Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:755] Rule-play and Role-play
s.heppenstall@mail.parklanecoll.ac.uk
Date: Thu 30 Nov 2000 - 11:40:40 MET
From: s.heppenstall@mail.parklanecoll.ac.uk Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 10:40:40 GMT Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:755] Rule-play and Role-play
On the issue of role-play, I have found both these types of learning to be
invaluable and entertaining for the children in my care. I remember playing the
Hobbit on my ZX Spectrum when I was a child and being fascinated by the way you
could apparently talk to the characters on the computer and they would interact,
even if it was only to say, "I don't understand ..."
In the classroom, I have used computer simulations based on a shop where the
children have been trying to crack the code of what affect different variables
have on the output of the system. This has been useful.
The best simulation I have run was a role-play on the peloponnesian war in which
the children had to make decisions about who they were going to ally themselves
with and who they were to attack and why, whether they should run a raid on
another polis for slaves and goods, or whether to spend time in the fields
planting crops, and which crops they should plant. The simulation lasted about
6 weeks altogether, taking about 2 hours per week.
This took me a substantial amount of time to build, but acting as the
"dungeon-master," I was able to alter the simulation as we went along to cope
with all kinds of different situations. One example was that once each "year,"
each child in a group had to decide what they were going to do for a living.
Some said they wanted to be aircraft pilots. I was able to say, "yes that is
fine, but as there are no aircraft to fly, you don't earn any money and
therefore have nothing to trade with others to earn your food." They then had
to become servants of the rich (who had chosen more realistic jobs) in order to
stay alive and in the game. The children soon learned to think about the
decisions they made. Many of them spent breaktimes in the school library
looking up information so they could earn more money, and become more
influential in the game. The human interaction also made it easier for me to
work in the subject that we had studied earlier that week. For instance, in the
week we looked at slaves and slavery, we had a slave market and one group had to
act as the slaves of their masters for a lesson.
On one occasion, one of the group got a little too excited to the point of
needing a time out. I had made arrangements with the History Co-ordinator for
such eventualities before hand. I sent the boy to the History Co-ordinator's
classroom saying something along the lines of, "You better go to the temple at
Delphi in Mrs Tindle's room and ask for forgiveness." Apparently he went in and
went to the corner of the classroom and knelt down. Mrs Tindle asked him what
he was doing, to which he replied, "praying to the gods for forgiveness, Miss."
After five minutes, when he had calmed down, she told him the gods had forgiven
him and he was to return. Could a computer simulation do that?
This took place about a decade ago and I still see some of the children from
that class. They don't mention the computer simulations, which to be fair, were
old technology. Sometimes though, one of them will mention the times we acted
out the Peloponnesian Wars.
However, times have changed and the change is accelerating. The growth of
virtual reality has the potential to lead to more. There is sometimes a feeling
of being lost on the net, hence the home button. This is a measure of how
immersive computers and information systems can be nowadays. The headsets and
3D virtual worlds offer a great potential for future development and growth in
the simulation market for education. At present, cost prohibits this growth but
as the cost comes down, as it must do with all these newer technologies, the
potential for classroom use will grow. The ArcVenture series of programs allow
children to go back in time and ask questions of characters from the past
regarding artefacts that they have found. Soon, children will learn about the
Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt by meeting them and talking to them. They will be
able to discuss the causes of the American Revolution with simulated characters
from the time. They will be able to wander around the moon and look for the
golf ball.
I only hope that I am around to see this.
Simon Heppenstall
Park Lane FE College
Leeds
UK
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