Based on ideas from Norman and Kane, the following is a reflection leading me to another way of thinking about play.

“Scientific progress may occur because of the emotional beliefs and attachments of people ...”

(Norman 1993, p. 116)

“... based in the deeps of the scientific revolutions of the twentieth century, I believe one can find a powerful explanation for the gradual rise … of play values”

 
(Kane 2005, p. 56)

“The deeply playful and mutable sciences represent a framework within which the ambiguity of play matures into the complexity of play”

and further down the page:

“we have to learn to create space to dream of alternatives, try out scenarios, give ourselves room to experiment, allow ourselves to say 'maybe' or 'as if' to our dilemmas"

(Kane, p. 63)

 

 

Play as emotions

 

This gives us:

• emotions as the driver of science

• science seen as a form of play

Let's then hypothesise a direct link between emotions and play.

That might suggest that play is what differentiates us from machines - that element of randomness suggested by Neumann (in Kane 2005, p. 60) – logically leading us to the idea that “it is play and only play that makes man complete” (Eigen and Winkler in Kane 2005, p. 57)

Hence, our hypothetical link between emotions and play seems correct so far. No matter how unhelpful its generality might appear to make it, has the merit of making it concise and, running the risk of being redundant, general. However, it might be possible to refine it so as to make it more useful.

In the first instance, what is the nature of that link? Could it be causal?

 

Not that emotions necessarily lead to play but rather that emotions are a playground: that whenever they are called for, there is room for play.

That would confirm my opinion that we can bring play to bear on every jobs. The potential for play would of course vary according to the nature of the job at hand but even for factory work - which appears as one of the most machine-like type of activities as Chaplin would remind us... and to re-use our machine analogy from above -, we never quite turn into machines and remain embodied in our emotions. In other words, even through factory work, possibilities for play exist because "People are highly emotional" (Norman 1993, p. 118). At the other end of the scale, artistic jobs confirm this general idea, for they have probably the strongest potential for play.

 

 

Is this at all useful?

 

But is thinking about emotions as a playground a regress for what we've done on this course so far (considering how far our readings and discussions have gone into the difficult task of categorising game and play)?

 

Maybe. But it might as well represent - to me anyway - another way of thinking about aspects of learning - and life in general - that we already know, or suspect.

 

According to the idea that positive emotions prompt positive attitudes (and negative ones promotes negative attitudes), it follows that playful attitudes can be cultivated: the more one gets rewarded for their playfulness, the more they may become playful.

 

A very interesting guideline for educationalists then appears as follow:

 

If we want to help turning extrinsic orientations into intrinsic ones (Beaty et al 2005) in our students, it is crucial to scaffold them appropriately: at the top of the scaffold lies an infinite blue playground...

 

I need to take some hindsight. I think a new eye on this would be quite helpful so, anyone, your opinions would certainly make a very useful contribution to this...

 

Feel free to tell me if any of the previous makes sense and if it tells us anything we didn't already know. If anyting, it would at least have offered me the chance to assimilate these ideas better

 

 

 

References:

 

Beaty, L., Gibbs, G. and Morgan, A. (2005). Learning orientations and study contracts. In Marton, F., Hounsell, D. and Entwistle, N., (eds.) The Experience of Learning: Implications for teaching and studying in higher education. 3rd (Internet) edition. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, Centre for Teaching, Learning and Assessment.

 

Norman, D. A. (1993). The human mind. In Things that make us smart: defending human attributes in the age of the machine. Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

 

Kane, P. (2005). A general theory of play. In The play ethic: a manifesto for a different way of living. London, Pan. Introduction; Towards the Play Ethic