Playing Text

This chapter assesses the act of playing text. It considers what play is before looking at how it can be used in an educational and textual context. Play is a participatory form, one in which an individual is active and has the ability to make decisions which can alter events and change outcomes. Individuals engaged with playing (text) have the ability to continually modify it and will often have different experiences each time they participate. This contrasts with the engagement one may have with presentational forms such as a film, TV drama, novel, or play where one may be seen as an 'active' participant through the reading of the text but the experiences are not fully interactive as the individual will not be able to modify the text. Indeed, play and play-based activities can provide an alternative way of accessing, engaging with, and thinking about material that a more traditional reading would not.