Comments on: Can Fabricated Stories Be Authentic?

By: Dustin

Dustin — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 03:57:17 +0000

Hey Lisa, I really enjoyed that article you wrote. This discussion has really peaked my interest as I am a teacher at a local high school part time LORENZ INC Meat Slicer

By: Randy

Randy — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 03:08:53 +0000

I think fabricated stories can have a place of their own. Although I'm strictly against using such stories, I think when the occasion is right one can give such a tale. bird spikes

By: JoeyRoberts

JoeyRoberts — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 03:15:12 +0000

I think many stories that have been told over years can be described as having some form of fabrication. Not all stories happen the way they were written. snowblower repair

By: Jan Herrington

Jan Herrington — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:44:00 +0000

Lisa, your post raises a really interesting issue and it is one that I (with my research colleagues Tom Reeves and Ron Oliver) have explored in some depth. Our work has looked at authentic learning environments and authentic tasks and whether they need to be real. Some say that the environments should be real (such as Savery and Duffy), but we argue that – while real is OK if you can manage it – they do not need to be real to be effective online or in the classroom. Our work has focused on the design of tasks that are “cognitively real”, tasks that give students the opportunity to think like professionals, using knowledge as if it were used in the real world. Designing these tasks is difficult, but that is where the pedagogy resides. And that is why you could create authentic tasks (according to our definition) that are in the future or the past, based on scenarios and problems that are realistic, rather than real. The same may be true for stories, where the important elements are pedagogical rather than actual.

By: Mike Gualtieri

Mike Gualtieri — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:38:32 +0000

I think the answer is disclosure. If you do not disclose that it is fabricated then it is dishonest. Books are labeled fiction or non-fiction and some movies are based on a true story. The disclosure is there though. But, even with disclosure the storyteller could embellish a true story in a dishonest way.

By: Karl Kapp

Karl Kapp — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:08:32 +0000

Lisa,
Interesting post and I believe there is some truth to the authenticity so I think fabricating stories to make a point is ok.
However, I think we, as educators, don’t need to represent a fabricated story as true. If it is fabricated, we need to come clean on that fabrication from the beginning.
We can use introductions such as “Here is a story I’ve created to illustrate my point…” or “Let me tell you a parable or story to highlight what I am saying” r, “Here is a fictional story of what might happen if you don’t follow the rules.”
In each of those cases, you are letting the learner’s know that the story didn’t really happen (its fabricated) but still giving yourself an opportunity to tell a compelling story. You can even say (if true), “The story I am about to tell you is based on true events…but didn’t really happen that way”
The idea is that you can incorporate that story into your toolkit and us it even though it is not your story or isn’t 100% true or real.
I even say, “As a fellow trainer once told me…” I think that in all but rare cases, the learner doesn’t have to believe the story is real only that it could happen. Even known parables provide powerful meaning.
I don’t think we should mis-lead the learner and I don’t think we need to. We can just tell a story and credit the source of the story…even if the source is our own imagination.

By: Reggie Smith

Reggie Smith — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:03:32 +0000

I think fabricated stories could violate trust. If you do not have a story of your own…then tell one you heard…just give credit! If you make it up…then make sure your students know that it is fabricated story.

By: Mark Notess

Mark Notess — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:05:48 +0000

There are different kinds of authenticity, I guess. Out of context, the normal sense of the word would be “truth” or “fact”. But we can also speak of a performance being authentic, meaning emotionally true and accurate. Passing off fiction as fact in order to sell something is ethically offensive. Myself, I’m uncomfortable letting people think a made-up story I use in teaching is true, but it depends a bit on the nature of the story. I can imagine cases where the veracity of a story is irrelevant, and the students wouldn’t care one way or the other. But I can also imagine cases where the veracity is crucial, and pretending the fiction is true is a betrayal of trust. I could invent a neat story to prove this point, of course.