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A complicated role-immersion game has a few college professors handing over control of the classroom to students who are suddenly showing more passion and interest than ever before.
Perhaps the oddest aspect of Reacting is how readily students surrender their skepticism and, like Ashleigh, “buy into” Reacting. Partly this is because they take possession of the class. To be sure, students recognize that their sovereignty is illusory. Their thoughts and actions are constrained by the rules of the game, by the requirements of their particular roles, and by the ultimate authority of the instructor-as-gamemaster.
Students perceive that the professor who has given them suggestions on how to win or write a persuasive paper has just walked over to their opponents and done the same with them. Students who are on the verge of winning chafe when the gamemaster folds in complications that make their task harder. A major element of all Reacting games is the tension between the students who run the class and the gamemaster who enforces the structure of the game.
This dynamic invites students to subvert it and often they do: sometimes they undertake additional research to challenge gamemaster rulings and to propose rule modifications.
Sometimes, however, the subversions are more explicit.
These are the types of experiences college students should be asking for from college courses. Learning is about using what you know to learn something new. Deep learning means learning through multiple senses to imprint and retain new information in the brain for learner use. This requires professors and students re-invent what happens in the classroom.