game, that changed your way of thinking and/or inspired a new agenda? Why should the commercial game industry take this field seriously? How is productive collaboration fostered in a space typically (and perhaps, necessarily) inhabited by multiple cultures?
4. Business Considerations: (5:35-5:50 pm)
Let’s talk about practical strategies for developing, disseminating and selling these products/experiences commercially. How do we assemble productive diverse teams, monetize ethically and significantly, and get these games out there? How can teams and businesses plan in a sustainable way?
How can academic game programs and business programs educate students to co-experiment and innovate around new business models for projects/services that seek to make a profit as well as advance social justice and education? For example, past one grant-funded project, how can a studio/developer continue to create high-quality products and keep a roof over her head while competing (or, at least, existing in parallel with) with richly funded commercial entities?
5. Personal Insights/Advice/Lessons Learned + Future Forecasting: (5:50-6 pm)
What have you discovered as a result of your experience? What would you advise our audience members in terms of what TO do and what NOT to do? Five, 10, and 20 years down the pike: What do you see in terms of this field? Paint that picture (in terms of the culture, the technology, and the creative aspects).
6. Q&A: (6-6:20)
Let’s hear what the people have to say!
Marshall's Vertical Lead for Social Impact Careers Nicole Butler chats with USC Impact Games co-chairs Kristy Norindr and Susana Ruiz
