Play as transformative Information Literacy education
Channel: Andrew Walsh
Date: 2018-04-05

Talk given at #lilac16 conference in Liverpool, April 2018.
Abstract: Public play is a political act (Koh, 2014; De Koven, 2014, p. 160). It demonstrates to anyone watching an attitude towards life, towards education, towards society. An attitude that tends towards experimentation, challenge, social fairness, and an embracing of the power of fun. Any public demonstration and signalling of play invites others to play (Goffman, 1974; Glenn & Knapp, 1987), whether directly in the act itself, or through other activities that echo that play. It gives others implicit permission to play in their turn, and "permission", publicly given or given by the player to themselves, is a critical factor in enabling play.
This talk will outline how encouraging playfulness in the Information Literacy classroom can enable socially constructed meaning (Berger & Luckmann, 1966) of the information landscape to emerge in students (Walsh, 2015). This approach particularly matches the teaching of skills to improve information literacy, as information literacy itself is a socially constructed concept (Lloyd, 2005, Elmborg, 2006). Playful Information Literacy teaching can help critical interactions with information in a way that encourages and enables action from your learners, within and without your classroom, in a “safe” and creative environment (Francis, 2009; Gauntlett, 2011). It encourages a playful approach to formal and informal learning, important for critical social engagement with political issues (Koh, 2014) as well as increased creativity (Chang, Hsu & Chen, 2011). This session will also cover how play can give permission for your learners to challenge their understanding of a topic and gain deeper understanding, helping to create a transformative learning environment as opposed to one that concentrates on the echoing of facts and basic skills.
This talk will be a mixture of theory, practical examples, and paper aeroplanes.
Attendees will learn some basic theories of play including the “magic circle” and key attributes of play (Huizinga, 1955; Brown & Vaughan, 2010). They will also learn some examples of playful training techniques that they could apply in their own practice.
This session will include play and will expect a willingness to (gently) play from attendees. It may also contain bubbles.