our shared workshop contribution for the conference

1. A playground model for learning
Summer CELT Learning and Teaching Conference
15 July 2015, MMU
Dr Jenny Fisher @jennycfisher & Chrissi Nerantzi @chrissinerantzi
ttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Playground_at_Fuji-Hakone-Izu_National_Park.jpg

2. The plan
1. Experience playful learning
– Make > Story > Animate
– Gamify?
2. Playground pedagogy
3. Reflect on your practice and opportunities for
playful learning.

3. Story themes
Sustainability Internationalisation
Inclusivity Creativity
Innovation Professionalism

4. Ideas for gamification
• Collect points on specific criteria
• Add a twist as you go along
• Voting
• Collaboration
• Competition
• Assessment
• Badges
• Use smart devices

5. If we have time, we could briefly discuss what
follows
I think we should leave this as it will take up
time

6. Animating as assessment

7. Why animation ?
• Variety in assessment
• Students’ diverse learning styles
• Authentic learning (Herrington, Rees and Oliver, 2010)
• Employability – increasing use of digital technology
• Research identifies that students benefit from creating and
designing artefacts for audiences (Hoban, 2009)
Why animation?

8. Embedding animating in curriculum
• Threshold concept (Meyer and Land, 2003)
– Facilitating students understanding of
troublesome knowledge
• ‘students keen to be involved in developing the
digital environment’(Beetham, 2014:online)
• ‘People learn more deeply from words and pictures
than from words alone’ (Meyer, 2005: 31)
Embedding assessment

9. Student feedback on animation
“Go animate was a new experience
which promoted group work and
research skills, it was an enjoyable
way to interact with peers and to
work together on a topic”. “This
animation was
a lot more
enjoyable than
an essay or a
presentation”
“I think this animation is a
fantastic idea and without it I
wouldn't have passed the
modual I am normally not a very
academic student and having
dyslexia struggle to do essays this
animation allowed me to show
my creative side and I would
definitely recommend this you
carry on with this type of
assessment”
“I’m a L6 Social Care student and I took this unit last year – I really enjoyed this
assessment, but I would have loved an opportunity to have done it in form of an
animation... What a great new way of assessing students, and giving them a
chance to develop skills as well as demonstrating theoretical understanding!”

10. Playground Pedagogy Three main theories of
teaching (Ramsden, 2008)
Playground 1.0 supervised >
feeling safe, developing trust
Theory 1: Teaching as telling,
transmission or delivery -
PASSIVE
Playground 2.0 participatory >
gaining playful confidence
through guided playful
learning
Theory 2: Teaching as
organising or facilitating
student activity - ACTIVE
Playground 3.0 self-
determined > autonomy,
developing and sustaining
play-active practice
Theory 3: Teaching as making
learning possible – SELF-
DIRECTED
Nerantzi, C. (2015) The Playground Model for Creative Professional Development, In: Nerantzi,
C. & James, A. (eds.) (2015) Exploring Play in Higher Education, Creative Academic Magazine,
Issue 2A, June 2015, pp. 40-50, available at http://www.creativeacademic.uk/

11. Pedagogical Playground Model
(Nerantzi, 2015)
Playground 1.o
supervised
Playground 2.0
participatory
Playground 3.0
self-determined

12. Community Spaces
– Connecting
people
Open Spaces -
Expansive minds
Story Spaces -
Connecting
hearts
Making Spaces –
Connecting hands
Thinking Spaces –
Connecting minds
Unit Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, participants will be able to:
• Critically discuss creative teaching as a driver for student engagement
and learning in their own professional context.
• Develop and implement an innovation in their own practice.
• Critically evaluate their innovation.
2 terms
practice-based assessment – implement and evaluate an innovation
Digital portfolios owned by students

13. • Greenhouse
contributions
• Academic posters
• Conference
workshops
• Published articles
Nerantzi, C. & James, A. (eds.) (2015) Exploring
Play in Higher Education, Creative Academic
Magazine, Issue 2a, Issue 2b, June 2015, available
athttp://www.creativeacademic.uk/magazine.html

14. “I found problem solving two
ideas at once great because when
you ran out of ideas for one
problem, you could switch to the
other one, unblocking the mental
block.” session 2
What students said “Realised how my own learning
preference/beliefs influence and
perhaps constrain my practice as a
teacher.” session 3
“Very exciting. I’ve got
creative ideas already
able to use. Motivated
to do reading.” session
1
“The best one! Making is
learning and learning is
knowing you are able to
make sense of things in
pictures, ideas, balloons,
people smile ;)” session 5
“Playing with ideas
leads to innovation.”
session 4
student

15. http://www.curriculet.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Blooms-Taxonomy.png

16. Creative reflection: James & Brookfield (2014, 54)
Criticality Creativity
Playfulness Imagination
Reflection
“Blending creativity and reflection, and infusing them with qualities of
imagination and play, creates a powerful cocktail that enhances learning”.
James & Brookfield (2014, 55)

17. Animated stories workshop using LEGO
pictures from the workshop

18. Collaborative storymaking using LEGO

19. Creating scenes

20. Collaborative storymaking using LEGO

21. Animating collaborative story using own devices

22. Sharing animation

23. We asked colleagues at the end how they could use
such an approach in their own practice.
Below are their responses
• Explores identity
• Encourage inclusivity and social engagement
• Team working skills
• Teamwork, collaboration – Hands on, creative thinking etc etc
• Explore complex concepts
• Represent processes / experiences
• Library – illustrate challenge of how to find information for their assignments
• Making a creative activity at the level of the students
• Including physical creativity as well as digital creativity
• Possibly use for induction – to explore person identity then groups
• Think visually
• Great ice-breaking activity as a precursor to group work in a safe environment
• Fun / playful activities help in communication / sharing ideas
• Will definitely use – great ice-breaker

24. References 1
Beetham, H. (2014) Students' experiences and expectations of the digital
environment. [Online] [accessed on 10th June 2015]
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/blog/students-experiences-and-expectations-of-the-digital-
environment-23-jun-2014
Herrington, J., Reeves, T.C & Oliver, R. (2010). A guide to authentic e-learning. London
and New York: Routledge.
Hoban, G., McDonald, D., and Ferry, B. (2009). Improving pre-service teachers' science
knowledge by creating, reviewing and publishing slowmations to teacher tube. Paper
presented at the Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher
Education International Conference Charlestown, SC. [Online] [Accesssed on 25th
February 2015]
http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1110&context=edupapers
James, A. & Brookfield S. (2014) Engaging Imagination. Helping Students become
creative and reflective thinkers, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

25. References 2
James, A. & Brookfield S. (2014) Engaging Imagination. Helping Students become creative and
reflective thinkers, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Meyer, R. (2009). Multimedia Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Meyer, J. and Land, R. (2003) Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge:
Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines. [Online] [Accessed 10th June
2015] http://www.etl.tla.ed.ac.uk//docs/ETLreport4.pdf
Nerantzi, C. (2015) The Playground Model for Creative Professional Development, In: Nerantzi,
C. & James, A. (eds.) (2015) Exploring Play in Higher Education, Creative Academic Magazine,
Issue 2A, June 2015, pp. 40-50, available at http://www.creativeacademic.uk/
Nerantzi, C. & James, A. (eds.) (2015) Exploring Play in Higher Education, Creative Academic
Magazine, Issue 2a, Issue 2b, June 2015, available at
http://www.creativeacademic.uk/magazine.html

26. A playground model for learning
Summer CELT Conference, 15 July 2015, MMU
Dr Jenny Fisher @jennycfisher & Chrissi Nerantzi @chrissinerantzi
ttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Playground_at_Fuji-Hakone-Izu_National_Park.jpg