{"id":3820,"date":"2025-03-06T17:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T17:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/faculty-development-center\/?post_type=furman-update&p=3820"},"modified":"2025-03-06T17:45:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T17:45:00","slug":"the-limits-of-play","status":"publish","type":"furman-update","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/faculty-development-center\/updates\/the-limits-of-play\/","title":{"rendered":"The Limits of Play"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"At first glance, limits and play seem like opposites. But as Dr. Al Douglass, Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Writing Center at Wofford College, argued in her keynote address at the 19th Annual Meeting in the Middle conference hosted by the Carolinas Writing Program Administrators at Furman on Friday, February 7, structure is essential to meaningful play.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>As Dr. Douglass spoke, writing faculty from across the Carolinas engaged in a collaborative exercise: drawing our ideal writing classroom. Each person could add only a single element before passing the sketchpad along, shaping a collective vision within the unspoken rule that no one could hold onto the page for too long. The exercise illustrated a core truth: play is never entirely free\u2014it is always bounded by structure, context, and shared expectations.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Dr. Douglass emphasized that our role as instructors is to design productive boundaries that enable meaningful play. This doesn\u2019t mean eliminating risk. Instead, well-constructed structures should encourage students to take intellectual risks that might otherwise feel unsafe, fostering experimentation, reflection, and discovery.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>As we return from Spring Break\u2014a time often associated with play\u2014consider how your assignments can create this kind of “game safety.” How might you help students push beyond their comfort zones, assume new roles, test strategies, and embrace failure as part of learning? For more insights on designing playful learning experiences, explore the University of Chicago\u2019s <\/span>Introduction to the Use of Gamification in Higher Education<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Effective Design Principles and Accessibility for Gamifying Your Classes<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At first glance, limits and play seem like opposites. But as Dr. Al Douglass, Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Writing Center at Wofford College, argued in her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","update-categories":[],"class_list":["post-3820","furman-update","type-furman-update","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/faculty-development-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/updates\/3820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/faculty-development-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/updates"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/faculty-development-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/furman-update"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/faculty-development-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/updates\/3820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3822,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/faculty-development-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/updates\/3820\/revisions\/3822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/faculty-development-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"furman-update-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/faculty-development-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update-categories?post=3820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}