Simulation Games in Education

What is hard about being a child and having a childlike sense of wonder is that the games you play flow naturally and effortlessly from fantasy and imagination into your every day life, but this becomes harder to draw upon the older we get.. I for one held  in my mind as a child playing all four ninja turtles at once defending my backyard against wave after wave of the foot clan. This is of course before I received my black belt years later, so it is safe to say my body mechanics where that of Bambi on ice, wailing about uncontrollable and incoherently.  The thing is, I can recall how realistic my imagination was, the details of the ninja clad foot soldiers and the strikes I used to defeat them. It was my own personal tower defense game. My house and back yard where my Ninja turtle sewer kingdom, and Shredder and the foot clan were the invaders.  I have some of my favorite memories turning my back yard into a warzone, ninja battle, winter Olympics, football stadium, and other blank canvases.  I took grass and woods and made something incredible from it, a new world.  The power of imagination is only limited to those with whom it resides. As I grew older, though that canvas became harder to create, my back yard canvas turned into a lawn mowing chore, but just because I was getting to the socially awkward teenage years where running around in your Pjs fighting shredder is mildly unacceptable, I still had this sense of wonder deep inside me. I think most people who enjoy video games share this common trait, the ability to find relaxation in different mediums that offer imaginative escapes.  The problem was finding that escape as you grew older.  For me simulation based games offered me the adult escape I was looking for. 

As I grew up not only as a person, but as a gamer as well, I sought out simulation based games because they supported my new grown up imagination. Games that tested my intelligence, strategic and analytical skills.  At this point in my life economics became a hobby and career. I became the business program director at McCann School of Business and took over teaching core business classes for an associates degree track program.  I immersed myself in the realm I had worked in for years and became a subject matter expert for the students. Part of this transition was  synchronous with my gaming habit changes. Less shooters and more Sim City, Civilization, Starcraft, and Dawn of Discovery(all great business, political science and economic centeric sim games). These games afforded me the opportunity to put into action the laws of supply and demand, trade, scarcity, budgeting, funding, marketing, and politics. These games became my new back yard canvas. 

Business simulation games have been around for a while as Jeremy Hall writes

“These simulations involve modelling all or most business functions (marketing, finance,

operations and R & D) and are often described under the blanket category of "total

enterprise" simulations or management or business games. They date back to 1957

when a group at the Rand Corporation (Bellman et al, 1957) created what is perhaps

the first computerized business game (simulation).”(Hall 1996)

In my opinion simulation games are one of the greatest tools a business teacher can pair with his or her curriculum. Using games that require real world economics knowledge or finance, encourages students to show the outcomes within the rules of the game that have real world practicality. This is an undeniable benefit to the learners. Watching a simulation game unfold based on your business decisions is a great tool for students. In my small business class we play this game:

www.thesmallbusinessgame.co.nz/

You can see the depth and decision-making, students are asked to make. As in any real small business they have to focus on all aspects of the company from customer service, marketing, HR, inventory control, to the size of the break-room.

Here is another example of simulations I use in the classroom. Investopedia is a great resource for Finance and includes a stock market simulation based on actual day trading events.

http://www.investopedia.com/simulator/home.aspx

What I like best about those games are the level of depth they both offer. They are not easy to simply beat and students need to put into practice what they’ve learned. Right now I am collecting student exam scores from before I used the small business SIM game and want to collect scores one year after. So far I can see a directly relatable increase in student scores. Could it be the sim? In my opinion, it could be but I want to spend more time collecting information and results. One common theory theme is having students learn by doing.  Collegiate internships,trade schools, and most teachers focus on this theory, and with good reason, experience is what we can from doing. The Meridian Webster Dictionary defines experience as “knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered, or undergo” Playing and learning from a simulation based game seems to  fit that definition. I can teach out of the textbook for an entire semester and give a painstakingly hard final exam. 3 months later students will recall how hard they had to study for the final. They may even recall a couple of terms and theories they learned. Students will remember the lessons learned while playing the simulation much longer and with greater detail. In my opinion, it is because the simulation defined what they were doing and turned it into practical wisdom from trial and error in a safe environment. In a game.  

Reference

Hall, Jeremy. (1996). Types of simulation. Retrieved from www.simulations.co.uk