Drama Process to Facilitate Learner Agency

Introduction to Drama process.

This chapter explores emergent cultural and community activity, deepens discussion on interpersonal activity and implications for dimensions of tool use on learner agency.

The chapter addresses evidence of reactions and development of adrama process

It also begins to ask questions about the possible application of this approach to classroom contexts.

The chapter ends with a discussion on wider concerns of designing for learner agency. Here I synthesise analysis on processes which support learners to develop agency in this game making community and the role of different levels of authenticity.

Game Making Types

Game Making Types, roles

Intro to Bartle et al.

From Chapter 5

What kind of Maker are you - Motivations behind social processes

By the end of P2 most of the tools and main processes were in place. But I still felt tensions around introducing reflective processes and wanted to de-centre myself where possible from a teacher position. My journal notes detail an evolution of attempts to try to build into the program, activities which help build the participants sense of their own identities of game makers or more generally digital designers.

In and early tentative attempt to define in broad strokes the types of game maker behaviour and underlying goals, taking inspiration from Bartle’s game player types [@hamari_player_2014], identifying social makers, planners, magpies and glitchers.

  • Social makers: form relationships with other game makers and players by finding out more about their work and telling stories in their game
  • Planners: like to study to build knowledge of the tools before they build up their game step-by-step following instructions
  • Magpie makers: like trying out lots of different things and happy to borrow code, images and sound from anywhere for quick results
  • Glitchers: mess around with the code trying to see if they can break it interesting ways and cause a bit of havoc for other users

I saw potential value here to address the danger internal bias about the kind of process that a computer programmer should adopt, echoing the call for pluralism in approaches [@papert_epistemological_1990]. Thus, in P2 I introduced a starter game in which families moved into different quadrants of the room in answering questions on the Bartle test. This process celebrated different game playing types and allowed a public sharing of previously hidden gaming preferences, although for some non-gaming parents and children I had to ask them to use their imagination. Several parents noted that this process gave them great insight into how their child identified within the cultures of the games they played.

After the process of playing a game I shared my proposition that there different game maker types. I asked participants to evaluate and discuss with peers what kind of game maker they were from the list above. This process was not explicitly used in later reflections however parent Mark made the following comment in post-session P3 interviews.

We used the instructions, we like to plod.

Illustration 4.x - What kind of game maker are you {width=95%}

I used the question “What kind of game maker are you?” as an indicator to participants that one aim of the project was to create a space where different approaches are possible and celebrated. To communicate this approach, as well as starting game activity, I incorporated the question into an animation of the resources home page (see illustration 4.x). In P3 the underlying ideas were incorporated into the process drama described in the next section.

Description drama process using extracts from vignettes and concepts of MoE

The introduction of a drama process was introduced in response to a the barriers to participation caused by not identifying with the culture of coding or gaming.

The drama process is an example of an introduced cultural tool. The process acts as wrapper to several supporting techniques. the side missions to and to sanction different approaches, the imagined audience encourages reflection and semi-authentic approaches. It is the most advanced tools of a range that was put into place to create a space suitable for creativity, collaboration and self expression.

The following sections use concepts explored by Bolton and Heathcote from MoE processes to situate the drama process used the drama intervention used in the context of P3 [@aitken_dorothy_2013].

Contracting into drama

The drama process involved a fictional frame of aliens coming to judge the earth. An extract of how I introduce the drama frame, the main and side missions is included as appendix 4.x. Below is a short extract of the overall mission.

We have some guidelines:

  • Make a game about a big or small problem for your planet to solve. If you can let us play it each week as you go along.
  • Give us an update each week by recording a group update.
  • Show you can work on your own but also work as part of a team.
  • We will also send you text messages with some mini-missions sometimes. Be sure to tell us how you do.

Please now get started and come up with a new game about solving a problem on Earth.

Extract from Appendix 4.x: Vignette of introduction of the drama process

The process of introducing a scenario for participant to respond to is common in project based learning in this vignette. Here it is extended using a dramatic element in line with Heathcote on Mantle of the Expert (MoE)

As a facilitator, I indicate that we are entering a dramatic process and attempt to draw everyone into a commitment to the process. The collusion is noted by both parents and children in recorded exchanges. For example, after engaging with a code example provided by myself in the role of the aliens, one pair make the following comment.

Parent: Look, this is what Mick’s showed, what Mick’s has done.

Child: The Weean have done!

Parent: The Weean, sorry yes.

Facilitator activities in role

My role is a link between the participant and the fictional commissioners of the games. The transcript in appendix 4.1.a details an example of extended facilitator input as instruction. As a practitioner in this setting, I had tried to limit teacher instruction and to outline boundaries to prevent learner disengagement. However some input was needed to help address the previously explored tension choice with over-ambition, and signpost participants to needed documentation. The drama narrative helped resolve some of this personal tension by allowing me using the dramatic commission as a foil to help avoid the encounter feeling personally controlling [heathcote_drama_1985]. CLARIFY - EXTERNALISING LIMITS TO ACTIVITY

Learner activities in role

Beyond the wider fictional frame of the making activity, learners were also sometimes asked to undertake some activities in role, in particular reflection in role. This and other example are explored via vignette 4.1.b.

Vignette 4.1.b illustrates this process. In the extract participants are invited to take turns showing their game, recapping their progress and outlining next steps to the alien observers. I play the role as a liaison facilitating the process for the fictional, remote audience. I also draw attention to the secret missions that had been distributed to participants, which along with social missions are explored in the following section.

In addition to the careful technical and pedagogical creation and organisation of resources undertaken in P2, in P3 I sought a way for participants to be aware of and access relevant documentation without interrupting their creative flow or the fun of the experiences. To address this in P3, as part of the drama process, I encouraged participants to write to the aliens to ask help in a shared online document. The full process is described in appendix 4.x and participant reactions are explored in Chapter 7.

Observations on Game Making Types

This section returns to game making types explored in Chapter 5. TO DEVELOP

For examples in the Vignette of S and T’s interaction we can see attributes of the child as a Glitcher. In terms of understanding of the game as a dynamic system, this is seen clearly in the parent’s alarm at the child’s deletion of all elements of hazard. The parent is keen to keep a sense of game balance to ensure a sense of challenge for the imagined player. “It’s no fun having a game without any hazards to avoid.” The child seems determined to remove all hazards. My understanding is that she is also aware of implications for game balance but is taking pleasure in this seeming destruction of the key challenge of the game as an act of disruptive play. They seem to take pleasure from ignoring concepts of what should be done to maintain game balance and from the sense of shock from their current audience her parent. Going against this convention is a type of playful destruction in this context. The process mirrors play theory concept of playing against the game or dark play Sutton-smith, 2001).

The potential of emergent “non-productive” activities

Much time in sessions was spent on activities that did not fit nearly into an accepted design stage, for example: opening software tools; navigating to correct locations; and finding past assets. These processes often involved significant effort and collaboration between participants. For example the migrating assets between authoring tools, converting to correct formats, evaluating new tools, and finding previously created assets. These are practices that I am personally familiar with. I call them digital laundry or digital housekeeping. Things that at times can be low attention span. Faff time is even less productive switching on the computer and waiting for the internet to connect, waiting for a family member to finish their rushed lunch or navigating to the right location in creative software.

Skills to perform these activities were at often distributed between different family members. For some adult re-enforcing their identities as project managers, and for young participants forming identities as digital specialists. I noted in analysis of data that along with frustration there are also moments of creativity, and there are bonding moments which appear to be helped by this activity which is at times quite unfocused but also shared. In retrospect, many of the social missions explored above encouraged activity outside of established design stages. For example the lively discussion about game playing in response to the mission to find out the favourite games of 3 other people.

The process of swapping graphical assets used a shared Piskel gallery and games area which served to keep individuals informed in directly of progress being made, and to spark curiosity in the creations of others.

In addition, I observed that navigating these essential but non-creative tasks in a collaborative and playful way can reduce learner anxiety and help maintain a positive affect to the overall creative digital process. This observation is supported by an example in the next chapter available in appendix 5.x - an extract of which is included below.

Participant Dialogue Participant Gestures & Activities
  Nadine has just rapidly demonstrated how to bring a created graphical element into the game
Molly: How did you do that so quickly? I’ve got to like, carefully… Molly makes hand gestures to show a sense of hesitant keyboard use)
  A parent peer next toA Molly laughs.
Nadine, the child of Molly bounces up in place and smiles broadly.

In summary, it is of value to create spaces to leverage the potential of these in-between moments for participants.

The potential impact on agency is as follows; If these tasks can be seen as more than mere barriers to production, and therefore to be designed out to increase instrumental agency, then there is potential to increase relational agency through flexible divisions of labour that allow the incorporation of home roles in to this new learning space. Thus a potential affordance to find identify and specialism here.

This a concept is developed later in this discussion.

On the Drama Process

Discussion on conflicts associated with authenticity of audience

Learners may not find coding a project a motivating project if it is only a private activity with no authentic audience

Making for peers has value but can be amplified and scoped using a fictional or controlled external audience often via scenarios.

An authentic audience can create a motivating context to deepen and sustain participation
(Larson, 2007; Magnifico, 2010) [@roque_youth_2019-1]

Play Testing - each lesson can help with short term motivation of having a game product ready for others to play. Showcase events help longer-term motivation towards and aid prioritisation as learners near the end of their project.

The process of starting with a broken but playable template game allowed learners to be able to share their game with others from the start of the coding process.

As a designer I identified this tactic as a way to address learner disengagement if game coding is taught from scratch via a step by step instructions from first principles, especially in younger ages.

Similarly, in my journal notes, I reflect on the difficulty of interrupting the flow of making activities once they are underway. I thus began avoiding stopping making to share points to the whole class and avoid demonstrating key concepts on the screen.

Observations on use of side missions in drama process

These activities were undertaken by most of the participants. In analysis of one key sessions involving missions from which the transcript was taken. Out of 10 participants, 8 visibly engaged with the secret missions during the session.

The process was not without friction. While the some of the secret missions encouraged forms of disruptive play, griefing of playing against the game [@bakioglu_spectacular_2008; @bartle_hearts_nodate]. While this increases engagement for some learners, the process also suffered the danger that participants transgress levels of cheekiness and play which explores boundaries, to more disruptive ones. In this context this involved frustration and wasted time for other users. After initially engaging with the process of secret games, Toby and Dave, who were later working on a tricky coding process, expressed frustration at interference.

Thus, while promising, limits to this process should be evaluated to avoid overly disruptive behaviour which create barriers to progress. For example, time limits could be in place.

This chapter makes limited claims in terms of the effectiveness of this process due to limits in terms of data gathering. However, it can make a claim that this activity has significant potential. HOW EXACTLY?

In summary, this activity helped addresses one of the key barriers to taking part in a coding community that of alienation from the culture of coding. The use of missions introduced by facilitator are taken up voluntarily by participants and aimed to address conflicts caused by identity clashes by recognising and encouraging diverse making approaches and styles of community participation.

The positive reaction of young people to the drama process was also picked up in interview data.

Mark: Tell us about the Weean?
Ed: er.
Mark: What did you like about the Weean?
Ed: Just very silly and I don't know. They answered your questions.
Mark: Was it, because there was a sense of play, a bit of fun and a bit of anarchy.
Ed: Yeah.
Mark: What else can you tell us about the Weean?
Ed: er.
Mark: There was the little sabotage things you had to do as well.
Ed: Yeah
Mark: So you liked those games where you had to kind of hack somebody else?
Ed: Yeah
...
Mark: The Weean thing was, I think, a massive hit for everybody because it just brought sense of play and fun. And it took attention away from it being overtly technical. Brought a personal element in and obviously that anarchy. Kids love the absurd.

Observations on written interactions with the alien in the drama

As well as exploring documentation and accessing technical help within the drama frame, student also engaged in playful dialogue with the aliens unrelated to game making. The process of asking the aliens for technical help within a code project sparked a playful process of informal chatting with the aliens. This chat began to fulfil a function of building insider rapport, creating a fun atmosphere, celebrating the completion of games in the absence of a public showcase, and signposting the achievements of other participants.

The process started with supportive and celebratory messages posted from the alien. The impact was significant with the young people with 5 out of 7 engaging by writing messages and all mentioning the interactions verbally during the session.

The process is described in more detail in Appendix 7.x. MOVE THE FOLLOWING TO Appendix

While accessible online, the use of the board was mainly active in the last session, where general oversight of the activities taking place in the same room as parents prevented any possible abusive or unsafe behaviour. There was however a fair amount of playful boundary pushing commentary.

Examples include:

  • find cheeky examples.

Discussion on dimensions of authenticity and Process Drama

Returning to the work of drama processes, Heathcote [@heathcote_drama_1994] warns against asking participants to genuinely make items in the processes explored. To do so, she argues, would expose their inexpertness in the cold light of day.

“if they are makers of things (for example, shoes, ballgowns, or aircraft) they must never (within the fiction, that is) be asked to create the actual objects. If they had to do this their in expertness would become immediately apparent.”[@heathcote_drama_1994, p. 18]

Authentic tools in settings where students may find their novice skills lacking can negatively impact on experiences of self-efficacy and thus agency. While this is clearly the case in factory-based drama process, the value of digital tools allows students to to work with more authentic practices.

CALL BACK TO AUTHENTICITY OF LAST CHAPTER - LINK TO AGENCY

In chapter four the use of coding tools and the impact on instrumental agency was explored.

Authenticity in project approaches can profitably be applied to tools, processes and project goals [@hung_engaged_2006]. Authenticity in goal here is clear. Participants make a real digital game. The authentic goal of making a game allowed participants to draw on tacit knowledge and navigate within implicit bounds reducing the need for intrusive instruction which might negatively effect feelings of agency.

As explored in this chapter and in chapter four, the authenticity of the tools and processes involved are more complex.

Playtesting processes are authentic and often informed by existing real experience as game players. These observations are in-line with existing research outlining the value of playtesting in game-making [FIND] and to address cultural barriers to coding cultures [@disalvo_glitch_2009].

There are examples of the authenticity of the audience being used by participants

  • Suzanna uses the imagined audience to norm behaviour.
  • Olivia (Th) imagines the impact of her game on real students as a motivational factor and one which drives design decisions. The use of code playgrounds and js? structured along design principles which align with affordance theory.

THEREFORE - WHAT IS THE KEY POINT HERE?

While authenticity in coding context is potentially off-putting or prohibitive if too complex, it is motivating if linked with real life competencies and culturally relevant activities and outputs. In this context there is an explicit link between participant feelings of self-efficacy and their growing experiences of agency.

Educators should be aware of this tension and help resolve it by developing their competency and using simplified professional tools. The benefits to leaners are increased experience of agency, through x, y and z. And the development of an activity systems which has the following benefits / characteristics.

While this is broadly in line with PBL theories, and constructionism the use of CHAT perpective on agency brings some useful tools to the researcher and practitioner. CROSSREFF - list the benefits here.

Discussion on making types and process drama / side missions

The process of exploring identity via side missions in this way surfaced the cheekiness of some young people and the pleasure they took in demonstrating their playful mischievousness. I began to make journal notes on this subject and talk to other games study practitioners. I began to ask the question can the surfacing maker types (as per player types) encourage awareness and celebrate the emerging practices that the community was producing.

As an example some players created impossible or overly easy game levels. They appeared aware of implications for game balance but is taking pleasure in this seeming destruction of the key challenge of the game as an act of disruptive play. They seem to take pleasure from ignoring concepts of what should be done to maintain game balance and from the sense of shock from their current audience her parent. Going against this convention is a type of playful destruction in this context. The process mirrors play theory concept of playing against the game or dark play [@sutton-smith_ambiguity_2001].

Discussion on Drama Process and Agency

Aitken’s and Heathcote’s terms follow in italics. Within a fictional context a responsible team is contracted into a commission by a client. The facilitator frames curriculum elements as productive tasks and plans for tensions to arise involving: authentic contexts, messiness of learning, maintaining learner interest and resilience to overcome the grappling and struggling involved. The following sections explore some of these key concepts via the example in vignette.

Positive affective space within a drama process

The work in this research around designing and coding in role and creating a playful context and language mirrors work done in learning languages to reduce learner anxiety by leveraging the potential for drama processes to create positive “affective spaces” [@piazzoli_process_2011; @stinson_dol_2006]. The drama process can be viewed as magic circle [@stenros_defence_2012; @whitton_playful_2018]. A magic circle is a concept which transmits the idea that game players enter a loosely bounded play space where they accept arbitrary play rules and enter a social contact to adopt a playful attitude.

The experience of myself and participants being more comfortable performing some of the activities in role is facilitated by contracted together into a playful agreement where risk of perceived failure is reduced. In my journal notes, I observed, that when listing boundaries to activities within role, it felt similar to outlining the rules of a game rather that constricting their behaviour. Thus, I felt more relaxed restricting choice in role via the proxy of a playful encounter compared to my previously I concerns surrounding participants feeling overly controlled.

In addition, I believe part of my hesitancy in shifting activity from participant-led game making to reflection, or accessing documentation, stemmed from worrying that the learners would also find this shift in objective, from the organically developing design and play testing activity system to an externally imposed system of reflecting on progress, would be jarring, potentially disorientating and reduce learner engagement and positive affect towards the overall process. In other words, provoking a feeling that the fun’s over, it’s back to school. I propose that the drama fiction eases friction between competing activity system objectives.

Reflection on reflecting in role

It doesn’t look like we’ve got anywhere but we have!

While drama scenarios can aid reflection both in or out of drama, O’Neill and Lambert outline the value of in-drama reflection, noting it is “likely to be more powerful than end-of-session discussion, since it allows individual and group insight to be articulated as part of the context” [-@oneill_drama_1982, p. 144]. In line with this intervention, they propose one way of achieving in-role reflection is to introduce an additional character that acts as an external audience. In this intervention however, main activities happen only weakly in role, whereas the end reflection highlights the fictional frame of the making more strongly.

Using the terms of student agency explored in the literature review, here we can see the use of the drama narrative used as a second stimulus both by facilitator to help convene learners and to help them participate in reflection, and project sharing [@sannino_principle_2015].

LINK TO EXISTING RESEARCH More links to the limits of reflection processes and the challenges of critical approaches in PBL.

Discussion on mediated chat and potential for addressing contradictions in activity

Writing in role.

MOVED The start of playful chat with aliens process began when Ed in a moment of free time expanded the use of space initially imagined to address technical needs by initiation a playful interaction which, while in the motivation to support different learner identities, was a novel, volitional action in this context. It is helpful to expore this interaction using AT and TADS terminology. Ed is in conflict, not able or wanting to engage in his existing creative activities while his father has a social break. Using the secondary stimulus of a text chat with fictional aliens, he writes a playful personal question to the aliens as an expression of volitional action to play, casts out an experimental kedging anchor. By co-incidence, I was on a different computer, saw this question, and was able to respond in real time. Thus, by getting a response, Ed’s kedging anchor caught onto an anchor point and Ed was able to resolve this conflict of inactivity and in doing so both amuse himself and other other with humorous self-expression, and open-up a novel, child-centred activity for the whole group which could also address potential issues of alienation from the culture of serious coding expressed by other participants.

Concluding remarks on process drama

While inspired by the work on Heathcote on Mantle of the Expert, not all element of the process align directly. For example, the drama does not try to position the participants as expert game makers in a professional context.

This section has explored the use of the possibilities of a drama process to support both the leaner expression of agency and as a pedagogical process for facilitators to militate probable conflicts and obstacles for learners in the creative process. The mission-based interventions began as naturally occurring expression of learner agency which became incorporated into the drama process.

The impact of time pressure to finish games also compounded tensions involving shifting away from game making to reflective activities. Even with the use of reflection in role, reflection activity was not prioritised in final sessions as time drew short.

This aligns with existing research addressing the barriers to effective reflection and meta-cognition on PBL processes. NOTE - EXPLORE THIS IN LR AND DISCUSSION IF KEEPING THIS.

Discussion section - Metaphors on developing agency

An underlying proposal of this thesis is the development of learner agency can be facilitated by designing effective learning environments. To do this a good working knowledge of types of developmental agency is useful.

This section continues to explore tensions surrounding support learner agency, useful conceptions of agency, to situate later recommendations for researchers and educators working in this area.

This section explores these academic conceptions in a playful way using relatable metaphors from related research.

Contribution to conceptions of agency

As previously explored, varied conceptions of agency exist including: instrumental, authorial and transformative agency [@matusov_mapping_2016].

The distinction between instrumental forms of agency and more authorial / transformative variants are valuable expore here.

Design decisions of tool use can to increase agency in practical terms by providing affordances or by removing barriers to use. Conceptually these practical dimension can be framed as instrumental agency or removing aspects of negative liberty caused by technical barriers [@matusov_mapping_2016, p. 433].

Other tensions were resolved with more fundamental shifts to the overall structure of the activity which can be said to align more closely with the concept of transformative (authorial agency) agency.

In many cases design decisions were driven by the response and interest of the participants.

Research on engendering authorial and transformative agency [@engestrom2006development; @haapasaari_emergence_2016; @sannino_formative_2016].

LINK TO SECTION AFTER THE METAPHORS

Introducing additional tools in the form of documentation to the initial coding environment and template provided in early stages introduced tensions between the opportunities for independent development and the additional complexity of the process.

More examples linking DS to practice follow after exploring agency using metaphors.

Metaphors

How does this all fit together?

Kedging anchor metaphor

Sannino augments the concept of transformative agency by double stimulation (TADS) with a metaphor of a sea vessel warping using kedging anchors.

We may think of the second stimulus as an anchor. Anchors are commonly understood as stabilising devices to prevent a vessel from moving. However, not all anchors have this function. Beside the heavy-weight anchors, there are also kedge anchors serving the purpose of ‘warping,’ that is, pulling the anchor once it has settled on the ground, for moving the vessel away from a problem area. [@sannino_transformative_2022, p. 4]

In this metaphor emphasises the active volition of participants to overcome tensions and blockages in learning. In our context learners would throw an anchor of intention out into the learning environment to then pull on to Not all throws will be successful. The anchor may slip or it may catch on something in the learning environment that allows the leaner to pull

Sannino’s metaphor of a kedging anchor thrown by participants to pull themselves out of a conflict or blockage is particularly useful to explain processes where participants seek to resolve conflicts and problems in an existing setting. Indeed, much research employing TADS process and kedging metaphor is located in workplace settings. As such, the designed nature of the environment is less relevant and less explored than research on the co-creation of a new learning environment. By contrast the work on idioculture by Cole and colleagues explores this more actively via design narratives and similar techniques.

The following section integrates affordance theory into a metaphor to encompass concerns of a more structured learning design.

Affordances as catching points metaphor

In the original metaphor the casting of the anchor is random, experimental. It is unsure if the anchor will catch on anything under the surface. However, in this design, participants aim for affordances as visible anchor points. In the design above such anchor points include: regular play-testing; the use of documentation; and highlighed variables and level structure in the quick start stage.

Thus affordances in the learning design can be viewed in this frame as a catching point for these anchors [@hopwood_agency_2022]. An effective learning environment provides a sea bed with many rocks (affordances) for warping anchors (volitional acts of participant agency to transform learning) [@aagaard_teacher_2022].

TADS and the associated metaphor of warping anchors is normally applied in settings of group action.

To aid learners agency, designers notice existing paths of participants and add explicit anchor points and make them visible to learners. The process is on-going and mutual. Additionally, this work happens in an facilitated environment. Design decisions server to clarify common problems areas, thus making the water clearer to better see anchor points. The job of the designer is in part to identify the causes of turbulence and thus create support in a sheltered space of a harbour.

To shift the metaphor here, to incorporate the utility of previously used affordances within the community, we can imagine a climbing rock-face metaphor of a lead climber leaving a trail for others behind. Or in a training environment of a climbing wall, attaching colours to a particular route designed to suit a particular skill level.

Playgrounds and sheltered harbours

My design decision to build the toolset as structure on top of authentic tools and languages can be likened to creating a protective harbour to shield new users from the complexity of the underlying configuration of interrelated web-technologies and instead highlight design affordances that facilitate creative agency.

Participants are able to leave the protective harbour by accessing more authentic documentation and moving beyond existing templates. The experience may be involve choppier waters but the tools and processes remain familiar.

Many design decisions were made to create a supported, simplified coding environment. Relevant examples from the previous chapter include: using an online code playground; skirting use of specialist terminology; hiding away un-needed complexity in the code template.

While it is important to acknowledge the danger that such support may make learners run into trouble if coding other projects outside of this supported space, the use of authentic code language makes this less of an issues than with specialised coding environments aimed at novices [@hagge_coding_2018]. Thus to make one addition to the metaphor this design is like a sea-harbour, tools like Scratch are like a swimming pool.

Growing / Gardening metaphors

We can substitute the metaphor of playground/ harbour with that of a walled garden.

The title to this chapter is Seeding and Nurturing Game Making Communities to Facilitate Learner Agency. It could be extended to Rewilding metaphor to reflect the importance of leaving learners to evolve their own processes as a form of authorial and transformational agency, albeit within the forms of pedagogical walled gardens.

The freedoms and restrictions of playgrounds

In this research, similar metaphors have emerged in the pedagogical and technical process surrounding the concept of playgrounds and gardens. In the previous section the use of a curated set of design patterns can be referred to as a walled garden or sandbox. The process of checking the performance of games is called playtesing. The web-based environment which reduce the complexity of web development and provide community and immediate feedback are named code playgrounds. While some of this language is specific to the creation of games, other terms are also prevalent in non-game coding.

These metaphors invite a connection to play theories concept of as the magic circle. Play theorist outline the value of stepping into a more controlled area of voluntary experimentation where the fear of failure is reduced. Game rules are norms which seed participation in community processes. The playful context of the game’s magic circle can facilitate participants to adapt norms and rules to their own playing styles. Through this lens, the interaction of playtesting, code playgrounds and a sandbox of game patterns emerge as a key practices to facilitate and maintain learner agency. The discussion of the next chapter explores the intersection of these elements in more detail.

Nurturing agency by creating space for emergent practices

What relevance does the previous poetic description of agency have on practitioners and reserachers in this area?

THIS SECTION IS STILL UNDER DEVELOPMENT -

As a learning designer, design decisions to create a sheltered harbour, increase the instrumental agency of learners allowing them to experience a feeling of control over their creative process.

Adopting analysis which aligns authorial agency and transformative agency, there is a potential tension between instrumental agency and transformative agency. A design which minimises possible conflicts also reduces the potential for participants to solve them both individually and collective responses.

Thus, I propose that key areas of the learning design should be more open in structure to encourage the emergence of participant responses and novel practices. The concepts of affective space and magic circle previously explored in the context of drama process as a way to encourage participants to improvise from a starting structure are of value to provide guidance to practitioners in the domain of informal digital design.

Exploring conceptions of agency via a synthesis of the findings of this study (using metaphors above)

Discussion on agency concerning tools and resources (authenticity in particular)

Chapter 4 exposed the tensions that developed in the activity systems and subsequent evolution the tools used include code authoring environment, supporting resources of printed and digital format. This section begins to analyse these tensions in more depth, in particular the intersection of authenticity in tool use and participant agency.

Agency in response to a series of second stimuli aimed at participant identity

  • game player types
  • side missions
  • ?

Learner agency in the form of choice over the chosen activity is present not only in the dimensions of the difficulty and theme of the game features they wished to add, but also in their approach to undertaking it.

Some approached objectives in a methodical manner, others socially and others embracing a playfully disruptive stance. Some decided to focus extensively on the creation and implementation of graphical assets and level design. While the distributed nature of the toolset, hindered peer learning in P1 as too many tools were introduced, in P2 it helped build authentic digital literacy skills. Some young participants became remarkably swift and adapt at thus transforming chains of actions into a fluid operation. Learners who had mastered the skills were asked by others for help, becoming domain experts, and thus providing additional affordances in the learning community and building an identify as specialist within its. It is of value to examine specialisation can be seen through the lens of double stimulation. The choice to specialise, marks a form of transformative agency. Participants craft for themselves a specialist status which becomes shared and celebrated by the group. Further examples are explored in chapter five.

Summary of implications for practice to encourage agency

NOTE - HOW MUCH OF THIS IS ALREADY IN PREVIOUS SECTIONS?

After exploring varied understandings of agency and manifestations in this context. What are resulting implication for practice in brief - COMPARE TO RELEVANT SECTION IN NEXT CHAPTER.

Implications in conceptualisations of forms of agency

THIS SHOULD BE DROPPED OR INTEGRATED TO SOMEWHERE ELSE? CONCLUSION PERHAPS.

This thesis has explored agency through the following concepts: instrumental agency, authorial agency, and transformative agency through double stimulation.

This section contributes observations from this research process with the following aims.

  • to serve other researchers undertaking similar work using activity theory and design based approach
  • to help practitioners be research informed

There is alignment with other research in terms of how

  • authenticity of tools can be problematic and needs design adaptation, often black boxing
  • this process merits attention and alignment with overall project aims of the designer
  • Challenges encountered by students in tool use can result in productive and creative responses in development of production cultures (explored later)
  • ideally emergent and producing a culture series of