YOU ARE in a small town in American Midwest. It is mid-1800s, and you are trying to get to Willamette Valley. You have a little money, but you need provisions that exceed your budget, so you are keen to do some trading. With luck, you will find suitable game to hunt along way, but you are going to need some other supplies. What should you buy? What should you trade? What if weather turns colder? These decisions sound familiar to those who were students growing up in pre-Web era. The Oregon Trail was a simulation that was very common in computer labs across country in 1980s. In those days, many of us believed that most interesting form of computer-aided instruction was simulation. Simulations could be as simple as a game of Jeopardy or as complicated as a flight simulator. In simulations, students actually played roles in scenarios in which they manipulated variables or interacted with an investigation or process. Many companies produced simulation software, including Sunburst Technology (http://store.sunburst.com), Broderbund (www.broderbund.com), Tom Snyder Productions (www.tomsnyder.com), and not-so-corporate Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, which was ultimately absorbed into Learning Company (www.learningcompany.com). Although much of this software is still available--in fact, Fifth Edition of The Oregon Trail is currently featured Learning Company website--many teachers are not aware of it or no longer use it. In Where in World Is Carmen Sandiego? students solved crimes by chasing clues from city to city around globe. In The Other Side, students worked in teams as government representatives to peacefully coexist with a hostile neighboring country's representatives. In one memorable simulation, students tagged fish and released them into a lake. The next day, they sampled lake's population, and, over time, they could estimate fish population by catching a number of fish, determining percentage of caught fish that were tagged, and extrapolating. Similar lake-based simulations examined role of natural predators, while others examined whether or not lake was in a state of natural balance or equilibrium. When students were engaged in simulated activities, they were learning about processes. Simulations were seen as tools for learning rather than as tools for productivity. For example, when a student conducts a virtual experiment, he or she learns about controlling variables, about what factors contribute to an effect, and about how a system behaves. This focus was very important in early world of computers in education. In fact, Barry Harper, David Squires, and Anne McDougall, in a paper published in United Kingdom, stated that the simulation paradigm formed essential theoretical rationale for early major computer assisted learning initiatives.... However, by mid-1980s general purpose software tools had become dominant paradigm. (1) Today, schools use computers primarily for productivity tasks rather than as learning machines. Perhaps this is because most people--and most teachers--believe that children are computer experts. The students seem to know how to handle productivity software, and they spend a great deal of time on computer. For those of us who work with computers in education, it is quite clear that, while students aren't afraid of software tools, they don't have a very good understanding of how computers work, how they are controlled, or even how they communicate. This is because they don't have to. Software exists for almost any productivity task, and interface is roughly same, with pull-down menus and dialogue boxes. Students have become quite proficient in using tools, employing software to do homework, communicating with their friends, and reading about whatever interests them. The computer is now a tool that allows them to be productive and access information, including live streams of information. …
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Jan 1, 2008
Charles Cameron Brackett 
Open Access