Master of Puppets

Denby Dale (home of the world famous pie)
Spent this afternoon with a puppetry company called Get Your Head Round It! who currently specialise in teacher's lesson plans, DVDs and semi-improvised workshops covering four subject areas: Sexual Health & Relationships, Careers, Drugs & Alcohol, & Citizenship. Although their work is aimed at teenagers, it had been suggested to me that they might make an interesting addition to Playing With Learning 2 if they/we could come up with a suitable scenario/characterisation to include in Kirsten Hardy's "On Trial" part of the conference. As they're keen to work at a higher educational level, and the conference's intention is to explore the boundaries of innovative teaching & ways of engaging students, I travelled across West Yorkshire with a distinct feeling of doubt that there could be any kind of degree-level pedagogic value in adding some talking dolls to the grand day out, even if they are life-sized & operated by professionals.
Four hours of discussions later, and our student witnessness for the prosecution have been briefed and signed-up, ready to tell all about why it's the lecturers fault that they don't attend, work or achieve. Although it'll necessitate interviews by a remote link (as is sometimes the case with vulnerable adults/children in real court cases), having caricature students will prevent any associations with real institutions/individuals, and allow for exaggerated situations and comments on both sides. As Direct Visual are filming the day, the enhanced impact of the puppetry (would you ever have watched Spitting Image if it had been real people making those "jokes"?), ought to make the final DVD more interesting to people who weren't there, and hopefully help to engender comment/debate about the techniques used on the day - even if it is only "so were you responsible for that the conference with the puppets then?"