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Hello, and welcome to the Playful Learning Day 2 Program in a Pod, an audio companion to
the Playful Learning Conference 2026 program.

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We'll be speaking with the speakers, parlaying with the presenters, and conferring with
the keynotes to get a vibe for what to expect from this year's conference.

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I'm Mike Collins, Senior Learning Designer at the Open University, Pedagogic Podcaster at
Pedagodzilla.com, and pastry enthusiast.

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Yeah.

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This year, Playful Learning is at the University of Sussex in Brighton.

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The theme is Into the Woods.

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And by this point, you may have indeed already ventured into them, surrounded as you are
by the South Downs National Park.

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You may also have squared off against the seagull, but that's a less relaxing image.

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Focus instead on the lovely woods.

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The cheeky squirrels.

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Simon the badger in his little waistcoat.

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Look.

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He's checking the time on a tidy pocket watch.

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Think not of the glint of bastardry in the eye of the seagull.

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Have you ever seen that video of one swallowing a rabbit?

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Horrifying.

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But back to the conference.

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The day starts at 8am.

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Those staying on campus will be able to have a breakfast, participate in an optional
campus run, or go forest bathing, a slow, mindful walk where curiosity is the destination.

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And possibly a forest.

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There is advanced sign-up required for this as space is unlimited.

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The day gets into full swing at 9.30 in the terrace room.

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Where the conference organizers will be welcoming you to day two.

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From this point onwards throughout Thursday, you'll be able to access these Spotlight
drop-in sessions.

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The first of these is Lego Serious Play in HE, presented by Susanna Quincy.

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So

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it's gonna be an informal networking session.

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So I don't serendipitous, but that means I haven't done much.

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I so I've been oh

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series play facilitator for probably eight years or so and the method is is great but it's
very located in kind of business and there's a lot of people who are Lego series play

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facilitators in HE and I know that I gained so much from talking to other people about
what they're doing in their own practice.

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So I thought it would be really nice if we could just do something at the conference where
people could just rock up with their ideas, their problems, challenges, anything that's

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been working well, less well.

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And have a bit of the kind of hive mind of Lego series play practitioners in HE, get
together, share ideas and potentially create a network.

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I don't think there is one, but if there is one, great.

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Then come along and and tell me about it.

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That's such a lovely idea.

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And also just what a wonderful I what a wonderful matching of Lego series plates.

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Just like okay, let's just keep our hands occupied and we can have a natter.

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It's the same thing of kind of th those knitting groups, isn't it?

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Nobody's there for the knitting.

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It's all about the goth.

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Exactly, exactly that.

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So yeah, and I just um I thought it would just be a good good opportunity to to get
together.

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It's something that I've wanted to do for ages and have been talking about it and I was
like, right, this year I should actually put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and and

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get my abstract in to to run it.

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To brick even, yeah, exactly.

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Brick that's that that could have been a a title for your thing.

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Brick to brick there goes series playing H E.

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Too late to change it now.

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Maybe we'll subheading like yeah.

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Marvelous.

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And of course you've got at Playful Learning, I think quite a quite a good representative
slice of other sort of Lego series play facilitators.

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So is this open to everybody at the conference?

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Yes, anybody can come along.

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And I think also so don't feel because also I think some people are trained Lego series
play facilitators, other people aren't.

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They might have kind of just been using Lego or they might be really interested in
becoming a an actual trainer.

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So anybody can can rock up and and I will talk all day about how brilliant I think Lego
series play is.

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So I'll just bore everybody with that.

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So yeah, any anybody if you've got any interest in Lego and want to do a bit of building,
then please come along.

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Fantastic.

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and just obviously you and I know what we're talking about with Lego Serious Play.

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We may have some people coming to the conference who've never encountered it before.

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Real quick, can you just let us know what Lego Serious Play is?

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Yeah, it's a methodology um designed in cab collaboration with Lego to help with strategic
thinking, team building, strategizing, problem solving, where you basically w go through a

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series of exercises and build models in relation to that sounds a bit boring, but it's
it's very serious.

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But it's it's fantastic about understanding different perspectives, being really
inclusive, really getting down to thinking differently and expressing often ideas that you

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have in your mind.

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that you just can't really articulate, but you can do that through the bricks and the
building.

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So you said it was developed in collaboration with Lego.

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Do you feel it's suspicious at all that Lego think the solution to things is more Lego?

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And that if perhaps you'd done it in collaboration with IKEA, the solution might have been
fucking furniture.

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Do you know Ikea did do a Lego sets at one point as well?

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Did they?

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Yeah, they did.

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They did.

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They did a whole set of boxes and some some individual Lego sets.

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I might have had to do a special trip to IKEA to get those.

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Um I think it

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It's really interesting.

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There are special Lego series play kits, of course.

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Um, but actually you can use any any Lego.

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And I think there's a kind of slightly different perspectives in the community about
whether you need to be kind of purist Lego series play using the bits or whether you can

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actually

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There's elitism in the Lego series play community.

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I love this.

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I love this so much.

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Did diversity of perspectives are

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Yeah.

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I just I'd I'd love the idea of the really snooty person being like, Excuse me, I think
you'll find that isn't within the standard facilitator playset.

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That has a rocket ship on it.

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You the Lego series playsets have some very cool bricks in them.

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I have to keep them away from my kids.

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Special Lego.

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So I'm like, but Mom, I have a Lego.

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That's so wonderful.

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I love it.

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Like I really want to come now and just see if any kind of big arguments break out.

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Um and obviously to to participate in the networking as well.

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Throwing Lego bricks at each other.

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Thank you so much, Susanna.

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Really looking forward to that session.

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So I say session, spotlight.

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So it's running throughout throughout the third.

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So I think it's gonna be a bit of an informal dropping, as I say.

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It's an evolving idea at the moment.

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But yes, there'll be some there'll be Lego, there'll be chat, uh, and there'll be
hopefully, yeah, lots of good idea sharing.

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That sounds fabulous.

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I can't wait for it.

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So I have just one more question for you before I let you go.

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Uh which is, if you were to disappear into the woods, where would we find you and what
would you be doing?

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I I love this.

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I would be h uh and uh for the let the mother tree in

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in the forest and I'd be hugging that to come.

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Carl Edgerton presents our other spotlight drop-in session throughout Thursday.

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The Virtues of Getting Lost and Then Getting Found Again.

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Mapmaking for Philosophers.

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So uh the idea of this session is kind of picking up on something that I've noticed is
difficulty for um students, which is with easy availability of internet information,

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especially in the age of emerging LLMs giving access to to seemingly good summaries of
things, um, students uh really are struggling with the idea of uh engaging with the

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literature and not really being sure what's going on.

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um and spending a little bit of time just kind of wrestling their way through stuff and,
you know, seeing if they want to find a reference they're gonna follow and pursue this

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line or that line and kind of taking that that independent approach.

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and I started to think about it with reference to first of all, kind of concept maps and
the way that people think about that in various parts of um kind of pedagogical research.

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But then I moved on to think about real maps.

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And I thought

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um it would be fun to have a playful way of exploring the idea of people actually mapping
out spaces that they are exploring.

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Um so the idea for this session is uh yeah a kind of a spotlight drop-in session um which
will kind of have some playful map making activities.

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So I want to have I'm gonna there's gonna have there's going to be one uh version which is
just pure map making.

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So there's gonna be just a bunch of prompts

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That allow people to kind of creatively, playfully create maps, giving some guidance.

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Um, where there'll be the opportunity to see how if you're given different prompts,
different things that might be in your vicinity, you might come up with slightly different

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maps, but still an overall kind of shape of the landscape that is familiar to everyone
who's doing it.

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and then I'm going to or I want people to explore linking that into uh an example that's
more subject focused, where

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The same activity is going on.

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There's still a kind of physical map going on, but it's going to be anchored in the idea
that the locations are to do with philosophers and arguments and concepts they're working

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with.

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Um so kind of not going straight back into the space of concept maps, kind of keeping that
idea that I'm mapping out a landscape where I don't know where I am and I'm gonna find my

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way and start to feel more comfortable as time goes on.

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So use a map as tool to explore um unfamiliar space as opposed to to define a familiar
space.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Um and and you know, to to potentially get across the idea that, you know, there might be
more than one route through the space you're working with, you know, more than one way of

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getting from point A to point B.

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Carl, this I've been asking everybody this question and it seems extra apt with you.

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If you were to get lost in the woods.

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Where would we find you and what would you be doing?

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Oh, that is uh very good question.

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You would probably find me um as high as I could get in the most climbable tree.

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Um, because I do I do like climbing.

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Um I do a bit of climbing in my spare time when I can find the time.

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Um and I've liked it since I was a little kid and I used to get stuck up trees and come
shouting for my parents to help me down.

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but I guess it's also uh a useful thing to do if you're if you're lost, you know, get
yourself up uh

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kind of high and have a look around um see if you can figure out where you are.

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my my mind always goes to the moment in the the book The Hobbit where Bilbo climbs up to
the highest tree in the forest to to find his way.

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I don't know why that idea left into my mind uh just there, but it is, you know, a fun
moment to think of and hopefully I'll be doing doing that sort of thing.

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And as with day one, Emma Gillasby, David Collett, and Rochelle Rawlinson will be running
their Encounters with the creatures of the SOTL Labyrinth Game.

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SOTLE of course being scholarship of teaching and learning, and not a sound you make when
you swallow something sideways.

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Now to the day's parallel sessions.

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10 a.m.

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Gallery Room 2.

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Annette Kern presents flood walls or candy bars, making climate choices under uncertainty,
in which participants will play and reflect on an interactive simulation game focused on

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climate adaptation under uncertainty.

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The game explores the challenge faced by communities, regions, and countries when making
investment decisions in climate adaptation, while future climate outcomes remain

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uncertain, even when probabilities are known.

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10 a.m.

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Gallery Room 1 Anna Carter, Anna Henrieks, Dan Jackson, William Ivacude, Lauren Scott,
Shelley Knotts, Ian Robson, and Nicola Whitten present AI Aboard, Learning Ethics Through

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Uncomfortable Play.

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AI aboard is a game to start thinking about a different way.

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Uh it's based on the trolley game, so where you have to choose a different route um and
basically decide who to kill.

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Um but instead of people

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instead of people will be killing different types of AI.

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Um so the whole point of the game is to you have the conductor um who is there um as AI
itself.

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Um you are arguing in opposing teams about the type of AI use, the positives, the
negatives, and then at the end the AI decides who survives and who does not survive.

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So it was all about discomfort and

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Each card has like the positive aspects of the AI, but also the negative aspects.

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Um, and the whole point around it was around trying to kind of make people actually think
about positives and the negatives of AI.

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A lot of the time, I think in AI, it's all negative, negative, negative in the media, but
some of it has really good things that it does and some things are obviously really bad.

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So that's the general gist.

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That's wonderful.

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I mean, I've heard it described previously as a very polarizing space where there's an
enormous amount of opinion and not an enormous amount of information.

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Um also I've never heard it described as the trolley game before.

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I've heard it described as the trolley problem, but you're very much making it sound like
a wonderful pastime to choose what gory mess to make under the the front of a motorised

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trolley.

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So it's a debate card game.

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What are you expecting from people who come to the session?

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What should they expect when they step in?

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Yes, lightweight facilitated.

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You can come in in groups or individuals.

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Um, everything will be set up.

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It's like it's a setboard game with cards.

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Um, so you can be seated or stood.

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Um, we'll pass those cards around.

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You'll also um get a bit of role play time.

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So we've got some cards for each side so that you get the perspective of what side you're
arguing from.

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Um, and we have that as well.

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So interactive.

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um fun and a little bit role play.

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So if you have an alter ego you really want to try out, then this is perfect session.

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any of your alter ego is an AI.

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That's um I'd like to I mean I'd I'd like to think I've I've I'm clawed, but I've got a
horrible feeling I'm actually Microsoft co pilot.

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I'm just, you know

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Oh no.

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Hello.

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I can see your I'm not quite sure if it's writing an email or making a spreadsheet, but um
I can't read it, but I can suggest a recipe for you.

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Oh bless it.

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It's so it's so useless.

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It's rubbish.

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If you met an evil wizard in the forest, what woodland critter would you like him to
transform you into?

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I would like to turn into a gnome.

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uh Gnomes.

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I'm just obsessed with gnomes.

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I have so many gnomes in my garden, it's embarrassing.

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ten AM The Terrace Room Sarah Pavey, Vicky Daphne Hendo, Malcolm Murray, Jen Bright, Joe
McLeod Ira Day, Manisha Mort and Faye Cole present Fly in or Flock Off Getting Lost in

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Playful Game Design.

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Sorry, I just had to cover my chips there for a second.

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I could felt threatened.

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Um so everybody, that that was everybody.

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That was Malcolm, Manisha, Sarah, and Vicky.

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who are presenting the session fly in or flock off.

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What can you tell us about it?

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So we have actually uh been together for the last year's conference also in Brighton with
the Playful Learning Association.

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And uh we went to this session that was called the world fastest game GM ever created and
the fabulous host of that um workshop with Joe and he was really wondering if you can

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actually manage to do a game in forty five minutes.

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And we actually did.

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It was playable after the time we left the uh the workshop and since then we have been uh
making a lot of iteration on it.

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And now I will tell you a little bit about the game.

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It's actually seagulls versus humans beings and and the Brighton area or Brighton here is
actually in the inspiration for it.

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Following on from that, so you summed it up.

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It's seagulls versus humans.

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We were inspired by being in Brighton and being surrounded by all the things
Brighton-based.

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And in the on the surface, I guess what we wanted to say is on the surface is a bit of a
chaotic game board and it's about seagulls stealing chips, but really underneath it's

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about people, power, and unpredictable play as well.

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Because the whole purpose of this game is that there isn't really any control that's

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Any one person or team can have.

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So it's all about unpredictability and how people talk to each other, how people
strategize with that in mind as well.

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And I would say that we took it a bit further because after we finished our session, we
actually took it to the board game evening last year at Playful Learning.

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And judging by the amount of noise that came out of our session, we think it was one of
the most successful parts of the evening.

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And we were about the last people in the building as well.

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it's got quite an interesting mechanic because each round s so players take turns, but you
don't know until you roll the dice whether you're going to be moving the seagull character

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or the people.

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And you have a team, but you can actually therefore act to try and forward the aims of
your team or thwart uh the aims of the opposition.

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And so you're you can have these amazing complicated plans uh and one player the next
player can just change things by moving your character into completely the wrong place.

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So

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It's fairly simple rules, although we have been through about fifteen iterations of them,
tr trying to refine them and explain them more clearly.

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And I think one of the things we want to do at the playful learning session is just share
those experiences and going from just the idea of quickly creating a game that you're

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going to throw away to thinking, no, hold on a minute, there's something here that we
think is actually quite fun.

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Could we do more with it?

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And Joe has been really good at guiding us and

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and talking us through the various stages to see whether we could actually, you know, make
a game that we could put into some form of production and sell.

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And Vicky has been playtesting it to death and taking it around various European games
events to try and raise a bit of interest.

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What will participants be coming and playing the game?

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Are we talking a high energy game or is it a nice sort of sit down and have a cup of tea
game?

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So you were still in the process of putting it together at the moment, but it is very much
focused on the gameplay itself because we are still in the process of refining this game,

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even though it's gone through lots of testing and you know being played by lots of
different people.

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So we very much want participants to be part of the game and to a part of refining it as
well.

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Um so it is very much a not a watching session, it's a get a stuck in and um give us your
thoughts on this game as well.

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Um and we are wanting it to be fast paced, a bit unpredictable, learning as we go along.

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Like Marco mentioned, it's not a very difficult game to play.

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So we're wanting people to master it and to basically just throw themselves into it and to
m immerse themselves into the experience.

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And we can learn from watching other people play the game as well, as much as what they're
learning whilst playing together in a group of people that they may not know before.

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So it's all part of just that k kind of chaotic feel really.

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I mean that's my angle from it, I'm sure.

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I I would say that it's the sort of game where you're not going to be able to sit down and
have a nice cup of coffee.

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In fact, if you did bring your coffee or your tea in there, I think you would have to
guard it with your life because the excitement was so much that there's a lot of physical

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activity around it and you know, you might be in danger of scalding somebody um because it
accidentally goes flying through the air as people get enthused.

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Well that's the first you know what, that's the first one of these that's come with a
health warning.

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Everybody and this is the first time I've had four people on a call, so this may go a bit
strange, but let's see how it goes.

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If you were to disappear into the woods, where I would find you and what you would be
doing.

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Malcolm, can we start with you?

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I think you'd find me up a tree hiding from the gruffalo.

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I

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I like food and foraging and the idea of it.

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So you probably find me collecting sticks to try and uh build a fire and collect some
mushrooms if there are any, to see what I can make rough and ready.

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Fantastic.

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Sarah.

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I'd be venturing into the wood dressed as little red riding hood with a basket with a lot
of fake food in it that I would throw at any errant seagulls that were hovering about like

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Malcolm in a seagull costume.

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Vicki, I think I've already got one for you, haven't I?

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So would you like

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But this would be a different answer because last time I I was a swirl, but this time I'm
a seagull.

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So I'm not lost in the wood at all.

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I'm out on Brighton Pierce gathering chips around.

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10.45 a.m.

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A short break.

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Have a lovely biscuit.

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Please.

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Yeah.

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11am Gallery Room 2 Richard Treves presents The Grid using physical floor activities to
enhance learning.

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Yeah.

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So this comes out of my discovery that silly things I'd been doing in teaching for years
uh were properly called embodied learning.

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So I've been trying to keep people going at the end of um school outreach days and things
like that by getting them to do strange physical things and I discovered that actually

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it's deeply embedded with theory, um, that these help people learn and help people
remember.

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Uh so I'm I was quite excited to find that and I have been using bits and pieces like the
grid uh for years on and off.

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Um I'm bringing a couple of things.

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First of all, I'm gonna try and explore I d I think this really suits STEM because uh g
STEM is naturally graphical in sort of subject manager science, technology, and

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engineering and maths.

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but I I think

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You can get diagrams into everything.

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So I'm gonna try and do some English literature.

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Um and the main idea is in the kind of way that you would show a graphic, we stick a
graphic on the floor in really big size, and then you get people to make decisions and

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show relationships uh and wander around, and then as the tutor I I I wander around and
talk to people and have conversations with.

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about the about their choices and that's where the teaching unfolds.

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and I recently did a point of science talk where I got them all doing Mexican waves and
the feedback from that was excellent.

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I was I was I was showing them how earthquakes work by getting them to do Mexican waves
and and strange Mexican waves and and they really enjoyed it and they said it's very

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playful.

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so I was pleased about that.

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So it's those sort of techniques.

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Fantastic.

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So what are you going to be expecting of uh attendees?

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So they will be

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the way I'm gonna do it is the way I uh approached last year's session, if anyone came to
that, is I'm going to be enrolled, we'll go through some teaching examples and and they

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will play students and then I'll keep on stopping the action and say, Right, I am now
doing this for these reasons and sort of unpack um the pedagogical reasons that I'm making

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choices and doing certain things.

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uh and the approach and uh I I might I'm in this for the learning as well.

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Um I'm I'm quite early in quite a lot of these sort of things, so people's opinions and
feedback about what they think about the techniques and whether they work and how they

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could be improved, I'd be really interested to hear what people say about it.

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That sounds fantastic.

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And it's lovely to have some playful approaches being embedded in STEM subjects as well,
'cause I know that's always a really tricky fit for people to kind of to to work that out.

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embodied learning.

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Do you know there's a lot of people been talking about embodied learning?

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I'm not sure I know entirely what it is.

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How what would how would you describe embodied learning?

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There are wonderful examples of this is is science has been looking at the brain far more
and discovering that the old line, I think therefore I am, as in the only thing I can

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trust is me being me, my brain, which naturally separates you from your body.

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is an interesting philosophical position to hold, but it's not true.

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I i if people are thinking with their bodies.

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So for example

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There's an experiment where they got people to do maths, school kids to do maths, and some
of them were allowed to gesture and some of them weren't.

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And the ones that gestured did significantly better.

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Oh that's so interesting.

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Which i is fascinating.

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And and and a one that Mark Childs told me the other day, which I also love, is um it's
not about learning, but judges making judgments are more lenient if they're holding a hot

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cup of tea or coffee.

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Which just tells you is our our bodies are influencing us and we are thinking with our
bodies all the time.

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Now people may think, No, I'm a brain and I kinda drive this fleshy machine which does the
thing I want.

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That's your perception, your perception of how you work.

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I I talk about the blind spot and people don't know where their blind spot is.

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Is is is an example of our brains do stuff for us and we don't know.

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So your perception i it is just it helps you get through the day and and and do whatever y
you do.

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But science is showing us that real really we are thinking with our bodies.

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and the other really good example, I'm I'm from a geographical, geological background, is
it

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is field work and they stuck people at the bottom of the ocean and taught them to remember
just lines of words and then they tested some of them at the bottom of the ocean and some

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of them back on land and the ones they s tested at the bottom of the ocean with all the
gear, the scuba gear stuff, did better.

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And it's about if you're taught in an environment, you will naturally do better in an
environment which tells you where your body is.

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is really important.

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So Richard, one more question for you, which is if you disappeared into the woods, where
would we find you and what would you be doing?

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what would I be doing?

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Um, I would be scurrying around looking for a rock.

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Because deep down what I really love is I'm a geologist.

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Dude, geology.

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I would I would be looking for a rock.

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And famously, I love this story.

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Physics, everything's been worked out in nineteen ten, relativity, and no one can
understand it.

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It's incredibly complicated.

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Um, geology's still going on.

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We're still finding things out.

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There is there's a guy in the nineteen fifties, a school kid, found a fossil.

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In Pre-Cambrian rocks, you're not supposed to get fossils in Pre-Cambrian rocks.

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And his teacher said it it can't be.

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We don't get fossils in Precambrian rocks.

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So he sa he told his dad, who is a university lecturer, and lo and behold, it is a
pre-Cambrian fossil, and it's in um one of the museums in the East Midlands now.

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So go into the woods, find some rocks.

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Yeah.

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11am Outdoors Matthew Carney presents Nature Abhors a Vacuum, Sustainability Through
Connection, a session which playfully explores the importance of connectedness in

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educational sustainable development through the metaphor of Woodlands.

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Yeah.

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11 a.m.

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The Terrace Room Emma Gallaspi, Emma Derbyshire, Abby Jones, Alisa Dollard and Emma
Gallaspi present What to Do When They Don't Want to Play.

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Bringing Playful Learning to the Unconverted Many.

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Our approach to engaging skeptical facilitators.

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This came out of us having conversations about having facilitators that either don't buy
in to our playful learning strategies or who have been timetabled to teach and it wouldn't

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necessarily be something that they would choose to facilitate.

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And we realised that success and sustainability of these types of sessions relies so
heavily on having

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converted facilitators who really buy in to to what we're doing.

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So this all stemmed from us realizing that we're probably not the only people who've
struggled with facilitators who don't want to play or think that they can't play.

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And what what could we do about it?

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So we wanted to in this workshop sort of share some of our experiences with people, share
some of our activities that we use

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with our own facilitators when we're doing a bit of training and gentle encouragement that
actually it is wonderful to come and join the chaos as they perceive it.

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Um so we're gonna be in this workshop we're gonna be taking you through some of the the
playful strategies that we use, um, some of our findings, what's worked well, um, how

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we've overcome some of the challenges of the the reluctant facilitator.

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And um just generally

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hoping that we give people some ideas for for how to bring more people into this wonderful
world of playful learning.

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00:31:35,724 --> 00:31:36,946
I mean, that sounds fabulous.

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I mean, also though, it sounds quite intimidating.

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I c I can't imagine giving a facilitator who's I I suppose not expecting it or hasn't
previously engaged with it something playful to do.

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Um, so what do you do with that?

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How do you how do you handle that?

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Or is this the whole kind of is this the whole session?

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Yeah, I mean I think that's a big part of it.

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And what we realized uh sort of early on was that w there are a number of barriers,
especially as being um people involved in interprofessional learning.

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And often we can focus on trying to ensure that the students are are doing well in the
session or trying to get them to see the insight and the value.

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But what we realise is actually there's two sides of this that we have to also have our
colleagues on board and often

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it's safety in what you know and if it's something that you don't know, that can often
cause a lot of fear.

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And I think it's recognizing that fear and how do you overcome that?

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Because actually once you do get that buy-in, what we find is that actually it spreads and
it spreads like wildfire.

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Actually more people are more willing to try new things and do things slightly
differently, especially when they start to see the benefits and the outcomes with our

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students.

397
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That sounds great.

398
00:32:44,914 --> 00:32:48,213
So what are people going to be um doing in the session itself?

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Yeah, so we're gonna be using some imagery to get facilitators to to think about speaking
about emotions.

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So using that imagery for them to tell us how they're feeling basically.

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which allows that kind of vulnerability to sort of bubble to the surface and then we can
have those those uncomfortable sort of conversations and and put people's fears um aside

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by reassuring them.

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Then

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There'll be looking at some other activities where we try to demonstrate by sort of spot
the difference and using that kind of similarity and differences to sort of really just

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get them to understand that what they bring to f facilitation actually is helpful and
isn't that different just because we're doing playful learning.

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So we're just gently coaxing people along.

407
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And there'll be some other other sort of games and and

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creative approaches with then a bit of time for reflection at the end um for how people
might take this away and use it in their context.

409
00:33:54,798 --> 00:33:55,899
I mean, that sounds marvellous.

410
00:33:55,899 --> 00:34:01,281
And also not what I was expecting, which was something like you cracking the whip and
saying, No, it's mandatory fun for all.

411
00:34:01,281 --> 00:34:03,842
Get get out there and enjoy yourselves.

412
00:34:03,842 --> 00:34:06,984
Meh So yes, that sounds that sounds brilliant.

413
00:34:06,984 --> 00:34:10,171
Um and I've already asked you my normal icebreaker question.

414
00:34:10,171 --> 00:34:18,389
So I'm gonna ask you a stupid different question, which is if you could be any woodland
critter, what would it be?

415
00:34:19,085 --> 00:34:23,790
I would like to be a falcon, just so I can fly and go wherever I want to go.

416
00:34:23,790 --> 00:34:26,702
Also quite like to be a predator.

417
00:34:26,702 --> 00:34:29,314
I was gonna say, I I was like, Do you do you just have it out for voles?

418
00:34:29,314 --> 00:34:29,887
Is that what it is?

419
00:34:29,887 --> 00:34:32,224
You're like voles, they think they're so great.

420
00:34:32,224 --> 00:34:34,555
I d I don't I don't want anything attacking me.

421
00:34:34,576 --> 00:34:36,477
Top of the food chain me.

422
00:34:37,558 --> 00:34:40,640
I feel like this is probing deep into our psyche.

423
00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:46,084
Um I'm gonna go for something like a butterfly for the fabulous outfits.

424
00:34:46,084 --> 00:34:48,465
Emma's always in a fabulous outfit though.

425
00:34:55,660 --> 00:34:58,482
12 o'clock, the Terrace Room.

426
00:34:59,123 --> 00:35:13,713
Emma Gillasby, Abby Jones, Emma Derbyshire, Steve Seymour, Anne Herbston, and Amy Edward
Smith present Guardians of the Learning Forest, Growing into Professional Education

427
00:35:13,713 --> 00:35:14,774
Together.

428
00:35:15,288 --> 00:35:16,278
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

429
00:35:17,014 --> 00:35:18,455
Our background is higher education.

430
00:35:18,455 --> 00:35:21,556
We work across health and social care courses.

431
00:35:21,636 --> 00:35:25,818
There are over twenty plus courses that we currently work with.

432
00:35:25,818 --> 00:35:37,172
And our session is mainly looking at how do you get over 20 courses together in order to
create interprofessional activities and sessions where students can learn not only

433
00:35:37,172 --> 00:35:40,884
alongside each other but about each other and from each other.

434
00:35:40,884 --> 00:35:45,976
Um and how do you do that with professions that might not be the same as your professions
or what?

435
00:35:45,976 --> 00:35:47,436
what you might think are important.

436
00:35:47,436 --> 00:35:57,809
Um, so there's some lessons learned definitely in our session around um kind of those
issues that you have to overcome, the things that you have to accept and really building

437
00:35:57,809 --> 00:36:03,671
those collaborations across peer-to-peer um and what that looks like in practice.

438
00:36:03,671 --> 00:36:07,072
Um by no means an easy feat for our institution.

439
00:36:07,072 --> 00:36:08,792
It's something that we've grown to do.

440
00:36:08,792 --> 00:36:14,424
And um I mean I think we have over twenty two members of staff that are key to that.

441
00:36:14,424 --> 00:36:16,874
Plus more staff that engage with the sessions.

442
00:36:16,874 --> 00:36:24,683
I think I want to say over 3,000 students that have engaged this academic year, 70 plus
sessions.

443
00:36:24,683 --> 00:36:31,349
So we're really going to talk through a little bit about what that looks like, em trials,
tribulations, and all.

444
00:36:31,349 --> 00:36:41,378
But also give those attending our workshop opportunities to do different types of
activities and games that we use in our own sessions to bring that learning to life.

445
00:36:41,378 --> 00:36:42,112
And

446
00:36:42,112 --> 00:36:50,749
allow our students to shine in their skill set, but also demonstrate why working
collaboratively, especially in health and social care, is so important.

447
00:36:50,749 --> 00:36:57,395
Um there's a lot of learning that can come out of play, which um I think me and my
colleagues would agree with.

448
00:36:57,395 --> 00:37:01,418
And it's not just the students that are learning through that process.

449
00:37:01,418 --> 00:37:08,004
We are as well in our many um our own interprofessional activities that we throw amongst
our staff teams as well.

450
00:37:08,004 --> 00:37:10,508
Um so yeah, that's what

451
00:37:10,508 --> 00:37:12,160
I think our session's gonna look like.

452
00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:12,791
It's fantastic.

453
00:37:12,791 --> 00:37:15,265
So what's it gonna look like from attendee perspective?

454
00:37:15,265 --> 00:37:18,962
Because I looked at through the abstract, uh, and you've it looks like you've got all
sorts, you've got a real pick and mix.

455
00:37:18,962 --> 00:37:22,408
I see escape rooms, puzzle games, challenges.

456
00:37:22,408 --> 00:37:26,464
Um so yeah, what's um yeah, what's it gonna look like for attendees?

457
00:37:26,894 --> 00:37:33,978
So at first we battled with how do we show seventy sessions in such a small sh period of
time.

458
00:37:35,659 --> 00:37:39,902
But again, we don't want this to be us talking either.

459
00:37:39,902 --> 00:37:41,603
We want people to learn that themselves.

460
00:37:41,603 --> 00:37:51,129
So what we've done is we've tried to pull out some highlights and key themes from the
seventy and key activities and smaller games that are in each of those sessions.

461
00:37:51,129 --> 00:37:53,450
And we're gonna have um those

462
00:37:53,450 --> 00:38:00,072
out and available to attendees to play themselves and rotate around five key areas for us.

463
00:38:00,072 --> 00:38:05,594
In the hope that they'll see and start to demonstrate amongst each other what our students
do too.

464
00:38:05,594 --> 00:38:10,175
Very much hoping that the actual doing will demonstrate our point.

465
00:38:10,175 --> 00:38:19,202
So as little time talking about our process and more hands-on allowing people to play and
have a wander around and do some of that learning for themselves.

466
00:38:19,202 --> 00:38:23,926
I that sounds like a marvellous analogue for that discipl interdisciplinary um approach.

467
00:38:23,926 --> 00:38:27,610
Just 'cause you you're gonna have diverse people from diverse professional backgrounds.

468
00:38:27,610 --> 00:38:33,675
I have just one more question for you, which is if you were to go missing in the woods go
missing, no, disappear.

469
00:38:33,675 --> 00:38:34,856
Good grief.

470
00:38:35,157 --> 00:38:41,352
Um, Stevie, if you were to disappear into the woods, where would we find you and what
would you be doing?

471
00:38:41,632 --> 00:38:46,786
Glad that you changed the terminology because as you've said missing, I'd say ask Abby
Jones first.

472
00:38:47,648 --> 00:38:49,549
Ask Abby Jones where I am.

473
00:38:50,951 --> 00:38:55,546
But probably wandering around, thinking to myself, how did I get here?

474
00:38:55,546 --> 00:38:56,116
Where am I?

475
00:38:56,116 --> 00:38:58,017
Because I tend to just wander.

476
00:38:58,098 --> 00:39:02,392
So I just you probably find me a little bit lost and confused, like what am I doing

477
00:39:02,392 --> 00:39:03,390
Where am I?

478
00:39:06,382 --> 00:39:09,265
12 o'clock, gallery room two.

479
00:39:09,686 --> 00:39:16,833
Rory Parkinson presents Cards for Social Policy, a playful approach to teaching health
policy.

480
00:39:19,756 --> 00:39:24,042
So Rory, tell me about your session Cards for Social Policy.

481
00:39:24,202 --> 00:39:28,204
I it's better for me to just give a general out overview of who I am.

482
00:39:28,204 --> 00:39:31,625
And I work for a medical school at University of of Lancashire.

483
00:39:31,625 --> 00:39:35,597
I'm one of the module leads who really focuses on behavioural and social sciences.

484
00:39:35,597 --> 00:39:47,412
That's kind of my through part of our delivery, we have to think about social policy,
social health policy and why is that important to really, you know, I guess f for medical

485
00:39:47,412 --> 00:39:50,333
students but also then the wider health and wider population.

486
00:39:50,834 --> 00:39:52,064
I want you to really think

487
00:39:52,064 --> 00:40:00,978
if you said to any student in whatever context like today's session we're going talk about
uh legislation, we're talking about political ideologies and social policy.

488
00:40:02,319 --> 00:40:03,580
Think about that.

489
00:40:03,660 --> 00:40:05,441
Eyes are rolling to the back of the head.

490
00:40:05,561 --> 00:40:07,712
Yeah, they have switched off, you have lost them.

491
00:40:07,775 --> 00:40:08,938
Um and

492
00:40:09,312 --> 00:40:10,002
I I love it.

493
00:40:10,002 --> 00:40:10,892
I love political idea.

494
00:40:10,892 --> 00:40:11,543
I love politics.

495
00:40:11,543 --> 00:40:12,883
I love social policy.

496
00:40:12,883 --> 00:40:13,673
I'm a sociologist.

497
00:40:13,673 --> 00:40:25,345
So I'm thinking, well, how can I get students to interact and engage in this subject in a
playful, fun, engaging manner to help with um, you know, everything from their assessment

498
00:40:25,345 --> 00:40:35,999
to memory tension or of you know of the knowledge, um, but also as well about the
application to real life situation um and how them as medical students can they navigate

499
00:40:35,999 --> 00:40:37,209
this this world.

500
00:40:38,010 --> 00:40:38,850
Played a few

501
00:40:38,850 --> 00:40:39,522
card games.

502
00:40:39,522 --> 00:40:46,818
Um I'm a bit of a game myself and I'm rooted in things like T T RPG, so tabletop
role-playing games or things like Duny.

503
00:40:46,818 --> 00:40:47,650
Dragons.

504
00:40:47,650 --> 00:40:50,080
You'll get on with Laura Mitchell if you've not met her already.

505
00:40:50,094 --> 00:40:51,308
I recognize that name.

506
00:40:51,308 --> 00:40:54,660
Al also video games, um RPG video games, all that sort of stuff.

507
00:40:54,858 --> 00:41:06,963
I think a gamified and playful approach to learning is extremely um impactful um and it
can create some really good learning experiences and for students.

508
00:41:06,963 --> 00:41:11,590
So the card game um is based on um a couple of different games.

509
00:41:11,590 --> 00:41:17,804
So Cards Against Humanity, some of you may already know about, um slash another game that
you might not heard called Policy Odyssey.

510
00:41:18,938 --> 00:41:20,429
It's by Simple Politics.

511
00:41:20,429 --> 00:41:25,122
Simple Politics is a social media site run by a gentleman called Tatan.

512
00:41:25,418 --> 00:41:32,128
Uh have referenced previous um and he created a game um where basically there's like
problems and solutions.

513
00:41:32,128 --> 00:41:42,006
And I really like this this essence of these problems and solutions, but I also like the
um kind of selecting cards and choosing cards and debating from of cards in humanity.

514
00:41:42,006 --> 00:41:43,996
Sort of merged them together.

515
00:41:44,216 --> 00:41:47,158
And I created a card game that

516
00:41:47,704 --> 00:41:50,656
There are several problems and students pick the problems.

517
00:41:51,738 --> 00:41:55,391
We hand out five solution cards and they've got to generally debate.

518
00:41:55,391 --> 00:41:59,275
Um, so for example, I have a card here called um insecure jobs.

519
00:41:59,275 --> 00:42:04,811
lack of job security and employment benefits result in financial stress, health insecurity
for workers.

520
00:42:04,811 --> 00:42:08,654
Now, students will be given five cards each, um, solution cards.

521
00:42:09,856 --> 00:42:12,938
For example, they may pick something.

522
00:42:14,670 --> 00:42:22,035
Uh active commun uh commuting support, provide incentives for walking, biking, or using
public transportation.

523
00:42:23,017 --> 00:42:25,829
What they would have to do though is they may have five different options.

524
00:42:25,829 --> 00:42:27,030
They may choose that one go around.

525
00:42:27,030 --> 00:42:32,724
This is the one I can debate and argue and justify my position on uh the most.

526
00:42:32,724 --> 00:42:35,146
They would do this in around groups of four to five

527
00:42:35,146 --> 00:42:36,251
Students.

528
00:42:36,854 --> 00:42:38,941
And they have this um debate.

529
00:42:38,941 --> 00:42:45,304
Then they would vote at the end has to be democratic about who would have the best option.

530
00:42:45,304 --> 00:42:45,624
Like it.

531
00:42:45,624 --> 00:42:52,894
So, I mean, this is a this is a really interesting setting for it as well, because I'm
obviously I'm conscious that um in healthcare at the moment, particularly in the NHS, you

532
00:42:52,894 --> 00:42:55,984
know, politics and ideologies are extra tricky.

533
00:42:55,984 --> 00:42:57,914
How do you find doing that with your students?

534
00:42:57,914 --> 00:43:02,956
Like is is this kind of like a safer way of presenting those sorts of discourses?

535
00:43:02,956 --> 00:43:13,969
It it is grounded in um ideology and and I mean obviously d we haven't got the time here
to talk about the construction uh of it, but um the idea was that these solution cards do

536
00:43:13,969 --> 00:43:19,120
have a mix of right, left and centrist ideology and and policy.

537
00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:27,123
Um but also they have a mix of top down policy, so from government downwards and they also
have bottom up from community and and low community upwards uh policy.

538
00:43:27,123 --> 00:43:32,792
So there's a mixture there and we do do activities with the game afterwards, isn't just to
play the game, have a bit of fun.

539
00:43:32,792 --> 00:43:40,805
And then move on, we then look at some particular questions, such as um, you know,
matching some of the cards into particular ideologies and them sort of things.

540
00:43:40,805 --> 00:43:51,430
Um, I do have to have a uh a psychological safety warning at the beginning, um, because
some of the cards can to some students seem very terse.

541
00:43:51,430 --> 00:44:02,104
Um, you know, things from even like raising uh the legal edge consent to mandatory um
parenting for lower social classes and mandatory parenting classes.

542
00:44:02,104 --> 00:44:04,215
for for lower social economic classes.

543
00:44:04,215 --> 00:44:10,616
So so they're really kind of port the really wild poor things for two, um, you know,
billionaires tax.

544
00:44:10,697 --> 00:44:13,797
So, you know, so we've got high regulation, then we've got like no tax at all.

545
00:44:13,797 --> 00:44:15,918
It is everything in a box.

546
00:44:16,278 --> 00:44:24,020
Navigating that with students is is quite interesting because I have quite an interesting
demographic of students where we have quite a high amount of international students.

547
00:44:24,020 --> 00:44:29,974
So I always like to learn about their uh home countries um and the politics behind there
and

548
00:44:29,974 --> 00:44:31,468
Is it democratic?

549
00:44:31,468 --> 00:44:33,503
Is it um based on a monarchy?

550
00:44:33,503 --> 00:44:36,048
you know how how is that run?

551
00:44:36,210 --> 00:44:39,534
And it's just creating a safe space to have them conversations and

552
00:44:39,534 --> 00:44:42,877
kind of abstract the the person from the the situation.

553
00:44:42,877 --> 00:44:48,352
Rory, if you were to disappear into the woods yourself, where would we find you and what
would you be doing?

554
00:44:48,568 --> 00:44:50,138
disappeared into the woods.

555
00:44:51,519 --> 00:44:56,952
I would be in a n you know, n nice kind of hut somewhere.

556
00:44:56,952 --> 00:45:01,103
Um I probably will have constructed uh a badminton net.

557
00:45:02,384 --> 00:45:03,704
played badminton.

558
00:45:03,704 --> 00:45:09,627
Uh hopefully finding some sort of fellow sportsman um somewhere to to to play w uh
badminton with me.

559
00:45:09,627 --> 00:45:17,132
Um I'll probably also be trying to figure out a way of of of how can I connect back to the
internet because um

560
00:45:17,132 --> 00:45:20,749
I I sort of live my life slightly uh online.

561
00:45:21,232 --> 00:45:24,619
but no I I would be quite happy, uh relaxing.

562
00:45:25,558 --> 00:45:26,678
My bottom.

563
00:45:29,934 --> 00:45:45,066
12 o'clock Outdoors Martina Deal presents A Walk Through the Woods, embodying readiness
for play in spaces of resistance, through grounding, connection and reflection.

564
00:45:48,438 --> 00:45:52,468
Say Martina, tell us about your session A Walk Through the Woods.

565
00:45:52,871 --> 00:45:54,496
Is is is this like a Ron Sil thing?

566
00:45:54,496 --> 00:45:55,878
Is it a

567
00:45:56,494 --> 00:46:06,419
It is so I went to um to the Fly for Learning conference a f a couple of years ago and I
realised there were trees outside and then obviously with the theme now being into the

568
00:46:06,419 --> 00:46:11,981
woods, I thought how can I use those trees to my advantage in the hope that they are still
there?

569
00:46:15,170 --> 00:46:15,871
I don't know.

570
00:46:15,871 --> 00:46:16,281
I don't know.

571
00:46:16,281 --> 00:46:19,164
Yeah, sometimes a disaster.

572
00:46:19,164 --> 00:46:20,575
Some someone built something on it.

573
00:46:20,575 --> 00:46:21,336
I don't know.

574
00:46:21,336 --> 00:46:23,397
I'm I'm hopeful that the trees are still there.

575
00:46:23,397 --> 00:46:36,148
So so my idea was a a walk through the woods and um have a look at the trees and um think
thinking about different themes at ever each each tree that we come across on our walk.

576
00:46:36,949 --> 00:46:39,851
and that the first tree thinking about grounding.

577
00:46:39,851 --> 00:46:43,294
So something I find in my own workshops and in

578
00:46:43,514 --> 00:46:47,055
when I deliver and design them is the the idea of grounding.

579
00:46:47,055 --> 00:46:48,156
It's something we often forget.

580
00:46:48,156 --> 00:46:57,949
I think as academics, we're all often very much in our heads um and don't think about the
body and how that's connected to giving ourselves permission to play and to try new

581
00:46:57,949 --> 00:46:58,439
things.

582
00:46:58,439 --> 00:47:04,831
Um so we'll first do uh a little grounding activity that I have from centered riding.

583
00:47:04,831 --> 00:47:07,762
So I'm actually a horse rider in my my spare time.

584
00:47:08,022 --> 00:47:08,755
And uh

585
00:47:08,755 --> 00:47:10,564
is a horse like a requirement for this?

586
00:47:10,564 --> 00:47:13,897
Do you need to bring a horse or one of those sticks with a horse head on?

587
00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:17,451
I wish it wasn't so far away and I could have taken my horses with me.

588
00:47:18,330 --> 00:47:19,922
I could have made up a part of it.

589
00:47:19,922 --> 00:47:35,758
Um but the the approach I use with my horse riding is uh centered riding and it's thinking
about how the how our bodies can help guide the horse and lead and be empowered leaders uh

590
00:47:35,758 --> 00:47:37,206
who are in partnership

591
00:47:37,206 --> 00:47:46,172
And actually in my teaching, I use a lot of those principles from centered riding um
because it's a lot about leadership and having clear intent, having a plan, but also being

592
00:47:46,172 --> 00:47:49,674
flexible and being adaptable if the plan doesn't quite work.

593
00:47:49,674 --> 00:47:54,337
So actually I use a lot of those methods um in in my teaching.

594
00:47:54,337 --> 00:48:02,702
And so I thought Playful Learning Conference is a great place to experiment with making
bringing a bit more awareness to that, I guess.

595
00:48:02,962 --> 00:48:09,595
Um so we're going to think about the centered riding principles in the session, which is
ground, center, breathe, and grow.

596
00:48:10,246 --> 00:48:20,732
and yeah, so the grounding is is the first place where we stop and have a have a think
about and have a doing uh activity uh where where we feel more grounded.

597
00:48:20,762 --> 00:48:24,386
Um another thing with centered riding is very much around connection.

598
00:48:24,386 --> 00:48:30,422
So it's connecting in in that case with the horse, but actually, you know, also connecting
with the people in front of you and around you.

599
00:48:30,422 --> 00:48:37,759
And a a lot of the centered riding stuff works with partnering exercises and activities to
think about who you are as a person.

600
00:48:37,759 --> 00:48:42,463
Are you kind of a natural leader or are you a little bit more like waiting for someone
else?

601
00:48:42,463 --> 00:48:49,740
So we're going to do a fun activity there, which is going to allow us everyone to to kind
of lead and follow and think about.

602
00:48:49,762 --> 00:48:59,439
what kind of person they are through uh an embodied activity that I don't generally do
with students and because it requires some physical contact and that with students I

603
00:48:59,439 --> 00:49:01,870
always find a bit difficult to lead that.

604
00:49:01,870 --> 00:49:08,214
But I thought playful learning it's a it's a nice safe space to be brave and to have the
the courage to try these things out.

605
00:49:08,495 --> 00:49:17,661
And then at the final tree we'll we'll have a bit of a reflection time where we think
about creative ways of reflecting on our own practice and who we are within our practice

606
00:49:17,661 --> 00:49:19,586
um and also who the people are.

607
00:49:19,586 --> 00:49:21,296
Who we who we teach.

608
00:49:21,366 --> 00:49:22,062
I this sounds marvelous.

609
00:49:22,062 --> 00:49:24,085
What are the spaces of resistance?

610
00:49:24,186 --> 00:49:31,029
What I often find in academia is as I mentioned before is how people are very much in
their heads.

611
00:49:31,189 --> 00:49:39,092
And I think asking people or inviting people to connect the mind to the body can bring
some resistance around where people aren't open to that.

612
00:49:39,092 --> 00:49:47,326
Uh, but actually I find through some grounding exercises that are very basic and have an
immediate result, people start to open up to it.

613
00:49:47,326 --> 00:49:48,777
They're like, I feel a bit different.

614
00:49:48,777 --> 00:49:49,917
This is interesting.

615
00:49:49,917 --> 00:49:50,928
I want to learn more.

616
00:49:50,928 --> 00:49:52,044
Um and

617
00:49:52,044 --> 00:49:55,276
And that kind of breaks through those uh barriers of resistance.

618
00:49:55,276 --> 00:50:04,101
I mean, I've had feedback from students where the where they they said they felt they they
didn't think they could ever do anything like that.

619
00:50:04,101 --> 00:50:04,811
And then they did.

620
00:50:04,811 --> 00:50:13,036
They're like, I've never written a poem or I thought I was horrible at writing, and but
I've written this poem, and that's because we've started with a bit of grounding and

621
00:50:13,036 --> 00:50:19,969
breathing, and then we go into uh a bit of more creative writing and and thinking about
the research in novel ways.

622
00:50:21,112 --> 00:50:30,420
There are these spaces of resistance where we feel like we have to have our academic voice
on and wear our academic trousers and be this in this conformed academic environment,

623
00:50:30,420 --> 00:50:41,159
whereas actually we're learning what our own academic voice is and who we are in that
academic space to make more sense of the world and to make the world a better place.

624
00:50:41,159 --> 00:50:47,224
And we can only really do that through connecting with the people around us, but also
reflecting on ourselves.

625
00:50:47,224 --> 00:50:49,538
Um so it's bringing that.

626
00:50:49,538 --> 00:50:54,766
that connection in there as well between the mind, the body and the other around us.

627
00:50:55,136 --> 00:50:55,986
So interesting.

628
00:50:55,986 --> 00:50:59,933
Embodied learning seems to be a real theme this year at the conference.

629
00:50:59,933 --> 00:51:08,906
I have one more question for you, which is if you were to disappear into the woods, where
would we find you and what would you be doing?

630
00:51:09,598 --> 00:51:10,838
Ooh.

631
00:51:11,081 --> 00:51:19,053
I would probably be mooching around trying to find little creatures and and just watching
them and observing them and seeing what happened.

632
00:51:19,512 --> 00:51:21,264
That's the first time somebody said mooching around.

633
00:51:21,264 --> 00:51:23,637
And it might be the first time I've heard the phrase mooching around.

634
00:51:23,637 --> 00:51:25,519
Mooching years Years.

635
00:51:25,519 --> 00:51:26,039
I love that.

636
00:51:26,039 --> 00:51:27,070
That's marvellous.

637
00:51:27,070 --> 00:51:30,824
Is there a particular woodland creature that you'd seek out or just whatever was going?

638
00:51:32,044 --> 00:51:34,867
I really like sort of squirrels and hedgehogs.

639
00:51:34,867 --> 00:51:37,230
I would I would definitely be on the hunt for a red squirrel.

640
00:51:37,230 --> 00:51:39,302
Um yeah.

641
00:51:39,302 --> 00:51:43,186
Or or woodpeckers because you can always hear them but I can never find where they are.

642
00:51:47,182 --> 00:51:48,683
1245.

643
00:51:48,783 --> 00:51:49,804
Lunch.

644
00:51:49,804 --> 00:51:51,865
A mesé lunch to be precise.

645
00:51:52,526 --> 00:52:05,297
There'll be Moroccan spiced chickpeas, Kishir Turkish bulga salad, Kobez flatbread,
Shirazi salad, Lemonese fatouche salad, roast carrot with feta and rose harissa, pickled

646
00:52:05,297 --> 00:52:11,682
red cabbage, chamula chargoed haloumi, and furnuffles.

647
00:52:21,582 --> 00:52:22,922
130.

648
00:52:23,383 --> 00:52:32,888
Having made a messé of the mese, the conference reconvenes in the terrace room to join
Alex Mosley as he presents the second keynote.

649
00:52:32,888 --> 00:52:36,170
Higher education is a game, so let's play.

650
00:52:39,138 --> 00:52:47,103
I'm coming to Playful Learning this year as a keynote, which is an interesting role for
me, uh having run Playful Learning for many years.

651
00:52:47,103 --> 00:52:49,243
And then last year.

652
00:52:49,464 --> 00:52:50,124
I have, yeah.

653
00:52:50,124 --> 00:52:56,487
And and yet last year, just as a punter, which is great actually, just to uh enjoy it
without any responsibility whatsoever.

654
00:52:56,487 --> 00:53:03,351
Uh this year I've got a different type of responsibility, which is to uh pull people into
um a keynote session.

655
00:53:03,351 --> 00:53:08,494
Um and as you say, the title is Higher Education

656
00:53:08,494 --> 00:53:09,285
play your game.

657
00:53:09,285 --> 00:53:17,961
Um the idea of the session, I'm got I'm not going to reveal too much today just because I
want a few things to be a surprise.

658
00:53:17,962 --> 00:53:31,393
But the whole premise of it is to imagine pushing universities into the future and then
have a think about whether applying game principles or play principles into that future is

659
00:53:31,393 --> 00:53:35,075
a better situation for higher education.

660
00:53:35,256 --> 00:53:38,088
Or whether the blend actually is more important.

661
00:53:38,370 --> 00:53:49,035
So it's imagining universities who are who have developed approaches that are derived from
games or play as you go into the future.

662
00:53:49,035 --> 00:53:58,328
So how does it feel to be coming to the conference that you have run, managed, stewarded,
done basically every job associated with over the last few years as a keynote speaker?

663
00:53:58,328 --> 00:54:01,100
Does it feel higher pressure than actually delivering a thing?

664
00:54:01,100 --> 00:54:07,020
Yeah, I'm I'm really, really nervous actually, because I know from my organizing days that

665
00:54:07,020 --> 00:54:17,513
We selected our keynotes really carefully to make sure that they would give a good solid
forty five minutes of entertainment for our groups and also had that and what's great

666
00:54:17,513 --> 00:54:30,217
about Playful Learning, they had that mix of academic and evidence based approach
alongside the practical and the kind of creative side as well.

667
00:54:30,217 --> 00:54:33,487
And if you can blend those two together, that makes a perfect keynote.

668
00:54:33,487 --> 00:54:35,606
So that's what I'm trying to do.

669
00:54:35,606 --> 00:54:36,677
I think in my session.

670
00:54:36,677 --> 00:54:38,958
Uh, whether that will work or not, I don't know.

671
00:54:38,958 --> 00:54:40,209
But that's my aim.

672
00:54:40,209 --> 00:54:42,818
So is there gonna be an element of interaction to your session?

673
00:54:42,818 --> 00:54:45,091
Are you gonna be asking anything of the audience?

674
00:54:45,552 --> 00:54:46,622
I am, yes.

675
00:54:46,622 --> 00:54:48,283
The audience will be fully involved.

676
00:54:48,283 --> 00:54:51,405
So I'm gonna ask the audience to to join with me.

677
00:54:51,405 --> 00:54:57,198
Um I'm gonna start with a bit of science fiction, and that's how I'm gonna begin the
session.

678
00:54:57,198 --> 00:55:04,922
Uh and I'll be drawing people from the audience into that world uh and getting them to
help me create.

679
00:55:05,046 --> 00:55:08,118
a vision of what those worlds could be in the future.

680
00:55:08,118 --> 00:55:12,851
Um I won't say too much more about that, but yeah, it will be it will be very interactive.

681
00:55:13,031 --> 00:55:21,778
So of course, um, so much of what we've had from previous keynote speakers, but also from
the sessions is very focused on kind of like the the student and teacher.

682
00:55:21,778 --> 00:55:27,923
And of course your background um and your I'd suggest expertise is very much at kind of
institution level.

683
00:55:27,923 --> 00:55:31,425
What are you aiming for people to come away from the keynote with?

684
00:55:31,425 --> 00:55:32,866
Individual

685
00:55:32,886 --> 00:55:37,310
reflections on their own approach to whatever context they're in.

686
00:55:37,310 --> 00:55:38,381
That's what I'm aiming for.

687
00:55:38,381 --> 00:55:43,215
Um so I know that we have a good mix of attendees at Playful Learning.

688
00:55:43,215 --> 00:55:49,946
Some might be teachers, some might be learners, some might be uh practitioners, some might
be artists.

689
00:55:49,946 --> 00:55:55,576
Um we have all sorts of people at Playful Learning, which is a great a around its
diversity.

690
00:55:55,576 --> 00:55:57,367
It's why it's so wonderful.

691
00:55:57,868 --> 00:55:59,006
But I that's what I want to do.

692
00:55:59,006 --> 00:56:00,710
I want to give everybody

693
00:56:01,004 --> 00:56:03,796
a sense of what I've what I've managed to do in my career.

694
00:56:03,796 --> 00:56:12,000
So yeah, I I started out as a learner, as a teacher, and have and have, you know, ended up
in a kind of leadership role, sort of by accident.

695
00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:19,555
But that journey, as I've been helped through that journey by developing uh a playful
approach myself.

696
00:56:19,555 --> 00:56:21,986
So I so I call myself a playful leader.

697
00:56:21,986 --> 00:56:24,558
That's what I said when I was interviewed for my current role.

698
00:56:24,558 --> 00:56:29,300
Uh and that's how I run my approach and my team here.

699
00:56:29,794 --> 00:56:37,741
So I'd like to give everybody an opportunity to think about what their approach might be,
whether it's game like, whether it's play like, whether it's playful, which is what mine

700
00:56:37,741 --> 00:56:45,327
is, uh, and how that could then help them develop their own approach within their own
context.

701
00:56:45,347 --> 00:56:50,711
If you were to disappear into the woods, where would we find you and what would you be
doing?

702
00:56:50,874 --> 00:56:58,848
I would almost certainly be sitting around a campfire toasting something tasty like
marshmallows or

703
00:56:59,276 --> 00:57:01,368
Sausages or something like that.

704
00:57:01,410 --> 00:57:09,862
I do I do like climbing trees, I do like hiding in undergrowth now and again, but the best
thing I think about

705
00:57:11,550 --> 00:57:16,998
Make them something else.

706
00:57:19,822 --> 00:57:21,154
230.

707
00:57:21,154 --> 00:57:22,826
Gallery Room 1.

708
00:57:23,308 --> 00:57:27,944
Gary Waughan and Jess Bodman present Off the Beaten Track.

709
00:57:31,042 --> 00:57:41,496
So for for our session, um my um advice to anyone who's who's who's looking to choose a
session, if you want one where you can come in, jump in straight away and start playing.

710
00:57:41,496 --> 00:57:43,722
Um ours is the session.

711
00:57:43,722 --> 00:57:54,230
It's gonna be highly interactive and combined uh a team challenge um with another product
that we use to uh to provide insight and self awareness.

712
00:57:54,424 --> 00:57:59,221
help but notice um in the abstract for this the words wooden and train.

713
00:57:59,944 --> 00:58:01,696
What what what can you tell me?

714
00:58:01,890 --> 00:58:04,071
These wooden trains will feature.

715
00:58:04,411 --> 00:58:10,170
So we're gonna bring one of our most versatile team challenges actually into the space.

716
00:58:10,170 --> 00:58:12,034
I'm called the train track challenge.

717
00:58:12,034 --> 00:58:19,130
It's used for a multitude of different things from complex fr complex problem solving,
creativity, teamwork.

718
00:58:19,130 --> 00:58:30,390
Um we'll be using ours just as a playful piece, if you like, as a way in to um provide a
bit of insight on on on ourselves as we as we jump into the competitive nature of

719
00:58:30,518 --> 00:58:33,432
Of what it means to um to take on a team challenge.

720
00:58:33,432 --> 00:58:33,973
Fantastic.

721
00:58:33,973 --> 00:58:38,973
So uh attendees coming along, are they going to be doing the team based kind of activity?

722
00:58:39,308 --> 00:58:41,679
Yeah, pretty quickly there'll be quite a lot of noise in the room.

723
00:58:41,679 --> 00:58:42,809
We're we're within a few minutes.

724
00:58:42,809 --> 00:58:45,940
So our our products are plug and play products.

725
00:58:46,300 --> 00:58:47,899
so they're used by facilitators.

726
00:58:47,899 --> 00:58:52,122
Um we put the box in the middle of the room, we set the big timer at the back of the room,
we press go.

727
00:58:52,122 --> 00:58:57,623
We're gonna combine it a little bit with um a set of cards that help us reflect on
ourselves.

728
00:58:57,683 --> 00:59:01,745
Um so we could do we'll do a little piece at the start and a little piece at the end of
that.

729
00:59:01,745 --> 00:59:06,654
But mainly we'll just be jumping in um and playing with a team full of strangers.

730
00:59:06,654 --> 00:59:08,172
Um VUCA environments.

731
00:59:08,172 --> 00:59:09,912
What's a VUCA environment?

732
00:59:09,912 --> 00:59:10,903
Yeah, very good question.

733
00:59:10,903 --> 00:59:21,322
So common within the leadership space that we operate in is leaders want support with
dealing with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

734
00:59:21,322 --> 00:59:27,474
Um this challenge um particularly brings brings about quite a bit of complexity that the
team need unpack.

735
00:59:27,808 --> 00:59:33,044
If you were to disappear into the woods, where would we find you and what would you be
doing?

736
00:59:35,327 --> 00:59:37,448
That's a very dangerous question.

737
00:59:38,609 --> 00:59:41,011
probably this pin pr probably den building.

738
00:59:41,011 --> 00:59:46,944
Um with our in my creative world there's lots of banales.

739
00:59:49,725 --> 00:59:51,030
Okay.

740
00:59:59,182 --> 01:00:00,483
230.

741
01:00:00,483 --> 01:00:02,004
The Terrace Room.

742
01:00:02,665 --> 01:00:11,091
Irada Stern presents Building Meaning in Complex Systems through Play, Sustainable
Materials, and AI.

743
01:00:12,353 --> 01:00:24,282
In the session, you'll be invited to step off the forest path and enter a playful micro
ecosystem where contract law comes to life through colour, tension, and collective making.

744
01:00:28,248 --> 01:00:29,539
2.30.

745
01:00:29,860 --> 01:00:32,583
Outdoors or gallery 2 if raining.

746
01:00:33,525 --> 01:00:39,572
Abby Edgar, Ian Johnston and Laura Barclay present The Forest of Reason.

747
01:00:39,572 --> 01:00:44,037
Experiencing a playful critical thinking game in the woods.

748
01:00:46,371 --> 01:00:50,582
It's actually a session that was designed or is being designed to be an online game.

749
01:00:50,582 --> 01:00:52,332
That is the sort of fruition of it.

750
01:00:52,332 --> 01:00:56,333
Um and it was already already called the Forest of Reason.

751
01:00:56,333 --> 01:01:06,996
So when the Playful Conference had the outdoors theme or into the woods theme, um Abby
very kindly sort of coerced us into sort of creating a a real life version.

752
01:01:06,996 --> 01:01:13,878
So what we're sort of doing is trying to reenact what we are planning for the online game
in real life.

753
01:01:13,942 --> 01:01:22,852
And it's it's basically taking people through a journey of critical thinking, various
different stations where there are different activities to uh figure out.

754
01:01:22,852 --> 01:01:25,134
I don't want to say too much, don't wanna give too much away.

755
01:01:25,134 --> 01:01:35,126
And then we'll all come back together to see if they um are able to to sort of contribute
to the criticalitary finds at the end.

756
01:01:35,126 --> 01:01:36,066
I know.

757
01:01:36,078 --> 01:01:41,183
Did did the criticality was that the first thing that happened and then everything else
evolved off the back of that?

758
01:01:41,183 --> 01:01:43,645
eh What?

759
01:01:43,645 --> 01:01:45,120
But it's so good.

760
01:01:45,120 --> 01:01:50,692
It was I we was basic 'cause Ian and I were chatting online and we couldn't remember the
name of the tree that we had at the end.

761
01:01:50,692 --> 01:01:54,833
Like 'cause this has been in in in progress for a while.

762
01:01:54,833 --> 01:02:05,396
And then we should also give a shout out to our colleague um Joe Larkin as well, who's at
Leeds Becket, who was very much part of the um the original um start of this this game.

763
01:02:05,576 --> 01:02:10,738
Um it was it was sort of positioned to get the the idea is that people move through this
game and end up at that tree.

764
01:02:10,738 --> 01:02:11,878
Um

765
01:02:12,002 --> 01:02:14,611
And we had different uh stations to get them there.

766
01:02:14,611 --> 01:02:19,324
But we couldn't we couldn't actually remember what we'd called the tree and then yeah,
Criticala tree.

767
01:02:19,416 --> 01:02:31,262
Think we we thought it was the tree of knowledge, but Criticality has just got so much of
a better ring and in in the online version of the game, um which is still we haven't done

768
01:02:31,262 --> 01:02:41,138
yet, but we're going to be using this and and putting the people that attend the session
in in the shoes of people playing it online almost, even though they're in that real world

769
01:02:41,138 --> 01:02:45,130
environment, they'll kind of experience it how they might as an online user.

770
01:02:45,130 --> 01:02:48,041
So if they wanna know more about that, please come along.

771
01:02:48,041 --> 01:02:49,342
Um

772
01:02:49,408 --> 01:02:54,901
And it will help us as as a prototype of what the online game goes on to become.

773
01:02:54,901 --> 01:03:02,884
They'll each get to do one of the so the three zones Laura mentioned in the forest have
three different critical thinking skills attached.

774
01:03:02,884 --> 01:03:15,210
So they'll each do one of them and within the time we got and then come together and kind
of brief each other on what they've done and solve some some final puzzles between them.

775
01:03:15,502 --> 01:03:16,313
That sounds fabulous.

776
01:03:16,313 --> 01:03:24,114
And also, how have you found adapting an online game for in person, but also outdoors?

777
01:03:24,114 --> 01:03:27,146
It's essentially the opposite in terms of environment.

778
01:03:27,146 --> 01:03:31,069
It r it really is kind of the opposite way where we'd normally think about doing things.

779
01:03:31,069 --> 01:03:33,790
It's actually been really fun and I think really freeing.

780
01:03:33,811 --> 01:03:35,559
It's we um we we were really lucky.

781
01:03:35,559 --> 01:03:45,048
Abby actually flew over to Portsmouth a couple of weeks ago and we spent an entire day in
our office making things, physical things that we thought we could take outside with us,

782
01:03:45,048 --> 01:03:48,506
um for people to put their to get their hands on, sort of thing.

783
01:03:48,506 --> 01:03:53,044
Um so it's actually been a really interesting process to do it that way round.

784
01:03:53,044 --> 01:03:56,364
But I suppose what we've lucked so far is the

785
01:03:56,364 --> 01:04:05,981
the other side of actually engaging with the activity, engaging with the script that we
have, before we go through the process of um creating the online game.

786
01:04:05,981 --> 01:04:10,474
And we think we've got some ways to do that, um, through Abby's institution.

787
01:04:10,474 --> 01:04:18,079
Um, but it'll be quite interesting to see if we can sort of untangle a few of the knots
before we get there um and and do the next stage.

788
01:04:18,079 --> 01:04:24,962
So this is where we'll have some like real life interactions and and try out some of these
things in a practical sense to give us

789
01:04:24,962 --> 01:04:32,128
Potentially some feedback on how it might need to be tweaked um before we make the final
version once it's online.

790
01:04:32,376 --> 01:04:40,487
Our experience of of educational game design for each of us, including Abby, is mainly um
physical games as well.

791
01:04:40,487 --> 01:04:43,809
So we haven't done an on online game before.

792
01:04:43,809 --> 01:04:54,462
Um and this almost we've been talking about the online game for quite a long time and
stalled a bit, so actually creating this physical prototype is probably a a great step on

793
01:04:54,462 --> 01:04:54,742
the way.

794
01:04:54,742 --> 01:05:01,824
So we're almost doing it in reverse of converting the online game to a physical game in
the end, if that makes sense.

795
01:05:01,824 --> 01:05:02,665
It does, it does.

796
01:05:02,665 --> 01:05:04,637
And you say it's a it's a physical game.

797
01:05:04,637 --> 01:05:10,504
So obviously there are things in video games that you can do physically that are, shall we
say, a little bit more energetic in person.

798
01:05:10,504 --> 01:05:16,530
So will you be asking attendees to do double jumps, barrel rolls, kind of those sliding
crouch?

799
01:05:18,867 --> 01:05:19,768
Yeah.

800
01:05:22,850 --> 01:05:24,521
There's nothing too physical.

801
01:05:24,521 --> 01:05:35,776
Like it's there's there's no sort of need for participants to sort of run around the
campus or like move round the campus once once we've moved from the the main room down to

802
01:05:35,776 --> 01:05:43,829
the outside space that we we use, they will quite literally just be in three groups and go
off into three different stations that are very portable and back again.

803
01:05:43,829 --> 01:05:49,838
There's not I mean obviously they want to run around, they are more than welcome to do so,
but it's certainly not an obligation on our part.

804
01:05:49,838 --> 01:05:50,550
That sounds marvelous.

805
01:05:50,550 --> 01:05:51,199
Thank you so much.

806
01:05:51,199 --> 01:05:52,464
Really look forward to the session.

807
01:05:52,464 --> 01:06:01,002
So I have just one more question for each of you, which is if you disappeared into the
woods, where would we find you and what would you be doing?

808
01:06:01,719 --> 01:06:06,764
I'd be in the witch's hut having a brew or stuff creating a potion.

809
01:06:06,764 --> 01:06:16,054
I'd I'd I'd probably yeah, I'd probably track down the the nonsense maker and just see
what she's up to and see if I can join her clan, to be honest.

810
01:06:17,218 --> 01:06:20,820
Be negotiating my way around the foggy clearing, I expect.

811
01:06:20,820 --> 01:06:23,351
One of the zones is actually called the foggy clearing.

812
01:06:23,351 --> 01:06:34,606
Um they they have to use their critical skills to literally and metaphorically remove the
fog and and see clearly.

813
01:06:34,606 --> 01:06:35,751
See the tree.

814
01:06:41,110 --> 01:06:41,910
Mm.

815
01:06:44,494 --> 01:06:45,754
330.

816
01:06:45,795 --> 01:06:47,575
Gallery Room 2.

817
01:06:47,895 --> 01:06:53,757
Janina DeWitz presents TP Traveler, a playtest session.

818
01:06:54,057 --> 01:07:01,140
An immersive card game that transports players to a world where teleportation is not only
possible, but increasingly pervasive.

819
01:07:01,140 --> 01:07:06,662
A classroom game to encourage players to consider the ethics of this new travel
technology.

820
01:07:07,502 --> 01:07:15,647
TP Traveller comes with a twist at the end and a discussion activity that teleports
players firmly back to the present and encourages them to reflect on the current day

821
01:07:15,647 --> 01:07:18,081
societal impacts of Gen AI.

822
01:07:21,966 --> 01:07:23,227
330.

823
01:07:23,347 --> 01:07:24,868
The Terrace Room.

824
01:07:25,309 --> 01:07:31,315
Penn Holland, Ella Howes and Laura Mitchell present The Monsters of Change.

825
01:07:31,315 --> 01:07:35,138
How to fight with fables and transform with tales.

826
01:07:37,679 --> 01:07:44,080
So we were trying to put together um a session that would fit really nicely with this
year's theme.

827
01:07:44,080 --> 01:07:51,723
Um and I have a number of colleagues who work in the business school and who teach change
management.

828
01:07:51,723 --> 01:08:04,684
Um and so we thought it would be a really, really fun way of engaging with that topic to
present a storytelling exercise um that is loosely informed by

829
01:08:04,684 --> 01:08:07,815
An adventure in the dark, dark woods of change.

830
01:08:08,095 --> 01:08:10,055
And I dislike fairy tales.

831
01:08:12,296 --> 01:08:15,497
but there's there's some really cool stuff behind it as well.

832
01:08:15,497 --> 01:08:25,820
Um, which is to do with the fact that um I have recently been on research leave and as
part of that I've been going down a very deep rabbit hole into the structures of different

833
01:08:25,820 --> 01:08:27,140
sorts of stories.

834
01:08:27,140 --> 01:08:34,042
You will have heard many times at Playful Learning Association about uh things like the
hero's journey.

835
01:08:34,461 --> 01:08:48,896
Um and that is only the tip of the iceberg of a whole subfield of studies in literature
called Poetics, um, which is not my specialist area, but it has been a very exciting

836
01:08:48,896 --> 01:08:50,106
rabbit hole to jump down.

837
01:08:50,106 --> 01:09:03,426
Um so the the structure of the session, the the sort of type of tale um that we will be uh
asking people to participate in um and have characters in um is actually one

838
01:09:03,426 --> 01:09:10,981
that is drawing on uh that sort of rich uh underpinning of uh different story structures.

839
01:09:11,478 --> 01:09:12,120
That's so cool.

840
01:09:12,120 --> 01:09:14,786
So what will you be asking people to do in the session?

841
01:09:14,786 --> 01:09:17,121
So you s you said they're gonna be kind of drawing on characters.

842
01:09:17,121 --> 01:09:18,855
We're talking a bit of the old role play.

843
01:09:18,855 --> 01:09:19,870
What are we talking?

844
01:09:19,870 --> 01:09:21,882
Yes, there will be a little bit of an old role play.

845
01:09:21,882 --> 01:09:25,815
We might even ask them to do a teensy wheaty little bit of dress up.

846
01:09:25,815 --> 01:09:27,357
Just a teensy wheatsy bit.

847
01:09:27,357 --> 01:09:28,907
They'll definitely be hatched.

848
01:09:28,907 --> 01:09:32,246
I was gonna ask, will there be hats that's sold?

849
01:09:32,246 --> 01:09:34,248
There might be some magic ones.

850
01:09:34,329 --> 01:09:37,033
Possibly a cloak maybe a fairy wing or two.

851
01:09:37,033 --> 01:09:41,099
Um or a crow on your shoulder.

852
01:09:41,099 --> 01:09:41,820
Who knows?

853
01:09:41,820 --> 01:09:43,242
A hero sword.

854
01:09:43,242 --> 01:09:46,824
We we are coming on the train, so it's not gonna be too excessive.

855
01:09:46,824 --> 01:09:48,498
my god, yes, you're gonna be tooled up on the train.

856
01:09:48,498 --> 01:09:49,666
That's gonna be absolutely fabulous.

857
01:09:49,666 --> 01:09:53,068
It's gonna be like the Battle of Helm's Deep, but uh at Charing Cross.

858
01:09:53,068 --> 01:09:53,698
That's that's

859
01:09:53,698 --> 01:09:59,653
Will not be the first time I have been on a train in full costume with people looking at
me strangely.

860
01:10:00,846 --> 01:10:08,250
But it's such a cool timely thing because of course, you there's so much higher education
at the moment going through a lot of not always very comfortable change.

861
01:10:08,250 --> 01:10:10,348
But also it's such an interesting field at the moment.

862
01:10:10,348 --> 01:10:17,386
I've got a colleague, Chris Cox, who's been looking at the observable characteristics of
narrative um in the design of learning and student journeys.

863
01:10:17,386 --> 01:10:22,916
Um and it's really interesting how a lot of those things map to what we normally res
regard as good design practice.

864
01:10:22,916 --> 01:10:26,858
It's kind of like a good sort of universal design tool.

865
01:10:26,968 --> 01:10:37,384
So we we will we will be asking people, crucially, at the end of the session, to spend
some time reflecting on the story that they have collectively told together and think

866
01:10:37,384 --> 01:10:45,568
about what they came into it with in terms of their expectation, whether they were gonna
be the heroes of this adventure or the baddies.

867
01:10:45,568 --> 01:10:53,072
Um because there is a a very strong sort of moral message in a lot of fairy tales.

868
01:10:53,072 --> 01:10:56,930
So we we do really want people to reflect on that and

869
01:10:56,930 --> 01:11:04,372
sort of parallel that to any experiences they may have had um with going through or
observing a change process.

870
01:11:04,372 --> 01:11:14,865
And I think one of the nice things about the storytelling is, you know, anyone who's going
on a journey to become a leader or a manager and is going to have to handle this kind of

871
01:11:14,865 --> 01:11:23,417
thing has to come to terms with the fact that they are not going to be the hero of almost
anyone's story, not even their own.

872
01:11:23,797 --> 01:11:26,348
So finding a way to reconcile that

873
01:11:26,348 --> 01:11:30,445
to say, well, which character do I need to be to get the best best outcome for everyone?

874
01:11:30,445 --> 01:11:32,692
Um is very crucial.

875
01:11:33,302 --> 01:11:34,922
That's a wonderful way of framing it.

876
01:11:34,922 --> 01:11:36,525
So I'm really looking forward to the session.

877
01:11:36,525 --> 01:11:38,057
I have just one more question for you.

878
01:11:38,057 --> 01:11:39,448
Penn, Laura.

879
01:11:39,789 --> 01:11:45,834
If you were to go and disappear into the woods yourselves, where would we find you and
what would you be doing?

880
01:11:46,298 --> 01:12:04,230
I would probably be sitting on a mossy rock next to a small pool in a tiny clearing that
is not too hot, um, but is green and the birds are singing and nobody can find me.

881
01:12:05,231 --> 01:12:10,014
I am disturbed by how close my image was to pens image that she just described.

882
01:12:10,014 --> 01:12:15,218
Except mine would probably mine would probably also involve

883
01:12:15,502 --> 01:12:30,528
hiding in the trees because I do love the dappled um shade that you get through uh the
green leaves when you're sort of completely encapsulated by the canopy in a little bit of

884
01:12:30,528 --> 01:12:31,687
deciduous forest.

885
01:12:31,687 --> 01:12:37,070
Um ready to jump out at the unwary traveller.

886
01:12:37,070 --> 01:12:39,354
I was gonna say it, that was exactly the mental image I had of you, Laura.

887
01:12:39,354 --> 01:12:44,344
It was very much you up a tree in a cloak, waiting to spring out on some sort of passing
merchant.

888
01:12:44,344 --> 01:12:46,922
What what wares do you have?

889
01:12:46,922 --> 01:12:47,985
Okay.

890
01:12:55,630 --> 01:13:00,273
4.15, a short break for coffee and bickies.

891
01:13:01,454 --> 01:13:05,236
Followed by 4.30, the terrace room.

892
01:13:06,057 --> 01:13:14,421
Rosie Jones, Jane Mooney, and Elliot Spath present A Framework for Inclusive Play from
Clues to New Pathways.

893
01:13:16,758 --> 01:13:18,783
So Rosie Elliott James

894
01:13:20,248 --> 01:13:27,189
So um this is basically a sequel, should we say, to a session that we delivered last year.

895
01:13:27,362 --> 01:13:39,425
on inclusivity in play and last year's session was I suppose all about trying to find out
the problems we were trying to address.

896
01:13:39,425 --> 01:13:51,759
So Elliot and I have been involved with organisers for a number of years uh and Elliot in
particular was taking on a kind of inclusivity champion role and whilst we were looking at

897
01:13:51,759 --> 01:13:57,550
that we were getting lots of feedback from the conference about why it was or wasn't
inclusive.

898
01:13:57,550 --> 01:13:58,381
For individuals.

899
01:13:58,381 --> 01:14:04,555
So we kind of looked at that problem and last year started to try and articulate that
problem.

900
01:14:04,555 --> 01:14:18,455
em And we did it through a crime scene investigation board over three days where we came
up with the issues, the solution, probably sensible solutions, and then we kind of

901
01:14:18,455 --> 01:14:22,367
augmented that in quite a playful way.

902
01:14:22,488 --> 01:14:25,472
And then this year we will make that.

903
01:14:25,472 --> 01:14:39,329
into some amazing framework that will allow uh others to reuse and to to think differently
about both events or sessions that they're designing or just inclusivity in general.

904
01:14:39,329 --> 01:14:43,040
So I think that's the premise of what we're about to do.

905
01:14:44,216 --> 01:14:44,737
Sounds great.

906
01:14:44,737 --> 01:14:45,900
I mean I'd come to that.

907
01:14:45,900 --> 01:14:48,084
That's it's sold.

908
01:14:49,634 --> 01:14:51,526
Yeah, it sounds very impressive, I think.

909
01:14:51,526 --> 01:15:01,845
So yeah, I think that the thing that often comes up when we talk about inclusion in many,
many contexts, is no, but what do we do because different people need different things and

910
01:15:01,845 --> 01:15:03,086
what if those conflict?

911
01:15:03,086 --> 01:15:14,537
And those are often presented as a genuine concern and they're often well, sometimes
presented as a bit of a gotcha as a well, we can't think about inclusion because there's

912
01:15:14,537 --> 01:15:16,276
too many conflicting things.

913
01:15:16,276 --> 01:15:20,228
And I don't think that's so much the mindset of the kinds of people that come to playful
learning.

914
01:15:20,228 --> 01:15:35,177
So we thought what better way of thinking about how to address this, deal with this, is to
harvest the brilliant minds of the people that will be there to to think about what some

915
01:15:35,177 --> 01:15:38,419
different approaches that are playful could be.

916
01:15:38,419 --> 01:15:44,354
Because really it's about being able to adapt and try things on the spot and

917
01:15:44,354 --> 01:15:51,752
Just see what happens really, as long as you're compassionate and open to adjusting based
on how people receive it.

918
01:15:52,972 --> 01:16:01,570
And it's so it's so timely right now as well, because inclusivity has sort of jumped to
the top of everybody's agendas once again, because everybody's suddenly woken up to like,

919
01:16:01,570 --> 01:16:09,738
no, actually this isn't just a nice to have, this is actually existentially quite quite
important for for higher education and wider education.

920
01:16:09,966 --> 01:16:12,277
But we had a conversation about this as well, Mike.

921
01:16:12,277 --> 01:16:23,494
And and one of the things the reason we're really excited about kind of taking a playful
approach is what worries me around inclusivity is that people feel forced to do it.

922
01:16:23,494 --> 01:16:30,258
So they feel like it's a tick box exercise, that it's something, you know, as long as I've
put subtitles in, I've done my piece.

923
01:16:30,258 --> 01:16:38,488
And so that's the reason we've added this augmented kind of playful approach, which
sometimes the idea is a absolutely something you wouldn't adopt.

924
01:16:38,488 --> 01:16:42,764
But equally out of crazy ideas come brilliant ideas as well.

925
01:16:42,764 --> 01:16:51,988
Um so what we want to do is to make uh including inclusion fun and playful.

926
01:16:52,258 --> 01:16:57,770
Last year the the sort of the precursor to this was a detective crime scene investigation.

927
01:16:57,770 --> 01:17:01,908
What's your playful spin this time around for your co creative mashup?

928
01:17:01,910 --> 01:17:06,536
think well n nobody wants to be predictable when it comes to season two.

929
01:17:06,536 --> 01:17:09,860
So I think expect the unexpected.

930
01:17:09,930 --> 01:17:17,760
Um we we're definitely uh following the uh trails into the woods um along with this year's
conference theme.

931
01:17:18,062 --> 01:17:18,552
Absolutely.

932
01:17:18,552 --> 01:17:31,235
We are definitely embracing the theme and I think we will it we're gonna use um I suppose
uh not too much of a a a teaser here, but um a woodland prop, shall we say, to try and

933
01:17:31,235 --> 01:17:34,878
inspire um thinking outside of the box.

934
01:17:35,478 --> 01:17:37,119
That's so mysteriously sinister.

935
01:17:37,119 --> 01:17:38,429
A woodland prop.

936
01:17:38,429 --> 01:17:41,160
Like that's such a broad category that I'm quite worried.

937
01:17:41,160 --> 01:17:42,381
Well, it sounds absolutely marvelous.

938
01:17:42,381 --> 01:17:51,224
And of course you will be benefiting from some of the most playful, while anchored in good
practice pedagogy and research minds um that the world has to offer.

939
01:17:52,024 --> 01:17:54,955
what can those minds expect from the session?

940
01:17:54,955 --> 01:17:56,756
What will be you be asking of them?

941
01:17:58,168 --> 01:18:01,829
We're really desperate that there's something very productive coming out of this session.

942
01:18:01,829 --> 01:18:06,230
So I I suppose we we have to get to this template.

943
01:18:06,230 --> 01:18:11,502
We have to get to something that allows people to start to reuse this and reuse it in
anger.

944
01:18:11,502 --> 01:18:20,284
So that it doesn't mean we won't revisit it in future years, but we want to understand how
people adopt uh and I suppose work with this tool.

945
01:18:20,284 --> 01:18:26,990
So I suppose the great minds in the room is almost being able to get from that mapping of
these

946
01:18:26,990 --> 01:18:30,811
playful the crime scene we had last year and and it looked wonderful.

947
01:18:30,811 --> 01:18:38,913
But how do you make that into something that actually, if you're not in that playful
learning community, you feel quite confident with adopting and sharing.

948
01:18:38,913 --> 01:18:42,234
And we've got a few models that um we're looking at in the sector.

949
01:18:42,234 --> 01:18:52,477
I mean Elliot's absolutely um an expert in this space and uh we've got the advanced H E
framework that uh Elliot um led on.

950
01:18:52,477 --> 01:18:53,508
Is that right, Elliot?

951
01:18:53,508 --> 01:18:53,748
Led?

952
01:18:53,748 --> 01:18:55,478
Yeah I think I'm going with LED.

953
01:18:55,538 --> 01:19:04,352
Um, Jane and I have been very heavily involved with JISC's work in terms of digital
capabilities and digital literacy and their framework.

954
01:19:04,352 --> 01:19:12,126
So we've got models we like and maybe we could readapt into something that that would work
going forward.

955
01:19:13,420 --> 01:19:20,007
That sounds not just like you're gonna be rinsing people's brains, but also they're gonna
walking away with something very, very useful by the end.

956
01:19:20,007 --> 01:19:21,800
One framework to rule them all.

957
01:19:22,189 --> 01:19:23,006
Yes.

958
01:19:23,862 --> 01:19:25,766
and in the darkness bind them.

959
01:19:25,766 --> 01:19:30,053
If you were to disappear into the woods, where would we find you?

960
01:19:30,053 --> 01:19:30,954
Jane?

961
01:19:31,128 --> 01:19:31,639
Swimming.

962
01:19:31,639 --> 01:19:32,371
I'd be swimming.

963
01:19:32,371 --> 01:19:35,406
Hopi hoping there's water in the woods.

964
01:19:36,357 --> 01:19:39,222
yeah, yeah, there's like a you know, there's a lake in the middle and a clearing.

965
01:19:39,222 --> 01:19:39,950
I'm in the lake.

966
01:19:39,950 --> 01:19:41,298
Come find me in the lake.

967
01:19:42,463 --> 01:19:43,839
Elliot, how about yourself?

968
01:19:43,970 --> 01:19:50,760
I would be up a tree looking over probably clearings, but not specifically due to the fact
that there's anyone swimming.

969
01:19:53,430 --> 01:19:57,502
But getting a good view, getting a good view of just the the rolling expanse of the woods.

970
01:19:57,786 --> 01:19:59,560
How about yourself, Rosie?

971
01:19:59,782 --> 01:20:11,431
well the last time I disappeared into the woods, which was about a week ago, I was lay on
the floor in severe cramp, having run forty miles over the top of Snowdon.

972
01:20:11,431 --> 01:20:13,073
So that's what would happen to me.

973
01:20:13,073 --> 01:20:14,853
That's that's that's that's

974
01:20:15,316 --> 01:20:16,906
You'd be waiting for rescue.

975
01:20:16,906 --> 01:20:19,404
You would be needing medical assistance.

976
01:20:19,404 --> 01:20:20,619
Nobody came.

977
01:20:20,619 --> 01:20:21,560
Nobody came.

978
01:20:21,560 --> 01:20:24,355
That's that's the least whimsical answer I've had to this so far.

979
01:20:24,355 --> 01:20:26,678
Just awaiting medical help.

980
01:20:26,678 --> 01:20:28,240
Um golly.

981
01:20:28,240 --> 01:20:29,152
But also good for you.

982
01:20:29,152 --> 01:20:32,256
Wow, running through four forty kilometres.

983
01:20:32,684 --> 01:20:36,634
Well, it was eighty in in total, but I'd only done forty by that point.

984
01:20:36,634 --> 01:20:38,784
It was a long way still to go.

985
01:20:38,784 --> 01:20:40,438
Oh sorry, yes of course.

986
01:20:40,438 --> 01:20:43,254
Just just the first ball theory for Walmart.

987
01:20:46,488 --> 01:20:55,225
430 Gallery Room 1 Federik Kaj Zutum presents I'm the King of the Cardboard Castle.

988
01:20:58,967 --> 01:21:13,575
My session is uh about uh a particular approach to uh playful teaching in higher
education, centered around building something in cardboard collaboratively to learn about

989
01:21:13,575 --> 01:21:14,775
a topic.

990
01:21:14,876 --> 01:21:26,292
And uh the example I draw on uh is learning about participation in in social education or
preschool teacher training.

991
01:21:26,648 --> 01:21:39,937
People will be uh students will be assigned roles as well as participants in this
workshop, each with their individual trouble issues about uh difficulties about

992
01:21:39,937 --> 01:21:42,289
participating in the group work.

993
01:21:42,728 --> 01:21:55,328
So so they are not just learning about participation, but they're experiencing
participation from their own bodies while trying to reach another goal.

994
01:21:56,600 --> 01:22:10,981
So there's sort of uh a double goal in this is uh feeling uh what participation can feel
like when it's hard and trying to achieve a goal about pedagogy or playful learning or

995
01:22:10,981 --> 01:22:12,672
whatever it will be in the session.

996
01:22:12,682 --> 01:22:18,945
Such a wonderful, wonderful idea where one of the actual learning outcomes is just that
feeling of doing something together as a group.

997
01:22:18,945 --> 01:22:22,184
And I love, love the idea of just you're building something out of cardboard.

998
01:22:22,184 --> 01:22:23,788
It's the kind of thing I might do with my daughter.

999
01:22:23,788 --> 01:22:27,560
Um is this something that you you run a lot?

1000
01:22:27,614 --> 01:22:30,147
I've done this more than a few times.

1001
01:22:30,616 --> 01:22:34,269
What's the most ambitious thing that's ever been constructed out of cardboard?

1002
01:22:34,836 --> 01:22:36,586
Oh, that's a tough question.

1003
01:22:36,586 --> 01:22:43,980
I I don't know, these castles that I built with my students uh are are quite often
ambitious.

1004
01:22:44,248 --> 01:22:48,148
We're talking turrets, we're talking buttresses, gates the works.

1005
01:22:48,148 --> 01:22:49,720
Yes, exactly.

1006
01:22:49,720 --> 01:22:51,443
And and some of them are of course not.

1007
01:22:51,443 --> 01:22:54,245
They're more like a box with some words on.

1008
01:22:55,027 --> 01:22:57,600
But you know, we're all different people.

1009
01:22:57,676 --> 01:23:00,452
What will you be asking attendees to do?

1010
01:23:00,452 --> 01:23:03,668
What will uh what should somebody expect when they come to your session?

1011
01:23:03,670 --> 01:23:04,710
What should they expect?

1012
01:23:04,710 --> 01:23:16,755
They uh they will get a brief introduction to the workshop, of course, and I will tell
them a little bit about how I use this kind of session for my teaching.

1013
01:23:17,236 --> 01:23:26,730
A short, super short presentation of the academic topic, because we don't have time to
delve into that, and part of the academic topic will be playful learning.

1014
01:23:26,730 --> 01:23:30,561
So I'm expecting people to have some knowledge already.

1015
01:23:30,970 --> 01:23:31,884
Uh

1016
01:23:31,884 --> 01:23:34,815
And then I will talk about the roles they will play.

1017
01:23:35,476 --> 01:23:41,859
Or rather, I will not I will talk about that there are roles to play, because they're
secret.

1018
01:23:43,320 --> 01:23:49,123
And what they're so supposed to build, and I will divide them into groups and they will
build.

1019
01:23:49,384 --> 01:23:51,424
Building will take most of the time.

1020
01:23:52,625 --> 01:24:01,686
After building, there will be some reflection in in various ways, a short questionnaire of
some sort where they reflect on.

1021
01:24:01,686 --> 01:24:04,709
what they've done and then the discussion.

1022
01:24:06,091 --> 01:24:09,364
But mostly most mostly building stuff together.

1023
01:24:09,742 --> 01:24:11,613
I mean that sounds absolutely heavenly.

1024
01:24:11,613 --> 01:24:16,517
I can't think of a better way to spend a bit of afternoon than just sitting there building
building something together.

1025
01:24:16,517 --> 01:24:17,307
Is it gonna be castles?

1026
01:24:17,307 --> 01:24:19,029
Is everybody gonna be making castles?

1027
01:24:19,029 --> 01:24:20,159
Or is that part of the mystery?

1028
01:24:20,159 --> 01:24:21,452
Is this part of the surprise?

1029
01:24:21,452 --> 01:24:30,118
I'm going to tell them that they're supposed to build castles, but you know, the best
thing that happens in these creative collaborative processes are when they sort of hack

1030
01:24:30,118 --> 01:24:32,029
the process and go their own way.

1031
01:24:32,230 --> 01:24:38,148
So so so I'm I'm not gonna stop them if they're building a Formula One car or something
else.

1032
01:24:38,280 --> 01:24:39,182
Frederick, thank you so much.

1033
01:24:39,182 --> 01:24:47,092
I've just got one more question for you, which is if you were to disappear into the woods,
where would we find you and what would you be doing?

1034
01:24:47,564 --> 01:24:51,594
I I like to go for a run in the woods, but but then I'm not really disappearing.

1035
01:24:51,594 --> 01:25:00,550
I would be I wouldn't be s sitting in my small secret cottage, sipping a coffee, reading a

1036
01:25:05,368 --> 01:25:06,598
430.

1037
01:25:06,759 --> 01:25:08,519
Gallery Room 2.

1038
01:25:08,980 --> 01:25:18,364
Geraldine Foley presents AI Empire and the Space of Possibility, designing inclusive and
accessible games for teaching and learning.

1039
01:25:19,404 --> 01:25:30,279
This explores the ethics of generative AI in a playful way, using a game to create a safe
space for HE students to discuss the topic and encourage collaboration, communication, and

1040
01:25:30,279 --> 01:25:31,630
critical thinking.

1041
01:25:32,118 --> 01:25:37,081
In the session, participants will get to experience and give feedback on a speed version
of the game.

1042
01:25:37,541 --> 01:25:46,326
You'll then discuss the constraints and factors around designing for timetabled sessions
and ways to make games for learning accessible and inclusive.

1043
01:25:49,632 --> 01:25:54,723
And that concludes Friday's day two's sessions, but not the day itself.

1044
01:25:55,924 --> 01:26:06,827
From 5 15 till 6 30, there'll be some free time and then chill out tonight at Meeting
House, where there'll be beer, street food, and games on campus.

1045
01:26:07,807 --> 01:26:17,330
On the menu there'll be a street food paella with wild mushroom, charred leeks, fire
sweede, roasted squash, and butterbean pearl barley.

1046
01:26:17,386 --> 01:26:19,927
Served with a choice of toppers and sauces.

1047
01:26:20,487 --> 01:26:31,030
There will also be a pudding, a little cheeky dessert, individual plant-based black forest
torts, served with cherries, berries, and pouring cream.

1048
01:26:32,390 --> 01:26:35,191
This will also mark the start of the evening's activities.

1049
01:26:35,191 --> 01:26:38,492
And Hyperjam 26.

1050
01:26:47,064 --> 01:26:48,795
There'll be three parts to this.

1051
01:26:49,396 --> 01:26:54,359
Jo will begin by sharing the benefits of analog game making.

1052
01:26:54,460 --> 01:26:58,742
You'll then get your chance to go into the box of delights or components.

1053
01:26:59,743 --> 01:27:07,248
And then finish by discussing how to incorporate analog game making into your personal
teaching and training practices.

1054
01:27:07,969 --> 01:27:14,336
Then Hyperjam 26, a sequel to last year's successful unofficial world record attempt.

1055
01:27:14,336 --> 01:27:18,281
and the birthplace of earlier mentioned flock of.

1056
01:27:21,880 --> 01:27:28,733
The other of the evening's optional activities will be presented by CJ Foster, the Bark
Choir.

1057
01:27:29,013 --> 01:27:34,715
The Bark Choir will be created as a scratch choir for any conference members to join.

1058
01:27:35,135 --> 01:27:40,858
Main objective being to give everybody a chance to playfully explore singing together and
creating music.

1059
01:27:42,218 --> 01:27:51,382
Drawing upon the conference themes, in this relaxed session we'll be exploring singing,
improvising and enjoying a community sing-along experience.

1060
01:27:52,064 --> 01:27:55,494
And no previous musical expertise required.

1061
01:28:01,742 --> 01:28:08,005
And so, with the day drawing to a close, you'll crawl off to bed with your very last ounce
of energy.

1062
01:28:08,046 --> 01:28:18,422
Your head full of climate choices, uncomfortable AI ethics, playful grids and learning
forests, critical thinking trails through the woods, and the virtues of getting gloriously

1063
01:28:18,422 --> 01:28:20,593
lost before being found again.

1064
01:28:21,194 --> 01:28:28,918
Perhaps you'll dream of flood walls and candy bars, of cards for social play, of
interprofessional guardians tending a learning forest.

1065
01:28:29,366 --> 01:28:38,984
Of building meaning through play, sustainable materials and AI, of travelling through
playful worlds, battling the monsters of change with fables and tales, claiming your

1066
01:28:38,984 --> 01:28:42,317
rightful place as king of the cardboard castle.

1067
01:28:43,158 --> 01:28:53,547
Maybe somewhere between sleep and that little bit between sleep, where you wake up and
sneeze sometimes, you'll find yourself wandering through a forest of reason, accompanied

1068
01:28:53,547 --> 01:28:55,148
by a Lego philosopher.

1069
01:28:55,269 --> 01:28:57,170
Perhaps you'll participate in a bark.

1070
01:28:57,210 --> 01:28:58,538
Продолжение следует...

1071
01:28:58,538 --> 01:29:01,240
dreamily hyper-jamming a board game.

1072
01:29:01,701 --> 01:29:06,184
Or trying to convince yourself that higher education really is a game.

1073
01:29:06,445 --> 01:29:08,463
Perhaps we should play it all.

1074
01:29:08,463 --> 01:29:09,967
a little bit more often.

1075
01:29:11,714 --> 01:29:16,142
Whatever strange things await us this night, rest, recharge.

1076
01:29:16,142 --> 01:29:19,000
and get ready for the day three.

1077
01:29:19,000 --> 01:29:23,912
Friday, the final day Playful Learning 2026.

1078
01:29:27,842 --> 01:29:32,544
This special program in a pod episode was edited and presented by Michael Collins.

1079
01:29:32,904 --> 01:29:37,506
For more playful pedagogic podcasting, visit pedagodzilla.com.

1080
01:29:37,546 --> 01:29:45,810
And if you really like playful takes on pedagogy, why not also check out our book,
Pedagodzilla Exploring the Realms of Pedagogy.