Mighty Play to Mighty Learning?

Play is a serious form of learning, so it pays to watch the toy and gaming industry. It turns out that many of the most successful games and toys of all time are successful because games and toys are a fun and effective way to learn. Dominoes, Monopoly – pick your favorite. Were you really learning some strategy and math while you were beating your brother? Probably.

So meet Mighty Play, a Bay Area company that brings innovative products and services to kids, ‘tweens, teens and families. At Mighty Play their products start with an ideation session. I got to attend one this week and it was great.

Madeline, and her team, hosted a group of teenagers, to include a teen ‘expert’ and some game developers, to discuss how teenagers wanted to get information and learning about a topic.

We’re talking about proprietary product development here, so we don’t want to give out details, but let’s just say it’s a topic that’s near and dear to adult hearts, but far away, nagging and abstract for teens. It is a ‘should do’ for most teens, instead of a ‘wanna do.’ Mighty Play was exploring how game technology could make ‘play’ a way to learn this odious topic.

Hosted after school, the first thing that happened was fueling the participants. All present inhaled fruit, protein, crackers, cheese and a bowl of M&MS. I personally wonder how many times M&Ms sit at the table of innovation and invention? I’m betting LOTS – but that’s another blog.

Mighty Play has a process for ideation that supports all ideas, rewards wild imagining, and, in this case, magically balanced the adult and teen input. In fact, it was fun to watch the ideas flow, grow and jump between the generations.

The teens are tech-bound – cell phones, computers and IPods are assumed extensions of their lives. No books, pens, or libraries were mentioned as sources of information. All references were to ‘online anytime, anyplace’ capabilities.

The social aspect was huge – they assume that they can ping, ring, text and get instant contact when they need it. In fact, they rank peers as the most powerful influence; an influence that extends to teaching, mentoring and coaching.

But the real tough talk at the ideation session? Adults would propose beautifully formed, logical adult solutions and the kids would say, “Nah – it would never work.” Then they’d tell you why – and amazingly enough they would come up with an alternative way to social network, get ‘just in time info,’ build a ‘virtual’ team, and solve the problem in a whole different Web 2.0 way. This time the adults would be shaking their heads in wonder.

Mighty Play’s goal was to come up with something that the teens would use; that the teens would play. The product has to ‘play’ to before anyone will learn from it. The use was first, the learning objective second.

Curriculum developers might take note here. What would happen if the kids designed the curriculum deliverables? What would teens do with textbooks, workbooks and study guides? Informed by ‘just in time’ information, peer collaboration and student-generated content, I bet school time would look very different. And who knows – there might even be some ‘Mighty Learning.’