Blogs
The blog posts on this site are a product of Mick Chesterman’s PhD process.
Use the side menu to explore different entries.
About these posts
These posts sit alongside my PhD as a more informal layer of reflection.
They are not a linear summary of the thesis. Instead, they offer multiple entry points into the work, focusing on specific ideas, tensions, and design decisions.
Some posts explore core concepts such as agency, collaboration, and learning through making. Others focus on practical aspects of the learning design, or on themes that did not fit neatly into the final thesis.
They are written from within the process rather than after it, and often return to moments, experiments, or questions that shaped the direction of the research.
How to read these posts
These posts are not intended to be read in a fixed order.
However, if you prefer a starting point, you can follow one of the pathways below, depending on what you are most interested in. You can also move freely between them.
Starting with the learning experience
If you want to get a feel for what the sessions were like and how the approach developed:
- Reflection on Jamming
- Reflection on Choice and Messy Learning
- Bartle types - from game players to game makers
Gameplay design patterns (core thread)
If you are interested in how gameplay design patterns became central to the work:
- How Gameplay Design Patterns (GDPs) became a vital part of my PhD thesis
- The conceptual framing of Gameplay Design Patterns
- Diverse mediational uses of Gameplay Design Patterns
Making sense of learning
If you are interested in how learning was identified and interpreted:
Designing and structuring practice
If you are thinking about applying these ideas in teaching or facilitation:
- Meeting yourself in the middle - structuring linear manuals for non-linear work
- Reflection on the REEPPP model
- Diverse mediational uses of Gameplay Design Patterns
Drawing things together
If you are interested in how these ideas connect and extend:
This collection traces a journey rather than presenting a fixed framework. You can start anywhere, follow a path, or dip in and out depending on what is most useful.