Technologies for Learning

Simulations

Simulation

is an abstraction or simplification of some real-life situation or process.

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In simulations, participants usually play a role that involves them in interactions with other people or with elements of the simulated environment.

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Simulations are by design active. They provide realistic practice with feedback in realistic context, and include social interactions.

Team simulations

allow students to use their individual differences. Some computer-based simulations adjust their difficulty level based on the ability of the player.

Simulation and Problem-Based Learning

One particular value of simulation is it implements learning method as directly and clearly as possible

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In problem-based learning, the learner is led toward understanding principles through grappling with a problem situation. Most simulations attempt to immerse participants in a problem.

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The great advantage of this sort of firsthand immersion in a topic is that students are more likely to be able to apply to real life what they have practiced in simulated circumstances.

Simulators

The device employed to represent a physical system in a scaled-down form is referred to as simulator. Simple simulators are in widespread use in applications such as training workers in a range of manual skills from CPR to welding.

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Advantages• Realistic. The prime

advantage of simulations is that they allow practice to real-world skills under conditions similar to those in real life.

• Safe. • Simplified

Limitations• Time consuming• Oversimplification

Integration• Training in motor skills, including

athletic and mechanical skills, and complex skills that might otherwise be too hazardous or expensive in real life settings

• Instruction in social interaction and human relations, where displaying empathy and coping with the reactions of other people are major goals

• Development of decision-making skills (e.g., microteaching in teacher education, mock court in law school, management simulations in business administration)

Role Playsrefers to a type of simulation in

which the dominant feature is relatively open-ended interaction among people. It has proven to be a motivating and effective method of developing skills. Examples of tasks for role playing are counseling, interviewing, sales and customer services, supervision and management. Examples of simulated settings are committee meetings, negotiation sessions, public meetings, work teams and one-on-one interviews.

SIMULATION GAMES

A simulation game combines the attributes of simulation (role playing, a model of reality) with the attributes of a game (striving toward a goal, specific rules). One of the major reasons for using simulation and gaming methods is that they provide conditions for holistic learning. That is, through the modeling of reality and through the players’ interactions as they strive to succeed, learners encounter a whole and dynamic view of the process they are studying.

Integration

Instructional simulation games are found in curriculum applications that require both the repetitive skill practice associated with games and the reality context associated with simulations. Societal processes, cultural conflicts, historical eras, and ecological systems are popular topics.

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In general, teachers frequently use instructional simulation games to provide an overview of a large, dynamic process. The excitement of play simulates interests in the subject matter, and the holistic treatment of the game gives students a feel for the total process before they approach parts of it in a linear way.

Cooperative Simulation Games

In recent years, sports psychologists and educational psychologists have developed new theories questioning the value and necessity of competition in human development. They contend that if children are nurtured on cooperation, acceptance and success in a fun-oriented atmosphere they develop strong, positive self concepts. Out of this new awareness has come the “new games” movement, generating hundreds of cooperative games that challenge the body and imagination but that depend on cooperation and success.

Technologies for Learning

LEARNING CENTERS

Learning Center

is a self-contained environment designed to promote individual or small group learning around a specific task

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A learning center may be as simple as a table and some chairs around which students discuss, or it maybe as sophisticated as several networked computers used by a group for collaborative research and problem solving.

Limitations

•Cost•Management•Student responsibility

•Student isolation

Specialized types of centers

•Skill centers’• Interest centers•Remedial centers

Advantages

•Self-pacing•Active learning•Teacher Role

PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION

• refers to learning done by an individual using printed materials or a computer.

• Programmed instruction led to the development of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) and the same principles are currently incorporated in web-based instruction.

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Advantages• Self-pacing• Practice and

Feedback• Reliable• Effective

Limitations• Program

design• Tedious• Lack of social

interaction

PROGRAMMED TUTORING

Programmed tutoring is a one-on-one method of instruction in which the tutor’s responses are programmed in advance in the form of carefully structured printed instructions

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If the learner responds correctly, she is reinforced and goes on to a new item. If the response is incorrect, a series of increasingly clearer prompts or hints are given.

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Advantages• Self-pacing• Practice and

Feedback• Reliable• Effective 

Limitations• Labor intensive• Development

cost

PROGRAMMED TEACHING

known as direct instruction, is an attempt to apply the principles of programmed instruction in a large-group setting.

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In this approach a whole class is broken into smaller groups of 5 to 10 students. The smaller groups are led through a lesson by a teacher, paraprofessional or student peer following a highly prescriptive lesson plan.

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The critical features of these lessons include unison responding by learners to prompts (or cues) given by the instructor, rapid pacing and procedures for reinforcement or correction.

The End!