Online Learning between Movement and Stillness Research (The Use of Nonverbal Theatre Games in Online Education)

Abstract

This article starts from the premise that nonverbal theatre exercises can help motivate, stimulate and support online learning. We started our research from the idea that nonverbal theatre games can be an alternative to address online education for teenagers, with the goal to improve communication at a personal level: between body and mind, as well as at an interpersonal level: pupils-teachers, pupils-pupils. Survey, observation, structured interviews were used as investigative methods, while nonverbal theatre games in online courses were the experiential intervention techniques, and the research results lead to the conclusion that movement greatly influences our mood and that, when the body is neglected, the mind is also in discomfort. No matter how much digitalization has penetrated our lives, we need movement, social interaction, face-to-face interaction and, most of all, community life. For this reason, the interaction through nonverbal theatre games, based on the stimulation of the body and expressivity elements, can be an alternative in online education, but also in nonformal education. The idea of limiting learning to one single form, as in our case, to online or to formal education, based on reproducing information and memorizing, is only limiting and enclosing the development of pupils' abilities.