Online role play

I'm commenting on our class online roleplay experience.  Rick directed us to create a personnae and then argue the debate topic "public schools are failing American students and therefore should be dismantled."  We came up with the topic as a class - it was kind of a conglomeration of possible topics we listed.  We then listed possible roles.  I took the role of a "home school coop founder" and argued pro - yes, public schools should be dismantled.  I thought my role should be educated so I gave her a college degree but after that I wanted her experience to be pretty minimal - taking great pride in her own coop experience because that was really the only experience she had to draw upon.   But I didn't want her to be a complete hick. This person thought of themselves as rational and educated.  I then had my role play put up research backed opinions.  The research I tried to add was only to support her pro-position that public schools have failed American students and homeschool is terrific.  So I tried to argue that homeschool crosses economic levels and that homeschool students consistently perform better on tests and in general make better citizens. I found some pretty supportive data on the site for National Center for Education Statistics.  I also pointed out that most homeschoolers choose to homeschool for either religious or moral reasons. 

I think the roles that had the most power and sway were those that expressed more provocative opinions.  The opinions they expressed begged to be addressed and/or refuted.  Their strategy seemed to be to employ the most stereotyped roleplay possible and make strongly opinionated statements (whether backed by research or not).  I think my roleplay personality tried too hard to find the middle ground and not offend anyone.  I hadn't wanted her to be a rabid homeschooler, because I wanted her to be respected, but perhaps that would have been more successful.  I think those role plays that expressed strong opinions earned respect. 

My role was different than my personal beliefs.  I have never been homeschooled nor have I practiced homeschool.  I'm not sure my role play personality even convinced myself in the debate.  I'm glad we live in a society that allows the freedom for all options.  I thought one topic that came up that was difficult to refute was that of educating the underpriviledged.  In my homeschool role I had a difficult time argueing against that reality.

I thought the whole experience was fun and a great  learning opportunity for me.  In our post debate discussion/chat we talked about various ways to use this in the classroom.  I like the idea of combining it with a novel study and debate topic.  One example I like is that of the class that read the novel Montana 1948 and then used it as a launching pad to debate the topic of using American Indians as mascot figures for sports teams.  I like the idea of allowing students the opportunity to create a personality.  I think this requires some creativity and originality.  However, if the goal of the debate is to gain a greater understanding of the novel, then adopting the role of one of the characters might be more appropriate.  I think the post debate discussion and a response follow-up like this blog is equally important.  It helps the student process the experience and determine what they learned.  I see this role play online debate as a fabulous use of technology.