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

Position:

Flexible/e-learning Coordinator

Organisation:

Central TAFE, Perth, Western Australia

Email:

aquinm@
lvlle.training.wa.gov.au

Since 1999, I have worked to promote and support online teaching and learning at Central TAFE, a large Western Australian metropolitan college.

Prior to taking on this role, I lectured in and wrote learning materials for Communication Skills. Role-play has always figured as a lively, confronting and ‘edutaining’ element in my multifarious academic incarnations, so when I was asked to participate in Kate Fannon’s online role-play ‘Needle Stick’…what could I say?!

I had a ball, learned heaps and am currently attempting to replicate and refine the experience. I have added online role-play to a select set of compulsive pleasures (running, red wine, movie going) which occupy large chunks of my otherwise balanced existence.

Designer as Learner

Being a learner/participant in ‘Needle Stick’ was exactly the kind of ‘mouse and mind where mouth is’ experience I needed to give me a solid grounding in what it means to design, initiate and facilitate a role-play.

All credit to Kate for devising a clear, engaging and challenging scenario. Even greater accolades are due to her for a fantastic and generous- spirited job in delivering a “fool proof” induction a careful, smart and supportive moderation and a comprehensive, well structured debrief.

Current involvement with role-play

Currently, along with James Taylor, Multimedia Architect extraordinaire (and fellow ‘Needle Stick’ player) and Vanda Hartley, Professeur de Français, I am co- designing and co-moderating a role-play based on the travels of the nineteenth century explorer Nicolas Baudin.

Devising and managing online roleplay is team game for sure! So far so good, the twenty third year French students are in week three of their induction and already I’m stretched to keep up with their energy and enthusiasm. C’est formidable :-)