Development of Educational Simulations

Incorporating computers into daily K-12 classroom teaching promises to benefit student learning, and improve teaching practice substantially. Computer enhanced curricula may enable more teachers to create exploratory and inquiry based lessons, but in most cases supporting software have only been realized as practice tools for specific rote learning skills. Drills do little to help students develop higher-order reasoning and problem-solving skills. With more computers in the classroom, the assumption was that computers would be integrated into curricula with a high usage of educational software, but research suggests that this assumption has not been borne out (Powell & Okey, 1994; Tyack & Cuban, 1995). Our general argument is that systems whose usability characteristics have been designed to meet teachers’ needs and that can be easily tailored to meet specific teaching objectives are more likely to be incorporated into everyday teaching practices. One type of computer-based activity that enables teachers to engage students in exploratory learning is an educational simulation. Many educational software packages that build simulations have limited usability because they have unmodifiable, limited modifiable or difficult-to-modify functionality