Online Seminar...

http://k12onlineconference.org/?cat=22
The title is 2008 - Prove It!

This was the most interesting one I have found yet. Usually we think of debate and role-play as something that needs to literally be done in front of our eyes. The speaker of this seminar suggested that it has proved to be beneficial for students to have online roleplay. When I first began to listen to this, I thought it sounded rather absurd, but the more I listened, the more I began to picture this actually working.

First off, just to be clear, online roleplay can mean a lot of things. It can mean a debate, discussion, and even a panel discussion. It can cover pretty much any topic as well. It is trying to get away from the typical teacher who says to write down an opinion on if the student feels the death penalty should exist when the student does not really care or know that much about it in the first place.

The online roleplay would allow students to battle opinions back and forth in a way that gets them interested. Let's face it. In high school, if your friends are talking about something, you usually want to get involved. This seminar is suggesting to use that. They want to take this debate and put it online where there is tons of research and opinions to back up opinions of the students. This way, the students can use podcasts, videos, and articles to backup their points of view and prove their point. I thought it was a valuable idea.