Simulations In Education

In high school and college, I never got history, especially military history. None of it seemed to make much sense; the only general principle was that, given a few years, the Americans tend to beat the Germans (cf. World Wars I-II, the American Revolution).

Then, I started playing the computer version of Risk. Suddenly, things like borders, and fortifying them, and defense in depth, and strategic alliances started making sense to me. Later, I started playing Civilization (the computer game, not CivilizationGame), and economic production started making sense. I began by playing pretty militaristically (given my Risk experience), but gradually started paying attention to other things, like optimizing a city's production, specializing cities for military vs. other production, and citizen happiness.

Now I get history better. If I were a high school teacher, I'd shove computer simulations into my students' hands. --GeorgePaci

CategoryEducation