NMC2009 Dramatically Different

DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT

STRATEGIES FOR SOCIALLY-ENGAGED LEARNING IN VIRTUAL WORLDS

Kim FlintoffCurtin University of Technology and

Queensland University of Technologynmc2009

What is Drama Education?

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INDrama as skill and

knowledge set

THROUGHDrama as pedagogy

WITHDrama as delivery system

Schrum, S. (2007), Poetry and Theatre Performance in Second Life, presented at the New Media Consortium Symposium on Creativity 14 August , transcript viewed 13 June, 2008 nmc2009

“There seems to be a strong drive to present theatre in Second Life. This is especially interesting when we step back and realize that we are ALWAYS performing in Second Life.

…the very nature of this form of communication suggests constant role-playing and performance.”

(Schrum, 2007 )

Second Life® as Drama

Saldaña, J. (1995), Drama of Color: Improvisation with Multiethnic Folklore. Heinemann Drama. ISBN-13: 978-0435086671nmc2009

“ In the book Drama of Colour Saldaña discusses a study done by researchers Gourgey, Bosseau, and Delgado (1985) with lower socio-economic Black and Hispanic students in elementary school. After a six month improvisational drama project, gains were observed in vocabulary and reading comprehension. Survey results also suggested that students also showed improvement in attitude areas including trust, self-acceptance, acceptance of others, and empowerment “

from: http://www.angelfire.com/ego/edp303/whydrama.html

Improvisational Drama

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0435086677/dramabooks

http://www.angelfire.com/ego/edp303/whydrama.html

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A complex form of “improvisation”

Creative/ structured play

Participatory performance – learners are inside the performance

An “open” work; meaning is negotiated; a ‘writerly’ (Barthes) text

Always Fiction

Process Drama

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Process Drama is a group engagement in a negotiated fictional space where participants role play (in realistic and creatively expressed forms) around a theme or issue primarily for the benefit of shifts in empathetic understanding and extended perspective.

Process Drama

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In recent years I’ve been advocating an approach I’ve been calling “generative play”.

“This approach to learning that does not pursue predetermined outcomes but rather recognizes that serendipity in a focused, yet playful, exploration of ideas is likely to lead to unexpected discoveries and insights that are of great significance to individuals and groups involved in the learning. The play is purposeful yet the specific learning is not prescribed at the outset.”

Process Drama as “Generative Play

Flintoff, K. Chapter 13: Online sites for Generative Play in Anderson M., Carroll J. and Cameron D. (eds) Drama Education with Digital Technology. Continuum Books (publication forthcoming)

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“This generative play seems to best emerge when there is a strong ludic engagement with a limited regard to formulating an ideal narrative. The narrative emphasis is limited to the degree to which participants are comfortable with sustaining the fiction; in some ways this seems to have been anticipated by Janet Murray when she speculated that:

If participatory environments merge with authored environments … tensions between the author and the participants may increase … The area of immersive enchantment lies in the overlap between these two domains. (Murray 1997, pp. 266-267)”

Process Drama as “Generative Play

Flintoff, K. Chapter 13: Online sites for Generative Play in Anderson M., Carroll J. and Cameron D. (eds) Drama Education with Digital Technology. Continuum Books (publication forthcoming)

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Building Process Drama

The stages in planning and implementing a Process Drama vary but can be broken down into a series of phases – the order of which can change depending on the nature of the drama…

1. Climate Setting 2. Pretext3. Enrolling4. Belief Building 5. Injection of tension 6. Deepening tension 7. Resolution 8. Reflection inside the action 9. Reflection outside the

action

Neelands, J. and Goode, T. Structuring Drama Work: A handbook of available forms in theatre and drama. Cambridge University Press 1990, 2000.nmc2009

Building Process Drama

Starting point

Psychological processes

Active imagining

Theatre structure

CONVENTIONS

Personal and social experienceSource material

Responses to source

Working in context, in action

Using and making symbols - metaphors – tension –

atmosphere – rhythm and pace

Purpose and motivation to create new meanings

Drama in an Active Inquiry Process

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Neelands, J. and Goode, T. Structuring Drama Work: A handbook of available forms in theatre and drama. Cambridge University Press 1990, 2000.

REFLECTION

ISSUE

FRAMING ACTION

THROUGH CONVENTION*

FOCUS

EXPERIENCE/SOURCE

*subject to:• an agreement to observe the constraints of the

convention;• values held by the leader and students;• learning purposes and intentions;• appropriate mode of action


Drama Conventions

Context-Building Action

“setting the scene”

Narrative Action

“telling the tale”

Poetic Action“symbol and metaphor”

Reflective Action

“psychology and insight”


Drama ConventionsContext-Building Action

In MUVEs like Second Life these conventions

can be modified and new dimensions explored.


Drama Conventions

Context-

Building

Action

Circle of LifeCircular Drama

Collective Character

Collective DrawingDefining SpaceDiaries, Letters,

Journals, MessagesGames

Guided tour

Mapping/diagramming

Objects of Character

Role-on-the-WallSimulations

SoundtrackingStill-imageThe RippleUnfinished Materials


Drama Conventions

Narrative

Action

A Day in the LifeCritical Events

Hot-SeatingInterview/

InterrogationMantle of the

ExpertMeetings

Noises OffOverheard

ConversationsReportageTag Role

Teacher-in-RoleTelephone/Radio

ConversationsTime Line


Drama Conventions

Poetic

Action

Alter EgoAnalogy

Behind the SceneCaption Making

CeremonyCome on Down!

Cross-cuttingDocumentary

FlashbackFolk forms

Forum TheatreGestus


Drama Conventions

ReflectiveActio

n

Choral SpeakGestalt

Giving WitnessGroup Sculpture

If I was You…Marking the

MomentMoment of Truth

Narration

Space BetweenSpectrum of Difference

Taking SidesThis Way/That WayThought-tracking

Voices in the HeadWalls have Ears

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Early one morning before people had gotten up, a man from Myrdal in the east was walking past some cliffs when he came to the entrance to a cave. He could hear that there was merrymaking and dancing going on inside the hill, and outside he saw a large number of sealskins. He picked up one of them, took it home, and locked it in his trunk.

Some time later, in the course of the day, he went back to the cave's entrance. A beautiful young girl was sitting there. She was entirely naked and crying bitterly. She was the seal to whom the skin belonged that the man had taken. The man gave the girl some clothing, comforted her, and took her home with him.

The Seal Wife

http://daryllorettecafe.typepad.com/the_altruism/2008/12/the-sealskin.html

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Later she came to accept him, but never got along very well with other people. She would often just sit there and look out to sea. After some time the man took her as his wife. They lived well together and had many children.

The peasant hid the skin, locking it securely in his trunk, and he carried the key with him everywhere he went.

The Seal Wife


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Many years later he rowed out fishing and forgot the key at home under his pillow. However, others say that the peasant went to a Christmas service with his people, but that his wife had been sick and was unable to go with them. They say that he forgot to take the key out of the pocket of his everyday clothes when he changed. When he arrived home that evening the trunk was open, and his wife had disappeared with the skin. She had found the key, out of curiosity looked through the trunk, and found the skin.

The Seal Wife


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She could not resist the temptation. She said farewell to her children, put on the skin, and threw herself into the sea.

Before the woman jumped into the sea, it is reported that she said:

This I want, and yet I want it not, --Seven children have I at the bottom of the sea,Seven children have I as well here above.

The Seal Wife


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It is said that this touched the peasant's heart. After this, when he rowed out fishing, a seal often swam around his boat, and it seemed that tears were running from its eyes. From this time on he was always successful catching fish, and luck often came to his beach.

People frequently saw this couple's children walking on the beach while a seal swam along out in the sea accompanying them. It would throw colourful fish and pretty shells to them.

But the mother never again returned to land.

The Seal Wife


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Email: [email protected]

Contact

Skype: kimbowaTwitterPlurkFickrFriendfeedDiggDel.icio.usDiigoSlideshare

Blog: http://www.dramanite.com

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kimflintoff

Second Life: Kim Pasternak Teen Second Life: Kimbo Vita

Facebook

mailto:[email protected]

ABSTRACT:Drawing together the established wisdom of educational drama, applied theatre and "situated role," this session will examine the benefits of creating socially-driven learning activities inside 3D MUVEs. Role-played learning activities in 3D MUVEs can be framed as an "active-inquiry process.” This session will propose and test some effective forms and conventions to frame inworld roleplay as purposeful collaborative learning.

Dramatically Different Strategies for Socially-Engaged Learning in Virtual WorldsA workshop presentation for the New Media Consortium

Symposium on New Media and Learning.

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