Using+Social+Media+and+Roleplay

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The Knower-Driven Classroom
Parker Palmer writes about creating a space for the practice of a community of truth, a place where what we hold most sacred as a society is examined in intimate ways. To do this well, Palmer argues, one must eschew the objectivist model that suggests a division between an //object// of knowledge, an expert guide, and amateurs seeking keys to the metaphorical kingdom of knowledge. Instead of this linear model, Palmer proposes a more communally organized model, as outlined in the diagram that shows a group of interconnected knowers working directly with the //subject//. Paulo Freire, in //Pedagogy of the Oppressed,// writes "[|The oppressed have been destroyed precisely because their situation has reduced them to things. In order to regain their humanity they must cease to be things and fight as men and women. This is a radical requirement. They cannot enter the struggle as objects in order later to become human beings]."

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Mark Edmundson suggests "such a realization, which coincides with the foundations of widespread democracy, as well as with the flourishing of novels, holds that //there are multiple ways of apprehending experience//, and multiple modes of internal organization, or disorder" (emphasis added). This is indeed the genesis of the roleplay project inside and outside of the classroom. The ability to engage in play, to try out new identities, is one of the most important facets of literature: not simply escapism, but that quality of identifying with a situation, of connection. This is the same thing Edmundson means when he suggests his jobs is "to continue the lives of the poets on in the present", as well as when he mentions Wilde's remark: "Most people are other people". The use of roleplay teaches this as a vital project for realization of the self. This kind of mimicry allows for exploration not just of the inner depths of the self, but also the outer and larger realm: it allows students to ask **//How Would I Feel, in that Situation? (if I Were Different?)//**

The act of roelplaying in response to a story, or taking a part and creating a story collaboratively, is really the same exercise as finding the super sentence in //Goose Story//. It is about relation between the words, the subject, and the co-knowers who have multiple, different and valid experiences of the same information.

Constructive Controversy
One way in which online roleplaying has been used in the classroom is detailed in depth in an article by Richard Beach and Candance Doerr-Stevens of the University of Minnesota, published in the //Journal of Educational Computing Research//. The study describes a class group that used [|Ning] as a platform to debate the issue of blocking websites at the school. This immediate focus gave the students a familiar topic to use while learning about argumentative writing. Assigned different roles, students also began to develop different discourses. According to Beach and Doerr-Stevens, "through experimenting with adopting these alternative discourses, students learn to experiment with alternative identities and perceptions in ways that challenge their own and others' status-quo beliefs and perspectives".

An Example: Montana 1948
In 2007 and 2008, Elizbeth Boeser of Jefferson High School, Bloomington, Minnesota conducted two roleplaying sessions based on //[|Montana 1948]//. Students[| took up roles] and[| positions] along the diverse lines of thought surrounding the use of the "Fighting Sioux" mascot of the University of North Dakota, responding to each other's points and posts, and later using this generated material to write their own paper about the issue.

One student summed up her experience with the roleplay by noting: //"I liked seeing the sides of all different people and what they thought about the issue... I thought that it was a lot easier than what it might have been if we did it in person. We could share our opinions without maybe getting into a heated discussion that might have ended badly. I also liked that we had a bio that people read so they knew where we came from and why we thought the things we did."//

Another Minnesota teacher, Nicole Kronzer, created a [|wiki] for creating a collaborative story with her Creative Writing class. While a bit messy, the website clearly shows active involvement from the students: they are //interested// and //engaged// in their portrayals of other people. From this basic move of impersonation, the larger story of literature may be told: that same //Goose Story// -- a narrative of how we are and media type="custom" key="18851302".

Some Resources & Other Examples
//__[|Literary Worlds]__// Literary Worlds provides a game framework for playing within the worlds of literature. By incorporating game elements, as well as traditional chat elements, and providing information about the literary worlds, it becomes easier than ever to connect the world with the text. For example, the games //Thoughtcrime// allows student players to inhabit the world of George Orwell's 1984 in a game of political intrigue.

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//__[|Collaborative Story-Building]__// Another method of writing is collaborative world and story building, like that practiced by Kronzer's creative writing classes. This collaboration, aided by technology, can extend to all levels, and all across the world. In a large way, collaboration is becoming a dominant form of writing in our era.

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__Works Cited__

"18 Interesting Ways to Use a Wiki in the Classroom." //18 Interesting Ways to Use a Wiki in the Classroom//. Web. 29 May 2012. <[]>. Beach, Richard. //Teaching Writing Using Blogs, Wikis, and Other Digital Tools//. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon, 2009. Print. "Collaborative Fiction." //Wikipedia//. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 May 2012. Web. 29 May 2012. <[]>. Collins, Allan, and Richard Halverson. //Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America//. New York: Teachers College, 2009. Print. Davidson, Cathy N., and David Theo. Goldberg. //The Future of Thinking: Learning Institutions in a Digital Age//. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2010. Print. Edmundson, Mark. //Why Read?// New York: Bloomsbury, 2004. Print. "FrontPage." //Teaching Writing Using Blogs, Wikis...// /. Web. 29 May 2012. . "K12online08presenters - Richard Beach." //K12online08presenters - Richard Beach//. Web. 29 May 2012. . "Mathematics, Learning and Web 2.0." //Mathematics, Learning and Web 2.0//. Web. 29 May 2012. . Palmer, Parker J. //The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life//. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998. Print. Pegrum, Mark. //From Blogs to Bombs: The Future of Digital Technologies in Education//. Crawley, W.A.: UWA Pub., 2009. Print.

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