Chapter 5 - Role-Playing

I started reading this chapter with a fairly strong bias toward not using role playing activities in school. The only experience I have had was that of sitting around the lunch table playing Dungeons and Dragons with a group of my classmates. That was well before Web 2.0 (let alone the Internet) had ever been heard of. I had almost never heard of a positive school use for role-playing games, although I admit, I based this on bits and pieces of information heard/read here and there. I have never taken the time to do any research on my own so was looking forward to reading a positive discussion regarding role-playing.
Parker presents an argument for using role-playing in the classroom to construct narratives, to give students the ability to "consider and empathize with different perspectives", story-writing, vocabulary, and map reading (to name a few). Her main argument for using role-playing in the classroom is because it is "essential to understand and reflect on how one's sense of identity is constantly adjusting to how one appears to others. Using role-playing activities in classrooms can make this process, which is often naturalized and left unquestioned, highly visible." She goes on to say that because of this it may help students with their interactions in the "real" world.  Color me a skeptic but I just can't make that same connection. The more that I read, the more I am feeling as though role-playing is not a tool that I will understand unless I give it a try myself. Has anyone out there ever used role-playing in the classroom? I would love to hear about your experiences. I am still skeptical!