IP Policy
PLAY IS THE WAY® INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY POLICY
Play Is The Way (PITW) is a methodology using physically interactive games, a supporting language, 5 guiding principles and a philosophy of behaviour education, not management.
Holistic Approach
Our main objective is that our methodology is implemented with both a full understanding of its behavioural objectives and a high degree of fidelity to the method and its underlying principles.
"No program - no matter how sound it is - can have impact if its essential elements are not used."
Yap, K., Aldersebaes, I., Railsback, J., Shaughnessy, J.,& Speth, T. (2000).
In recent years the reputation of PITW has seen some organisations take PITW and adapt it to their own needs within their particular context. Whilst this is flattering it is also a concern because in doing so, this tends to dilute or adjust our process to the point that they are no longer using PITW, but instead are using “SLI” (Something Like It!) This can adversely affect people's opinion of PITW and diminishes the value of our brand in the educational market place.
As a consequence of this inappropriate use of PITW we are now trying to ensure that all who use PITW have, at the barest minimum, read all our resources and fully understand the purpose and processes of our methodology. Ideally, all users ultimately attend a workshop as that way everyone is on the same page.
How we finance the method
Developing the games, language, concepts and philosophy and a way of facilitating their use through the school system has taken many years of personal experience, considerable unique creative inspiration and a great deal of plain hard work and sacrifice on the part of others and ourselves to get them to the point where our methodology is available for use in schools.
Ongoing revenue allows us to make sure that those using PITW are continually supported by excellent resources and can access those resources easily and when necessary.
The hard won success of PITW is reflected in various forms of Intellectual Property. This in turn underpins our ability to pay for our future work. PITW has been our lifelong passion and without a reasonable income we would be unable to develop the products and deliver these to the maximum number of children. There are many places that we are still trying to reach where children have yet to experience the great outcomes PITW offers. Therefore our team simply must recover a reasonable income for the use of PITW resources, which means there are some restrictions on their use.
Before we train the people it is made clear that the games are for future use within the school, and our remuneration primarily comes from the schools paying for the workshops we present. Because we aim to benefit as many children as possible, our focus of delivering our process through schools has been a deliberate strategy to maximise the broadest beneficial outcomes.
All our material is copyrighted, again as part of our need to recover some income from our efforts. Therefore the reproduction of these materials is prohibited and our materials and/or methodology are not intended for commercial or financial use or gain by users (including not-for-profit users) outside their school without our written permission.
Another reason for restricting the use of the material goes back to ensuring that the quality of delivering our methodology is of the highest level, which in turn allows us to promote our innovative methods to best effect, again to influence education methods long term.
To conclude, PITW is a holistic approach to the development of the personal and social capabilities of children, as described in the Australian National Curriculum, and it is counterproductive for it to be used ad hoc by individuals or organisations both in Australia and internationally. Hence, we sincerely ask that all who intend to use it outside of a school setting and in whatever context to seek our written permission first.
Play Is The Way (PITW) is a methodology using physically interactive games, a supporting language, 5 guiding principles and a philosophy of behaviour education, not management.
Holistic Approach
Our main objective is that our methodology is implemented with both a full understanding of its behavioural objectives and a high degree of fidelity to the method and its underlying principles.
"No program - no matter how sound it is - can have impact if its essential elements are not used."
Yap, K., Aldersebaes, I., Railsback, J., Shaughnessy, J.,& Speth, T. (2000).
In recent years the reputation of PITW has seen some organisations take PITW and adapt it to their own needs within their particular context. Whilst this is flattering it is also a concern because in doing so, this tends to dilute or adjust our process to the point that they are no longer using PITW, but instead are using “SLI” (Something Like It!) This can adversely affect people's opinion of PITW and diminishes the value of our brand in the educational market place.
As a consequence of this inappropriate use of PITW we are now trying to ensure that all who use PITW have, at the barest minimum, read all our resources and fully understand the purpose and processes of our methodology. Ideally, all users ultimately attend a workshop as that way everyone is on the same page.
How we finance the method
Developing the games, language, concepts and philosophy and a way of facilitating their use through the school system has taken many years of personal experience, considerable unique creative inspiration and a great deal of plain hard work and sacrifice on the part of others and ourselves to get them to the point where our methodology is available for use in schools.
Ongoing revenue allows us to make sure that those using PITW are continually supported by excellent resources and can access those resources easily and when necessary.
The hard won success of PITW is reflected in various forms of Intellectual Property. This in turn underpins our ability to pay for our future work. PITW has been our lifelong passion and without a reasonable income we would be unable to develop the products and deliver these to the maximum number of children. There are many places that we are still trying to reach where children have yet to experience the great outcomes PITW offers. Therefore our team simply must recover a reasonable income for the use of PITW resources, which means there are some restrictions on their use.
Before we train the people it is made clear that the games are for future use within the school, and our remuneration primarily comes from the schools paying for the workshops we present. Because we aim to benefit as many children as possible, our focus of delivering our process through schools has been a deliberate strategy to maximise the broadest beneficial outcomes.
All our material is copyrighted, again as part of our need to recover some income from our efforts. Therefore the reproduction of these materials is prohibited and our materials and/or methodology are not intended for commercial or financial use or gain by users (including not-for-profit users) outside their school without our written permission.
Another reason for restricting the use of the material goes back to ensuring that the quality of delivering our methodology is of the highest level, which in turn allows us to promote our innovative methods to best effect, again to influence education methods long term.
To conclude, PITW is a holistic approach to the development of the personal and social capabilities of children, as described in the Australian National Curriculum, and it is counterproductive for it to be used ad hoc by individuals or organisations both in Australia and internationally. Hence, we sincerely ask that all who intend to use it outside of a school setting and in whatever context to seek our written permission first.