Identity Accelerator #1: Twenty Questions

mkoole, May 22, 2015 · Categories: Identity

Introduction

Twenty Questions is an old game that many of us played as children. But, we can also use it as a “serious game”. I would recommend that it be used as a warmer later into the semester after the students have already introduced themselves and engaged in some interaction. If used as a collaborative activity, the students can discuss strategy. Online collaborative activities help the students get to know each other better.

Modalities

Synchronous: warm up or extended activity in VOIP (Skype, Blackboard Collaborate, Adobe Connect, etc.) or Twitter.
Asynchronous: text based activity for discussion forums with consistent/regular moderation. The moderator will have to establish timelines for interactions, so the activity remains alive over a set period of time. One issue with using this accelerator asynchronously is that a very engaged student (or group of students) might arrive at the correct response before others have joined in.

Preparation

Decide if you want this to be a collaborative activity or a competitive activity. If you goal is collaboration, let the students work together. If it is competitive, divide them into groups.
Set up a “breakout room” for the class or the groups (if using a synchronous modality).

Teacher demonstration

“I am thinking of a concept in the field of program evaluation [for example].”
“Your task, as a group, is to ask questions in order to determine what concept is.”
Explain the rules and strategies:
- “You may ask ‘yes/no’ type questions.”
- “You may use the “20 Questions Room” to strategize; I won’t peek. (If using VOIP breakout rooms.”
- “A general strategy: ask about general categories first. For example, is it a thing? Is it a process? Etc.”
- “You can only ask 20 questions.”
- “The team who guesses correctly thinks of the next concept (for extended activities).”

Ask the group (or one of the groups) to start.
The teacher answer only “yes” or “no”—regardless of the question form. The students pick up immediately how to formulate their questions. (Note that this is an excellent exercise for ESL/EFL students learning about question formats.)

Comments

I used this activity last night during a synchronous discussion with some graduate students studying program evaluation. Since I didn’t want to take too much time, I used one concept to get the class warmed up. I chose a concept that allowed the session to focus on a fundamental idea that branched into the current assignment. The concept was “program”. The exercise allowed us to discuss the definition and characteristics of a “program” as per program evaluation parlance. The discussion for the subsequent hour centered on program evaluation planning: focusing the evaluation, determining stakeholders, questions formulation, and selecting appropriate models. For the current assignment, it is essential for the students to wisely select a program of clear scope and boundaries in order to succeed in the development of a program evaluation plan. (It is a 6-week course! They need to choose something do-able.) Anyways, I recommend that you choose the concept(s) strategically: something relevant and important to the subsequent discussion. The students appeared highly engaged.

Rating: 4.5 stars