1 What are simulations?

Icebound - 3d - study - Full HD from xoio on Vimeo.

According to wiktionary.org 'simulation' means "something which simulates a system or environment in order to predict actual behaviour" and 'simulating' refers “to making like, imitating, coping, representing, feigning.” The video above looks real but indeed it is a a simulation which depicts the Korean icebreaker „Araon“ and imitates various stages of its journey through northern Greenland. The authors share the "making of" at the end of the movie, so the audience can see different modelling techniques.

This video simulation using 3D technique replicates a journey to let the spectator live an experience which otherwise would be impossible for them to live.  Creation of such a video simulation requires data but also imagination.

Nevit Dilmen - Wikimedia

Johannes Jansson - Wikimedia

Imagination or rather thought has been claimed to be the first simulator of reality. How does it work? The mind forms models of reality -- mental models, and uses them to predict similar future events (Kenneth Craik, The Nature of Explanation, 1943). Another important instrument of simulation is a computer.

Scoo - Wikimedia

According to Thomas and Milligan (2004) simulation is often seen negatively: for instance when its aim is to pretend a deceit, «showing feelings, qualities, fake inclinations that are in contrast with the reality, to provoke false opinions, to promote wrong conditions» (as when we think about the juridical world and the making of false accusations).

But sometimes simulation has positive uses, in literature for instance. In this case, we can define simulation as the capability to represent events, situations and feelings.

With the term simulation we can also mean a «model of reality, allowing people to valuate and preview the dynamic development of a set of events, due to the imposition of certain conditions by the analyst or the user», a sort of transposition in logical-mathematic-procedural terms of a ‘conceptual model’ of reality, defined as the whole of processes happened in the valuated system and that help people to understand the system itself.

Source: Putting Teachers in the Loop: Tools for Creating and Customising Simulations by Ruth Thomas & Colin Milligan in Journal of Interactive Media in Education (2004).http://jime.open.ac.uk/articles/10.5334/2004-15/

Different reasons to use a simulation

• training - demonstration, practice, assessment
• prediction (e.g. market simulation, business simulation)
• testing of various solutions (e.g. decision making)
• analysis or reconstruction of past occurrences (e.g. battles, disasters, crimes)
• gaining understanding of how something works (e.g. complex systems)
• preparation and practice for rare situations (e.g. fire warning)

Note that while not all of these relate to education, they all relate to learning.

Common characteristics of simulations

• authentic (they depict problems accurately)
• realistic (they predict plausible outcomes)
• complex (they help solve complex problems influenced by variety of factors)
• practical (they provide useful information or practice)

Further readings on the relation of mental models and simulations

Simulation and learning: the role of mental models by Franco Landriscina in a Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society (2009).

https://albaon.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/landriscina-simulation-and-learning-the-role-of-mental-models-2009.pdf

Activity 1 
Simulation is a model or an imitation of reality. What does it mean in practice? What is the relation between simulation and reality? The diagram below represents a possible relation between reality and simulation. Do you agree with the diagram below? Is the diagram complete?  Discuss using the comment box below.

Credits (from the left): Abhishek Singh, Tsilia yotova, Thompsma, Maja Kuna, U.S. Navy