Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1103] re: Role play initial questions
From: Albert Ip (albert@dls.au.com)
Date: Tue 13 Feb 2001 - 13:44:14 MET
From: "Albert Ip" <albert@dls.au.com> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1103] re: Role play initial questions Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 23:44:14 +1100
"Nelson, Dennis" <Dennis.Nelson@ny.ngb.army.mil> Tuesday, 13 February 2001
17:56 wrote:
> The question asked was:
>
> Is Role Playing a pedagogy that can be applied to disciplines beyond
> politics and soft skill training?<<<<
>
> Dennis answered:
>
> We let several individuals "role play" running a multi-point VTC
conference.
> When the actual conference was held, our previously role playing
individuals
> ran the VTCs for us.
Thanks for the response, Dennis.
> Albert asked:
>
> I. In which discipline area (or just general discussion) your users use
VTC
> conference? II. Any experience you can share with us? III. Is your role
> play
> structured? IV. played in real time? .... V. sorry too much questions
:-)
>
> Dennis responded:
>
> >>>The comments reflect my input and agenda and not the official policy of
> any other entity of which I am aware.<<<
I participate in this dicussion list representing myself only too :-)
> I. Just general discussion. My principle point was that role play can be
> used for what we traditionally have labled hard disciplines and skills as
> well as those listed. (There might be more hard in soft and soft in hard
> than a quick reflection might indicate, but that's another thread.)
Yes, the hard/soft boundary is quite arbitrary. Did you use any role play
in the "hard" discipline? like what?
> II. Several dozen of our officers associated with military training needed
> 1) an upbrief on numerous training issues, and 2) a chance to brainstorm
> topics for the next statewide training meeting. The sessions are very
> structured with planned facilitation to ensure the fullest participation
> possible. Resources permitting, a technical support person and
facilitator
> would be at each site (five sites the last time). Typically an individual
> or individuals who would be at the session as participants are asked to
fill
> the support roles.
There is a fine line between collaboration tool and role playing tool.
There are overlap too. In role play, I would imagine the player (learner in
my case) will step into "the shoe of a role" and thinking and acting in
character of the role (may be participating in brainstorming, but in the
shoe of the role). One of the effect of this exercise may be the uncovering
and understanding of the issues facing the role which may not have been
obvious otherwise. Whether this "experience" will later translate into
concrete learning outcome is an interesting issue.
I agree that like everything else, there is a risk in using the technology.
The recent expression of the feelings about the technology moving too
quickly in this forum (e.g. Marshall Anderson, Ben Hyde and others) is a
valid concern. As a developer, I can constantly at the centre between
implement "cool" features and "robust" technology. I suppost your notion of
having a technical standing by is due to the "trust" of the VTC technology
as much as a support to the people using the technology. Now that the web
and the web broswer have become almost an everyday item in our daily work, I
suppose web-based role play simulation may recieve a little less concern.
What's other people's feeling in this respect?
> III. The role play is structured only to the degree necessary to ensure
> competency at the end of the session. Each role player is allowed to
> exercise their own personality and is given the support necessary to
become
> competent and confident enough to reassume the role at a future date.
We certainly are seeing a wide spectrum of role play from free form to
highly structured. I believe that both have their value in being a strategy
teacher can use to facililate learning. However, I believe that free form
role play will mean lower initial effort in setting up, but likely to have
higher effort in running and repeating the exercise. Whereas, a properly
designed structured role play, while takes more effort in the design, may be
re-used in less effort. This is my intuition and would like seek support or
otherwise from the broader experience pool of this discussion list.
> IV. They are played in real time 1) to ensure learning as well as
> instruction takes place, 2) the individuals are in their comfort zones for
> maximum learning, 3) we can estimate the degree of reinforcement needed
and
> time needed to prepare for the actual future event, and 4) we can estimate
> times needed for future role plays and the required limitations on the
> expected outcomes given the time available for the play.
>
> Given fewer resources but more communicative ability we see the
convergence
> of living, working, playing and learning as the answer to accomplishing
> goals and achieving more. We foresee the day when universal access will
> make skill and ability sets available everywhere 24/7. People can't be
> pushed into this, they must be helped to discover the joy of it.
Thanks
Albert
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