The document summarizes a study where high school students participated in an online role-playing activity to discuss issues around their school's internet policies. The role-play exposed students to multiple perspectives on the issue and tensions in the existing system. By identifying contradictions and employing collaborative arguments, the students were able to achieve some changes to the school's internet policies, such as lifting blocks on certain websites and allowing teacher access to YouTube. The experience enhanced students' sense of agency and awareness of how to effectively enact change through argumentation.

1. What Impels Students to Promote Change?: A Third-Generation Activity Theory Analysis of High School Students’ Online Role-play Designed to Teach Persuasive Writing Richard Beach, University of Minnesota, rbeach@umn.edu http://digitalwriting.pbwiki.com

7. AT: tensions/contradictions: “runaway objects”: technological innovation

15. Using a Ning as the platform for online role-play:

16. Bubbl.us mapping to identify roles and relationships between roles

17. Threaded discussion allows students easily follow discussion

18. Students use their role to create an arguments and use hyperlinks

19. Students use the bio pages and comments sections to personally connect to other characters.

21. Students evaluated themselves by using the rubric below (see handout for rubric)

23. . Students wrote a paper from their own point of view addressing a problem with Internet access