designers as learners:
igniting the spark for web-based roleplay

Position:

Lecturer

Organisation:

Adelaide Institute of TAFE, South Australia

Email:

katef@
adel.tafe.sa.edu.au

Website

Role-play found me out during my first degree in English and Drama which strongly held the principle of using drama as a process, as improvisation or reaction to the immediate spontaneous and often unpredictable responses of others. There was little interest in the product of theatre and their learnt lines. The philosophy followed the ideas of Stanislavski and Grotowski who saw theatre as a laboratory with the latter often dispensing with the need of an audience. Brian Way, as an educationalist, developed many of these ideas where role-play became a potent force for understanding, integrating and verbalising a range of interpersonal dilemmas in human existence.

This is the foundation for my commitment to role-play whether face-to-face or online as it is the only learning strategy that can so fully recreate a complex social dynamic where the players must negotiate their solutions – other than being placed in a real world environment where there may be no chance of mentoring, common problem-solving goals or debriefing. In short, role-play enables educationalists to set up a rehearsal for later real-world practitioner contexts. In another frame, role-play is an intense laboratory dealing with who we are right now and how we negotiate solutions.

Designer as Learner

Being a designer, developer and moderator of role-plays is not possible without standing in the position of learner as it is from this perspective that uncertainties are heard and not brushed aside, and in that space, new questions can be formed. There are always layers of personal uncertainty in the design and implementation of any complex undertaking, and though they are not always personally comfortable, they are a deep mine to be resourced for future redesigns or adapted moderation. I suppose the key word for me here is personal bravery and the importance of experiencing role-plays as a learner so the power/vulnerability dynamic is appreciated – and the implications of this for the design of role profiles and likely sub-cultures in the target community.

Current involvement with role-play

Currently I am not using role-play because of my job this year, but hope this will change. I would like to build on my experiences as a learner in Marie’s LearnScope role-play simulation project, and on my experiences last year designing, developing and moderating a new role-play simulation called Needle-Stick.