This presentation was delivered on October 20, 2022 at the Transformative Play Initiative Seminar 2022: Role-playing, Culture, and Heritage.
Description:
Can an RPG teach sign language to hearing middle schoolers? As role-playing games move from the recreational sphere to applied uses in fields such as therapy and education, the efficacy of content delivery becomes as important as other aspects of gameplay. Inspirisles, an RPG from Hatchling Games in the UK, attempts to teach basic sign language and build tolerance and appreciation of deaf culture. So, does it? In the spring of 2022, we piloted this RPG as a one quarter (45 day) elective for twenty 8th grade (13-14 year old students. Students met daily for 50 minutes and learned and used the Inspirisles RPG as the anchor for classroom learning. There was enough student interest that we were able to repeat this class an additional quarter, and apply what we learned to the classroom. In this emergent research, we are discovering what students learned, what they enjoyed, and taking their very honest feedback into account! Preliminary observations include: student ASL vocabulary of approximately 50 -100 words, increased teamwork and leadership among students, use of ASL between students in non-classroom settings, and an increased awareness of other languages and cultures existing in the world.
Bios:
Maryanne Cullinan teaches at Great Brook School, in New Hampshire, USA and won the Sanford Award for Inspirational Teaching in 2018. She is a PhD student in Education at Lesley University, studying roleplaying games as pedagogy in the middle school classroom. Maryanne is a frequent presenter, talking about using RPGs in the classroom and geeking for good. Maryanne recently presented on the ILA X D&D Panel, Using Dungeons & Dragons to Scaffold Writing Instruction. Maryanne is a mother of three, and organizes a 60+ student D&D group called the Heroes’ Hall. In her limited free time, Maryanne enjoys napping.
Richard Oxenham (he/him) is the founder and lead designer for Hatchlings Games. He earned a creative writing Masters degree from Bath Spa University and went on to try the life of a novelist. Rich, however, is a born extrovert and before long was craving collaboration. With roleplaying games, he has found opportunities to work with creatives he admires in the industry, honour a decade working alongside the Deaf community and fulfil a dream of making something his daughters would be proud of.
Click here to read PDF of slides.
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This seminar is hosted by the Transformative Play Initiative in the Games & Society Lab at the Department of Game Design, Uppsala University Campus Gotland. This seminar is made possible by financial support from the Sustainable Heritage Research Forum (SuHRF). The Transformative Play Initiative explores the use of analog role-playing games as vehicles for lasting personal and social change.
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Graphic Design by Liliia Chorna. Music by Elias Faltin. Video edited by Rezmo (Mohammad Mohammad Rezaie).