We do the same, but it is different. The open laboratory & play culture

Abstract

This article outlines a certain research field and a pedagogical area around digital media, play and pedagogy in a globalized media- & knowledge society. I sketch out both some results and some new challenges based on closed, recent and ongoing activities, development and research using digital media together with children in different pedagogical settings. The methods to find ways to use technologies and narratives have always been based on concrete experiments inside the pedagogical settings. No matter the context I as a researcher stepped into the actual situation and co-created play, experiments, questions, processes and results. Over the years I have discussed one pedagogical principle for the processes I have used: the open laboratory. This open laboratory covers pedagogical methods where all media and all materials can be combined in processes, where children and pedagogues play and experiment.