Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T11:17:01.769Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 16 - Play the Knave Theatre Videogame in Schools

From Glitchy Connections to Virtual Collaboration

from Part IV - Digital Reimaginings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2023

Liam E. Semler
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
Claire Hansen
Affiliation:
Australian National University, Canberra
Jacqueline Manuel
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
Get access

Summary

This chapter describes a collaboration between its authors – a professor and an undergraduate (post-secondary) student – to develop an education programme for Play the Knave, a mixed-reality digital Shakespeare game. As part of an effort to bring the game to local elementary and secondary school English classrooms, the authors co-ran an internship programme at our university, where the game was created. Interns, most of whom were English majors interested in education, learned to create and then teach lesson plans for Play the Knave, subsequently researching the game’s impact on learning. Our chapter discusses the challenges of collaborating in a university environment, comparing these to the challenges players experience when interacting with avatars in Play the Knave. Like Knave’s players, participants in our programme faced difficulties connecting with other participants, including ourselves and local teachers. We maintain that flawed connection – which players of digital games describe as ‘glitchiness’ – need not undermine effective collaboration but can actually enhance it, as participants are pushed to adapt constantly to shifting circumstances. In contrast to theories of artistic collaboration that prioritize participants achieving a state of ‘flow’, we argue that, in fact, collaborations can be most successful when marked by fits and starts, lags and the imperfect connections endemic to living in a digital world.

Type
Chapter
Information
Reimagining Shakespeare Education
Teaching and Learning through Collaboration
, pp. 251 - 264
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Azevedo, Jordan, Bloom, Gina, Burrell, Kirsten, Cowen, Rachel, Hartley, Kristen, Hill, Natalie, and Ah Ko, Yoon, 2018. ‘Play the Knave in Schools: Research from 2018–19 Teaching Interns’. ModLab, University of California, Davis, 8 June.Google Scholar
Banks, Fiona, 2014. Creative Shakespeare: The Globe Education Guide to Practical Shakespeare (London: Bloomsbury).Google Scholar
Blocksidge, Martin, 2003. Shakespeare in Education (New York, London: Continuum).Google Scholar
Bloom, Gina, 2019a. ‘Play the Knave’, in Schrier, Karen (ed.), Learning, Education, and Games, Vol III: 100 Games to Use in the Classroom and Beyond (Carnegie Mellon University: ETC Press), 304–11.Google Scholar
Bloom, Gina, 2019b. ‘Rough Magic: Performing Shakespeare with Gaming Technology’. Shakespeare Birthday Lecture: Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., 23 April. www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6egGB5EayA.Google Scholar
Bloom, Gina, and Bates, Lauren, 2021. ‘Play to Learn: Shakespeare as Decolonial Praxis in South African Schools’, Shakespeare in Southern Africa 34, 7–22.Google Scholar
Bloom, Gina, Buswell, Evan, Milburn, Colin, Neff, Michael, and Toothman, Nicholas, 2020. Play the Knave (Davis, CA: ModLab) https://www.playtheknave.org/.Google Scholar
Bloom, Gina, Kemp, Sawyer, Toothman, Nicholas, and Buswell, Evan, 2016. ‘“A Whole Theatre of Others”: Amateur Acting and Immersive Spectatorship in the Digital Shakespeare Game Play the Knave’, Shakespeare Quarterly 67.4, 408–30.Google Scholar
Bloom, Gina, Toothman, Nicholas, and Buswell, Evan, 2021. ‘Playful Pedagogy and Social Justice: Digital Embodiment in the Shakespeare Classroom’, Shakespeare Survey 74, 3050.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Ralph Alan, 2018. ShakesFear and How to Cure It: The Complete Handbook for Teaching Shakespeare (London: Bloomsbury).Google Scholar
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, 1990. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper and Row).Google Scholar
Edmiston, Brian, Enciso, Pat, and King, Martha L., 1987. ‘Empowering Readers and Writers Through Drama: Narrative Theater’, Language Arts 64.2, 219–28.Google Scholar
Edmiston, Brian, and Mckibben, Amy, 2011. ‘Shakespeare, Rehearsal Approaches, and Dramatic Inquiry: Literacy Education for Life’, English in Education 45.1, 86101.Google Scholar
Gibson, Rex, 1998. Teaching Shakespeare: A Handbook for Teachers. Cambridge School Shakespeare Series (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Haddon, John, 2009. Teaching Reading Shakespeare (Abingdon, UK and New York: Routledge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riggio, Milla Cozart, 1999. Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance (New York: Modern Languages Association).Google Scholar
Rocklin, Edward L., 2005. Performance Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare (Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English).Google Scholar
Savage, Karen, and Symonds, Dominic, 2018. Economies of Collaboration in Performance: More than the Sum of the Parts (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan).Google Scholar
Sawyer, Keith R., 2007. Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration (New York: Basic Books).Google Scholar
Shores, Amanda, 2017. ‘Play the Knave in the English Shakespeare Curriculum: A Review’. Play the Knave: For the Classroom (blog). 28 June 2017. www.playtheknave.org/uploads/1/3/0/7/130747582/curriculum_review_of_play_the_knave.pdf.Google Scholar
Thompson, Ayanna, and Turchi, Laura, 2016. Teaching Shakespeare with Purpose: A Student-Centred Approach (Arden Shakespeare. London: Bloomsbury).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, Brendan, 2017. ‘Drama King: Is It Valuable Or Is It All Just Fun and Games’? University of California, Davis, 28 June. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxs5H94Mq4k&feature=em-upload_owner.Google Scholar
Winston, Joe, 2015. Transforming the Teaching of Shakespeare with the Royal Shakespeare Company (London: Bloomsbury).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×