October 20, 2009 Blog Posting: Online Roleplay
I chose a photo of a white-middle class-looking older person to match my 65-year-old character. She looked knowledgeable and confident of herself. I chose the name Harriet because it sounded like a name given out in the 1940s. I wanted my character to be knowledgeable in education and have some contact with technology even though she is in her sixties. To help her bridge the gap between old school and new school, I added grandchildren to her bio: ages 8, 10, 12, 15. This allowed her to see how her grandkids use the technology but also allows her to see firsthand how it contrasts with her use/knowledge. I made sure she still actively subbed in secondary schools so she had some contact with current technology in the classroom.
To convince others, I took on an empathetic approach, “I can see what you mean…” and following it up with my own point of view afterward. On some occasions, I took a humorous or sarcastic approach, in particular with Kyle and the Book Man, because their personalities were so strong. I used some articles that were provided by Rick and some that I found on my own and hyperlinked them to support my arguments, but I don’t think they were effective. I think I would have to pull out the parts in more detail. I relied on the user going to my hyperlink article. Not effective and I would need to remind students that they will need to pull some quotes or paraphrase a bit and add the hyperlink.
I think the roles with the most power were the “loud” roles (Kyle, Book Man and the admissions officer). They had lots of support for their feelings and positions and they were rapid-fire posters. It was hard to keep up, especially in chat mode. Some of the least-powered roles were the ones that had little voice in them. Having a strong character and position seemed to make a difference. I don’t think my role had much power because I was a middle-of-the-roader. Those who spoke loudly through their character’s personality and continuous postings seemed to have the power.
My personal beliefs were not that different than my characters. I see both sides of the issue. I do think students have more problem-solving and decision-making abilities using the Internet, but I don’t think they read deeply. I also think being able to read sustainably is a challenge, especially for boys. This is from my observations in the classroom. To read for 20-30 minutes continuously is a problem more than it was when I started teaching six years ago. Students don’t’ seem to have the endurance if the text doesn’t GRAB them from the get go. They abandon books so quickly. I did shift from seeing that online reading is more challenging on the eyes than paper reading based on some research that was noted. Screen technology is getting better, but I’d rather have a book on a beach than a Kindle, iphone or laptop. The tactile interaction is something that I enjoy.
Teaching using online role play has many possible uses to me. Some uses could be: novel conflicts, research topics, voice lessons, rebuttal lessons, persuasive techniques, and any current controversy.
Teaching eighth-grade students requires online interaction. They grove to it more than “turn and talk.” It provides some safety that face-to-face doesn’t allow.
Assuming a position other than their own opinion is a bit difficult for any age, especially this one. That would require some group brainstorming before hand.
I think they would enjoy researching their character/role, finding an avatar that matches their character’s personality and learning how to “speak” in the voice of that individual. Here is where I get real excited: teaching voice using the role play. To be able to show why you would use more formal vocabulary and sentence structure or more teen speak if that was the case. Being able to research ahead of time and incorporate that data in their postings would be essential. It was tough to find additional sources online on the spot, even with the time I researched beforehand.
I also thought that being able to go back to the postings to gather sources and opinions would be a great opportunity to help with teaching rebuttal techniques. Students often have a tough time with writing rebuttals in persuasive pieces. The roles allow rebuttal opinions and data to be prewritten for them. The brainstorming of that portion is halfway done.
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Dixie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on so many points you made about the online role play. I too found it really hard to go out and find sources while we were in the midst of the role play. It was much easier to prepare ahead of time. This makes me unsure as to how effective a synchronous online role play is. I think that just requiring a certain amount of posts and rebuttals before the deadline would prove pretty effective...unless you wanted them to have to think under fire.
The chat room was also hard for me to follow while we were still posting. I think that if I were to do this I would (as the teacher) make sure that they were staying out of the chat room until the postings were done. Then they will not get behind in either posting to the forum topics or in the chat room.
I think that the students woud really love to research their role. I also think that a lot of learning comes in this step. They have to think critically about the materials through a new perspective. It is no longer "what do I think about these things" but "how does my character think about these things." As we saw in our role-play, these do not always have to match up.
You brought up an interesting idea of language usage. You talked about the language your character would use. You chose one way and them chose another when you were responding to different people. Would this happen? Or would we use the same language/tone no matter who we were responding to?