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Top1. The Organic Meaning Of The Five Phases In Sgc
The overall design of the game SGC (see descriptions in Ahamer, 2004a, b, 2005, 2013; 2015; Öttl et al., 2014; Vogler et al., 2010; Lehner & Wurzenberger, 2013; Altmann et al., 2013) sets out to train students for the vicissitudes of professional life. Consequently a certain rhythm of fact-based analysis versus the social striving for acceptance of one’s own convictions is followed:
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Phases focusing on individual work (1, 2, 5) complement team oriented phases (3, 4);
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Phases focusing on defending individual views (1, 3) alternate with phases where openness for other standpoints is a necessary attitude (2, 4);
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Phase 3 with its richness in differentiation and details, as visualized in the matrix, is followed by phase 4 where formerly single aspects intertwine and where details converge to a common action program.
The main dramaturgy of Surfing Global Change lies in “arguments serving as tools for objectified interpersonal communication”:
SGC builds on dialogic, self-responsible and game-based didactics as proposed in Gierlinger-Czerny (2003), Gierlinger-Czerny & Peuerböck (2002), Peuerböck (2003), Prensky (2001), Rogers (1974), Rauch (2006, 2013, 2014), Klabbers (2001), Jonas (1979), Montessori (1988).
In this light, SGC’s set of rules could be seen as a facilitator for social and academic evolution inside a class and has several organic functionalities (right in Figure 1).
Figure 1. Symbolic depiction of the communicative setting (left) and the consecutive social processes (right) in which the five phases develop: the evolution from dwelling upon single technical details towards a coherent view (image source: Ahamer, 2016)
SGC sets out to allow an organic maturation of standpoints (left in Figure 1):
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Small isolated packages of traditional content representing only one side;
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A process of text-oriented critiques at a slow pace allowing deliberation on a one-to-one basis mediated via asynchronous virtual communication;
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A quick process of situation-dependent need to present and defend individual arguments as a function of the adversary’s behavior and strategy on a many-to-many basis within a team in synchronous real-time communication;
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A consolidation process with less pressing time restrictions in real-time communication on a many-in-one boat basis requiring consensus in synchronous real-time communication;
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A closing activity involving the creation of a view that integrates the many standpoints heard so far by creating an analysis outside severe time restrictions on an individual or freely chosen team “we just for us”-basis in web-mediated asynchronous communication.