I’m finally sitting down to properly go through the brilliant zines that Andrew Walsh has been sending out https://gamesforlibraries.blogspot.com/ They have prompted me to think about venturing back to Twitter (which I have basically only used for lodging complaints with companies for the last however many years…) And to look at this blog too. I have colleagues encouraging me to write more about what I’ve been doing with playful learning/serious fun, and so I needed a space to start thinking about some of those ideas.
I have always been interested in making my teaching sessions ‘fun’ – even 13 years ago when I was a legal librarian in a huge city law firm, I was looking at how to increase engagement during teaching sessions. We would have a new intake of trainee lawyers each year, who would go through hard copy and electronic legal research workshops that we designed and ran internally. I would get frustrated with their falling levels of attention in sessions I ran, knowing that the databases we were teaching them to use would be really useful, but that learning how to use a database is never really very much fun (unless you geek out about search strategies and that kind of thing, like me…) Anyway, I tried out different methods back then, not really considering that I could introduce games into a session, but instead looking at humour, so hunting up funny case law that would spice up a search, or using funny pictures to illustrate the things I was talking about.
I’m now an academic librarian, and have been excited to discover that using games and play in teaching is now a genuine ‘thing’ and so I happily experiment in my sessions, to see what I can try, what works and what doesn’t! I understand why some librarians are incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of having a game, asking students to play, or even just having fun! Not everything works, and not everyone is comfortable delivering playful sessions. But for me, I feel I am a better teacher when I am having fun, and using games or playful strategies is fun for me.
Technology can be a useful route towards encouraging colleagues to be more playful. Kahoot! is widely used now, though I remember some scepticism when people were first suggesting it for workshops. I have never had a bad experience with it with students – they all love being on their phones anyway, so enabling that seems to be a good thing. If they’re going to have their phones out anyway, I might as well get them doing things on there that I want them to do! They also really love the competitive nature of the game and my only issues have been trying to calm them down after a particularly loud and excitable quiz! I’ve wondered why it is quite so popular, especially considering that I am generally using a quiz to summarise the content we’ve covered in a workshop, so it’s just a very basic check on their learning and a way for me to reinforce certain key points. I think perhaps humans naturally enjoy competition. It’s a nice feeling to win. It’s a nice feeling to think you might win. It’s also a nice feeling to just do something a bit light-hearted in an academic environment where often much of what students are doing and talking about is dealt with very seriously. I think these things work especially well when they can be done anonymously, so anyone losing need not identify themselves, but anyone winning will, of course, loudly call out that they are username ‘mrbananapants’!
In a multiple choice quiz there’s also an element of luck – they don’t necessarily need to know the answers. I also make the quiz very, very easy…I’m not looking to catch people out. So I will often throw in funny answers too, to reassure students that the quiz is just for fun, and not something they are being assessed on. There are more librarians using Kahoot! now, but having done that, I wanted to step outside of that and go further. What else could I try? What else might encourage engagement, or provide us a different way of delivering information and skills?
I will probably try to write more about these in the future, but I’ve used a pass the parcel, which went down well. I’ve also created a catalogue bingo game, which again the students enjoyed, even giving feedback afterwards that it was a fun way to learn how to use the Library. I’ve had mixed success with using another app, Plickers and not everything is a success.
My current mammoth project is to create an escape game. I love escape rooms. I’ve done a lot! I knew there was no way I’d be allowed to have a whole room, so I started to investigate ways of creating an escape box challenge. It has taken an awful lot of time – a lot of it my own time, at home, figuring out puzzles and testing them on my family! But it was a huge success when I tested it out on library staff, and now we’ll be running it as an engagement activity during Freshers Week. I have no idea how well it will go, if students will even figure out where the Library is and be brave enough to come & play, but I will write about it afterwards!
Escape Box Challenge!
This Librarian... 