Permission to Play

It's week two of our online course, and what fascinates me most is not the technology, but what it looks like as we "students"--actually professors--tend to do as learners. It's striking to me that we seem to need someone to give us, overtly, permission to play. There are lots of opportunities to be playful, but we aren't necessarily taking them. For example, this week on the Padlet bulletin board, which could be a very visual and interactive way to riff back and forth, we tended to treat the space like a place to submit mini-essays. I wonder why?

Maybe it's because we're concentrating so hard on getting tricky new things right. (Reminds me of what it felt like to be in the front passenger seat tonight while me daughter drove me for the first time on the blacktop: that was a good time to concentrate on tricky new things and leave joking and play for later!) There's probably something to that, especially for anyone who feels like one false move might put them in the cyberspace ditch. Picture us with our teeth clenched, shoulders hunched in concentration....

Or, maybe it's because we're teachers, and rule-following comes to us pretty naturally. Hmm. I suspect none of you who know more than a handful of teachers are going to believe that one.

Maybe it's because we need someone to show us how to be playful? I think this is an important part of learning to be playful, at least for me. I need someone to help me imagine how I might BE playful in our online spaces and activities. I know about wordplay. I am not so fluent in using images and memes in playful ways. I'm so used to doing things as I know how to do them that I need to see someone else go first to envision something new.

Photo by David Goehring

The kind of help I (we) might benefit from is a little like the good that comes form being out for a walk with my youngest. Yes, of course, I know how to walk. Yet I'm used to walking simply as a way to get from one place to the other. But through her example and a little coaxing, my daughter reminds me that "a walk" is also for skipping, for wandering, and for having some fun. That's the kind of walking partner I need with me as I head out for an online adventure. Want to come along?