Simulation is not new. It has been with us for as long as there has been education. At its core, simulation requires no other technology than the ability to think. Most simulations take place entirely in the mind, via mental what-ifs: A lawyer plays through an upcoming trial in his head. A skier visualizes herself slaloming down the course.
Our best teachers have always used mental simulations with their students, as when they announce, "What if the South had won the Civil War?" or "Imagine if penicillin was never invented." It requires nothing more than a teacher who can think through the possibilities with students and help them envisage possible consequences and outcomes. Computers help by overlaying a lot of the details, but simulation always comes back to a person asking, "What if?"
Simulation helps us understand complex issues. This is particularly true of complicated computer-model simulation. Today, we can model amazingly complex behaviors while providing relatively simple inputs and clear sensual outputs. With these simulations, students learn about a complicated thing (say, an airplane), system (the weather) or behavior (management), and, without risk of damaging anything or getting hurt themselves, make a wide variety of assumptions and changes and see the results.
Simulation is real-world experience. Professional simulations are used every day in just about every profession: City planners simulate all the factors that make a metropolis thrive or die. Military planners simulate conditions, battles, and equipment. Traders simulate financial markets. Weather forecasters simulate daily and long-term climate. Doctors simulate the effects of drugs, transplants, and other interventions. Ecologists simulate changes in the environment. Engineers simulate the effects of natural and artificial forces on buildings and bridges. Computer-network engineers simulate conditions on the Internet. Scientists use simulations continually
Simulation
