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Role play and gaming

Social media, computer and video games with their varied content and instant feedback are engaging for learners, offering strong competition to traditional teaching methods. This has led both educational practitioners and researchers to consider using games for learning at school. Game-based learning creates new opportunities to attract students' attention, to get them involved and to explore different topics (HITSA 2020).

Games and Gamification in Education

It is generally acknowledged that learning takes place during the activities that are engaging and memorable (Ardriyati & Unisbank 2009). Gamification is mostly used to increase students’ interest in subject matter and learning process. Playing games can also influence students’ attitudes and behaviour, increase class attendance, prevent bullying, and encourage participating in extracurricular activities. Thought-out gamification can make learning environment more inclusive and promote good relations between students. It has also become apparent that gamification and game-based learning positively affect learning outcomes (HITSA 2020).

In order to better understand what an educational role play is, we will use the terms as they are explained in HITSA Education Technology Compass.

A game is an activity that takes place in a fictional environment where agreed rules must be followed to achieve goals (Adams 2009).

Gamification is the application of game elements in a non-gaming environment (Deterding et al., 2011). These elements can be parts of the game design, such as characters, graphics, game challenges, etc., or play related emotions, such as engagement, curiosity, competitiveness, etc. (Marczewski, 2013).

Learning or educational games are a subset of real games – games that support the achievement of specific learning goals.

There are many reasons for using games in education. A game satisfies learners’ curiosity and develops their imagination, increases motivation to participate and allows for active communication with classmates. A game that does not have a linear structure develops problem-solving and decision-making skills. Games offer diversity in the learning process. Simulations enable learners to engage in processes that might be too dangerous or too expensive to be evoked in real life. A game allows for personalized approach – for example, there may be many ways to solve a single task. Games make it possible to involve marginalized students and those not favoured by the traditional school system. Gamification has a potential to reduce boys’ dropping out of school. Games also help to concentrate the students’ attention that can be easily distracted by different media.

Definition of LARP and EduLARP

LARP is an acronym for Live Action Role Play – an adventurous role-playing game. According to the website of Tallinn LARP Festival, “role-playing is any activity where the players pretend to be someone else”. A simple example is a childhood game of Cops and Robbers, more advanced role play is featured in impro- and participatory theatre.

Simulations of the parliament or the elections can be viewed as role play, as well as storytelling games like Dungeons and Dragons), computer games (e.g. Witcher, Mass Effect), etc. Most of the time the players improvise, trying to act and react as they imagine their character would. There is no audience and acting skills are not required.

LARP has been known as a learning method for some time, but it has been used quite modestly in Estonian educational institutions. This is not a standardized method that fits all shapes and sizes. Using LARP in classroom can be challenging for a teacher, as it needs considerable preparatory work. However, the possibilities it offers for identifying problems, sharing experiences, finding solutions, discussion and analysis make the effort worthwhile. From a pedagogical and psychological point of view, the positive features of role play are focusing on learning, self-awareness, changes in attitudes and behaviour.

LARP for educational purposes, or an EduLARP, is an opportunity to integrate traditional and playful ways of teaching and learning. LARPs are often associated with historical sword fighting games, but there are numerous other possibilities: laboratory-based role-playing games for science classes, environmental and socio-economic conflict games for biology and geography, etc.

When using role play as a learning method, it should be remembered that this method is not inherently result-oriented but focuses foremost on a process. The creator and manager of the game creates a framework for the game to take place in and for the players to improvise, create, and experience. Therefore, the first attempts at role playing in classroom may seem chaotic and unstructured.

However, it has been confirmed by research that learners memorize content better when they are actively involved in the learning process, as in the case of dramatizations, simulations and role play. LARP is an active and engaging method that creates intrinsic motivation. A different reality helps to distract the players from their everyday problems and stimulates their interest in the topic. All the senses are activated, physical and emotional engagement support deep learning. Role play develops empathy and the ability to see other perspectives. By connecting the topics learned in classroom with real-life situations, the student can more easily relate them to their own life and make connections between different subjects. Role play can improve students’ communication skills, and for the shy students, role play provides a safe way to interact from behind a mask and thus develop their confidence. Therefore, the share of role-playing and other active learning methods in schools should be even higher than it is today.

 

In the project the following role play game scenarios were used:

NOA 2424 – http://ctc.ee/publications/games/noa-2424

The game takes place in the future – our planet in 303 years – in 2424. The situation on Earth is poor due to climate change, many species have already become extinct and humanity is looking for a new home on Mars. The spacecraft NOA is about to take off for Mars – Now is the Time, which can bring with it a limited number of species and resources. Different groups – food producers, naturalists, government, giants (corporations), cultural figures – need to agree on which species and stocks to bring. What choices do you make?

SOLARPUNK – http://ctc.ee/publications/games/solarpunk

Perseids – this is how the stars of August were once called. See was before people realized the catastrophic effects of greenhouse gases on Earth climate; before the first extinction waves, but also before the first orbital mirrors that eventually rise in temperature at the last minute before irreversible destruction. But the Perseids – it was from this cloud that the rubbish came mirror OCM-18. The mirrors themselves are fine, but the control system did error and slope is now a little wrong and the sun’s rays throughout its atmosphere by absorbing infrared they reach Earth. Where thanks to previous generations Idiotic inaction requires only very little to keep the whole carefully rebalance and relaunch the chain of disasters. Which means YOU have to wear a spacesuit and to orbit to repair this cuckoo.

A YEAR WITHOUT A SUN – http://ctc.ee/publications/games/a-year-without-a-sun

The game takes place in the future – our planet in 303 years – in 2424. The situation on Earth is poor due to climate change, many species have already become extinct and humanity is looking for a new home on Mars. The spacecraft NOA is about to take off for Mars – Now is the Time, which can bring with it a limited number of species and resources. Different groups – food producers, naturalists, government, giants (corporations), cultural figures – need to agree on which species and stocks to bring. What choices do you make?

 

Resources:

Ederi Ojasoo