The Play Element Of Learning, Breaking The Magic Circle, 10 April 2008

Slide 1: The Play Element of Learning Jeroen van Bree & Marinka Copier

Slide 2: Who We Are … • Assistant Professor in New Media and Digital Culture at Utrecht University • Head Utrecht School of Art and Technology (Interaction Design and Game Design & Development) • Management Consultant at YNNO • Ph.D. Candidate at Nyenrode Business Universiteit Sharing an interest in learning from online games

Slide 3: The Network Society Puts new demands on: • Individuals • Education • Organizations

Slide 4: What Is Needed • Synergy • Networking • Open Communication • Autonomy

Slide 5: What We See • Complex group tasks • Risk taking, fast and intuitive decision making • Situational role-taking

Slide 6: What We Have • Old Structures • Hierarchies

Slide 7: Learning from Games How can game play and game design be used to improve (organizational) learning and to revitalize education and organizations?

Slide 8: We Are Not Talking About Serious Games • Finite • Separation between game session and other contexts

Slide 9: Our Approach is Different - We are adding game elements to existing systems such as education or organizations; - In this way, we aim to use game design principles to create an environment which fosters a certain type of behavior; - This environment is not limited to the duration of a game session; - In this situation, the magic circle becomes an irrelevant concept.

Slide 10: Our Starting Point Lies With Design Principles intervention mechanism(s) outcome context • Discernability • Integration • Recoverable loss • Lusory attitude • Complementarity • Signaling

Slide 11: A Test of Our Ideas

Slide 12: Our Quest • Taking serious games beyond the magic circle • Finding the play element of learning • Applying game design principles (which ones?) to educational and organizational settings • To generate a lusory attitude without a gaming contract