Virtual Forum Theater – a CSCL environment for scenario generation and rehearsal for change

Virtual Forum Theater is a web-based participatory and collaborative digital drama designed to enhance expressive fluency, argumentation skills, and critical awareness. The theoretical framework is based on Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire, 1972), constructivism (Piaget, 1977), constructionism (Papert, 1980), Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) (Koschmann, 1996) as well as Theater of the Oppressed (Boal, 1974) and Brecht’s theory on theater (1964). By situating Forum Theatre (FT) online I intend to provide an environment that removes the limitations of time and space from FT, and enables collaboration with a wider variety of “spect-actors”, generating more scenarios, and simulating more pathways of resolution. VFT is a safe environment in which to play out different responses to conflict like roleplaying and trials of solutions to conflict-inherent and oppressive environments. VFT proposes a new solution to an existing conflict, and interacting with peers on the WWW in order to pose and resolve characters’ motivations and actions and thus help validate or invalidate the solution.