Volume 2 Number 16 -October 2, 2004


Hi Folks,

Kim's Drama Blog  

Vacation time!  At least in Western Australian schools.  We get the next 2 weeks to regroup for the final term of the academic year.  However commitments at university continue.  I also have a small stack of marking to complete - although smaller than anticipated as some of my Year 11 class skived off from responsibility and did not submit work!  

Black Swan Theatre launch "Yandy" by Jolly Read next week.  Dubbed as the "black Eureka Stockade", it promises to be not only entertaining but enlightening about a little known, yet very significant, event in Western Australian history.  In 1946 over 800 Aboriginal station workers decided to strike for far working conditions...  this is a story that predates more highly publicised debates by over 30 years... even Dorothy Hewett was involved in a very minor way at the time... the show previews this coming Friday (Oct 8) and I'll be there for the official opening night on Oct 9.  The play is directed by well known Australian tv presenter, actor and author, Rachel Maza and is presented at the Octagon Theatre at UWA.

What else is on my agenda?  I am participating in a Discussion at the Drama Australia national conference in Canberra - not by being physically present but rather in an attempt to be a present absence... yes we are going to use the  DramaPlayShop chat environment (at least attempt to) and possible take a wander through the ActiveWorlds Educational Universe - more details at the DramaPlayShop.

On Monday, I'm off to see Noh Theatre.  On Wednesday I'm running my own similar session at the ECAWA State Conference.  The Educational Computing teachers have been very supportive of my explorations and gotten quite excited about some of the "radical" ways I think about using technology in classes.  On Friday, I'm going to the Perth Royal Show for the first time in years... fairy floss and scary rides... woohoo!!  (I was challenged by a young friend to discuss the benefits of the Royal Show in Drama Education - so consider this excursion my fieldwork!)

Leadership Team required.

The DramaPlayShop is interested in finding a few people to take on responsibility of becoming facilitators.  If you have a specific interest in Drama and IT that you'd like to explore, I can help you set up a section of the DramaPlayShop (and provide some mentorship) where you can gather together a loyal band of investigators and document your explorations and findings.  I have set up a "Facilitator's Testbed" that is essentially a little playground for potential facilitators to learn how to use the interface and develop some confidence before running their own course... contact me if you'd like to be a leader in this area.

Credentialed Professional Learning

Edith Cowan University in Mount Lawley is offering a range of courses during its Summer Institute (first weekend in December). I am involved in delivering two of these courses - one is a specific look at approaches to the new Post-Compulsory Drama courses and the other is about technology integration in the Arts.  These courses are a great way to gain credit towards post-graduate qualifications - I'm not entirely sure but I believe that one of these weekend courses will give you 1/3 credit towards a Master's coursework unit.  You would need to check the ECU website for specific and accurate details.

LESSON/ACTIVITY IDEA

As some of you may be aware, I have rebuilt the drama-education.com website using MOODLE as the platform.  Moodle is a free, open-source learning management system.  That means that it is very similar in function to WEBCT or BlackBoard used by many universities.  It is very simple to use and with the hosting service I use it is possible to have your own installation set up and running in under 5 minutes! 

I also use MOODLE at school - we have over 1/3 of our school population using MOODLE as part or all of their course work in a range of subjects. I have 3 courses I support using MOODLE.  I have one for each of Year 11 and 12 classes which supports the theoretical and written expectations of the WA Curriculum Council Drama and Drama Studies courses D634/D647 and E634/E647... I also have a general course which is aimed at resourcing general drama classes throughout the school.

I got to thinking that this could be a wonderful project for our community to undertake.  Rather than re-inventing every course from scratch it is possible to back-up existing courses and share them with colleagues using the same platform - in this case MOODLE.

So here is the challenge - who would be interested in setting up their own MOODLE (I can assist with this) - and then developing a range of subject or topic specific courses that can be shared or swapped with colleagues?  I'm quite happy for my two Drama/Drama Studies courses to be the basis of the project... they could set other Western Australian drama teachers on the journey of integrating ICT support with their classes...  once shared and installed courses are easily adapted and modified to suit your specific needs...  we have 12-year olds running their own Moodle courses - so Drama teachers should manage it easily! (Besides the MOODLE community is huge and totally willing to help you learn and develop skills)

Moodle has the following built-in features (and is in constant development to add new features):

Moodle is founded upon a social-constructivist pedagogy with sits well with anyone familiar with process drama or applied theatre or any form of student-centredness.

One simple project I'd like to get underway to encourage people to use the full functionality of the drama-education.com website is to establish a "wiki" style glossary.  By allowing visitors to build and contribute to the development of a significant resource such as a glossary of drama terminology we begin to create a sense of community - I still find many people see themselves as consumers of the net rather than co-creators.  The internet was founded on principles of sharing and collaboration and that is slowly being allowed to be whittled away by complacency.  Teachers, especially Drama teachers, are well aware of the power of sharing experience - so why don't we lay claim to our little corner of the net and show the rest of the world how its down?  Is there no-one so enthused to stand alongside me in this??

You can access the start of the Glossary in "The Bar" at the drama-education.com website.

I wonder how many schools around Australia are aware of (or still have) their free copies of StageStruck from NIDA?  I have another idea involving the DramaPlayShop website - why not use it as a place to share and showcase student projects created using StageStruck??  

There is information about one school's use of StageStruck at http://www.sttap.cg.catholic.edu.au/StageStruckWeb/

You can find out more, and purchase StageStruck, from NIDA - http://www.nida.unsw.edu.au/venues_services/learning_resources/StageStruck/default.html

RECOMMENDED WEBSITES

PROFESSIONAL NEWS

PLEASE ADVISE OF ANY UPCOMING PROFESSIONAL EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES AND I WILL LIST THEM HERE

The Games Development Teaching - An Industry-Education Forum is brought to you by the Game Developers' Association of Australia, and supported by Multimedia Victoria.

The purpose of the Forum is to bring together industry and education to share current information and knowledge about Victoria's electronic games industry.  ( I think this also has a lot to inform Drama teachers about new extensions and pathways for students of Drama - Brenda Laurel, one of the world experts in Human-Computer Interface Design, belives that Drama expertise will lead the way in the design of new computer interfaces - are you preparing or even informing your students of this possibility?? - Kim)

The objective is to improve the skills base of the industry, and expand Victoria's electronic games industry.

The Forum runs over 3 days - October 19, 20 and 21, 2004. It will be held at the training centre of the GDAA, Level 8, 14 Queens Road, Melbourne.

You can read the full program by selecting Day One Program, Day Two Program and Day Three Program.

Please register now. We have limited places.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

 

Kim Flintoff

Copyright © October, 2004

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