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Writer's pictureKatie Holloman

Games & Learning Portfolio: Pandemic Reflections

Updated: May 3, 2020




Why does play - and game play, in particular - matter for our livelihood and our learning right now? And whether our learning inside or outside of school?


We’re living through a world-altering time in history with the Coronavirus (aka: COVID-19) pandemic. As of May 3, 2020, there have been 3,520,889 Coronavirus cases reported worldwide, with 246,282 deaths reported (Worldometer, 2020). And, currently, more than 30 million Americans have lost their jobs, at least temporarily, if not permanently due to the Coronavirus (MarketWatch, 2020). Essential workers, such as medical workers, grocery store clerks and delivery drivers, to name a few, try to instill safety measures to lessen the Coronavirus transmission to one another through cautious face mask wearing, gloves and increased disinfecting. While those lucky enough to not be an essential worker nor unemployed work remotely from home for almost two months at this point in time. Children have been introduced to remote learning at varying degrees across the country and around the world, while parents scramble to teach and sometimes work simultaneously.


In an era of technology, where humans can be bombarded with negative news on a daily basis from loved ones, cell phones, the news and more, how can technology be used for good?


To start, we can utilize technology for play through video games, board games, card games, and in my case, Virtual Reality (VR). I can’t tell you how much my Box VR game on the Oculus Quest VR goggles has satisfied my need to play physically, while being able to social distance. And, more importantly, we can virtually connect to family, friends and colleagues, like never before in history. Zoom, a video conferencing app, has exploded since the start of the pandemic. Previously used mainly in companies for virtual meetings, individuals are using Zoom to connect for virtual happy hours, meet new babies, say hello to their friends and family and play games virtually. Virtual board game apps, like Tabletop Simulator, helps friends who previously met for game nights in-person, play virtually, chatting over Discord. The options are endless, and very much needed as a distraction from the day-to-day activities of work, school and Coronavirus news.


Play also allows for innovative and creative thoughts to be nurtured and expanded upon. When we’re allowed to play, new learning can occur from starting a new hobby, learning a new skill at work or school and/or creating something new. During the Coronavirus, some people are finding themselves with additional time on their hands and some creative solutions that I’ve seen are gaming being utilized both for solo play to de-stress, as well as with multiple players to connect. New paintings and pandemic photography series have been created and shared online in private family text messages or in public forums, like Reddit or Facebook. Some people are utilizing online learning like LinkedIn Learning or micro-learning to gain professional or personal skills for their newfound or picked-back-up hobbies. Again, fun distractions help to stay busy, de-stress, and, of course, be happy!





How does the knowledge you’ve gained in our course this semester help you to understand the need for play - and social connection - at a time of physical distance?


The concept of gameful learning has been discussed many times in my spring 2020 INTE 5320 course on Games & Learning. Introduced in the first two weeks of our course, Jeremiah Kalir’s 2016 chapter, “Conclusion: Good Game: On the Limitations of Puzzles and Possibilities for Gameful Learning”, gameful learning is outlined as allowing learners to have free agency, playfulness and flexibility in design (Kalir, 2016). Throughout the semester’s peer discussions, gameful learning appeared as innovative designs in our Play Journals, where our assignment was to play a game of our choosing (Yes, really!), connect our play thoughts to that cycle’s (a two-week period in class) scholarly readings and give feedback to peer’s Play Journals. This activity was the clear winner in the course for gameful learning and inducing the course with creative fun. Not many Play Journals ever played the same game, and thoughts were always new and interesting. This activity also helped broaden my mind on the importance of play even in the midst of scholarly learning, and especially now, during a time of pandemic stress.


Peer Feedback and responses to other’s Play Journals allowed for fun discussions, new resources, room for growth and encouragement. Here are my five Play Journals, including some personal insights and thoughts:


Play Journal 1: “Job Simulator” on Oculus Quest’s VR goggles

My initial Play Journal opened my eyes to a new way to play and interact with peers in depth via Google Docs. The most fascinating parts of discussion with peers from the Job Simulator games revolved around VR being fairly new to the public market. And, we discussed how accessibility needs to be addressed from a broader player perspective, from physical limitations, long-term effects, as well as being section 508 compliant in the form of audio captions and more.





Play Journal 2: “Stardew Valley” - a PC-based game

There was some lively peer discussion with Stardew Valley. Although this was my first time playing this game, both alone and with my partner, the underlying game themes of escapism, relaxation, as well as choose-your-own-adventure for open play resonated. The personalization of Stardew Valley avatars and farms also allowed for open discussion about the game’s social aspects from playing multiplayer to the game’s chat function.




Play Journal 3: “Until Dawn” on PlayStation 4

Moving onto a decision-making game, Until Dawn, the ability to transfer skills from games to the real-world was discussed. This includes the game’s themes of making life-or-death choices, being strategic and changing the game’s single-player mechanics into a partner activity, thereby “messing around” with the game set-up in unique ways (Horst et al., 2009).




Play Journal 4: “The Quacks of Quedlinburg” - a multiplayer board game

Overall, The Quacks of Quedlinburg was a fun board game to learn from my partner and helped me connect with his hobby of former weekly in-person board games, now virtual board game groups. Another great example of being able to transfer game skills to the real-world, this board game helped cement how important the social aspect of gaming is for continued learning and play.




Play Journal 5: “Box VR” on Oculus Quest’s VR goggles

As I mentioned earlier, Box VR has offered me a fun, active escape during the Coronavirus pandemic. I confirmed that escapes while in quarantine are important to my mental and physical well-being. Although I take multiple daily walks outside normally, without my usual gym visits 3-4 times a week, Box VR is the next best thing. Boxing in VR helps with my hand-eye coordination, in addition to helping me to exert extra energy and stress. I feel very fortunate to be able to utilize VR as a form of play escape in a time of the pandemic.




Another fun form of communication throughout the course has been annotations via Hypothesis, a virtual open discussion forum, that we utilized for in-depth discussions on each cycle’s scholarly readings.


The graph below shows total annotation replies and posts for the spring 2020 Games and Learning course by student. Reviewing this data, I realized that I had a significant number of annotation posts (198) and annotation replies (376) for the semester; a total of 574 annotations:


Here's my individualized annotation data by day, as well:















And, looking back at some of my annotations, I was surprised to find that even pre-pandemic, we had been discussing virtual play and learning.


On January 30, 2020, in the article “Level up learning: A national survey on teaching with digital games” by Lori M. Takeuchi and Sarah Vaala, I began a discussion on how gaming structures differ from generation to generation, but that virtual play connects us all (Takeuchi et al., 2014):




















































Another annotation example shows a preliminary February 17, 2020 discussion from the article, “Hanging Out Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media” on how families in 2020 compared to families in 2006 might be utilizing and limiting technology as an after school activity for their children (Horst et al., 2009):

With remote learning currently happening for the foreseeable future, this really sparks current conversations happening with the community and educational world. Children’s needs in conjunction with families balancing remote learning and teaching are currently morphing every day during the pandemic.







































Play is complex and important to socialization, mental health and well-being regardless of if it’s normal periods of work and play or stressful times during life and the pandemic. But, of course, play is especially needed now.





And in what ways might you take lessons learned from our course and carry those insights forward as you design, play, and connect with others - perhaps in new ways - over the coming months?


From this course I’ve gained a new appreciation for gaming. As someone who works full-time and is in graduate school full-time, I have very limited free time. Although I grew up playing video games like Nintendo and Nintendo 64, I hadn’t just PLAYED very much in my adult life until my recent introduction to the Oculus Quest. However, for me, this course has taught me that every gamer is unique in interests and has unique gaming needs. While some of my classmates enjoy strategic games or shooting games, I like open-ended games or low-stress games. And, any of these are okay!


There are different types of player types in games, and you might not even be the same player type from game to game. From Gabriela T. Richard’s article, “Designing for the Audience: Past Practices and Inclusive Considerations”, a player type can vary from an Achiever, Explorer, Socializer and/or Killer (Richard, 2014). Your goal for each game may change by genre, who you’re playing with and what your gaming set-up is. Sometimes I want to focus on a game and think deeply, while other times, I want to escape life and de-stress.


And, as an instructional designer, I realized that the concept of good design in building courses, websites and training doesn’t differ too much from good game design. For any of these areas, you would ask yourself some basic design questions to review for best practices:

  • Does it have open navigation and meet multiple user end needs?

  • Does this meet basic design guideline principles?

  • How accessible is it?

  • Is it engaging/fun/easy to explore/etc.?


Nevertheless, skills learned and honed upon in games can transfer into the real-world (Stevens et al., 2008). Hand-eye coordination, decision-making skills and communication are a few transferable competencies that players can use from their home to the outside world. Therefore, no matter the avenue, learning is valuable, and especially important and more easily retained during times of play.



Finally, from course readings and discussions, my mind has been sparked for creative solutions in connecting with family and friends through games and the curiosity to make it happen. We’ve never lived in a time where connecting through technology and play has been more attainable or more needed as an escape than the present.









References

COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic. (May 3, 2020). Retrieved May 3, 2020 from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/


Discord: A new way to chat with your communities and friends. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2020 from https://discordapp.com/


Facebook. (2020). Retrieved May 3, 2020 from https://www.facebook.com/


Horst, H.A., Herr-Stephenson, B., & Robinson, L.. (2009). Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


Kalir, J. (2016). Conclusion: Good game: On the Limitations of Puzzles and Possibilities for Gameful Learning. Teacher Pioneers: Visions from the Edge of the Map. (pp. 359-371). Caro Williams-Pierce (Ed.), et al. and ETC Press. Retrieved from https://via.hypothes.is/http://remikalir.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Kalir-2016-Pioneers-Conclusion.pdf


LinkedIn Learning. (2020). Retrieved May 3, 2020 from https://www.linkedin.com/learning/


MarketWatch: Millions of lost jobs may push unemployment rate to highest since Great Depression. (May 2, 2020). Retrieved May 3, 2020 from https://www.marketwatch.com/story/millions-of-lost-jobs-may-push-unemployment-rate-to-highest-since-great-depression-2020-05-02


Oculus Quest: Box VR. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2020 from https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/2327205800645550/?locale=en_US


Reddit. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2020 from https://www.reddit.com/


Richard, G.T. (2014). Designing for the audience: past practices and inclusive considerations. Learning, Education and Games. ETC Press, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 199–223. Retrieved from https://via.hypothes.is/http://remikalir.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Richardson2014.pdf


Steam: Tabletop Simulator. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2020 from https://store.steampowered.com/app/286160/Tabletop_Simulator/


Stevens, R., Stawicz, T., & McCarthy, L.. (2008). In-Game, In-Room, In-World: Reconnecting Video Game Play to the Rest of Kids’ Lives. The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games and Learning. 41–66. doi: 10.1162/dmal.9780262693646.041


Takeuchi, L. M, & Vaala, S. (2014). Level up learning: A national survey on teaching with digital games. New York: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. Retrieved from https://via.hypothes.is/http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/jgcc_leveluplearning_final.pdf


Zoom. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2020 from https://zoom.us/


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