New Article - Playful Learning for Information Literacy Development

Screenshot of the start of the first page of the article

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've just had an article published in the IFLA Journal, a loooong time after writing it (and roughly a year after it had been reviewed, revised, and copy-edited). It's behind a Sage paywall at the moment, but IFLA will put the whole issue up as open access on their site shortly, plus it should appear on my institutional repository soon. Happy to email it to anyone who can't access it too, just give a shout :)

Abstract follows... 

Play is often seen as frivolous, childish, suitable only for young children. In contrast, this paper will discuss the idea that using playful learning approaches is often a good fit for the development of information literacy in all ages. To do this, it will outline the meaning of information literacy that the author takes, explain where playful learning is placed within learning theories and pedagogies, and show why and how they fit together. Examples of playful practice in library and information literacy training will be given to illustrate current practice, together with gaps within that practice. It will briefly address some of the barriers to using playful learning approaches in information literacy development, and offer some ways forward for information literacy practitioners.

Institute of Adult Play ponderings

Sample Logo for an "Institute of Adult Play"

I've pondered for ages ways of encouraging / creating more work in the field of play and adults for myself and some friends. Something that could pull opportunities for us together and enable those that want to escape from their existing jobs, or to gradually do so at least. Some of them joke about setting up a fun-versity or play-versity as an antidote to their work at universities. But what about something smaller? So I was pondering some options...

Sample Logo (2) for an "Institute of Adult Play"

How about something that is a cross between a provider of training and a social / professional network for adult play people? An "Institute of Adult Play"?
There are such a wide range of people who work with play and adults, so the first thing it would do is pull people together - provide a platform for cross fertilisation of ideas, for sharing opportunities for work, and to generally share stuff amongst themselves.
The second thing would be to provide training - partly training for those play professionals, but also a way of providing training to the wider public / organisations. Members of the "institute" could provide training on a shared online platform (which spreads out the costs of providing it) as well as linking to training where we have to be physically present (when we can eventually do so again!)- hopefully that would mean people would do one course, then come back to do someone else's, increasing the work for all of us.

Sample Logo (3) for an "Institute of Adult Play"

 

It would probably be a not for profit type membership organisation - with members paying a monthly or yearly fee (£5 a month maybe?!) which would let us pay for a membership platform with a virtual learning environment built in. Some of these platforms let you charge for membership, plus have the choice to charge for courses or offer them free for different membership levels, so could let people develop their own course(s) on the platform which we'd pay out for when people booked on the course. Or dish out the membership fee dependant on how many people had done each course? Or some other way of spreading the money!

This would be really risky to set-up. It'd need a small amount of seed money to set up as a company (maybe a Community Interest Company - a type of social enterprise?), but a much larger amount to run a platform / network.

Sample Logo (4) for an "Institute of Adult Play"

So I pondered a Kickstarter? If we risked a small amount of money to set up a business, it could be done in a way that it only started trading if the Kickstarter was successful, otherwise just got closed down again before it actually did anything. The Kickstarter would be a way of getting enough money to run the platform for a year, plus gauging if enough people were interested in becoming members to be worthwhile!

So... does this all sound completely ridiculous, or does it sound amazing and you'd all like to be directors and founder members? Should we take a gamble and try and set something up? Would anyone like to play along in running something like this? Let me know (preferably via Twitter...) @PlayBrarian with the somewhat long #tag of #InstituteOfAdultPlay

Play in HE zine 7

We're up to zine #7 (out of a theoretical 10) posted out now, with the latest one being a special pandemic in HE edition... I'm not sure what will happen with the final 3 as they were meant to be produced and sent out over the next few months, which is likely to be peak time for the pandemic.

I'm also working from home, so expecting my paper and printer ink to last long enough to create about 250 copies of zines (plus extra bits and bats) might be pushing it to say the least... and I don't really want to be getting extra supplies in during peak pandemic!

So I might have to do just one print copy (the final one?) and a couple of electronic only versions? I'm not yet sure...

Anyway, the first 7 are all on the OneHE foundation pages for members (as they provided a small grant for the project). I still intend pulling the content together and sharing it for anyone else, but not until the end, which should be this summer at some point!

Online course on play in adulthood

I've been pondering (for a while!) what we could do as a course in adult play - something that covered a bit of theory to help people come from the same place, but also included practical elements and reflection to link theory to practice.

One thing I thought might work is either an online course, or perhaps a blended approach but mainly online. So as a first step I've created a short (should take just under 1 hour!) online module / course that really briefly intoduced some play scholars and called it "Theories of Play in Adulthood". It's a mix of short (and simple) videos and some textual content.

You can access it here: https://coursecraft.net/courses/z9ZyR 

I thought this might act as a starting point, then other online modules could contain more practical advice (but linking back to theories) and be slightly longer, especially as they'd include activities to complete (the first one is just reading / watching vids). So maybe have:

• Theories of play (about 1 hour long)
• Enabling play (Short bit of theory / reading, then tips, examples, and practical exercises)
• Playful training approaches (Short bit of theory / reading, then tips, examples, and practical exercises)
• Playful leadership approaches (Short bit of theory / reading, then tips, examples, and practical exercises)
• Any others?

If people were up for it, these could then be combined with some form of assessment. So a small charge for each module, but do "Theories of play", "Enabling play", plus one other module and people could submit a creative, practical, playful assessment for marking (for an extra charge), which would result in feedback and a certificate of some sort - preferably together with a "sharing" day where people completing the course would share what they've done.

So does anyone want to do the really short theory one and let me know if they think I should create a full course (3 modules for starters?). Plus I'd also extend the first theory one slightly once a few people have done it - think it's a bit too brief at the moment! At the end of this first module I've put a few questions to gauge interest and ask about content, etc. I'll then ponder whether to do an actual "proper" course with multiple modules...