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Meaningful Play 2014 at Michigan State University

Session Information

TitleComposing Play: Epic Learning in Literacy Spaces
Presenter(s)Kim Jaxon, Peter Kittle and Joshua Daniel-Wariya
TimeSaturday, October 18, 11:30a-12:30p
LocationLake Superior
FormatPanel
DescriptionIn this panel, three presenters share their classroom research and experiences with building games and game design into their college classrooms and work with current and future teachers. We adopt Jane McGonigal's framework of "epic scale" to talk about elements of epic learning in and through the teaching of writing (Reality is Broken, 2011). It may be that no writing course can ever match the intensity of a campus wide tournament of Humans vs. Zombies or the sheer scale of World of Warcraft, but the language helps us think through ways that we use game design, paired with writing and writing pedagogy, both to make large class spaces feel intimate and to encourage small classes to feel empowered over their learning.

Kim Jaxon (California State University, Chico) will share the design and success of two large "epic," game-based college experiences: the design of a "jumbo" writing class that infuses game design and play within the activities and structures, and an augmented reality, quest-driven, adventure game created for incoming freshmen called Early Start: EPIC. Data drawn from these game-based course designs show that the spaces provide contexts for action as a form of service to larger, shared goals, encourage wholehearted participation, and provide mechanisms for the exchange of expertise.

Peter Kittle (California State University, Chico) will share the infusion of meaningful play into his work with current and future teachers of writing (K-college, across disciplinary bounds) through the Northern California Writing Project. From loosely structured exploratory time with robotics kits, Makey-Makeys, and paper circuitry, to using online gaming/composing tools like Twine, Scratch, and Storium to craft assignments and syllabi for students, Kittle will describe the ways that play enhances engagement and increases deeper understandings of how systems function--with particular attention to literacy systems.

Joshua Daniel-Wariya (Oklahoma State University) will share the challenges and possibilities from two game-based assignments: a whole class collaboration in which students reverse engineer the free, online videogame The Enchanted Cave into a playable board game, and a design project in which students use Twine to code a create-your-own-adventure story. These projects create opportunities for students to voluntarily engage with difficult and pleasurable composing problems.

Using (mostly) freely available and open resources, the presenters are able to demonstrate that using games and game design principles creates robust spaces for learning that value distributed expertise among faculty and students. The games draw attention to the issues of participation and community that often fail to take root in college classrooms. Our talk will be infused with quest-based writing prompts to engage the audience with our practices and to spur conversation among the panel and participants.

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