Physical Barriers — Two Class Activities

Start here Have you played “Chinese whispers” or “broken telephone”? A message passes from ear to ear. At the end, it is totally different. This lecture does the same thing — with actions and drawings.

In this lecture, the professors run two activities outside and inside the class. Both show how a message gets distorted (changed) as it travels.

How it works:

1. Students stand in a line, all facing away from the start.
2. The professor shows a set of actions to the first person only. Then he leaves.
3. The first person taps the next person and shows the actions.
4. Each person passes it on, one by one.
5. At the end, everyone compares the last action with the first one.

The original action was: A person wants to ride a motorcycle. It does not start. He gives it a hard kick. It starts. He rides away.

By the end of the line, the action had changed. Small changes at each step added up.

In one line: Each time a message is passed on, a little of it changes.

This activity tests two skills:

• the ability to describe something clearly
• the ability to listen and understand correctly

How it works:

1. A volunteer, Anamika, sees a simple drawing. Others cannot see it.
2. She has 1 minute to describe it in words.
3. Everyone else has 1 minute to draw it.
4. No questions are allowed.
5. All drawings are collected and compared.

The drawing had: a vertical line, a curved arrow on top, two leaves (one with a circle, one with a smiley face), an infinity symbol, and two joined stars.

What happened? Many drawings were close. But no two were the same. Leaves were on the wrong side. Stars were in different places. Sizes were very different.

The next page explains why — and how to do better.

In one line: Even a clear description gets understood in many different ways. Exam words: distortion, describing, listening, interpretation.