Play Seriously: When Education Becomes Must-Watch Content
The power of thoughtful storytelling in education—proving that even the most serious subjects can be taught with creativity, joy, and genuine human connection.
The Backstory
I’ve been working with Professor David Wallace of MIT’s prestigious Mechanical Engineering department for over 15 years. So when he told me that he was planning on retiring at some point and that he was considering making a video record of his teachings, I jumped at the idea.
Let me first paint you a picture of David Wallace. This man is larger than life. He’s a 6’4” fun loving, tie dye wearing Canadian who more than closely resembles Jerry Garcia. He also happens to be one of the most effective, inspiring, and well-loved teachers I’ve ever encountered! His magnetic personal presence is only eclipsed by the uniqueness of his teaching methods. It’s not simply a course where the professor stands at the front of the room at his white board relaying facts and theory. It’s live theater. And when I say theater I’m not being facetious. I mean that it’s literal theater, complete with costumes, skits, and activities all grounded in a teaching philosophy that posits: engineers should design with empathy and joy, not just equations. David's courses are so legendary that students flock to his classes from all over the world, often choosing MIT specifically because of him.
It should also be noted that, after so many years of collaboration, I consider David a very dear friend whose love of PLAY in his work mirrors my own. In David I have a kindred spirit whose philosophy is the epitome of the InnerParakeet spirit; you’ve got to have fun while working. Joy and rigor can/must coexist! Enter MIT.
The Challenge
Now, MIT's Mechanical Engineering Department faced a unique preservation challenge: how to capture and share the irreplaceable teaching methods and philosophies of Professor David Wallace.
The challenge wasn't just documentation; it was also translation. How do we capture the ethos of such a unique person and his teaching methods into a video series that maintains both entertainment value and educational impact? Something that when viewedcould inspire other educators and make future students say "I want to be there"!
The Creative Solution
Rather than a traditional documentary approach, we decided that a MasterClass-style series celebrating Wallace's larger-than-life lecture style and putting his teaching philosophy front and center was the way to go. Like his lectures, these videos needed to not only educate and inspire, they had to entertain. With that in mind, we decided to take the classic “interview and b-roll” approach and elevate it, creating cinematic, digestible slices of David’s teaching theories that are truly fun to watch by including as many elements as possible from his real life classes.
Costumes? Check. Dog on stage? Why not. Video game console as a teaching tool? Yep. Animation? Of course. Giant drivable crab vehicle that David rides across campus? Absolutely. Did I mention that David and I are kindred spirits? ;)
After much conversation we worked together to distill his teaching philosophies into the 7 most potent examples to anchor each episode to:
Everything Is An Example - Actions speak louder than words. Everything we do is an example to others.
Have A Plan And Be Ready To Change It - Direction and flexibility go hand in hand. We need a plan in order to accomplish our goals but can’t be so rigid that we won’t pivot if things aren’t working out as expected.
Make Students' Stars Shine - It’s not about you the educator. It's about inspiring the people around you to go even farther.
Everyone Has Something To Teach - On a team, every member has a unique perspective. These differing viewpoints aren’t just helpful, they are crucial.
Goals Are Essential - With the path laid out before you it’s easier to enjoy the process because you know where you’re headed.
Play Seriously - The power of fun. When you give yourself permission to play you allow yourself room to make mistakes without judgment. Mistakes can be seeds to new/ better ideas!
The Euphoria Of Growth - This is the culmination of it all. When you practice the above principals, you will experience the joy of realizing you can do more than you ever thought was possible.
Each 7-minute (ish) episode balances entertainment with education by using a myriad of fun methods. Animations help to illustrate key concepts, musical interludes induce deeper memetic learning, live animals, skits, and dance numbers further entertain while driving home the core concepts. And to ground the audience, as we go episode to episode, we watch as the students go through the entire semester's design process.
It was also important that we design the videos to be watched out of order, one at a time, or as a series; playing as a cohesive narrative when viewed back-to-back—essentially a television show about Playing Seriously.
The EPSIODES
Rather than a traditional documentary approach, we developed a MasterClass-style series that celebrates Wallace's larger-than-life lecture style and brings his teaching philosophy front and center creating entertaining, digestible, and inspirational takeaways.
Playing Seriously
The series serves MIT's dual purpose: inspiring educators to put students first while attracting top talent to the mechanical engineering program. By showcasing Wallace's unique blend of rigorous standards and playful creativity, the series reinforces MIT as the institution that values both excellence and innovation in education.
It was a pleasure to be a part of David and his student’s process. I found myself incorporating his themes into my work as we went through postproduction, and beyond!
Playing seriously is at the core of who I am and what InnerParakeet stands for. So to be able to tell the story of a celebrated professor and be of service to David and MIT’s mission is what drives me at my core as well? I look forward to taking everything I learned into the next project.
The introduction video to the series:”Play Seriously”