Rikke T. Nørgård argues that play has a place in education by advocating for a concept of "playful open-ended education." She discusses her experiences practicing playful education at various conferences and workshops. Nørgård reviews theories of "21st century learning" that emphasize skills like collaboration, creativity, and adaptability, arguing these support including playfulness in education. She proposes using techniques like educational design thinking to create learning experiences that foster imagination, participation, and entrepreneurship in a playful yet open-ended manner. Nørgård's work suggests playful open-ended education can cultivate skills needed for the future if educators adopt this approach.

1. THE PLAYFUL EDUCATOR
Rikke T. Nørgård (@RikkeToftN)
Assistant professor, PhD
CounterPlay’16: Play when it’s

2. PLAY
HAS NO PLACE
IN EDUCATION!!!

3. PLAY
HAS NO PLACE
IN EDUCATION!!!
…hey wait a minute…?!?
…yeah I know …let’s just wait a
minute

4. A short round-trip
The practice of being a playful
educator (practice what you in a
minute will preach)
– CounterPlay’15
– FabLab@School Conference
– Internet Week Denmark
– Ozobot Thery Jam
– Game.Play.Design
– CounterPlay’16

5. Talking about playful
education

6. Taking playfully about
playful education

7. Practicing education as
playful futuremaking

8. Playing at being a cool
conference participant

9. Playful schoolchildren at a
conference about future
schooling
Fremtidsø Vejle

10. Presenting & practicing
playful education

11. Becoming your own playmaker at
the
Coding Pirates Technology
Arcade

12. Being playful with theory
in HE Ozobot theory jam
ozobot theory jam

13. Having playful university
courses Game.Play.Design

14. Being seriously playful with
the
Coding Pirates playing the
refugee crisis

15. …so all this is done on the
realisation that
PLAY
HAS NO PLACE
IN EDUCATION
…to escape

16. The battle between
2 modes of ’play in
education’

17. Rule-bound play
•Gamification
•Gameful design
•Games
Contained in
•Structures
•System goals
•Functions
The system is in
charge
•Monologist
•Dictator
??? Free-form play
•Playfication
•Playul design
•Play
Expressed through
•Improvisations
•Own goals
•Emergence
The player in
charge is
•Monologist
•Anarchist

18. Beyond play & games in
education

19. WHY?? (towards
playfulness)
“Playfulness is a way of engaging with particular
contexts and objects that is similar to play but
respects the purposes and goals of that object or
context” (Miguel Sicart, Play Matters, 2014)
“What we want is the attitude of play without the
activity of play. We need to take the same stance
towards things, the world, and others that we take
during play. But we should not play: rather, we should
perform as expected in that (serious) context and with
that (serious) object. We want play without play. We
want playfulness - the capacity to use play outside the

20. Could Open-ended
education be an answer?
Free play differs from open-ended play, as it stresses the
freedom children have to play with whatever whenever
they want. Open-ended play somewhat restricts children
in their free play as it offers objects with design
intentions. The challenge for open-ended play is to
develop designs that are specific and easy to understand
but also general enough to encourage imagination and
creativity in how to use them.
This idea is inspired by theories about situated action
and about emergent behavior in decentralized systems.
Instead of designing for goal-directed behavior, as is
assumed by, for example, Norman’s action cycle, the
situated actions model assumes that players do not
structure their activity beforehand, but that activity

21. How to create
playful education
• Stop calling it play start calling it
something like open-ended education or
innovation (kill your darlings)
• Explain what you do, why you do and how you
do in educational terms so others outside
the play community can comprehend the value
of what you are doing – speak in the
language of those you are speaking to (go to
the dark side)
• Create a powerful argument for being playful
rather than digging trenches – create a
shared foundation for new eduactional
futures (be playful on the dark side)

22. The battleground of “21st
century learning”
Turning open-ended education into a powerful
argument
Some weapons of choice
to argue for playful
open-endedness
•OECD
•Digital literacy
•Bloom’s taxonomy
•21st century learning
•Learning goals
•Innovation &
entrepreneurship
•Educational theories &
design theories

23. Taking the values and visions of
“21st
century learning” seriously
According to the OECD,
the world needs
‘versatilists’ – citizens
capable of adapting to
challenges in open-
ended ways, acting on
imagination through
creating and
participating in flexible
democratic and
collaborating ways
Sleicher, Director for
the OECD Directorate
of Education and Skills

24. Taking the top tier of
“21st
century learning” seriously
Revised & Inverted Bloom's educational
taxonomy, Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001

25. Taking the qualities and
characteristics of
“21st
century learning” seriously
(Dettmer 2005, p. 73

26. Taking the qualities and
characteristics of
“21st
century learning” seriously

27. Taking the core competencies of
“21st
century learning” seriously
National Education Organisation

28. Creating a foundation for taking
“21st
century learning” seriously
Toft, Herdis & Nørgård,
Rikke Toft (2016).
Pla(y)ceskabelse: når børn
og robotteknologi mødes.
Læring og Medier, No. 14,
pp. 1-31 (Published)

29. Creating a foundation for taking
“21st
century learning” seriously
Nørgård, Rikke Toft & Paaskesen,
Rikke Berggreen (2016) Open-ended
education: How open-endedness
might foster and promote playful
technological imagination,
enterprising and participation in
education, Forthcoming issue of
Conjunctions

30. Creating a foundation for taking
“21st
century learning” seriously
Aaen, Janus & Nørgård, Rikke Toft
(2015). Participatory Academic
Communities: a transdiciplinary
perspective on participation in
education beyond the institution.
Conjunctions. Transdiciplinary
Journal of Cultural Participation, Vol.
2, No. 2, pp. 67-98 (Published).

31. Pointing to processes for practicing
“21st
century learning” seriously
Value-based & Vision-driven
Educational Design Thinking
Through open-ended processes
http://designthinking.co.nz/design-thinking-for-government/

32. …but how
does it all
fit?

34. Future
Educator
Innovatio
n
Creating
Playful
open-
ended
education

35. marts 2016
Rikke Berggreen Paaskesen & Rikke Toft
Nørgård
Future
Educator
Innovatio
n
Creating
Playful
open-
ended
education
Remixed
by
Playful
open-
ended
students

36. Future
Educator
Innovation
Creating
Playful
open-ended
education
Remixed
by
Playful
openended
students
In
a
Playful
open-ended
society

37. PLAY HAS NO PLACE IN EDUCATION!!!
…but perhaps playful open-ended
education could find a place?
….by being a playful educator,
researcher & adult
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Twitter: @RikkeToftN
Mail: rtoft@tdm.au.dk

38. • Nørgård, Rikke Toft & Paaskesen, Rikke Berggreen (2016) Open-ended education: How open-
endedness might foster and promote playful technological imagination, enterprising and
participation in education, Forthcoming issue of Conjunctions
• Toft, Herdis & Nørgård, Rikke Toft (2016). Pla(y)ceskabelse: når børn og robotteknologi
mødes. Læring og Medier, No. 14, pp. 1-31 (Published)
• Nørgård, Rikke Toft (2015). Educational Design Thinking: on overcoming present tensions
between educators and designers in design processes with new technologies within
educational settings. Conference paper for Ethnography and Education Conference, 21., 22.
and 23. September 2015, New College, Oxford University.
• Aaen, Janus & Nørgård, Rikke Toft (2015). Participatory Academic Communities: a
transdiciplinary perspective on participation in education beyond the institution.
Conjunctions. Transdiciplinary Journal of Cultural Participation, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 67-98
(Published).