onsdag den 21. december 2011

Producing the commercials

For two Wednesdays, the pupils have been working on their marketing campaigns. For the majority, the pitches were accepted (see previous blog installlment), however, a couple of groups had to start from scratch.
As always with roleplaying, unforeseen situations have cropped up. In one particular case, two agencies decided that in order to win the competition for best economy, they would let the employees work for free.
This is actually what gamers would call an exploit - a misinterpretation of the game mechanics. However, we decided to deal with the situation diegetically; that is to say, inside the fiction.
Two teachers were dressed up as union people, and went to visit the agencies. They wanted to make sure that no-one was doing anything that was in conflict with their rules and regulations. When they heard that some of the employees were working for free, they threatened with law suits.
The agencies immediately reverted to paying their employees. My impression was that the pupils enjoyed that there was a response to their actions - in fact, pupils almost always enjoy interactivity, and being able to influence the storyline. It gives them a feeling of ownership.
Another thing that made the pupils positive towards this way of dealing with the lack of pay was that the two teachers who played the union people were heavily disguised. The kids found the masquerade completely hilarious, and they crowded around the perpetraitors to see what was going on.

Another event (which we had anticipated) was when one girl decided to quit her job. She was one of the few pupils who had been negative about the game right from the start (however, her attitude towards school in general is very negative). The rest of the group she was in were taking the game very seriously, and she decided she'd had enough.
However, a representative from the job centre immediately swept in and put her on income support. Obviously she had to prove that she was looking for a new job. When she didn't, she was put into trainging (course work in Maths). Shortly after that she had herself reinstated in her prevous job, but only after promising the agency to do better this time.

fredag den 2. december 2011

Teacher in Role

The method "teacher in role" was developed by Dorothy Heathcote and Gavin Bolton during the 80s, for drama pedagogical execises. However, it's an extremely potent tool for teaching with roleplaying too. 
To most younger kids, play acting and dressing up in costumes is both natural and fun. They enjoy the playful manner acting within a fiction. However, teenagers (and even some adults) are so busy distancing themselves from anything that might be considered 'childish' in any way, and this includes roleplay, as it reminds them of the make pretend games that little children play.
One way of putting them at ease is by letting the teacher set an example. The more at ease with roleplaying a character you seem, the better the kids feel about the situation. And they enjoy seeing their teacher out of his or her usual context. Don't worry about losing their respect: On the contrary, most pupils think you are cooler after having seen you with a wig on.

One thing I find particularly interesting about teacher in role is that it has the potential to short circuit the otherwise asymmetrical relationship of power between teacher and pupil. You can, for instance, play a very flaky character, and suddenly the pupils have to take resonsibility for the situation. This puts them in an interesting position, where they can practise making self reliant decisions in a safe environment.

Pitching to the companies

On the third Wednesday, we the teachers finally got to put on our costumes and fool around.
The different companies and their products were laid out as spred sheets, and the pupils were asked to get an overview of which ones to go for.
Before the lesson, we had prepared ourselves by making a prioritised list of which websites we liked the best. Thus, the pupils with the best website got to pick customers and assignments first, then the second best,and so on.
The first customer pitch was at 10.45, which gave the pupils two lessons to prepare the pitches. It was up to themselves whether they wanted to pitch one or two assignments.
The customer I played was a hippie from an NGO called Sex and Society. We wanted a campain which informed youngsters about the sexually transmitted disease clamydia. There wasn't a lot of money in the assignment, but the kids found it really fun. It was pitched by two advertisement agencies.
The first agency had done a really sloppy pitch. They had no budget, and couldn't give me a price. The pitch itself was entirely verbal. I ended up asking them to get back to me once they had a price.
The second agency had made drawings and suggestions for posters and flyers. They had a concept with a condom fighting a disgusting monster.
Even though the second bureau turned out to be more pricey, I liked their concept better, and so ended up giving them the assignment.

Around the school, other teachers were giving it as different customers: A manager for a goth band, the representative of a big soft drinks corporation, a salesman from a washing machine company, etc.