Ludic and Social Media in Learning Innovation Processes

Patrick J. Coppock

Department of Communication and Economics

University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, Italy

patrick.coppock@unimore.it

http://game.unimore.it

http://facebook.com/patcop

Twitter: Pat_Coppock

Defining Ludic and Social Media

•Ludic Media

•Ludic Interface

•Social Interface

•Social Media

Ludic Media

• "Ludic”: from the Latin “ludus”, meaning play, game, sport, pastime

• Most contemporary media consumption/fruition practices are to some extent playful and thus ludic

• Skills we acquire through play may have implications for how we learn, work, participate in the political process, and connect with other people around the world (Henry Jenkins)

Ludic Interfaces

• Ludic Interfaces:• are devices designed to connect human

interactors in a playful, functional manner with complex technical systems like computer programs, databases, game consoles, web applications, mobile apps, and even whole buildings, their exteriors and wider urban spaces.

• seek to offer users a high degree of freedom of action and multiple access options.

• are expected to contribute to an increase in accessibility of complex technical systems, and of user creativity and self-fulfillment.

Ludic Interfaces

• share methods and knowledge from computer games, artistic experimentation, interactive media, media conversion, social networks and hacker culture

• result in tools offering ease of use and playfulness.

• tools and concepts endowed with ludic interface principles differ from traditional technological systems as they are playful, user-generated and user-driven, flexible, low-cost and cooperative

Ludic interfaces

Ludic interfaces

Ludic interfaces

Interface Art

• Game Art Interfaces:• innovative, application specific• custom-built, locative• rich in connotative power and surprise• playful• critical• invite co-creativity, user-generated or user-driven

content

Mathias Fuchs http://www.creativegames.org.uk/art/projects.htm

Interface art

Interface art

Urban space as interface

http://www.codedcultures.net

Urban space as interface

Urban games

Urban games

Live action role play

Social interface

• In general (sociology):• a social interface is a critical point of intersection

between different life worlds, social fields or levels of social organization, where social discontinuities based upon discrepancies in values, interests, knowledges and power, are most likely to be located (Long,1989, 2001)

• In the field of (user) experience design:• a social interface is one designed to facilitate as wide

a range as possible of mediated social interactions between individuals and groups, and the development and symbolic representation of virtual (and actual) communities

Social Media

• mediated means of interaction enabling people to create, exchange, share and comment on, a wide range of content matter forms in online virtual communities and networks

• take many different forms: online journals, internet forums, mailing lists, weblogs, micro-blogging, wikis, social networks, podcasts, photographic and video archives, performance rating and social bookmarking, etc.

• a key ludic (but not only) characteristic of social media practices is the ideation, production, sharing and appraisal/rating of user-based remix/remake content matter

Social Media

Social Media

Social Media

Media & identity

• Personal ID v.1

• Personal ID v.2

• Digital ID v.1

• Digital ID v.2

The joys of traditional educatioin

Games and play

• Peppino Ortoleva (University of Torino):• new technologies, reorganization of leisure and work

time, and other less visible cultural factors have brought significant historical modifications to the traditionally separate ludic sphere.

• new game types are emerging, and the threshold between play and reality is being redefined to include aspects of social life that may seem unrelated to play activities.

• in the area of ludic practices, where games are played, new, previously marginalized, play spaces and practices have emerged: theme parks, surfing, reality shows, casual games, social networking, etc.

Applied play

• Some examples: • informal and formal learning activities in schools, at

work, art games, urban games used to explore unknown sides of city spaces and build new relationships

• gamification strategies in training, marketing and commerce

• flying military drones that kill people in other lands far away

• brainstorming sessions in business and science• ludic interfaces for public information and archive

systems• play as resource for creatively confronting situations

requiring unplanned adaptations or improvisations

Three learning types

1. Formal learning:• Institutionally structured, learning objectives,

certification, intentional

2. Informal learning: • Not institutionally structured, derives from work,

family or leisure activities, no explicit learning objectives, no certification, rarely intentional

3. Non-formal learning:• Learner interest & community based, structured,

knowledge, skill, experientially, emotionally oriented objectives, ±intentional

Life long learning

• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): Life Long Learning for All (1996)

Mobile vs desktop

Participatory Learning

• Henry Jenkins, James Paul Gee & others• Media Convergence > Participatory Culture• Knowledge Communities > Collective

Intelligence• Problem solving as exercises in teamwork• “Ad-hocracies” (Cory Doctorow) vs

Bureaucracies • Just-in-time open learning• Knowledge as process, not product• Critical thinking and information quality• Fact/fiction; argument/documentation; real/fake;

marketing/enlightenment

Knowledge communities

• group ownership of work/knowledge vs. autonomous problem solvers

• cooperative games/work with different roles assigned according to problems to solve and individual competencies

• just-in-time collaborative data/knowledge sharing

Multimodal literacies

• Composition seen as informed choices regarding the relative qualities and efficacy of different media types and communication strategies in getting a message across

• Literacy seen as a broad set of competencies in reading and writing through images, texts, sounds and simulations

• Games and play as active problem solving environments, challenging traditional educational models

Research on ludic media and education

• James Paul Gee, Arizona State Universityhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGd1URORsoEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwouueYlwGo&feature=endscreen&NR=1

http://www.edutopia.org/james-gee-video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmcgMK46nfg (debate chaired by Tracy Fullerton)

•Henry Jenkins, University of Southern Californiahttp://henryjenkins.org/

http://www.macfound.org/programs/learning/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmcgMK46nfg (debate chaired by Tracy Fullerton)

•Elena Bertozzi, Long Island Universityhttp://myweb.cwpost.liu.edu/ebertozz/vita.html

•Rick Ferdig, Kent State University http://www.ferdig.comInternational Journal of Gaming and Computer Mediated Simulations (IJGCMS)http://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-gaming-computer-mediated/1125

A few ludic theory references

• Johannes Huizinga “Homo Ludens”

• Roger Caillois, “Man, Play and Games”

• Brian Sutton-Smith “The Ambiguity of Play”

• Ian Bogost “How to Do Things With Games”

• Jesper Juul “Half real”; “The Art of Failure”