Table Of ContentThe pandemic sent many of us into depths of depression and isolation we had
not previously suffered. Playful Pedagogy in the Pandemic offers a thoughtful
reflection on the many curious and creative outlets using play, whether in virtual
classrooms or out in the wild, to process the stress of these uncertain times. No
doubt, these same play practices will serve us post-pandemic as well.
Mark C. Marino, Professor of Writing and Director of the
Humanities and Critical Code Studies Lab, University of
Southern California, USA
Playful Pedagogy in the Pandemic is a sharp and savvy examination of the
promises and pitfalls of games-based learning in a world transformed by
COVID-19. Past blunders and current perils are laid bare in this thoughtful
chronicling of educational technologies in transition, but at its core is a hopeful
vision for future learning that puts play and co-creation at the forefront.
Robb Lindgren, Associate Professor of Curriculum and
Instruction and Director of Technology Innovations in
Educational Research and Design, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, USA
Playful Pedagogy in the Pandemic
Educational technology adoption is more widespread than ever in the wake of COVID-19,
as corporations have commodified student engagement in makeshift packages marketed as
gamification. This book seeks to create a space for playful learning in higher education,
asserting the need for a pedagogy of care and engagement as well as collaboration with
students to help us reimagine education outside of prescriptive educational technology.
Virtual learning has turned the course management system into the classroom, and
business platforms for streaming video have become awkward substitutions for lecture
and discussion. Gaming, once heralded as a potential tool for rethinking our relationship
with educational technology, is now inextricably linked in our collective understanding
to challenges of misogyny, white supremacy, and the circulation of misinformation. The
initial promise of games-based learning seems to linger only as gamification, a form of
structuring that creates mechanisms and incentives but limits opportunity for play. As
higher education teeters on the brink of unprecedented crisis, this book proclaims the
urgent need to find a space for playful learning and to find new inspiration in the platforms
and interventions of personal gaming, and in turn restructure the corporatized, surveilling
classroom of a gamified world.
Through an in-depth analysis of the challenges and opportunities presented by pandemic
pedagogy, this book reveals the conditions that led to the widespread failure of adoption
of games-based learning and offers a model of hope for a future driven by new tools and
platforms for personal, experimental game-making as intellectual inquiry.
Emily K. Johnson is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Central Florida,
USA. She conducts research focusing on user experience (UX), user-centered design,
educational technology, learning games, playful/gameful learning, simulations and learning,
self-regulated learning, learner motivation, and self-efficacy. She designs and researches
educational games in virtual reality, augmented reality, mobile, PC/Mac, and non-traditional
platforms. A former middle school teacher, Johnson has published work on games-based
learning in journals, including Computers & Education; Journal of Universal Computer
Science; and Journal of Science Education and Technology.
Anastasia Salter is Associate Professor of English and Director of Graduate Programs
at the University of Central Florida, USA, where they also coordinate the innovative
interdisciplinary Texts and Technology doctoral program. Their research draws upon
humanities methods alongside computational discourse and subjects. They have authored
several books, including Twining: Critical and Creative Approaches to Hypertext
Narratives (with Stuart Moulthrop, Amherst College Press, 2021), Portrait of the Auteur
as Fanboy (with Mel Stanfill, University of Mississippi Press, 2020), and Adventure
Games: Playing the Outsider (with Aaron Reed and John Murray, Bloomsbury, 2020).
Salter previously wrote for ProfHacker, a blog on technology and pedagogy formerly
hosted by the Chronicle of Higher Education, and has taught workshops around the world
on approaches to experimental, personal games in the classroom.
The COVID-19 Pandemic Series
This series examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals,
communities, countries, and the larger global society from a social scientific
perspective. It represents a timely and critical advance in knowledge related to
what many believe to be the greatest threat to global ways of being in more than a
century. It is imperative that academics take their rightful place alongside medical
professionals as the world attempts to figure out how to deal with the current
global pandemic, and how society might move forward in the future. This series
represents a response to that imperative.
Series Editor: J. Michael Ryan
Titles in this Series:
Experiences of Health Workers in the COVID-19 Pandemic
In Their Own Words
Edited by Marie Bismark, Karen Willis, Sophie Lewis and Natasha Smallwood
Creative Resilience and COVID-19
Figuring the Everyday in a Pandemic
Edited by Irene Gammel and Jason Wang
COVID-19 and Childhood Inequality
Edited by Nazneen Khan
The Color of COVID-19
The Racial Inequality of Marginalized Communities
Edited by Sharon A. Navarro and Samantha L. Hernandez
COVID-19, Communication and Culture
Beyond the Global Workplace
Edited by Fiona Rossette-Crake and Elvis Buckwalter
Social and Political Representations of the COVID-19 Crisis
Daniel Feierstein
Playful Pedagogy in the Pandemic
Pivoting to Game-based Learning
Emily K. Johnson and Anastasia Salter
Playful Pedagogy in
the Pandemic
Pivoting to Game-Based Learning
Emily K. Johnson and Anastasia Salter
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
© 2023 Emily K. Johnson and Anastasia Salter
The right of Emily K. Johnson and Anastasia Salter to be identified as
author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-25126-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-25127-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-28169-6 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003281696
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
This book is dedicated to all educators who persevere day in and
day out doing the best they can for their students. We see you.
Contents
List of illustrations x
Foreword xi
Preface: Positioning our play xii
Introduction: Play for serious times 1
1 The problem of gamification 22
2 These aren’t the games you’re looking for 42
3 Searching for meaningful pandemic play 63
4 Confronting the perils of play 85
5 Designing playfully for a distant future 106
Conclusion: The fatigue is real 127
Index 147
