Participatory simulations

Abstract

New technology developed at the MIT Media Laboratory enables students to become active participants in life-sized, computational simulations of dynamic systems. These Participatory Simulations provide an individual, "firstperson" perspective on the system, just as acting in Hamlet provides such a perspective on Shakespeare. Using our Thinking Tags, small, name-tag sized computers that communicate with each other via infrared, we add a thin layer of computation to participant's social interactions, transforming a group of people into participants in a dynamic simulation. Participants in these simulations get highly engaged in the activities and collaboratively study the underlying systemic model.

Savannah: mobile gaming and learning?

“…This game is similar to Savannah in that the children experience and influence the simulation directly, in comparison with other technology controlled role‐playing games that mediate interaction through avatars or with components of a microworld. Colella (2000, 2002) argues this type of experience is qualitatively different from other technologically mediated role‐playing games and raises the interesting proposal that the more direct the experience the better the learning experience. Our study does not address this proposal directly, but we have reported observations that we suggest that the children were experiencing the simulation directly and were learning from this experience.…”

“…In Savannah, we combined the potential of mobile and games technology in a novel and innovative way, to support children's learning. The only study that is remotely similar was a disease simulation game reported by Colella (2000, 2002), which was implemented using a variation of ‘Thinking Tag’ technology developed at the Media Lab, MIT, USA (Borovoy et al 1996). The Tags used in this simulation were small computers with input and output devices and displays for the users.…”

Comparative analysis of Palm and wearable computers for Participatory Simulations

“…This paper reports on one such line of research in which the learning outcomes of two distinct technological platforms (wearable computers and Palm hand‐helds) are compared using the same pedagogical strategy of Participatory Simulations. Participatory Simulations use small wearable or hand‐held computers to engage participants in simulations that enable inquiry and experimentation (Colella 2000) allowing students to act out the simulation themselves. The study showed that the newer and more easily distributable version of Participatory Simulations on Palms was equally as capable as the original Tag‐based simulations in engaging students collaboratively in a complex problem‐solving task. We feel that this robust and inexpensive technology holds great promise for promoting collaborative learning as teachers struggle to find authentic ways to integrate technology into the classroom in addition to engaging and motivating students to learn science.…”

“…This paper reports on one such line of research in which the learning outcomes of two distinct technological platforms (wearable computers and Palm hand‐helds) are compared using the same pedagogical strategy of Participatory Simulations. Participatory Simulations use small wearable or hand‐held computers to engage participants in simulations that enable inquiry and experimentation (Colella 2000) allowing students to act out the simulation themselves.…”

Developing Motivating Collaborative Learning Through Participatory Simulations

“…It was used to tech high-school students in a simulation of virus propagation and asked them to determine the rules of the propagation [5].…”