Forum Getting Started: HOW TO: 5 different "characters" in a "play"

> does that mean that I create 5 separate and independent sequences, one for each actor - 5 copies of the same
> sequence but with different content? (and 5 copies of the same script of the play?)

This is a really good and interesting question.

Currently in LAMS 2.0 you could do as you say: having the same sequence with different content for each "character" and then assign those sequence to each individual student.

However, that's not quite nice as it will be -following the acting analogy, like having five monologes instead of five people interacting together on stage.

Thinking about the issue of having 5 different actors and each of them having their own content within a Resources activity can be done with branching (and upcoming feature in LAMS 2.1)

(We have discussed and explained some of the branching options we have in 2.1 here)

So how would I do it in LAMS 2.1?

I think I would set up a grouping activity with 5 groups and set this groups to be assigned by the teacher, so the teacher in Monitor can assign a student to each of the groups manually. Or if you want, you can assign these groups to be 1 student per group and the students, once they reach the branching activity they will automatically get allocated to one and only one group.

Then I would use the branching activity to branch based on these groups. You can select to which branch each of these groups will be routed to, then you can have a separate instance of Shared Resources for each of the groups (see this diagram for an example).

In this case, each student will get their own script to use.

Would this do for you? Did I understand what you want to do correctly? Let me know otherwise.

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

Using the "Visualization Of Branching/Grouping" diagram you mentioned, here's a curly one for you:

Imagine each group on the diagram (G1 - G6) is actually a type of role or character. if you're an actor of that character then you get resources to use and you can chat with others who also play that role (each group 1-6). John, Mary and Benito (G1) can all chat/collaborate about how to play that particular character in the play.

However, John, Mary and Benito belong with different actors in their separate performances of the play. E.g: John (G1) plays his part with Yoichi (G2) in one performance, Mary (G1) is with Jacky (G2) in another, the same for Beneito and Manpreet in a third (ignoring groups 3-6 to keep it simple).

I have to be very careful with terminology here because what the diagram uses as a "group", I'm thinking "role". For my situation/example, a team/troupe of actors (for want of a better name) is made up of one member from each role.

Perhaps a better way to say it is that there are "physical" groups (for assigning people to and for assessment/final product) and a "logical" grouping (what I was going on about "role" - they all do the same job).

this could also apply to team projects. Imagine a class of, say, 30 students. Six teams with 5 people each with each team needing to produce one product collaboratively.

Each of the 5 people within the team have a different job to do (physical grouping) and there are 6 people doing each of the 5 types of jobs across all the projects (logical grouping).

at the moment I'm stuck how to get somewhat towards this goal with LAMS 2.0 (while I eagerly wait for 2.1 to become available). That's why I was looking at "having the same sequence with different content for each 'character'" with LAMS taking care of the "logical grouping" (roles) and assigning students to each role externally to LAMS (physical grouping). But if I do this, I loose the ability to combine people back to their physical groups for collaboration at the end (performing the "play" or project product/outcome)

(I hope this all makes sense)

any ideas/suggestions greatly appreciated. many thanx again.
cheers
barry.b

Posted by barry beattie

My apologize on the delay, just got back from holidays yesterday.

Indeed, Branching is a bit of a pandora box as it will open a millons of ways to do teaching.

Regarding the example that you are presenting, say wyou have 30 students and you want to group them in 6 groups of 5 students each to perform a particular sequence.

This sequence has a number of activities in which each individual within the group would play a certain role in determined activities in the sequence.

If I need to do this in LAMS 2.0 as it is today (without the cool branching bits) then, I probably would go to "Add Lesson", select the sequence, and then when the list of students appears, I would only select the 5 students in Group1. Then start the sequence.

I would do this another five times as per all the other groups of five students each.

So effectively, you are doing the groupings "manually".

Now, you have 6 separate sequences all with each five students.

I'm assuming the sequence has a noticeboard that explain each role. Now, since in Monitor you can edit the content of a noticeboard before the student have access it, you can customize the content of this noticeboard to suit the group.

So say the original noticeboard description said:

"

Student 1: you are playing Jack Nicholson in The Shining

Student 2: you are playing Malcolm McDowell in Clockwork Orange

Student 3: you are playing HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey

..."

You can modify it so where it says "Student 1" you can put the name of the particular student that has to play that role "Benito" for instance.

In this way you *all* your students have their roles assigned before they get to the sequence.

I know this would require a bit more work. But until we are done with branching, this is probably a workaround.

Does this help at all?

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

aye. it does 'n' all. many thanks, Ernie. I was tossing around something similar but you've explained it nicely.

hope you had a good R'n'R break ... you may just need it...

cheers
b

Posted by barry beattie

Have a look at James's posting as it might be of your interest regarding role play.

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione