When worlds collude: Exploring the relationship between the actual, the dramatic and the virtual

Abstract

This chapter is about role-play, in the very different contexts of computer games and virutal worlds; and real-life drama work in the classroom. In these contexts, role-play takes the shape of 'process drama', hwer ehte participants make up the drama as they go along and there is no aoutside audience. The chapter starts by exploring the similarities and differences between these two very different 'play' contexts. The authors have devised a simple theoretical model to analyse and compare the structures and dynamics of each medium and how they are manifested - the basic building blocks; the structural and narrative components; the motivational/emotional drivers; and the attributes of role. The chapter continues in a more personal tone with the author's descriptions of how, with teachers' help, a group of eleven year old children made their own investigation of the links between live drama and computer-generated play and learning, and invented virtual worlds of their own.