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This is a simulation where players adopt the roles of either
convicts or officials of Australia’s first settlement
in an attempt to solve the problems of theft and starvation.
It engages students in understanding the lives of others and
the events of past history by having them:
- research a real historical person;
- act in character as that person;
- collaborate with others to propose a solution to a social
issue.
A web site and convict database are provided as online resources
as well as:
- a set of real historical characters and descriptions of
those characters;
- a scenario close to historical fact at a point in time;
- an issue that has to be collaboratively negotiated;
- a series of compounding events that moderators can choose
to activate depending on how the negotiations are proceeding.
Learners are supported by moderator(s), other team members
and the Fablusi role-play platform which provides:
- a registration process that keeps the identity of the
characters anonymous (except from the moderators);
- an online moderator or group of moderators depending on
the size of the class;
- a communications system for group discussion as well as
private email and chat using character names and with privileges
for moderators;
- facility for characters to be played by individuals or
by teams of students depending on size and structure of
the class.
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