
Some free form notes from the "Make it Fun (damnit)" session- a big thanks to D'Arcy Norman for doing visual notes (see attached image)
Fun can be thought of as silly "Whimsy" but also as a sign of engagement, are we not wired for fun? We want meaningful fun. If there is a group of people laughing out loud and one quiet, arent we drawn to be part of the laughing group?
When things are designed for fun, they are generally more active for the group, but more importantly portray our humanity. There is a large differrence in our language e.g. "Check this out!" versus "If we a referred to ..."
The question was how to we carry this out in an online space? The question was asked does the technology platform steer this ("blackboard is not fun") or is it the activities done there (we think the latter). Also the analogy of hosting a dinner party seems apt (this is from Jonathan Finkelstein's "Learning in Real Time".
Also pictures/photos/stories bring both fun and humanity into our communication, that we bring our whole person to the situation (not a projectoed persona), and friends always make things more fun.
There was the discussion on the acknowlegded value of ice breakers but how can the feelings and energy be sustained longer? Relevance being key, but do things like badges and awards have long lasting impact?
To conclude, we demosntrated fun by an act of interpretive dance- the act aloing let the other groups how much fun the fun group was having.