Knowing Differently through Designing Digital Games

Abstract

AbstractIn this chapter we argue that the practices and processes involved in the design of playful environments, such as digital games, create deep learning opportunities that cultivate design-based thinking and doing through the concept of “ludic epistemology”. Ludic epistemology, we argue, is a theory of knowing through play. We begin the chapter with a reflection on our own game design processes developed when creating two pandemic-focused games, both of which anticipated some of the political and dis-/mis-information circulating around today’s global COVID-19 crises. We next turn to some examples of learning through designing games, illustrating how digital game design can be enacted in post-secondary education settings, and how it is used as a means of supporting the acquisition of digital game competencies and skills through design challenges that take our students outside their everyday educational experiences. Through these game design experiences, we show how digital game design processes can support educators to create and pedagogically support learning experiences rooted in play and in the construction of playful environments.KeywordsGame designLudic epistemologyPlayEducationPandemicDesign-based thinkingLearning